Largs Bay

Introduction

Largs Bay was launched in 1921, as a mixed passenger/cargo ship. During WW2 she took part in a large number of convoys. She survived the war and was scrapped in 1957 so had a service life of 36 years. Her sister ships were Jervis Bay, Moreton Bay, Esperance Bay and Hobsons Bay. She carried many passengers to Australia to start new lives after WW2. One of her last uses was as a film set for some of the interior scenes in the 1958 film "A night to remember" about the loss of Titanic.

Basic Data

Additional Construction Information

The Lloyds Register entry for Largs Bay for 1940-41 has the following additional information about her:

• Two steel decks and a shelter deck with a 3rd deck in forward holds
• She was fitted with echo-sounding and radio direction-finding equipment

The plan below shows the passenger acccommodation for Largs Bay and her three sister ships [92].

Career Highlights

Service Pre WW2

Largs Bay was built for the London to Australia route and her maiden voyage was on 4 January 1922 from London to Australia via Suez. Destinations were Fremantle, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.

Involvement in Labour Dispute

Shortly after her maiden voyage, Largs Bay became entangled in a bitter dispute between the Australian Seaman’s Union and the Australian Government.

The following is a transcript from The Times of 9 March 1922:

Australian Ships Threatened - Sydney Union Obdurate

(From our own correspondent Melbourne March 8)

The humiliations to which the Federal Government has been subjected by the Seamen’s Union in Sydney over the Commonwealth-owned liners Moreton Bay and Largs Bay are causing it seriously to consider whether it can continue the business of shipbuilding.

The British-shipped crew of the Moreton Bay had to be sent back as passengers and an Australian crew substituted, and similar tactics have been adopted with regard to the Largs Bay. Not only was a new crew shipped, but no freedom of choice was allowed in their selection.

The captain refused to accept one man as boatswain, although he was taken on as an able seaman next day, which was the day of sailing from Sydney. The management of the line were informed that if men nominated by the union were not accepted, no crew would be available. The Chief Steward having objected to some men who offered their service as stewards, the union declared that if the chief steward were retained no stewards would sign on: consequently the Chief Steward was relieved of his duties and taken as a passenger, eight junior engineers were treated similarly and replaced by other engineers nominated by the institute.

"These men," said the Prime Minister, in giving the report of his officers, "are creating a situation which makes it absolutely impossible to carry on. The Government will have to consider its policy in regard to shipbuilding; there is only one course open. These liners are equipped with special life-saving apparatus which it requires expert knowledge to manipulate. The engineers were practically placed in the ship by the builders; most of them had been employed on building the ship. The union has taken them out and compelled the acceptance of men who know nothing of the engines; this affects not only the safety of the ship but its speed. This is how the union acts towards a great enterprise in which £10,000,000 of public money is invested."

Mr. Hughes claims that the Government is forced to yield owing to the valuable cargo and its obligations to passengers. The departure of the Largs Bay was delayed for many hours while the dispute continued. When from an adjoining wharf a British-owned passenger steamer left her berth exactly at the time fixed for the Largs Bay the passengers who were standing about in the rain cheered enthusiastically.

The situation appears to have been no better in June based on this report from The Times dated 29 June 1922:

No Crew for Largs Bay

(From our own correspondent - Melbourne June 28)

The efforts of the management of the Commonwealth Shipping Line to obtain a trade union crew for the Largs Bay have failed and the other sections of the steamer’s complement are being paid off.

Mr. Hughes, the Prime Minister, is satisfied that something like a reign of terror exists, whereby men willing to offer their services are being deterred by threats of violence or "blacklisting." Unless the management can exercise absolute freedom of choice among the members of the men’s union, the Government will immediately pay off and lay up, not only the Largs Bay, but all the Government ships, The union, Mr. Hughes considers, is attempting to establish a system of Sovietism which the Government cannot tolerate.

Most of the complement of the liner Largs Bay had been secured in Sydney for the return voyage to London via Brisbane, when the Seaman’s union took exception to the boatswain who the officers had engaged and the steamer was held up. Our correspondent at Melbourne, telegraphing on Sunday, stated that each of the Commonwealth Government liners involved the Government win heavy expense over industrial complications.  

On 5 July 1922 the London Times newspaper carried this follow-up article:

Largs Bay to have a crew

(From our own correspondent)

The Seamen’s Union at Sydney has withdrawn the boatswain who was the primary cause of the dispute over the Commonwealth liner Largs Bay, and has offered to supply a crew. Mr. Hughes expresses his pleasure that the Union is showing signs of returning sense, but says that it is not enough to have retreated from its untenable position; the Commonwealth Line must have a definite understanding that its vessels will in future be manned by members of the Union without friction or delay.

The dispute over Largs Bay arose because the Seaman’s Union objected to the boatswain who had been engaged as a member or the crew for the voyage from Sydney to London and insisted that another man, whom it nominated, should be engaged. When the management of the line refused to submit to this dictation the Union made it impossible to sign on a crew. The Government strongly supported the management in its stand against what Mr. Hughes described as an attempt to establish a system of Sovietism.

The newspaper archives carry no further articles that I have discovered so it is to be presumed that this was the end of the dispute.

New Route Announced

On 29 January 1929 the London Times had an announcement informing readers that the “Bay” ships will be departing for Australia from Southampton with 14 sailings to Brisbane during the year calling at Malta, Port Said, Columbo, Freemantle, Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney. Largs Bay would have been one of these ships.

Service in WW2

At the outbreak of WW2, Largs Bay was in transit from Australia to Britain with passengers and cargo. She unloaded her cargo at Malta and made it safely back to Britain with her passengers. She continued to be used for commercial purposes until being requisitioned as a troopship in August 1941.

Convoys

Largs Bay took part in 38 convoys plus various independent voyages according to information shown in the table below which is provided courtesy of Convoyweb [4]. She was deployed as a troopship in August 1941 and transported troops from Singapore amongst other places.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission has a record of the death of Fireman James Aloysius Carbry. He died on 12 June 1942 at the age of 25 and is buried in the Kranji War Cemetery at Singapore. I have been unable to discover further information about him or the cause of his death.

Stan Mayes served on Largs Bay from 10 June 1943 to 5 November 1943 and accounts of his voyages during that period can be found in the Benjidog Recollections website HERE.

Damaged by Mine

According to British Vessels lost at sea 1939-45 [38], Largs Bay struck a mine on 2 January 1944 on entering Naples harbour but there is no information recorded about this against convoy NV16.

In December 2024, Vincenzo Delehaye contacted me with additional information about this incident. The London Gazette recorded the award of the British Empire Medal to Ernest John Denis Gill for his courage during rescue operations and it was also reported in the Glasgow newspaper 'The Daily Record'. I have been unable to find the names of the servicemen who lost their lives as this is not recorded on the CWGC database.

The damage was rapidly repaired as she left Naples within two weeks.

Service post WW2

Repatriation of Servicemen

At the end of the war, Largs Bay was used to repatriate those who had fought in the war.

The distinguished involvement of the Australian 2/26th Brigade in Singapore is described at the Australian War Memorial at [18]. The survivors of the brigade had been taken prisoner by the Japanese when Singapore had to surrender on 15 February 1942; they were in captivity for three and a half years.

Largs Bay is also mentioned in an article about Captain Frank Cahill [17] Captain Cahill was a Medical Officer in the Australian 2/9 Field Ambulance. He was taken prisoner by the Japanese in 1942. Over the next three years he cared for the POWs in appalling circumstances and was: .... liberated from Changi camp on the 14th September 1945 and repatriated to Australia on the troop ship Largs Bay”.

Australia and Emigrants

Largs Bay carried many emigrants seeking a new life in Australia and is mentioned in “Ten pound Poms” - [16] which refers to a fire on board in 1949:

Arab politics and society were misunderstood and ridiculed by British migrants but the Arab world could also be deeply threatening. Ports were closed because of the "troubles"; soldiers with machine guns patrolled the docks; Arabs threw stones and made rude gestures as the migrants visited their ports or sailed through the Suez Canal. Mostly the meetings were brief and the migrants could escape to the security of the ship, but just occasionally the threat felt very real. In 1949 Bunty Davis was sailing with her family on the Largs Bay when it caught fire in the Suez Canal. The passengers were put ashore in Aden for three and a half weeks and housed in an army barracks where women and men were in separate quarters: "it was quite dangerous because the Arabs used to try and invade the women's quarters so they eventually had to separate us into families".

This paints a very unpleasant picture of Arab-European relations at this time, which is of course not long after the partitioning of Palestine. It demonstrates that Largs Bay was transporting migrants to Australia at this time.

There are further references to this fire on the Allexperts website [20]:

S.T. Roker

Mr.S.T. Roker wrote the following on the Allexperts website at 2007-08-05 12:10:35

My mother and father meet each other when they came from England to Australia in 1949 on the Largs Bay. The ship left England in August of 1949 after delays. The ship caught fire near Suez and the passangers were off loaded in Aden for some weeks. To put the fire out the ship was flooded and sunk. They then refloated it and after repairs continued to Australia in Oct 1949.

"Bourkie"

Someone calling themself bourkie wrote on the same website at 2008-08-29 11:32:27

I was actually aboard the SS Largs Bay during the Suez Incident. I was however just 9 years old and on my way to Australia with my family. I am not sure exactly why we were kept in the Suez Canal but we were there for around 4 weeks. I can also remember having Arab soldiers aboard (all very frightening for a 9 year old) It was not a pleasant voyage at all as we also broke down several times and I recall one time being somewhere in the middle of the Indian Ocean.

Helen Sowada

Helen Sowada described her experiences as a migrant in 1956 on the NSW Migration Heritage Centre website [19]. Helen travelled to Australia towards the end of the life of Largs Bay and makes the following observations:

When I saw the ship I nearly had a heart attack. I was expecting a big fancy liner, like the Queen Mary, and it was this dreadful looking tub of a ship and it wasn’t very big. I thought, “I don’t believe I’m going all that way in that”. The ship really looked as though it had seen better days, and it had because it was scrapped the year later. The Largs Bay was built in the ’20s.

We left from Tilbury in London on 14 August 1956. Initially it was going to be Portsmouth - we were supposed to go through the Suez Canal but because of the [Suez Crisis] they had to change. We went round South Africa instead and it took twice as long. The ship was a freighter carrying 300 passengers and a cargo of motor cars and so our port stops were long. We stayed three days [each] in Cape Town, Durban and Fremantle. We stayed about the same amount of time in the Canary Islands, picking up cargo.

I got on quite well with the crew and they were all good fun. We had a library, we had a lounge. Most were young people on this ship. We were very lucky on that voyage because we had several well-known Australian actors on board and sitting at my table were Slim DeGray and Frank Wilson.

It took six weeks to get here, it was 26 September in Melbourne, 1956. John McNabb met the ship and took me to a church hostel for country girls. I made quite a few friends there and wasn’t alone. They had their dining room, their own cooks, so I didn’t have to worry about food.

Sandra Nagel

Sandra Nagel contacted me as another "Ten-pound Pom". Her family emigrated from Harrogate in Yorkshire in 1948. She kindly shared the following description and some photographs taken during the voyage:

The voyage was incredibly long due to Maritime disputes with the unions at Freemantle, Melbourne and Sydney. We were billeted out for a few days at Melbourne. I think the wharfies were striking over the loading of barbed wire in Freemantle, West Australia.

We came to at Dallarnil, Queensland Australia (literally 'the back of beyond'). It was quite a shock finding ourselves so far from people and activities. Dallarnil, a country area, was 30 miles from the closest town, Childers, which was a village. In retrospect, we would have been better staying in Sydney!

It has all worked out for me now however. The 'Ten-pound-Pom' has survived the rigours of Australian life and loves being an 'Aussie'.

Largs Bay was destined to provide a service from Southampton to Australia until her last commercial trip in April 1957 after which her final sailing was to Barrow where she was broken up.

There is a reference to another fire in 1957 on the Allexperts website [20] in a contribution to the thread by someone named Bob. By this time Largs Bay was clearly on her last legs and it seems was lucky to complete her last voyage at all.

I was on the last voyage of the Largs Bay to Australia in 1957. We came around the Cape of Good Hope because the Suez was blocked after Prime Minister Eden ordered the bombing of shipping there.

There was a reported fire in the Indian Ocean but it turned out to be lit by some of the passengers in a porthole well - they were cooking sausages. The bosun saw flames shooting through an open porthole and, because the ship was otherwise in darkness, it appeared to him like a very big fire. It was doused with half a can of beer! The ship was then running on a back-up generator, the main system having been put out of action when hit by a storm.

There was a near riot on the wharf when we reached Fremantle, the passengers and crew, threatening a sort of mutiny. (No great threat really.) The engine failed again in The Bight and the skipper rigged a sail during that night. Someone has a picture of the ship with a sail rigged! I'd love to see it.

Still unable to steer, we nearly ran into Kangaroo Island and eventually made it to Adelaide. We never reached our destination - Sydney. I seem to recall one of the passengers threatening to sue the shipping company because he was deprived of his 10 year wish to sail under the Harbour Bridge on returning home.

Film Set for Titanic (1958)

According to The Internet Movie Database [21], in the last days before she was scrapped, Largs Bay was used as a set for some of the scenes in the 1958 film about the Titanic called A night to remember. Most of the exterior sets used Austurius, but Largs Bay is believed to have been used for interior shots. Given the descriptions above she was unlikely to have been used for any of the scenes involving First Class accommodation!

Disposal

Largs Bay was taken to Barrow for breaking on 22 August 1957.