Mike, a couple of little tales about the Beira thingy.
For all their faults the "old" Tides were superb sea-keepers. As you seafarers out there know, you can get some pretty hefty swells north of Durban. The swells being biggish (20' or so) we were plodding along at about 12 knots (no-where better to go) when a ship doing perhaps 20 knots popped up. Turned out to be the "Bencruachan" (served my time with them). As she was within "binocular" range I was really priveleged to see half the ship leave the water and then more or less drop off! A bit of a giggle to us, but I imagine less so for for those on the 'Cruachan.
As you may or not recall, all the interior bulkheads on the old Tides were of steel. (Nowadays they get them from B&Q). As the crew had little to do apart from normal maintenance they all went fishing. Lines, nets, harpoons..you name it. To keep the fish fresh (ie alive) the "lads" made the stbd.aft crew washroom into a 4' deep fish tank. A slight stability problem. But the sight of all these varieties of fish swimming around is a memory I shall long treasure.
We did about 85 days there. Not a record, but knocked the socks off the later RN claims. And I still like fish!
Many other stories to tell, but I fear the dreaded "Moderator" would call a halt!.