Passengership Cilicia/ Jan Backx.

Short History:

The Cilicia was a 1938 passenger ship of the British shipping company Anchor Line which was used in the passenger and mail service on the route from Great Britain to India.

From October 1939 she served under the designation HMS Cilicia (F54) as an armed auxiliary cruiser (Armed Merchant Cruiser) and later also as a troop transport in World War II.

In 1946 the Cilicia returned to passenger traffic for the same owner, returned to India and remained in service with the Anchor Line for almost 20 years.

In 1965 she was sold by Anchor Line to Stichting Vakopleiding Havenbedrijf of Rotterdam for use as a training ship and boarding school for nautical college. Berthed at the Parkhaven, she was renamed Jan Backx. This remained untill 1980. 

In 1980 was renamed SS Clicia, towed to Bilbao, Spain, where she was scrapped.

Vessel in service with the “Anchore Line”

RMS Cilicia Specifications:

Built:                      Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Co. Ltd., Govan.

Yard:                     664.

Launched:             October 21, 1937.

Delivered:              May 1938.

Tonnage:               11.136 GRT, 10.287 dwt.

Length:                  141.25 m.

Breadth:                20.22 m.

Draft:                    8.35 m.

Engines:                Two 8-cylinder Fairfield-Doxford diesel engines - 14.000 BHP.

Propellers:             Two - 1.110 nhp.

Speed:                   18 knots.

Passengers:            321.

Crew:                     150.

Names:                   RMS Cilicia 1938 / HMS Cilicia 1939 / HMT Cilicia 1939 / RMS Cilicia 1945 / Jan Backx 1966 / SS Cilicia 1980

Vessel berthed at Parkhaven, Rotterdam

Pictured from the “Euromast”

Below, my relationship to the passenger ship “Cilicia,” which was later named “Jan Backx.”

In 1979, I went to the Higher Nautical College in Rotterdam, where for the first time the course “SIV” (Mate Small Commercial Shipping) was offered. During this 2-year course I was placed in a boarding school near the school. That boarding school was located on the passenger ship “Jan Backx,” formerly known as “Cilicia.”

The ship was moored under the Euromast in the Parkhaven.

Living on such an old passenger ship was great.

The boarding school regime was strict to shape students in a way that they could perform as reliable officers in the merchant marine.

Escaping, after the compulsory study hours, to the shore was a challenge in order to have a beer on shore. The penalties if you were caught were not pleasant.

After the summer of 1980, the boarding school moved to a former school in Rotterdam-West.

The “Jan Backx,” under the name of “Cilicia,” was towed from her berth to Bilbao, where she was scrapped. This to the sorrow of the former residents of the boarding school. Everyone thought it was a loss at the time.

I have good memories of that time and the stay on the “Jan Backx”.

Happy to have experienced that part of history.

“Jan Bakcx” 1980