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Story: Shipbuilding

Strathlairg high and dry

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<em>Strathlairg</em> high and dry

Once the ship was on the blocks, dock workers positioned stout timber bracing to keep it in place before pumping out the dock. The 7,267-ton Strathlairg had been built for the British India Steam Navigation Company as the Chakdina in 1951, and was transferred to parent group P&O 22 years later. Renamed Strathlairg in 1975, it was scrapped in Taiwan in 1977.

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library, Dominion Post Collection (PA-Group-00685)

Reference: EP/1977/1877/20

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page

Gavin McLean, Shipbuilding – The iron and steel era, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/5503/strathlairg-high-and-dry (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Gavin McLean, published 2 March 2009, updated 1 July 2015.