Lismoria and Laurentia were the last passenger ships of an equally overlooked Donaldson Line that linked Scotland and Canada for some 75 years, uniquely bound by immigration, custom and heritage. Lismoria and Laurentia, too, were notable for being the only American-built liners operating for a major British line of the 20th century. At their heart, they were exemplars of one of the most successful and numerous merchant vessel ever built: the American wartime Victory Ship.
When they passed in 1966, they took with them with great legacy of Scottish seamanship and ship management on the North Atlantic Ferry and were the last Scottish ocean liners, ending a memorable era when the Tail of the Bank was the Gateway to the World.
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| R.M.S. Lismoria in the St. Lawrence late in her career. Credit: https://heritagemachines.com |
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| R.M.S. Laurentia in the Clyde. Credit: shipsnostalgia.com, member DLongly |
Speed on, America
Yankees Away
Let Freedom's Anvils Ring
We'll Forge a Glorious Day
Speed on America
We'll Stick Until Victory is Won
Wartime verse in Anchors Aweigh
If the Battle of the Atlantic was the most important victory of the Second World War, a close runner up was surely the battle of production by the United States of America, waged on every front of industry, fought with innovation, improvisation and ingenuity and won by not only producing the stuff of war in breathtaking quantities but also in many cases, of great technical quality, and by means and methods that were revolutionary on almost every level of production from labour to materials, manufacture and rationalisation of every single component, human and material, that went into them.
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| Victory ships under construction at California Shipbuilding, c. April 1944, are seen in this press photo released by the War Shipping Administration in on Merchant Marine Day May 1945. Credit: wikipedia.com |
Emblematic of American wartime production was the Liberty ship. Based on a British design, the aptly named Empire Liberty, the Liberty was a merchantman of modest means, blunt lines, slow speed (9 knots) but large cargo capacity and built in a way and in such quantity as to create a revolution in ship construction. Eighteen yards, many themselves constructed from scratch, built 2,710 of them in as fast fast as 7 days 14 hours 32 mins from keel laying to completion (Robert E. Peary).
Liberty ships filled the gap, replenished wartime losses and did as much to win the war as any one single vessel, aircraft or tank, but were quickly recognised for the wartime expedient they were, in effect replacing what had been sunk: the plodding, humble British tramp steamer. By mid 1942, the U.S. Maritime Commission was already planning a bigger and better version of the Liberty, designed to be fast enough to sail independent of convoys but, just as importantly, form the linchpin of a revived U.S. Merchant Marine in the peace that, even in mid 1942, seemed inevitable to that remarkable "Can Do" Generation.
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| Model of the VCS-S-AP1, better known as the Victory Ship, in peacetime commercial configuration and in the livery of American Export Lines. Credit: U.S. Maritime Administration. |
By autumn plans had been firmed up for a 15-knot, 10,000-ton deadweight, 445 ft. by 63-ft. vessel powered by steam turbines, designated the EC2-S-AP1. As with all American wartime production, the means and method trumped specification and when shipyards complained that the proposed 63 ft. beam would entail completely rebuilding all the slipways, the design was altered to a 62-ft. beam. Steel shortages and retooling to manufacture the more sophisticated turbines and high pressure boilers for the new design ensued, but by early 1943, the redesignated VCS-S-AP1 was ready to go into production.
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| Wartime standardisation notwithstanding, the Victory ship had beautifully modelled hulls and especially pleasing built up bows. Credit: U.S. Maritime Administration. |
In addition to being much faster than the Liberty ships and indeed second only to speed to the newest pre-war reefer and fruit ships, the newly designed Victory ships had a completely different hull design which corrected the flaws in the earlier Liberty ships, specifically hull fractures. The hull frames were now built on 36-inch centers rather then the too stiff 30-inch which gave the still all-welded hulls more flex in a seaway. Enlarged tanks aft of the engine room permitted flexibility in draught with no fixed ballast but with fuel or saltwater instead based on load.
Cargo capacity was enormous (453,000 cu. ft.) with five holds, three of which were fitted with 'tween decks and the most modern cargo handling equipment including all electric winches and auxiliaries. Even the crew accommodation, situated in the amidships superstructure, was a revelation and U.S. maritime union approved.
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| No less impressive from a quartering stern view, the Victory ships' ample array of masts, kingposts, derricks and compact amidships superstructure and bolt-upright funnel imparted a businesslike Yankee character. Credit: U.S. Maritime Administration. |
The Victory ship was in every way an outstanding merchantmen and without question, the most successful of all U.S standard ship designs. If the Liberty ship helped to ensure freedom of the seas, the Victory ship was meant to earn America her share of the peacetime ocean highway.
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| Can Do! Victory ships under construction at Oregon Shipbuilding, Portland. Credit: U.S. National Archives. |
Victory ships were built by Bethlehem Steel, Baltimore, Maryland; California Shipbuilding, Los Angeles, California; Permanente Metals, Richmond, California (two yards); Oregon Shipbuilding, Portland, Oregon and Kaiser Company, Vancouver, Washington.
The first Victory ship to be completed was United Victory, launched at Oregon Shipbuilding Corp. on 12 January 1944 and handed over on 28 February. In all, 534 were built including 117 completed for the U.S. Navy as attack transports. After the war, 170 Victories were sold to commercial owners, both American and foreign, as cargo ships, but a score would be innovatively and successfully converted to passenger ships, including Taos Victory and Medina Victory, whose story ensues.
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| Victory ships fitting out "at a West Coast shipyard" in this official U.S. Maritime Commission photo released on Merchant Marine Day, May 1945. Credit: U.S. National Archives. |
U.S.M.S. TAOS VICTORY & U.S.M.S. MEDINA VICTORY
1944-1945
They may have been ground out like so many sausages, but every single Victory ship, like any vessel large or small, had her own character, her own soul and her own record in war and peace. Two, Taos Victory and Medina Victory, built apart by different yards and with quite parallel wartime careers, were destined to become fleetmates in roles unimagined when they were designed and under national ensigns and houseflags to which they brought great credit through long and faithful service.
California Shipbuilding Corp. ("Calship") laid the keel of Yard No. 73 at their Terminal Island, Wilmington, California yard on 6 December 1944. To be named Taos Victory, she would be one of 69 VC2-S-AP2s built in the facility in addition to 32 VC2-S-AP3s and 30 VC2-S-AP5s or a total of 131 Victory ships in total.
Honouring Taos, New Mexico, the ship's launching was set on 19 December 1944 for the 30th and originally her sponsor was to be Mrs. Jack Boyer. Instead, the 95th hull to be launched from one of its 14 slipways on Terminal Island, was sent down the ways by Mrs. Blanche Seaver of Los Angeles, wife of the oil executive and and philanthropist Frank R. Seaver. Mrs. John A. McCone, wife of the president of Calship was the matron of honor and Joseph H. Wadsworth, Calship Director of Public Relations, was master of ceremonies.
After being on the ways for 53 days, in the fitting out basin for 33 days (total building time of 86 days), Taos Victory was delivered at 4:30 p.m. on 31 January 1945, registered in Los Angeles, California with American South African Line, Inc. as operator and managers. She cost $2,783,526 to build in 1945 or when adjusted for inflation (2022), $44.7 mn.
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| Credit: Medina County Gazette, 5 January 1945. |
When the Victory ship programme was announced, the naming scheme first honoured the members of the United Nations (33 ships) and the others would recognise American towns and cities as well as colleges and universities, each of the 48 states could have two towns honoured. This elicited a considerable amount of lobbying, letters and petitions not to mention competitive war bond fundraising in communities throughout the country. Tiny Medina, Ohio (population of about 6,000 then) snagged her Victory ship through the efforts of a local businessman Frank E. Judkins who met John Carmody of the U.S. Maritime Commission on a business trip, lobbied for a ship to be named after his town and got 200 residents to sign a petition in April 1944. That December the Maritime Commission designated one of the Victory ships just laid down at Permanente Shipyards to bear the name Medina Victory.
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| Mrs. A.B. Chafee, formerly of Medina, Ohio, ready to christen Medina Victory. Credit: http://mcdlgenealogyspot.blogspot.com/2017/09/ss-medina-victory.html |
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| Medina Victory roars down the ways at the Henry Kaiser shipyards in Richmond, California on 10 February 1945. Credit: http://mcdlgenealogyspot.blogspot.com/2017/09/ss-medina-victory.html |
Construction of Permanente Metals Corp. No. 586 commenced with the laying of her keel at Richmond, California, on 22 December 1944. On 5 January 1945 it was announced by the U.S. Maritime Commission that the ship would be named Medina Victory upon launching "on or about" 7 February. It was actually on the 10th that she was sent down the ways by Mrs. A.B. Chafee of Oakland, California, and former resident of Medina whose husband was a navy lieutenant just back from overseas. Her friend, Mrs. John L. Grimes, was matron of honor.
Medina Victory took even less time to build than Taos Victory, being completed in just 75 days from keel laying (50 days on the ways and 25 days fitting out). On 7 March 1945 she was delivered at Richmond, California at 5:15 p.m., managed by Marine Transport Lines, Inc. and captained by Capt. Soren Christensen. Her construction cost worked out to $2,448,029 or $40 mn. in 2022 dollars. Medina Victory had one early claim to fame: she was the first U.S. merchantman fitted with radar.
Sailing from San Francisco on the 25 March 1945 to San Pedro to load cargo for the U.S. Army, Medina Victory's first voyage, carrying war cargoes, was an epic one, taking her from California to Melbourne, Calcutta, Colombo, Lourenco Marques, Durban and ending in Philadelphia. On 15 July she arrived Marcus Hook, New York.
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| Official photograph showing the troop berthing area on Lehigh Victory, one of the 97 Victory Ships converted into transports after VE Day. Credit: U.S. National Archives. |
Following V-E Day, the War Shipping Administration selected 100 Victory ships for conversion to troopships, of which 97 were completed, including Taos Victory and Medina Victory. Each were fitted with bunks for 1,597 troops in berthing areas installed in nos 1-4 holds with four-tier standee bunks, and adjacent latrines and washing spaces, mess areas and galleys added on the tween decks as well as ventilation/heating trunking throughout. The lifesaving equipment was considerably augmented with large, quick release life rafts fore and aft as well an enormous number of deck mounted smaller rafts. The ships defensive armament remained but was, along with the naval gun crews that manned it, removed after V-J Day along with the gun tubs and emplacements on most ships.
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| Troop mess on the 'tween deck of Lehigh Victory. Credit: U.S. National Archives. |
In early October 1945 Prime Minister Attlee informed President Truman that he would not agree to the continued use of the Queens for U.S. troop repatriation unless "an equivalent lift" be made available for British needs. In the end, it was decided that only Queen Mary be retained for U.S. repatriation duties in exchange for 10 Victory ships being operated on behalf of the British. This was extended in December until April 1946 to allow Queen Mary to be used to transport British war brides to the U.S.
Among the ten Victory ships made available were Taos Victory and Medina Victory. They retained their American officers and crews (now paid by the MoT) but carrying British and Empire troops as well as cargoes, and mainly from Africa, Asia and the Middle East routes.
Taos Victory arrived at New York from Antwerp on 13 October 1945 with 1,970 American troops, mostly for discharge, and that was her final voyage for the War Shipping Administration. Her next voyage took her to the Far East and at the end of November she was at Saigon having delivered French troops and supplies for the French along with Georgetown Victory, Winchester Victory and Kingsport Victory. There, some elements of their American crew circulated a statement to the press, criticising the use of American vessels and crew to carry French troops and British supplies to put down "a popular, democratic uprising against a colonial regime."
On her last voyage for the WSA, Medina Victory left New York for Southampton on 21 October 1945 and then put at the disposal of the MoT. On her first trip with British troops, from Britain on 17 November, boiler problems caused her to put into Gibraltar for a week for repairs and she then proceeded to Port Said. Medina Victory then spent the next nine months shuttling between Alexandria, Egypt and Toulon, France, the "Medloc" (Mediterranean Line of Communication") route for British troops entailing travel by cross-channel transport, then train to Toulon and finally transport to Alexandria) route.
Now assigned to rotate Australian occupation forces in Japan and Pacific islands, Taos Victory docked at Brisbane on 19 December 1945 from Labuan, Malaya, with 1,455 Australian forces including 260 RAAF personnel literally "Home for Christmas."
1946
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| 'An Army band was kept busy obliging with popular request numbers shouted from the decks of Taos Victory as it drew into Brett's No. 1 Wharf, Hamilton, today with troops, from Rabaul and other parts of New Britain.' Credit: Brisbane Telegraph, 29 January 1946. |
On New Years Eve, Taos Victory left Brisbane for Balikpapan, Borneo, via Thursday Island (calling 3 January) and arriving there on the 8th. Sailing on the 12th, she returned to Brisbane, via Macassar (Jakarta) and Rabaul, setting a new record for the passage from Rabaul to Brisbane where she docked on the 29th.
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| Taos Victory at Morotai 15 February 1946 with her funnel in the colours of her managers, American South African Line (Farrell). Credit: Australian War Memorial. |
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| Australian troops embarking Taos Victory for Kure, Japan. Credit: Australian War Memorial. |
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| Embarking on Taos Victory. Credit: Australian War Memorial. |
Taos Victory left from Brisbane on 2 February 1946 for Morotai Island, Eastern Indonesia, where she arrived on the 12th and embarked Australian troops of the 34th Infantry there for occupation duty in Japan. Sailing on the 17th, she arrived at Kure on the 22nd, welcomed by HMAS Hobart, Arunta and Warramunga, and her troops shivering in the unaccustomed winter weather. The harbour itself was littered with the capsized, burnt out and half sunk hulks of Japan warships and she came alongside a bomb damaged pier.
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| Australian troops aboard Taos Victory. Credit: Australian War Memorial. |
The boat we came on was the "Taos Victory," an American ship. The only handicap here is to make them understand what we mean, but some can speak good English.
Pte. G. H. Goyer, AEF
Kapunda Herald, 28 March 1946.
On 13 June 1946 80 officers and 1,031 other ranks of Gen. Wladyslaw Anders' Polish 2nd Corps landed at Liverpool from Medina Victory from Naples, the first of 107,000 to arrive after Foreign Sec. Bevin's announcement that all Poles in the British Forces would be demobilised and placed in resettlement camps for retraining for civilian life before becoming British subjects. Many were veterans of the final assault on Monte Cassino.
Taos Victory left Port Said for Falmouth on 13 June 1946. She and Medina Victory were among those American merchant ships bareboat chartered to the British Ministry of Transport and both were transferred on 29 June 1946 at 11:00 a,m. at Liverpool with Taos Victory managed by Furness Withy and Medina Victory by Donaldson, Bros & Black Ltd..
1947
En route home from Mombasa (where she had arrived on 12 November 1946), Medina Victory docked at Glasgow from Port Said, via Cuxhaven, on 26 January 1947. The ship was then assigned to the repatriation of General Anders' Free Polish Army personnel (who opted to return) to Poland. With 1,309 aboard she sailed from Glasgow for Gdynia on 5 February. Owing to heavy ice blocking the sound between Denmark and Sweden, the ship had to put into Malmo first to reprovision before continuing her passage.
Taos Victory ended another trooping run from Port Said at Glasgow on 17 April 1947. She then made a trip to the Adriatic repatriating Italian POWs from which she returned from Venice on 19 May followed by another similar voyage which terminated at Southampton on 19 June.
On 27 August 1947 Medina Victory and Taos Victory were purchased for $972,257 per vessel by the British Ministry of Transport, another step in the epic replenishment of the war depleted British Merchant Navy. There was much resistance in the United States to the more sophisticated Victory ships to Britain as potentially competing with American merchantmen in peacetime commercial trade. In the end, of the 229 Liberty ships bareboat charted to the MoT, 106 were made available for sale, but Medina Victory and Taos Victory were among only 14 Victory ships purchased by British lines or via the MoT, Blue Funnel acquiring six of these, and Donaldson Line, two.
Considerable tonnage has been lost by the Donaldson Line through enemy action, as has every other line, but the Victory ships, built for the British government, will be used while new tonnage is being constructed.
Donaldson Line British Columbia agent, 14 January 1945.
It was, of course, the sad distinction of a Donaldson liner, R.M.S. Athenia, to be the first of some 4,700 British merchantmen to be sunk in the Second World War, on the very day Britain declared war on Germany. During the ensuing six years Donaldson ships, officers and men transported some 95,000 service personnel and casualties and carried over 3 million tons of vital foodstuffs, raw materials and the goods of war, losing 11 ships totalling 75,300 gross tons. They had done their bit, and more, to help win the single greatest victory of the Second World War: the Battle of the Atlantic.
All but forgotten today, Donaldson Line was one of the oldest British shipping firms, dating to their founding in 1855 as Donaldson Bros. and chartering their first barque three years later to ply between the Clyde, Brazil and the River Plate. Most identified with Canada, Donaldson maintained this link with South America throughout their long history. In 1870, they began a regular steamer service there which in 1878 was renamed the Donaldson Line at the same time the company inaugurated their Glasgow to Quebec and Montreal route.
The company flourished with the epic Scottish immigration to Canada and Donaldson introduced their first true passenger liner, Athenia, in 1905. In addition to the Clyde-Eastern Canada route, Donaldson maintained services there from the Bristol Channel since 1912 and to the West Coast of the U.S. and Canada from Glasgow and Liverpool since 1922. In 1916, Anchor Line acquired a controlling interest in Donaldson's passenger ships which henceforth were operated by the Anchor-Donaldson Ltd. The well-remembered and extremely successful Athenia (II) and Letitia (II) were introduced in 1923 and 1925 respectively and Donaldson achieved their apogee. Indeed, they prospered and when Anchor Line when into liquidation in 1935, they purchased back their shares to create the independent Donaldson-Atlantic to operate the passenger services.
The road back from the Second World War was long and hard and like all British lines, Donaldson's surviving ships initially remained under the wartime Liner Requisition Scheme of the Ministry of Transport which effectively controlled the vessels and their voyages. But there were gradual milestones on the road to normalcy and after V-E Day, the wartime restrictions on reporting the coming and goings of those ships plying somewhat normal trading were lifted. With Britain's urgent need for foreign currency, especially dollar-earning, exports, the revival of essential trading routes and services assumed a priority over passenger traffic in the immediate post-war era.
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| Dorelian, which made the first announced arrival at Montreal from Glasgow since VE Day, at Vancouver in the early 1950s. Credit: Walter E. Frost photograph, City of Vancouver Archives. |
On 21 June 1945 Donaldson's Dorelian (b.1923/6,431 grt) docked at Montreal from Glasgow, still in grey but with a classic of Donaldson cargo of one thousand cases of whiskey, a thoroughbred Clydesdale team of four and a bull worth $25,000 and 32 head of cattle which had been earlier landed at Quebec.
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| When Ocean Wanderer arrived at Victoria in May 1946 she unloaded the first peacetime British cargo since the war including new Hillman cars, whiskey, firebrick and china. Credit: Times Colonist, 25 May 1946. |
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| Credit: Victoria Daily Times, 8 November 1945. |
The line's other main Canadian service, that from Liverpool and Glasgow to the Pacific West Coast of the United States and Canada via the Panama Canal, was resumed on in late November 1945 with the departure of the MoT's Ocean Wanderer, running on the Donaldson berth. She arrived at Vancouver on 18 January 1946. On her next voyage, she called at Victoria on 24 May before Vancouver and was feted as the first post-war arrival of a British ship in the harbour.
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| The handsome Salacia, built by Harland & Wolff, Govan, in 1937, seen here at Swansea, was back on the East Coast of Canada run by late 1945, and the first to carry passengers. Credit: shipsnostalgia.com, inandship. |
That, winter, too, Donaldson-Atlantic resumed their Glasgow-Saint John, N.B. service with Epiros on 3 January 1946 and Dorelian on the 30th from Saint John and their joint service with Cunard to Bristol Channel ports with Salacia from Halifax on the 10th. She was the first to carry passengers, having berths for six.
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| One of three wartime-built Empire standard freighters purchased by Donaldsons in 1946, Corrientes, seen above at Vancouver, was the former Empire Cromer (1943). Credit: Walter E. Frost photograph, City of Vancouver Archives. |
Donaldson was one of many British lines that replenished their war ravaged fleets with wartime standard ships. On 23 March 1946, Empire Flag (b.1943/ 7,024 grt), Empire Cromer (b.1943/7,058 grt) and Empire Treasure (b.1943/7,040 grt) were purchased from Ministry of War Transport and renamed Carmia, Corrientes and Gracia respectively followed by the rather older Empire Kangaroo (b.1919/6,219 grt) which renamed Parthenia. All of these were mainly employed on the West Coast run by September and Parthenia's first outbound voyage in December, which included a terrific Atlantic storm and a collision in the Panama Canal, occupied no fewer than 49 days.
By summer of 1946, Donaldson had resumed their primary services to Canada and South America, but what was lacking was what had reached an apogee in summer 1939, their popular fortnight passenger service between Glasgow, Liverpool and Belfast with Athenia and Letitia. Frustrating those already clamouring for a revival of the direct Scotland-North America passenger run, Donaldson, in fact, elected to sell Letitia outright in February 1946 to the Ministry of Transport although they wound up managing and crewing her until her remarkable post-war career as Empire Brent and Captain Cook finally came to an end in 1960.
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| 'Will ye no come back again?" Scots, out of patriotism and practicality, yearned for a return of the pre-war direct Clyde-U.S./Canada services of Anchor and Donaldson, but it would be a protracted and often frustrating process. |
Before the war, total annual passenger capacity from Glasgow or the Clyde was 350,000 where by 1946, it was 3,000. Anchor Line which ran five liners on the New York route in 1939, did resume a modest cargo-passenger Glasgow to New York service with the new Egidia, Elysia and Eucadia which had berths for 36 passengers with an every 13-day schedule. Cunard, who before the the war had offered six sailings every month from Tail of the Bank to New York, had no service and no ships available to reopen another route. Donaldson who ran Athenia and Letitia every fortnight, 1,200 berths a sailing and now carried at best 100 passengers a year in either direction on its few six-passenger freighters.
Meanwhile, with Letitia and Anchor Line's surviving Cameronia on government service, the prospects for a return of a "Scotland Direct" passenger route seemed unlikely given the cost and huge backlog in newbuilding construction which made new liners an impossible proposition.
By year's end (in which company earnings were £298,396) Donaldson had built up their fleet to 11 vessels, seven of which were wartime standard ships.
1947
In Montreal on 26 February 1947 Cunard White Star Ltd. announced the formation of an entirely Canadian-owned subsidiary, Cunard-Donaldson Limited, which would represent Cunard White Star, Donaldson and Watts Line in Canada.
Donaldson managed to secure a slipway and the allotment of steel to lay down their first post-war newbuilding, at R&W Hawthorn, Leslie & Co.'s Hebburn-on-Tyne yards, a reefer ship for the South American meat trade. She was launched on 7 March 1947 as Cortona, making her maiden voyage in October. By then Donaldson had 11 ships in the combined fleets of Donaldson and Donaldson Atlantic totalling 98,000 tons, but with further newbuildings constrained by slipway space, high costs and steel shortages, they made a final foray into the purchase of wartime standard tonnage, this time with a distinctly American flavour.
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| Lakonia, the former Liberty ship Samtrusty, and one of three American wartime-built ships that Donaldsons rounded out their fleet with in late 1947. Credit: shipsnostalgia.com, Stuart Smith. |
That late summer, Samtrusty, one of the 200 "Sam- class" Liberty ships lent to Britain during the war and managed by Donaldsons, was sold to them by the Ministry of Transport for £135,000 and renamed Lakonia. She spent most her career on the West Coast route.
But the biggest acquisitions by Donaldsons were two of the few Victory ships made available for purchase to British lines. Not only were these larger and faster than any ships then in the fleet, but their potential for conversion to passenger carrying "combi" vessels or indeed full passenger liners was already being seen by other lines at the same time. In all, in addition to the Donaldson pair, 11 other Victory ships were converted to liners: Khedive Ismail and Mohamed Ali El Kebir of Khedvial Mail Line, Castel Bianco and Castel Verde of Sitmar, Waterman, Zuiderkruis and Groote Beer (Dutch Government), Alcoa Corsair, Alcoa Clipper and Alcoa Cavalier of Alcoa Steamship Co. and Cordoba (Dodero S.A.).
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| Scotland's Champion: Thomas Johnston who, as head of the Scottish Tourist Board after the war, led the fight for resumption of a direct Scotland-North America passenger service. |
In mid 1947, Anchor Line decided not to continue any meaningful passenger service from the Clyde to New York and their 36-passenger "E"s were reduced to "twelves." Leading the fight to restore a direct Scotland-North America was the Rt. Hon. Thomas (Tom) Johnston (1881-1965), one of the greatest champions of and for Scotland, in practically every endeavour and issue and a leader of the "Red Clydesider" socialist movement. Appointed by Churchill as Secretary for Scotland in 1941-45, he was best known for bringing electricity to the Highlands using hydro power.
In 1945 Tom Johnson assumed the leadership of the Scottish Tourist Board and chief among his aims was ensuring Scotland had again her own link with America and Canada, having not only convince private shipowners to undertake it but the MoT to release the tonnage to make it possible. Both proved tall orders, especially after Anchor Line decided not to resume their service and like Donaldson, had but one large liner left, the ageing Cameronia which, like Letitia, was not seen as commercially viable in post-war conditions. The indefatigable Johnston was not deterred and proving he could cajole and convince a fellow Scot as well as he could the English, began to lobby Norman Donaldson to resume the passenger service in some form. His efforts coincided or perhaps prompted Donaldson's ensuing purchase of the two Victory ships.
Concluding her final voyage in H.M. Service, Medina Victory arrived at Glasgow on 19 September 1947 from Port Said. She almost immediately turned over by the MoT to Donaldson Atlantic Line, one of a number of MoT-owned Victory and Liberty ships parceled out to private British owners that month. She was handed over at Prince's Dock and before the month was out, was in the hands of Barclay, Curle at their Elderslie yard for a complete refurbishment as a commercial cargo-passenger liner with berths for 12.
A change of name and a change of occupation will be two of the main results of the visit to the Clyde of the Medina Victory. Although her new name has not yet been chosen, there is no doubt about her future occupation. After a short but active life, in which she carried many thousands of troops, she was taken over this week by the Donaldson Line as a passenger and cargo vessel, and is likely to join their services in the North Atlantic.
She was completed as a Victory ship in America in 1945, and carried supplies and troops in the Pacific for the War Shipping Administration.
In August, 1946, she was taken over by the Ministry of Transport on bare boat charter from W.S.A., and since then had carried British and Polish troops and prisoners of war between the United Kingdom, East Africa, Poland and Germany.
During the later part of the war she took part in the 'Medloc' services between Toulon and Port Said, and carried service personnel between the two ports. The Service men were bound on leave, and completed the rest of their journey overland.
With only two years of work behind her, the Medina Victory should be a first-class addition to the Donaldson service. She has good speed, an economical running cost, and is fitted with radar and the latest navigational aids.
By the middle of next week she will have moved from Prince's Dock to Elderslie where she will be refitted for her commercial life. It is expected that this will take about two and a half months.
Glasgow Herald, 25 September 1947
On 3 October 1947 Donaldson Line Ltd. applied to the Ministry of Transport to rename Medina Victory as Laurentia (honouring the Laurentian Mountains in Quebec) and register her in Glasgow.
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| Official notification of Donaldson Line's application to the MoT to rename Medina Victory, Laurentia. Credit: Glasgow Herald 8 October 1947. |
That year saw a record £504,503 profit and Donaldson numbered 13 ships totalling 117,684 grt.
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| Her new name proudly standing out on her weathered grey paint, Laurentia, ex-Medina Victory, alongside Barclay, Curle's Elderslie yard, c. October 1947. Her original "stovepipe" funnel has been removed to make room for a larger, better proportioned one. Credit: Laurence Dunn collection, courtesy of Anthony Cooke. |
Returning from Italy, Taos Victory came into Southampton on 16 December 1947 with 22 officers and 479 other ranks of the 2nd Battalion of the Essex Regiment, known as the Pompadours, who were met on the quayside by the band of the Essex Regiment and the Colonel of the Regiment, G.H. Wilmer, GSO, MC.
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| A rare photo of Laurentia, as a "twelve," arriving at Victoria, B.C. Credit: Doc Vernon, www.merchant-navy.net |
1948
NEW DONALDSON LINER. —The turbine steamer Laurentia, formerly the Medina Victory, sailed from the Clyde yesterday on the first stage of her voyage as cargo carrier to the western seaboard of America. Now under the flag of the Donaldson line, Glasgow, a company which lost 13 ships from enemy action, the Laurentia has been extensively overhauled and reconverted by Barclay, Curie & Co .. Ltd.. Scotstoun. Her primary purpose is the transport of cargo, but provision is made for accommodating 12 passengers. The vessel's Glasgow cargo included 25,000 cases of Scotch whisky, and at Liverpool from which she will sail on January 8, she will take aboard about 200 British motor cars .
The Scotsman, 31 December 1947.
Commanded by Capt. R.C. Young, Laurentia begin the New Year with her departure from Liverpool on 8 January. It would be Capt. Young's first voyage to the West Coast, although he had long service in Donaldson Line, commanding Sulairia when she was torpedoed in September 1940 and he and the ship's company were rescued by the Canadian destroyer HMCS Ottawa. He had also served in Cassandar, Athenia and Letitia.
The Times Colonist of 22 January 1948 reported that Laurentia, "one of the Donaldson Line's newest and fastest ships," was due in Victoria on 10 February with general cargo and 12 passengers and four days later she arrived at Cristobal to begin her transit of the Panama Canal. The ship's first voyage was accomplished in good, indeed record time, the Times Colonist reporting on the 6th that Laurentia was due at Victoria on the 8th, so having left Liverpool on 8 January, had taken just a month for the voyage, rather than the five weeks usually scheduled. She had 100 tons of cargo for Victoria including 1,000 cases of liquor, structural glass, earthenware, carpets and linoleum. Although she landed most of her passengers in American ports, she still had four for Victoria and continued to Vancouver where she docked on the 9th. The Province described her as "a fast turbiner and made the trip from England in a month, averaging 17 knots." Her first eastbound crossing commenced on the 24th and arrived at Glasgow on 7 April.
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| First sailing list showing Laurentia's maiden voyage to Montreal on 17 April 1948. Credit: Gazette, 3 March 1948. |
Representations are being made by the Scottish Tourist Board to the Ministry of Transport for the return of the Clyde-build passenger liner Letitia, now the Empire Brent, to reopen an Atlantic service to Glasgow. The cooperation of Mr. Arthur Woodburn, the Secretary of State for Scotland, had been sought.
Apart from the success or otherwise of this effort, there is little prospect of a direct large-scale passenger service between Glasgow and Montreal or New York this summer.
Glasgow Herald, 14 January 1948.
After a final effort to return the former Letitia to her original route were rebuffed when the Ministry of Transport placed her, as Empire Brent, on the Australian migrant run in March 1948, Donaldson made the big decision to buy another Victory ship as a consort to Laurentia and convert both as 60-55 passenger cargo ships to re-open the Clyde-Canada service.
Taos Victory, back on the Middle East trooping run, returned to Southampton from Port Said on 11 January 1948. On what would be her final transport voyage, she docked at Glasgow on 19 March from Port Said. She was purchased by Donaldson Line before the end of the month.
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| Credit: Glasgow Herald, 29 March 1948. |
The existing small passenger service between the Clyde and Canada will be augmented somewhat towards the end of this year, when the Donaldson Atlantic Line put into service the American-built turbine steamer Taos Victory, negotiations for the acquisition of which will be completed this week.
Built at Los Angeles in 1945 as a cargo vessel of 7643 gross tons, the Taos Victory will undergo reconditioning by Barclay, Curle and Co. Ltd. at Elderslie, who are to remodel the quarters for officers and crew and construct accommodation for some 40 passengers. The conversion work will occupy about six months.
The Glasgow Herald, 29 March 1948.
Taos Victory arrived at Barclay Curle's Elderslie yards on 7 April 1948, "who are to remodel the quarters for officers and crew, and construct accommodation for some 60 passengers," and the work expected to take six months.
Glasgow To Have Liner Service To Canada
DONALDSON-ATLANTIC COMPANY BUYS U.S. TROOPSHIP
Glasgow's fight to restore the Clyde's former passenger liner services across the Atlantic was carried a stage further yesterday. Scottish Tourist Board members were informed that the Donaldson-Atlantic Company has purchased a large American trooper for conversion to passenger service between Montreal and Glasgow. The company may purchase a sister ship. The Board has promised its full support in assisting the company to attract passengers to this service. Mr Gilbert W. Carmichael, Royal Chief of the Order of the Scottish clans in U.S.A. and Canada who attended the Tourist Board meeting in Edinburgh, promised to inform the 50,003 members of his organisation these new travel facilities.
Sunday Post, 25 April 1948.
The Donaldson liner Laurentia docked at Montreal during the weekend, re-opening passenger service between Glasgow and Montreal.
The Laurentia, formerly the American ship Medina Victory, in addition to passengers, brought a cargo of whisky, machinery for new ships under construction here and other items.
Ottawa Journal, 27 April 1948.
Meanwhile, Laurentia began her maiden St. Lawrence season as a "twelve" with her departure from Glasgow on 17 April 1948 and docked at Pier 5, Montreal on the 26th.
Capt. Robert C. Young hosted luncheon reception aboard Laurentia on 26 April 1948 during her first call at Montreal. Guests included Thomas J. Royden, Vice President of Cunard-White Star and Arthur Randies, CBE, Cunard White Star general passenger traffic manager who were shown around the ship by Chief Officer Hugh Wylie, Chief Engineer David Fernie and Purser A.N. Kirk. Her first eastbound crossing from the Port commenced on 1 May and she arrived at Glasgow on the 13th.
The Glasgow Herald reported of 21 June 1948 that "the Laurentia, another American-built Donaldson Line acquisition, which was fitted to carry 12 passengers, will go to Elderslie when the Montreal season ends in November for alternations which will enable her to carry 50 passengers, so that by next year should be able to link Glasgow and Canada in the interests of travellers."
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| Credit: The Scotsman, 10 July 1948. |
The Scotsman, 10 July 1948, reported that representatives of Cunard White Star, Canadian Pacific, Anchor Line and Donaldson Atlantic Line had concluded two days of negotiations in London at the Ministry of Transport with the Rt. Hon Thomas Johnston, Chairman of the Scottish Tourist Board, Sir Hector McNeill, Lord Provost of Glasgow and Alfred Barnes, Minister of Transport, towards satisfying "the desire of many persons, especially those of Scottish descent in North America, to visit Scotland via the Clyde during the tourist season. The companies concerned appreciated the natural design of the Scottish Tourist Board for a resumption of such services, and agreed to consult among themselves with a view to meeting this desired as far as possible for the next tourist season, bearing in mind the shortage of suitable tonnage and the difficulties inherent in present conditions."
Of the lines present, only Donaldson Atlantic came through with a definite plan of action, as first reported in the Scotsman:
The Donaldson Atlantic Company is converting the former American Liberty ship, Taos Victory (7607 tons), which will be renamed, for an all-the-year-round service on the Glasgow-Montreal route. She will come into service before the end of this year. A second vessel, also recently purchased by the company will be converted in time for the spring of next year. Both vessels are cargo-passenger types, and each accommodates 55 passengers.
The Scotsman, 10 July 1948.
That first season, Laurentia held down the Glasgow-St. Lawrence run with Norwegian, Dorelian and Salacia.
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| Captain Robert Young of Laurentia after her record breaking crossing. Credit: Gazette, 17 August 1948. |
Regarding his recent record crossing, Capt. Young said it was due to 'good weather, good seamen, efficient engineers and machinery and the latest in navigational aids.
Gazette, 17 August 1948.
Laurentia, which left Glasgow on 5 August 1948, set a new record for Clyde-Quebec passage of 6 days 7 hours 46 mins at an average 17.13 knots. She cleared her Glasgow pier at 9:00 p.m. on the 5th and arrived at Quebec at 11:45 p.m. on the 11th, after steaming a total distance of 2,552 miles.
Regarding care of the miniature zoo, Capt. Young said he will place them in the hands of his chief officer, who, in turn, will delegate the Laurentia's butcher, or someone with an abundance of meat at his disposal, to look after them… 'It's the first time I've ever had a cargo like that,' mused Capt. Young, 'but they'll be well looked after. The chief officer is extremely fond of animals.
Gazette, 17 August 1948.
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| Pair of Ontario owls among the shipment of North American birds and animals carried by Laurentia, destined for the Glasgow Zoo. Credit: Gazette, 21 August 1948. |
Sailing eastbound on 20 August 1948, Laurentia called at Quebec where she loaded 2,000 tons of cargo, including aluminium ingots, and a remarkable "miniature zoo" of North American animals and birds for the Glasgow Zoo, 28 in all, including two bears, six racoons, seven coyotes, a pair of skunks, seven turtles, a pair of great horned owls and a pair of black night herons. It was reckoned to be the largest consignment of live animals shipped from a St. Lawrence port in a single vessel. They all arrived in healthy condition at Glasgow on the 29th and transferred to their new home at Calder Park.
Glasgow Herald, 30 August 1948.
When the Donaldson Atlantic liner Lismoria sails from Glasgow direct for Canada on or about October 4, she will be the first passenger ship to leave the Clyde on the direct Transatlantic run since the war. The Donaldson Atlantic Line Canadian passenger service was suspended by the loss of the Athenia and the acquisition by the British Government of the Letitia. The Lismoria will carry one class only, with a total complement of 53 passengers. The voyage, from Glasgow to Montreal, will take approximately 7 to 7½ days, and the service will be be supplemented in the spring of 1949 by the Laurentia. The two vessels will then provide approximately a fortnightly direct service from Glasgow to Canada.
The Scotsman, 6 September 1948.
On 27 August 1948 Donaldson Atlantic Line announced that Lismoria "is being refitted and reconditioned to operate as a passenger-freight carrier on the Glasgow-Canada service. The Lismoria will have passengers accommodation for 55 passengers in outside one and two-bed staterooms, equipped with hot and cold running water, wardrobes, dressing tables, selective lighting and up-to-date furniture." (Gazette, 28 August 1948).
It was, in fact, the first mention of Tao Victory's new name, honouring the Lismore hills outside Glasgow and picked over the originally mooted name of Cabotia, which, together with Laurentia, were among the names considered for the new Confederation in 1869.
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| First announcement of the resumption of Donaldson-Atlantic passenger service. Credit: Ottawa Citizen, 13 September 1948. |
The Glasgow to Canada passenger service to be maintained by the Donaldson Atlantic Line will begin early in October, when the Lismoria, converted to a ship capable carrying some 50 passengers from the American Victory ship Taos Victory, will be completed by Barclay, Curie & Co. The Laurentia, another ex-Victory ship, which now carries 13 passengers, will be withdrawn from the Glasgow-Canada service about that time to undergo alterations to enable her to carry 50 passengers.
Falkirk Herald, 1 September 1948.
On her final voyage as a "twelve," Laurentia left Glasgow on 10 September 1948 and, homeward, Montreal on the 25th and Quebec on the 28th. She then took Lismoria's place at the Barclay, Curle yard in Elderslie for her rebuilding.
OUTPOST OF SCOTLAND.
Mr Johnston said that an expression used by the Lord Provost that Canada was an outpost of Scotland was more than a neat figure of speech. At the last census in Canada it was brought out that 1,400,000 persons stated they had been born in Scotland. In addition, there were millions of people from St John's to Vancouver whose ancestors came from Scotland.
These great groups represented a volume of Scottish good-will which it would be criminal for the Scottish tourist industry to neglect.
The departure of the Lismoria was-- the reopening of an old link between the Clyde and Canada, and a community far wider than the directorship of the Scottish Tourist Board would commend the Donaldson Line directors for their enterprise , initiative, and courage . This service, which would be augmented by the Laurentia in the spring, showed that Scotland and Scottish shipowners were far from being down and out . They were only at the beginning-of a great development-in their tourist industry
Captain John W. Eaglesome, Harbour Master, who represented the Clyde Navigation Trust, said that the trustees welcomed the restoration of a pre-war service, and would do their best to meet the company's demands upon the port's facilities.
The Scotsman, 5 October 1948.
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| Aboard Lismoria before her maiden departure from Glasgow: Capt. Robert C. Young (centre) with the Provost of Glasgow, Sir Hector McNeil to the left, Tom Johnston, MP, on the right and Norman Donaldson. Credit: Shutterstock. |
Prior to sailing on her maiden voyage on 4 October 1948, Lismoria was visited and seen off by Tom Johnson who was praised for his unceasing advocacy for direct steamship services from the Clyde to North America. Mr. Charles Donaldson, chairman of the Company, was sadly unable to be present owing to illness, and in his absence Mr. Norman P. Donaldson, managing director, thanked the Lord Provost of Glasgow (Sir Hector McNeill ) for his presence. The Scotsman added that: "In a remarkably short time, said Mr. Donaldson, they had done something positive in response to Mr Johnston's request. The Lismoria. though she might not be exactly a Queen Mary or Queen Elizabeth, was an extremely comfortable ship, and she could do what the other two famous vessels could not do, namely, enter Princes Dock in the heart of Glasgow, and sail up to Montreal. Actually, the Lismoria could land Scottish passengers in Montreal faster, than any other service afloat. Not only was it very expensive for Scottish passengers to travel-to Southampton or Liverpool before embarking, it was also a considerable expenditure of time."
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| The Provost of Glasgow, Sir Hector McNeil hands Capt. Robert C. Young (centre) a message for the Mayor of Montreal and on the right is Tom Johnston of the Scottish Tourist Board. Credit: Shutterstock. |
It was reported that "the single fare for the Transatlantic voyage is £50, £95 being the return charge, and accommodation in a single class is provided for 55 passengers. Guests yesterday admired the comfortable and handsomely decorated public rooms, and the spacious and well-equipped cabins."
With a full list of 60 passengers, R.M.S. Lismoria (Capt. Robert C. Young) sailed from Glasgow's Princes Dock on 4 October 1948. It was the first departure of a Donaldson Line passenger ship from the port for Canada since that of Athenia on 1 September 1939 on her fateful and uncompleted last voyage. Now, nine years and one month later, the Donaldson-Dominion connection was finally renewed and with their erstwhile rival Anchor Line never resuming their North Atlantic passenger service, Lismoria and Laurentia would be the sole Scottish trans-Atlantic liners.
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| Captain R.C. Young hands Montreal Alderman W.R. Bulloch the scroll of greeting from the Lord Provost of Glasgow upon Lismoria's maiden arrival. Note the coat of arms of Montreal... it and one of Glasgow decorated the main lounge. Credit: The St. Maurice Valley Chronicle, 28 October 1948. |
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| Credit: Gazette, 13 October 1948. |
Lismoria's Captain, Robert C. Young, hosted a luncheon aboard the ship on 12 October 1948. Company officials included George Couper, Director Donaldson Atlantic Line and W.G. Baird, superintendent engineer. Others present were T.C. Lockwood, President of Cunard White Star Lrd, Thomas J. Royden Vice President and Arthur Randles, passenger manager.
With 53 passengers, Lismoria sailed from Montreal for Glasgow on 20 October 1948 where she arrived on the 28th.
On her second and last voyage to the St. Lawrence for the season, Lismoria left Glasgow on 6 November 1948 and arrived at Montreal on the 14th with 57 passengers and a consignment of scotch whisky valued at £250,000 or $1 mn.
Record Shipment Gift Parcels The largest single shipment of Canadian Christmas parcels for ten years leaves Montreal for Glasgow in the liner Lismoria this week. Canadians have sent more than 12,000,000 gift parcels to, Britain since the outbreak of war.
Aberdeen Press and Journal, 22 November 1948.
Her return crossing, just before the St. Lawrence was closed to navigation for the season, figured in the press on both sides of the Atlantic when Lismoria sailed with a record 200-ton consignment of food and Christmas parcels for "The Old Country" at a time when Britain was suffering from widespread food shortages and such parcels assumed an enormous importance.
Santa Claus with his flowing white beard won't be among the 50 passengers sailing next week aboard the Donaldson Atlantic cargo liner Lismoria.
The old gent, according to reports from his Arctic outpost, is too busy to make the long Atlantic crossing. But nevertheless the trim Scottish ship will be greeted with open arms by the people of Glasgow as she pulls into port with her record load of Christmas food parcels.
Scores of stevedores, truckers, and other dock workers toiled through the night to fill two freight sheds with the heavy load of Christmas cheer. There were so many bags, post office officials were looking around for still more space to unload them.
There were other things besides food in the bag. There were presents for Scottish children, card and other forms of greetings from Canadian relatives.
The Lismoria is also loading thousands of other foodstuffs guaranteed to bring smiles to the faces of ration-weary Scots.
The Lismoria is making her second, and last trip of the season out of the port since she reopened the Montreal-Glasgow service almost a month ago.
On the second floor of the freight sheds, Scotland was doing her share to assist Canadians in their Christmas cheer. Several thousands cases of liquor, valued at more than $1,000,000, were being stored for later distribution here and across Canada. It was the largest movement since the end of the war.
Montreal Star, 19 November 1948.
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| Capt. R.C. Young of Lismoria shows Montreal Mayor Camillien Houde (extreme left), T.C. Lockwood, Cunard Donaldson Ltd and Arthur Randles (right) the Glasgow City Crest in the lounge. Credit: Gazette, 20 November 1948. |
Additionally, Lismoria hosted a luncheon on 19 November 1948 with Montreal Mayor Camillien Houde the guest of honour of Capt. R.C. Young, Cunard-Donaldson President T.C. Lockwood, CBE and Passenger Traffic Manager Arthur Randles, CBE. The line officials brought to the Mayor's attention The Port of Montreal's dire passenger terminal facilities especially compared with those of Quebec's Wolfe Cove. Mayor Houde promised to bring up the issue with city officials and added, "I always enjoy a visit aboard a ship, especially a visit round a British ship where will be found the best sailors in the world."
Lismoria, with her 200 tons of Christmas parcels and 54 passengers, was delayed sailing from Montreal on 20 November 1948,when she and at least 10 other vessels were unable to leave the harbour owing to a heavy fog, described as the worst in many years. The fog bank extended from Montreal to Quebec and westward to the Great Lakes.
Making her first call there, Lismoria docked at Saint John on 21 December 1948 with 51 passengers, sailing on New Years Eve for Glasgow with just 12 aboard.
For the year, Donaldson recorded a net profit of £178,000.
In 1948, Lismoria completed three round voyages carrying 287 passengers or an 87 per cent load factor. In addition, Laurentia and Donaldson's other "twelves" on the Glasgow-Canadian East Coast route completed 40 westbound crossings carrying 196 passengers and 39 eastbound crossings with 127 passengers.
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| Sailing advertisement showing Lismoria final two 1949 winter crossings from Saint John to Glasgow and the maiden voyage of Laurentia as a cargo-passenger liner to Montreal. Credit: Kingston Whig Standard, 5 February 1949. |
1949
Among Lismoria's cargo carried on her 20 January 1949 sailing from Glasgow was the first of what was described as the smallest and most powerful of underground diesel locomotives, which was destined for one of Dominion Coal Co.'s mines. The 100 h.p. engine weighed only 15 tons. It and 52 passengers arrived at Saint John on the 29th. She had 25 aboard when she sailed eastbound on 6 February.
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| Credit: Gazette, 11 May 1949. |
Opening Donaldson's 1949 St. Lawrence season, Lismoria (Capt, R.C. Young) came into Montreal on 30 April with a full list of 57 aboard. Among the 52 sailing for Glasgow on 10 May was Countess Jellicoe, widow of Earl Jellicoe, commander of the Grand Fleet in the First World War and famous for his commanding the British fleet at the Battle of Jutland. Also aboard was Dr. A. MacMillan, embarking on her 46th Atlantic crossing, the father of the famous Canadian composer and conductor, Sir Ernest MacMillan of Toronto. In the ship's holds were 500 empty hogsheads "which will be brought back to Canada filled with Scotland's best-known product." She arrived at Glasgow on the 19th.
Presiding over his company's 36th annual general meeting at Glasgow on 25 April 1949, Chairman Charles G. Donaldson reported a £178,015 profit for 1948 and capital reserve of £4,010,708, assets valued at £2,337,167 and a fleet of 14 vessels including the new Corinaldo, delivered in February, for the line's reefer service between Glasgow and the River Plate.
Direct passenger sailings between Scotland and Canada are resumed today by the sailing from Princes Dock, Glasgow, of the Donaldson Atlantic Line's Laurentia. The Laurentia, a ship of 7737 tons gross, and her sister-ship, the Lismoria, will maintain a fortnightly service between Glasgow and Montreal.
The Glasgow Herald, 12 May 1949.
Of course, the big event of the year was the reintroduction of Laurentia as a combination cargo-passenger liner and with Lismoria, restore the Donaldson Atlantic Line passenger service to a fortnightly frequency, offering the fastest direct crossing time between Scotland and Canada in the long history of the line. Not only were they slightly faster than the pre-war Athenia and Letitia, but now sailed direct without the pre-war waystops at Belfast and Liverpool. They, with Cunard's Media and Parthia on the Liverpool-New York run, were the only one-class British North Atlantic liners and, as events proved, far more popular and successful than the Cunarder pair.
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| Laurentia on her post rebuilding trials, April 1949. Credit: author's collection. |
Laurentia completed her trials in the Firth of Clyde on 28 April 1949 and was alongside Prince's Dock the next day to load and prepare for her sailing to Montreal.
The day before her second "maiden" voyage, Laurentia hosted a luncheon for travel agents alongside Prince's Dock, Glasgow, on 11 May 1949: "Mr. William Ferris, a member of the Scottish Tourist Board, congratulated the Donaldson Line on their enterprise. For the past few years, he said, the Scottish Tourist Board had been trying to get direct sailings from Canada to the Clyde. To-day's sailing was a development in the right direction. Cargo space aboard both ships had been sacrificed to passenger accommodation, and he hoped the new service would popularise the Clyde as an arrival and departure port for transatlantic voyagers." (Glasgow Herald, 12 May 1949).
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| Capt. Alexander Bankier shows off Laurentia upon her arrival at Montreal on 27 May 1949 to Donaldson Line Chairman Charles Donaldson (left) who also sail back to Glasgow in her, and (right) Arthur Randles, Passenger Traffic Manager of Cunard Donaldson Ltd. Credit: Gazette, 28 May 1949. |
R.M.S. Laurentia (Capt. Alex. Bankier) sailed from Glasgow on 12 May 1949 with 54 passengers, including Mr. Robert Gibb, a director of Donaldson Atlantic, and Mrs. Gibb, and in her holds, steel, 4,850 cases of whisky, 200 cases of beer and mails. Laurentia arrived Montreal on the 27th, Capt. Alexander Bankier, showed off his ship to Chairman Charles G Donaldson and Cunard White Star's Arthur Randles.
Laurentia sailed on her maiden eastbound crossing as a combi on 31 May 1949. Among her 56 passengers were Lady Inverchapel, the glamourous Chilean-born wife of Lord Inverchapel, the former British Ambassador to the USSR (1942-46) and United States (1946-48) and Charles G. Donaldson, chairman of Donaldson Atlantic Line with his wife and daughter. Prior to sailing, "the ship's crew provided a Scottish touch by putting on a bagpipe display." (Montreal Star, 31 May 1949).
Lady Inverchapel arrived in Glasgow from Montreal yesterday on Donaldson liner Laurentia. Her husband met at Plantation Quay, where the vessel berthed, and the couple left for home in their car.
Before leaving the quay Lady Inverchapel told friends that the voyage across the Atlantic had been most enjoyable.
Lady Inverchapel was formerly Maria Diaz Salas, described as 'The most beautiful woman in Santiago.'
Dundee Courier, 10 June 1949
Lady Inverchapel was met on arrival at Plantation Quay, Glasgow, on 9 June by Lord Inverchapel, but as they were being driven to their home at Loch Eck, their car was struck by a lorry just outside Clydebank. Both were injured (Lady Inverchapel seriously) as was their chauffeur but recovered from their injuries.
Recalling Letitia's pre-war voyage to Canada as a Scottish Trade Mission exhibition ship, Lismoria on her 20 May 1949 crossing from Glasgow carried a line of canned haggis, tweeds, knitwear and shortbread for the Scottish exhibition at the Canadian International Trade Fair opening in Toronto on the 30th.
On her next arrival at Montreal on 26 June 1949, Laurentia had 55 passengers to land along with a cargo of 12,000 cases of whisky and several hundred tons of tin plate. Salacia sailed from the port earlier.
Lismoria docked at Montreal on 11 July 1949 with 55 passengers and a cargo of 9,000 cases of whisky and 160 cases of dried kippers.
'Aye, mon,' remarked Colin Porteous dryly, 'we've got 9,000 cases o' whisky under yon hatches, tae say nothing o' a hundred and sixty cases o' dried kippers.'
Colin Porteous is chief officer of the Donaldson Atlantic Line steamer Lismoria, and at seven o'clock last night the Lismoria and Mr. Porteous and the whisky and the dried kippers were hard and fast alongside the Cunard pier in Montreal yesterday.
'Aye, mon,' explained Robert Homewood, late of Glasgy and one of the Lismoria's 55 passengers, 'I've worn the kilt since I was wee bairn at ma mother's knee-- ma mother always liked me tae wear the kilt an' that's what I am intending to do in Canada.'
Mr. Homewood was heading for Vancouver Island and Mr. Homewood's kilt was magnificent. It swished from port to starboard as Mr. Homewood paced the Lismoria's promenade deck prior to disembarkation and as it swished, wide-eyed longshoremen looked long and hard and thought of pictures they'd seen of Robert the Bruce and the spider."
Gazette, 12 July 1949.
Lismoria had 55 passengers, one ton of kippers, 12,000 cases of whisky and several hundred bags of mail when she came into Montreal on 17 September 1949 at noon.
In a first for the Port of Montreal, a full dress military band serenaded the passengers and well-wishers at the departure of Ascania for Liverpool and Laurentia, with 49 passengers, for Glasgow on 14 September 1949. As Ascania sailed with 792 passengers, the 50-piece H.M. Royal Marine Band (Portsmouth), under the direction of its most esteemed director, Major F. Vivian Dunn, MVO, assembled on the stern, and played "O Canada" and "Alouette" as the Cunarder, together with Laurentia, pulled out of their respective piers. Together, they had a total of 850 passengers aboard, a record for the port since the war. The Royal Marine Band was returning from a two-week engagement at the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto. As the two liners passed under the Jacques Cartier Bridge, the impromptu concert concluded with the Marine's regimental march "Over the Waves."
On Nov. 22, the Donaldson-Atlantic cargo-liner Laurentia will point her black and white prow towards the St. Lawrence river and hustle her 55 passengers across to Britain only two weeks before ice usually closes the Port of Montreal to winter traffic.
The Laurentia's sailing will bring the port's most successful post-war passenger traffic season to a close.
Donald-Atlantic lines run a happy mixture of Scotch and Scots from Glasgow to Montreal.
Gazette, 22 October 1949
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| Credit: Star Phoenix, 29 November 1949. |
Bagpipes blew on the deck of the Donaldson-Atlantic cargo liner Laurentia yesterday as the vessel headed for Glasgow with a full complement of passengers, winding up Montreal's scheduled trans-Atlantic passenger-traffic movement.
The Gazette, 23 November 1949
On 9 November 1949 it was announced by the Scottish Tourist Board that the Canadian Pacific flagship, Empress of Scotland, would begin regular calls at the Tail of the Bank (Greenock) on her Liverpool to Quebec service beginning with the 1950 season. He [Tom Johnson of the Scottish Tourist Board] gave some idea of passenger demand, when he said that the fortnightly service of the Donaldson Atlantic Line between Glasgow and Canada, operated with the reconditioned American ships, Laurentia and Lismoria, had been booked to capacity throughout the season, and the company had been compelled reluctantly to refuse bookings as far as nine months ahead. (The Scotsman, 10 November 1949).
Donaldson, whose fleet now stood at 13 vessels, reported a net profit of £133,549 in 1949.
In 1949, Lismoria completed seven round voyages carrying 714 passengers or a 93 per cent load factor and Laurentia completed six round voyages carrying 622 passengers or a 94 per cent load factor. In addition, the line's freighters completed 32 round voyages carrying 178 passengers.
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| Although retouched to read "Lismoria" on her bows, this widely used photo actually depicts Laurentia on trials. Credit: author's collection. |
The sister ships Lismoria and Laurentia have been specially modified to carry a limited number of passengers in considerable comfort and to facilitate their enjoyment of a degree of personal attention normally found only in vessels of the luxury class.
Donaldson Atlantic Line brochure
Combining Yankee engineering, "G.I." rugged reliability and assembly line construction with stalwart Scottish seafaring, Donaldson Line exacting standards and Clydebank grit, Lismoria and Laurentia were unlike any other British trans-Atlantic liners of the post-war era. Purposeful in profile, workmanlike in character and plying a route far removed from the glamour of the New York superliners, they managed to garner as loyal a following and as sustained a popularity as any two sisters of their era and did so for a longer unbroken period than any other two ships on the Canadian Run.
Lismoria and Laurentia shared with 11 other vessels the unique quality among passenger liners of having 522 sister ships, recalling that astonishing and never equaled American industrial explosion c. 1941-45 that produced not only more "stuff" than any country before or since in so short a period but managed, even with the expediencies of wartime, to create iconic, enduring and innovative things whose worth long transcended the war they helped to win. That Lismoria and Laurentia served with distinction and like all ships, nurtured individual characters, transcended the assembly line Victory Ship connotation as well as reinforcing the enduring qualities of a remarkable merchant ship design.
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| "Looking class," R.M.S. Laurentia, Royal Pennant at the fore truck, the double houseflags of Donaldson Atlantic Line at the mainmast and Red Ensign streaming from the gaff, at full speed on her post-rebuilding trials in the Clyde. |
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| Lismoria at sea en route to or from the Pacific Coast-- note the sun awnings over the sports and aft promenade deck and temporary swimming pool tank atop the no. 5 aft hold. Credit: transportsofdelight.smugmug.com |
At their heart, Lismoria and Laurentia remained standard Victory ships in their dimensions, hulls, cargo holds and capacity, machinery and auxiliaries.
Working with Barclay, Curle, Donaldson created from the second most numerous class of merchant ships, two distinctive and successful combination cargo passenger liners out of post-war expediency that managed to serve the demands of the Scotland-Canada route as well (and longer) than most any of their former ships.
Whilst no one would suggest Lismoria and Laurentia were pretty or graceful ships, certainly by the standards of their era, they emerged from the Clyde as ruggedly attractive vessels. The most immediate improvement to the utilitarian Victory Ship profile was substituting a much broader funnel for the original "stovepipe" redesign which still retained the original verticality, complementing the two of three substantial masts that were kept (the foremast was replaced by a pair of kingposts) and given substantially higher mast tops for h/f aerials.
The principal work of reconstruction was the extension of their superstructures aft to incorporate the no. 4 hatch (which was raised to Promenade Deck) and past the mizzenmast to give two principal accommodation decks for passengers: Main Deck (with officer accommodation forward) and Promenade Deck which was also the Boat Deck and extended aft, was fitted with an extra pair of gravity davits and boats. The forward end of the Promenade Deck was extended to the kingposts and plated in with square windows and it's worth noting this was accomplished with Laurentia during her initial conversion to a 12-passenger cargo liner with the combined officers/passenger dining saloon/lounge forward flanked by two smaller side rooms.
The Sun Deck, also extended aft, had officers' quarters and a raised Sports Deck was added just after of the funnel. This innovatively featured glass windscreens to the front and sides, the first known incorporation of this now common feature.
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| One of the major distinguishing features of Laurentia (left) from Lismoria (right) was the design of their respective wheelhouses and bridges. Laurentia's was designed after that of the Coronoldo and Lismoria more in keeping with the original Victory ship design. Note also the different radar installations with a single pole mast just ahead of the funnel (Laurentia) and a lattice work base on the portside (Lismoria). Finally, note the different ventilator caps to the kingpost tops on both ships. |
The bridges of both ships were altered and in quite different fashion, the Laurentia's wheelhouse windows being modelled after those of the new Coronaldo and the bridge wings had cab ends whilst Lismoria's was less modified from her original Victory ship design.
All exterior passenger decks were sheathed in teak and teak cap added to the railings of these decks.
At their heart and their essentials, Lismoria and Laurentia were standard Victory ships in their dimensions, hulls, cargo holds and capacity, machinery and auxiliaries.
With principal measurements of 455 ft. 3 ins. length (overall) and a beam of 62 ft., Laurentia 8,349 gross tons, 4,726 nett, 10,160 deadweight, Lismoria 8,323 gross tons 4,673 nett) and 15,200 tons (displacement), their hulls were completely different from the Liberty ships with much finer lines and a raised forecastle which made them both faster and dryer ships. The bows were semi-V shaped with a straight, raked stem and a paravane skeg on the forefoot which was a characteristic of the Victory ships. The stern was a nicely modelled cruiser shape. The midships section, of some 70 ft. in length was squared and without sheer, on which was sited the compact superstructure.
Built with transverse framing on 36-inch centers, the all-welded hull had greater built-in "give" than the more closely framed Liberty ships, thus avoiding the risk of fracture. The hull was divided by seven watertight bulkheads extending to the Main Deck except for the fore peak bulkhead which was carried up to the Forecastle Deck.
The cargo space was very efficiently arranged with five holds, three forward and two aft with ample dimensions to the hatches: No. 1 22.4 ft. x 25 ft.; No. 2 22.4 ft. x 24 ft.; No. 3 22.4 ft. x 36-ft; No. 4 22.4 ft. x 36 ft. and No. 5 22.4 ft. x 24 ft.
During their rebuilding, their 100-ft foremasts were replaced with kingposts and the kingsposts at the after end of the superstructure removed. In all, there were 12 five-ton booms and two heavy lift booms, of 30- and 50-ton capacity at the main and mizzenmasts for no. 3 and no. 4 holds. All winches were electric motor driven, another refinement over the Liberty ships, and substantially reducing the amount of steam piping.
The main propulsion machinery consisted of a cross-compound, double-reduction, impulse-reaction steam turbine rated at 6,000 ship and driving a single four-bladed 18-ft dia. solid manganese bronze at 100 rpm. Laurentia's (ex-Medina Victory) turbines were made by Westinghouse Elec. & Mfg. Co., Pittsburgh, PA and Lismoria (ex-Taos Victory) were made by General Electric, Lynn Mass reflecting the American industrial tradition of sharing the national power production equally with the two great rivals.
The steam plant consisted of two Babcock & Wilcox boilers working at 465 psi (although rated at 525 psi) and 750 deg, fitted with superheaters. Electricity was provided by two turbo-generators producing 300 K/w, with an additional emergency diesel generator in the engine room and one in the emergency diesel room topside.
Both ships exceeded 17 knots on their post-refit trials and were good for a 15.5-knot service speed which was in no way inferior to their much larger pre-war predecessors, Athenia and Letitia. Indeed, like many Victory Ships, they managed to break speed records. Laurentia, it will be recalled, set a new record for the direct Clyde-Quebec passage of 6 days 7 hours 46 mins at an average 17.13 knots. Ordinarily, that reserve speed was employed to make up delays en route owing to weather. Both ships were reliable steamers throughout their long service with no serious delays or breakdowns.
Resisting the temptation to add too much top hamper during their rebuilding and still carrying a heavy cargo load (indeed their cargo capacity was one of the biggest in the post-war Donaldson fleet), Lismoria and Laurentia were good seaboats although few relished sailing in them as passengers or crew in winter. In heavy seas, they promised a lively ride indeed. The only defects apparent after long service was some cracking at the hatch edges but the all-welded construction and better designed framing, made them strong and seaworthy vessels.
R.M.S. LISMORIA & LAURENTIA
Deck Plans
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| Promenade Deck. |
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| Main Deck. |
The sister ships Lismoria and Laurentia have been specially modified to carry a limited number of passengers in considerable comfort and to facilitate their enjoyment of a degree of personal attention normally found only in vessels of the luxury class.
Donaldson Atlantic Line brochure.
Many ex-Victory ships which put into port have accommodation for 12 passengers. The Lismoria carries 55, in abundance of modern staterooms, saloons and dining rooms more likely to be found on a passenger vessel like Vancouver's SS Prince Robert, than an ex-Victory freighter.
The ship went through its transformation just a year ago in Scottish yards. Whole decks were ripped apart to make room for its new passenger space, and when they were through they had a 'freighter' which, from the inside, more resembled a super liner.
Passenger facilities are complete even to a hairdressing parlor for the ladies, and a tiny 'shop.' Polished hardwoods from many parts of the world, each identified with small brass name plates, have been used with startling effect.
She's a Scottish ship throughout from the pleasant 'burr' of the all-Scots officers and crew to the hunting-McDonald tartan on the main dining salon floor.
The Province, 7 January 1950.
The staterooms are generously proportioned and are equipped with dressing table, double wardrobe,. bedside table, fitted carpet, easy-chair, selective lighting and self-controlled ventilation. The public room space is more than adequate for the number of passengers and comprises a spacious lounge, two enclosed verandah lounges, and a drawing-room/library. The dining room is equipped to seat 60 persons at one sitting and will also be used as a cinema hall. Ample scope for recreation is provided for on the promenade deck. Everything possible is being planned to afford passengers a restful and trip. The voyage from Glasgow to Montreal will be of approximately 7 to 7½ days duration and this direct service should contribute greatly to the comfort of travellers.
Wishaw Press 10 September 1948.
Of the Victory Ship conversions to passenger ships (13 in all), Lismoria and Laurentia were the only for an established North Atlantic line. Like the two for the Khedivial Mail Line of Egypt and the three completed on the ways for Alcoa, they were rebuilt as one-class vessels with premium features. As such, they were the only one-class liners ever operated for Donaldson and, with Cunard's Media and Parthia on the New York run, the only one-class British trans-Atlantic liners of their era.
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| Foyer of main staircase. |
With a total of 55 passenger berths, Lismoria and Laurentia had just two passenger decks, Promenade and Main.
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| The Lounge. |
Promenade Deck had the large lounge right forward with square windows directly overbooking the bows which was flanked by two side verandah lounges with windows facing forward and on the side. Adjoining this was a service bar and pantry. Amidships were eight outside cabins with twin lower beds, armchair, dressing tables, wardrobes and washbasin with hot and cold running water, and right aft, two outside cabins with lower beds and full private tub bath and a larger sitting area. Between these two deluxe cabins was a drawing room/library with windows facing aft to the open deck. A broad open promenade deck flanked these rooms and aft past the mizzenmast.
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| The Dining Saloon. |
Main Deck had officers accommodation forward and on the starboardside, the 60-seat dining saloon with tables for 6, 4, and 2 and portholes along one side. Amidships was the main passenger staircase and to port, the purser's office and the hairdressers/shop. The balance of the accommodation, comprising 12 outside cabins with twin beds and washbasins and three single berth cabins with washbasins, all outside, was on this deck as was the hospital right aft.
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| The Drawing Room-Library. |
Considerable effort was put into the specification and decoration of the passenger spaces, with the Donaldsons taking special interest in ensuring that they were in no way inferior to much larger liners. Wood veneers were employed in the lounge (dark) and dining saloon (light) and pastel painted surfaces in the drawing room/library and cabins. A real luxury for the time was the provision of quality fitted carpets in all the public rooms and cabins and as nod to the line's Scottish heritage, that in the dining saloon was of a Donaldson plaid in greens set against the blond wood veneers and green leather upholstered armchairs. The dining saloon further featured the convenience of single-sitting and was set up for the showing of films. The lounge was surprising spacious for ships of this size with a traditional, living room atmosphere of mahogany veneers, bottle green carpet and comfortable armchairs and settees in red and cream upholstery. A piano was provided as was full table service from the bar. The drawing room, finished in pale green pastel enamel, with floral upholstered settees and armchairs, offered a feminine counterpoint to the smoke room character of the lounge.
The promenade and sports deck space was exceptionally ample for the 55-passenger capacity. During their much sought after winter cruise voyages to the U.S. and Canadian Pacific coasts, the open decks were part shaded with awnings and a portable swimming pool tank erected over the no. 5 hatch.
Building on their enviable reputation with the pre-war Athenia and Letitia, the levels of cuisine and service were second to none. Many of the stewards were pre-war veterans and with a remarkably loyal repeat passenger list, the service was as personal and friendly as it was attentive. The tables were laid with the full array of silver plate cutlery and crockery as found on the largest liners.
Almost all the fittings on the trim passenger freighter Laurentia which called here last week were Scottish made.
Visitors were impressed by the high gloss French walnut of the beds and dressers in staterooms, products of skilled Glasgow cabinetmakers. The furniture has an interesting feature in that there are no sharp end or corners, something that can be an advantage to any woman passenger who values her nylons… Two Canadian items on board are rare old prints depicting Quebec and Halifax as they were almost two centures ago.
Vancouver Sun, 30 January 1950.
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| Twin-bedded cabin with private bathroom. |
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| Twin-berth cabin. |
In service, Lismoria and Laurentia proved remarkably popular over an unbroken 18-year-span as long as any Canadian route liners of the 20th century. Many chose the Donaldson Sisters for their one-class, "run of the ship" quality, unique "one big happy family" atmosphere and it was said passengers "of a certain age" appreciated their just having two decks with everything close at hand. They, too, were beloved by their long serving Scottish officers and crew who remember Donaldsons as more like a family than a company and possessing that essential quality desired by the merchant seaman: being "good feeders." This was repaid by loyalty and hard work and in common with Scottish liners, the maintenance and running of these ships was top-notch, always being smartly turned out and possessing that certain unique dignity of Clyde-based and crewed ships. They were surely larger, faster and more luxurious liners on the Canadian Run in the 1950s-60s but none exceeded Lismoria and Laurentia in quiet, dependable quality.
For the Donaldson Sisters, as indeed for the Atlantic Ferry in general, the 1950s were a halcyon era. Familiar links had been restored, old favourite ships back and a new generation introduced all amid a buoyant, indeed booming market. If the Canadian run was but a segment of the overall North Atlantic trade, Donaldson Line were, with just two passenger ships of 55-passenger capacity, the smallest subset imaginable.
Yet, Lismoria and Laurentia were also among the most popular liners and consistently so of the era as quantified in their combined load factors which from 1948-59 were an impressive 79 plus per cent. The Donaldson Sisters earned their loyal following through their friendly atmosphere and top-notch service and cuisine. They were the best little ships that no one heard about.
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| Lismoria alongside at Vancouver, 7 January 1950, on her first call there. From 1950-54, both sisters made a round trip each on the UK-West Coast run during the winter. Credit: Walter E. Frost photograph, City of Vancouver Archives. |
1950
For winter 1949/50 the Donaldson Sisters would forsake the winter gales, ice and low demand for the off season run to Saint John for a single voyage each from Glasgow and Liverpool, across the North Atlantic, into the Caribbean (refuelling at Curacao), through the Panama Canal and then up the Pacific West Coast calling at Los Angeles (San Pedro), San Francisco (or Oakland), Victoria and Vancouver, B.C. These long winter voyages would become a very popular part of their annual routine throughout the decade.
In addition to the usual cargoes the long established (dating from 1922) Donaldson Line West Coast freight service carried (motorcars, steel piping, steel sheeting etc outbound and lumber, paper pulp and grain on the return), Lismoria and Laurentia's voyages were sold as roundtrip cruises to the British market which had a tremendous pent-up for holiday trips not subject to the stringent currency regulations such as all inclusive, paid in sterling cruises. The one-class sisters were in many ways ideal for these somewhat casual cruise voyages and their long port calls en route to work cargo allowed for more time ashore than traditional cruises. In addition, the remaining berths were much in demand for British-bound Canadians and Americans desiring a direct, if leisurely, voyage from West Coast ports.
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| Credit: Victoria Daily Times, 15 August 1949. |
On her first voyage to the West Coast, Lismoria, which left Glasgow 25 November 1949, called Curacoa (for bunkers) on 14 December, Los Angeles (San Pedro) on Christmas Day, San Francisco on 30 December and arrived at Victoria, Ogden Point, on 4 January 1950. She had 49 passengers aboard on departure including 16 making the roundtrip and a cargo that included 150 British motorcars. Capt. R.C. Young hosted a luncheon aboard for local officials and the shipping press who were mighty impressed with the Donaldson liner:
A gala luncheon was held aboard the Lismoria at noon yesterday, with a number of local ship and passengers agent attending. They were welcomed to the ship by Capt. R.C. Young well known in this area; L.M. Corke, managing director of Rithet Consolidated Ltd., local agents for the Donaldson Line; and G.W. Wildblood, manager for Cunard Donaldson Line in Vancouver. After the luncheon, visitors were shown through the ship. All were visibly impressed by vessel's modernistic and fine-finish furnishing and interior accommodation.
The Daily Colonist 4 January 1950.
The Glasgow ship SS Lismoria is an ex-American Victory freighter which on to bigger and better things at the war's end.
The black-hulled vessel is in the Port of Vancouver today, looks like any other well-traveled cargo ship… but inside it's full of surprises.
The Lismoria, making its first voyage to Vancouver after a number of trips on the North Atlantic runs, is one of the most smartly-appointed vessels of its particular type seen here in some time.
The vessel is the proud command of Capt. R.C. Young, and is a 'little piece of Scotland,' ever there was one.
The SS Lismoria was actually completed at the end of the war, but saw plenty of service in the immediate post-war days as a transport ship for United States.
Today, it lays berthed at Ballantyne Pier as an example of what ship builders can do when they set out in earnest to convert a ship.
Many ex-Victory ships which put into port have accommodation for 12 passengers. The Lismoria carries 55, in abundance of modern staterooms, saloons and dining rooms more likely to be found on a passenger vessel like Vancouver's SS Prince Robert, than an ex-Victory freighter.
The ship went through its transformation just a year ago in Scottish yards. Whole decks were ripped apart to make room for its new passenger space, and when they were through they had a 'freighter' which, from the inside, more resembled a super liner.
Passenger facilities are complete even to a hairdressing parlor for the ladies, and a tiny 'shop.' Polished hardwoods from many parts of the world, each identified with small brass name plates, have been used with startling effect.
She's a Scottish ship throughout from the pleasant 'burr' of the all-Scots officers and crew to the hunting-McDonald tartan on the main dining salon floor.
The Province, 7 January 1950.
A little wee bit of Auld Scotia was in port this past week, or rather one should say a gey big bit, because she was the 10,000-tonner Lismoria.
It was Vancouver's first look at what the Donaldson Atlantic Line has put into service in the way of the new post-war luxury passenger freighters.
With cabin capacity for 61 she boast fittings and appointments that would do credit to the Hotel Vancouver.
Vancouver Sun, 20 January 1950.
It was hardly welcoming weather and those booking the roundtrip to escape the rigours of a British winter, were greeted with sleet and ice in the harbour as British Columbia shivered in unusually cold temperatures. When Lismoria sailed on 18 January 1950, she crunched her way through the ice in main channel of the Fraser River on the way out. Calling at Los Angeles (21-22), transiting the Panama Canal 2 February, refuelling at Curacao (5th), Lismora arrived at Liverpool 17th and Glasgow on the 24th.
Laurentia sailed from Glasgow on 16 December 1949 and Liverpool on the 23rd for West Coast, transited the Panama Canal 5 January 1950 and called San Francisco (18th) and Victoria (20th). A little over a fortnight after welcoming Lismoria, the Port of Vancouver had its welcome mat out again, as well as wintry weather, to greet Laurentia on her maiden call as a passenger cargo liner on 21 January. Among those aboard was the Rt. Hon Dowager Countess Jellicoe, making her second Donaldson Line voyage, who was aboard for the roundtrip.
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| Making her second voyage in the Donaldson Sisters in six months was Lady Jellicoe, widow of Earl Jellicoe of Jutland, who was making Laurentia's roundtrip to the West Coast. Credit: The Province, 23 January 1950. |
Capt. Bankier hosted a reception aboard on 25 January 1950, Burns Night, but his plans for a more lavish full dress supper with haggis (supplied from a Granville Street shop he remembered from before the war) were spoilt when he discovered that almost the entire compliment of crew and full cruise passengers had already been invited to the homes of Scots in the city to celebrate the occasion.
Starting her return voyage, Laurentia sailed from Vancouver on 4 February 1950, called at Los Angeles (9th) and after the usual ports, additionally made her first call at Avonmouth (a regular stop for the line's cargoliners on the route) on 6 March before proceeding to Liverpool (8th) and arriving back at Glasgow on the 12th.
Lismoria made one voyage to Saint John that winter, departing Glasgow 21 March 1950, arriving there on 30 March with 46 passengers and sailing on 5 April with 36. According to the Milngavie and Bearsden Herald, 22 April 1950, "When Captain R. C. Young, of Lenzie, brought the Donaldson liner Lismoria out of St. John, New Brunswick, the evening of Friday, April 17, he knew that several of his passengers and crew had tickets for the international match at Hampden. He berthed his ship at Prince’s Dock, Glasgow, on Thursday morning [20 April] after a record crossing."
The skirl of bagpipes greeted the ship as she pulled into the harbor and from the deck passengers sang the songs of their homeland to the tune of the pipes. The majority of the passengers are here on vacations.
The Montreal Star, 25 April 1950
Opening the St. Lawrence Season for the sisters, Laurentia left Glasgow 17 April arrived at Montreal on 25 April 1950. Among her 49 passengers, all from Scotland, was Neil McDairmid, an official of a Scottish biscuit firm, "on a trans-Canada route to rebuild his country's biscuit trade with Canada, and Andrew Kennedy, former mayor of the Scottish town of Saltcoats. Her cargo included 23,000 cases of whisky, machinery and steel products.
The 48 aboard Laurentia were but of a record total of 1,425 sailing from Montreal on 5 May 1950 aboard her, Empress of France and Ascania. "Customs men handled the lot smoothly and there was no jamming in the sheds. Passengers included businessmen, pilgrims for Rome's Holy Year, trade unionists and members of the Women's Christian Temperance Union."(Gazette, 6 May 1950). Thousands of Montrealers jammed the waterfront to see off relatives or, in the case of Richard and Monique Thouin, the grandchildren of Montreal Mayor Houde, they "just came down to see the boat off." Ascania was the first off with 700 passengers, followed by Empress of France with 670 and "on the heels of the big fellows goes the Donaldson-Atlantic cargo-liner Laurentia with 55 passengers bound for Glasgow." (Gazette, 5 May 1950).
Making her first Montreal call of the season, Lismoria, docked on 8 May 1950 with 48 passengers and a cargo that included a five-ton tail shaft that required the National Harbors Board's floating crane to unload, an automobile and caravan and a shipment of kippers. During the turnaround, Capt. Robert Young hosted Cunard-Donaldson's Freight Managers Ralph M. Brown and John Arrol aboard. She sailed for Glasgow on the 15th with 49 aboard and large cargo of grain, lumber, bacon, agricultural implements and mail.
Laurentia came into Montreal the evening of 31 May 1950 with 49 passengers including author and poet J. Fred Lawton, of Detroit, with his completed manuscript of the biography of the famous University of Michigan coach Fielding H. Yost. Her cargo bill of lading included kippers, firebricks, Scottish carpets, steel pipes and heavy sheet steel. She sailed homewards on the 7th with 47 aboard.
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| Credit: The Sunday Post, 4 June 1950. |
Lismoria left Glasgow 2 June 1950 and after what was described as a "rough crossing," reached Montreal on the evening of the 10th with 47 aboard and a full cargo including two more diesel mine locomotives, a heavy condenser, sheet steel, firebrick and kippers. On her outbound sailing on the 17th, among the 53 aboard was L.E. Reford, President of the well known steamship agency, Robert Reford Co. Ltd., and her holds were well filled with cheese, lumber and flour for Scotland.
True cargoliners, their cargoes often figured in the news more than their passengers and on 1 July 1950 Laurentia unloaded eight heavy electric transformers destined for various Ontario power stations. During her layover, she hosted an afternoon tea for 67 members of the Canadian Home Economics Association and the Canadian Dietetic Association who in Montreal for a joint convention. With 48 Glasgow-bound passengers, she sailed on the 8th. Among those aboard was George Brown, a director of William Teacher & Co., Glasgow, whisky distillers, who told a reporter from the Gazette: "We've limited the supply at home so that we can export it to Canada and America. There just isn't enough to go round. But as long as Scotch whisky remains Britain's number one dollar earner, we'll have to bide."
Laurentia's 46 passengers embarking at Montreal on 8 August 1950 were piped aboard by seven-year-old Sheila McNeil whose father, Alex McNeil, was one of Canada's top bagpipers. Spared all that were a number of wolf cubs, racoons and chipmunks bound for a Edinburgh zoo, sent as a gift of the Dominion Government from Banff National Park.
The annual Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto every late summer traditionally figured in Donaldson's passenger lists with exhibitors from "The Old Country" coming over to show their wares. Among Lismoria's 52 passengers landing at Montreal on 12 August 1950 were Maj. A.A. Bourne who was coming over to display bagpipes, drums and kilts for a firm of highland outfitters of Edinburgh and Mrs. Ella Bailey also from the capital representing the Scots Ancestry Research Society who was showing over 144 dolls, each dressed in a different tartan, "to acquaint the children of Scottish ancestry with the tartans of their forefathers." She was also to display a chart of the family tree of Prince Charles "showing he is a direct descendant of Robert Bruce."
One of Donaldson's real veterans, Capt. Hugh Findley, and his wife, were among the 49 disembarking from Laurentia at Montreal on 2 September 1950. The former Marine Superintendent of the company, which he joined in 1913, Capt. Findley retired in 1942, and was one of the best known captains of his era. He was bound for Niagara Falls holiday. Laurentia's cargo included steel plates and firebrick as well as mail. She sailed for Glasgow on the 8th with 46 passengers. It was another new record for the Port of Montreal with four ships in one day with Greek Line's Canberra arriving from Cherbourg and Southampton, Empress of France sailing for Liverpool, Columbia off for Naples and Lisbon, and Laurentia… with a total 1,555 passengers in all. It was the first time the port had handled four liners in a single day.
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| Credit: Ottawa Citizen, 27 September 1950. |
Lismoria continued to specialise in exotic wildlife, with four pelicans destined for the Calder Park Zoo in Glasgow, and fed four fish daily, and four beavers from Banff National Park, headed for the Zoo Park of Edinburgh, whose shipboard diet consisted of bread and apples. All were placed in charge of James Fields, the ship's butcher. They joined 42 passengers departing Montreal on 18 September 1950.
Laurentia's 5 November 1950 Montreal arrival with 50 passengers was her last for the year and she sailed eastbound on the 13th with 24 aboard.
On her last call for the season, Lismoria docked at Montreal on 14 November 1950 with 53 passengers, mostly Canadians returning from holidays in Britain and the Continent. With a light list of 16, she was off for Glasgow on the 21st, arriving there on the 29th.
The Company posted a profit of £309,826 in 1950 despite the end of Argentinian meat exports by the Peron government in Argentina that July.
In 1950 on the St. Lawrence/Saint John run, Lismoria completed eight round voyages carrying 731 passengers or an 83 per cent load factor whilst Laurentia completed seven round voyages carrying 655 passengers or an 85 per cent load factor. The line's cargo ships carried another 228 passengers on 35 westbound and 27 eastbound crossings.
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| Laurentia at Vancouver, 14 January 1951. Credit: Walter E. Frost photograph, City of Vancouver Archives. |
1951
Once again, both ships would spend the winter with one round voyage each on the Vancouver run. Laurentia sailed from Liverpool on 14 December 1950. She docked at Berth 53, Wilmington, Port of Los Angeles, on 4 January 1951, sailing from there on the 6th for San Francisco (7th), Victoria and Vancouver. She arrived at Victoria on the 11th along with the Donaldson freighter Lakonia. As a mailship, Laurentia had priority berthing, docking two hours after passing Race Rocks at noon, whilst Lakonia had to anchor in Royal Roads until a berth cleared at Ogden Point. Although most of her passengers had disembarked at San Francisco, Laurentia still had 26 passengers aboard including 20 roundtrippers, three for Victoria and three for Vancouver. She also landed 175 tons of cargo before proceeding to Vancouver. Laurentia sailed for the UK on 2 February, calling at Los Angeles on the 5th-9th.
Having sailed from Liverpool on 20 January 1951, Lismoria arr Los Angeles 11 February 1951, sailed 15th for San Francisco and Vancouver, arrived there 20th, docked at Pier B. She sailed for home on 7 March.
On her first St. Lawrence sailing of the season, Laurentia arrived at Montreal on 23 April 1951 with 50 passengers. When she sailed for Glasgow on the 30th with 49 aboard, her most reluctant passenger was a three-month-old wolverine, who the ship's crew named Joe, who was bound for the Glasgow Zoo, and was brought on board snarling and snapping at the dock workers getting him aboard and settled in his kennel on deck.
Back on the St. Lawrence run, Lismoria made her first Montreal arrival of the year on 5 May 1951, landing 51 passengers.
Laurentia's eastbound crossing from Montreal on 2 June 1951 featured an unexpected call at Greenock on the 10th to land a seriously ill passenger, Mrs. George Blades, who was rushed on arrival to the Greenock Royal Infirmary where she underwent successful surgery.
The famed Scottish cartoonist William "Bud" Neill (1911-1970), best known for his "Sheriff Lobey Dosser of Carlton Creek" strip, was among the 51 passengers sailing in Laurentia from Montreal on 8 August 1951. On the final night of the voyage, a special menu was prepared in his honour featuring "Carlton Creek Smoked Salmon," Jile Hoose Roast Turkey and "Honey Pears" with an illustration on the cover depicting Lobey Dossey as "the wee bouy" while Mr. Neil contributed his own tribute to the ship:
O Laurentia (as they call this boat),
Across the sea very quick you have got;
Also we must say you have kept very nice and steady,
Because here we are just about in Glasgow already.
The Donaldson sisters did a pretty good trade in carrying export British-made motorcars to Canada… until a new law was passed in Canada requiring cars bought on hire purchase or "credit" be secured with a 50 per cent deposit on the total cost vs. the previous small down payment and repayment over two or three years. This resulted in a surfeit of unsold cars and when Laurentia docked at Glasgow on 19 October 1951, she had 100 brand new "gleaming saloon cars" aboard to return. With left-hand drive, there was no immediate word as to their eventual resale, but most would be released for the British market.
Ending a quiet St. Lawrence season, Laurentia sailed from Montreal on 13 November 1951 with 18 passengers aboard. For the first time, the two sisters were in the port at the same time with Lismoria coming in later in the day also with 55 passengers. She sailed for Glasgow on the 22nd with 10 passengers. Upon arrival there, a crew member, David Barr, was apprehended by H.M. Customs having a dozen pairs of nylon stocking round each of his legs. He was find 70 or 60 days imprisonment at Glasgow court on 30 November 1951 for that and four articles of jewelry.
Buoyed by record dollar earning cargoes to Canada and the United States, Donaldson recorded a £486,957 profile for 1951 and the company's reserve totalled £4.9 mn..
In 1951, on the St. Lawrence/Saint John route, Lismoria completed 7 round voyages carrying 631 passengers, and Laurentia completed 7 round voyages carrying 632 passengers, both achieving a load factor of 82 per cent; a remarkable and truly "sister ship" accomplishment. In addition, the line's cargo ships carried a total of 238 passengers on 37 westbound crossings and 28 eastbound crossings.
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| A fine view of Laurentia sailing from Liverpool (note the pair of Liverpool Screw Towing Co. tugs at her stern) which was a regular call on the Donaldson sisters annual winter voyage to/from the West Coast. Credit: Flickr, Tim Webb. |
1952
The sisters' annual "Winter Sunshine Cruise" to the West Coast was the highlight of a quiet year. Laurentia sailed from Glasgow on 20 December 1951, and via Liverpool, Curacao and through the Panama Canal as usual, she called at Los Angeles 11-12 January 1952, San Francisco (15th) and arrived at Vancouver on the 22nd.
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| Laurentia's Second Steward Jim Mimnagh was among those interviewed for their reaction to the news of the death of King George VI by The Province just before she sailed. Credit: The Province, 6 February 1952. |
Laurentia sailed for home on 6 February 1952, just hours after the news reached Vancouver that H.M. the King George VI had passed away in London, and Laurentia went out with her ensign at half mast. Off the California coast she went on an era of mercy:
THRILLING RESCUE. The Donaldson liner ‘'Laurentia” on her recent sunshine cruise to Vancouver when off Southern California sighted the "Santa Margarita" a tuna fishing boat which had broken down with engine trouble. Mothering the small craft and her crew of ten men for 12 hours the captain saw them safely to San Lucas port on the Californian Coast. The "Laurentia” is under the command of Captain Rankier, Mount Harriet Drive, Stepps.
Kirkintilloch Herald, 26 March 1952
Vancouver-bound, Lismoria left Glasgow on 12 January 1952, called at Los Angeles 8 February, San Francisco (11th) and arrived at Vancouver on the 15th. She sailed on the 21st and returned to Liverpool (1 April) and Glasgow on the 6th
Donaldson opened their St. Lawrence season with the Montreal arrival on 20 April 1952 of Laurentia from Glasgow, with 58 passengers which then made her first eastbound sailing, with 48 aboard, on the 30th. Lismoria followed, reaching Montreal on the same day with 53 passengers as her sister departed and was off for Glasgow on 7 May.
Together, both ships managed to "do nothing in particular and did it very well," attracting nary a mention in the shipping columns on either side of the Atlantic for the rest of the season which concluded upon Lismoria's 1 November 1952 departure from Montreal followed by Laurentia on the 23rd.
Whilst unloading a cargo of timber from Laurentia alongside Springfield Quay, Glasgow, on 3 December 1952 which had arrived the previous evening, a quantity of the stacked timber suddenly toppled on two dockers,one of which injuried seriously enough to be kept at hospital, the other released after treatment.
On 2 December 1952 came the quite unexpected and sad news of the death of Lismoria's popular and veteran skipper, Capt. Robert C. Young, in Glasgow, only aged 58. He had served with Donaldsons for 30 years, being Chief Officer of both Athenia and Letitia before the war and master of Kastalia, Dorelian, Sulairia, Norwegian, Empire Kangaroo, Carmia and Medina Victory before being appointed to command Lismoria in 1948. He was captain of Sulairia when she was torpedoed in the North Atlantic early in the war and, last to leave the vessel, did so seconds before she sank. He left behind a wife, son and a daughter.
Donaldson reported a net profit of £418,470 in 1952. But the future was less sanguine and when the Peron Government in Argentina halted meat exports, the South American service was shut down for four years and Corrientes went on the North Pacific route.
In 1952, Laurentia completed 7 round voyages on the St. Lawrence route carrying 677 passengers for a 88 per cent load factor and Lismoria completed 6 round voyage carrying 568 passengers for a 86% load factor.
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| Lismoria in the Clyde. |
1953
Now commanded by Capt. J.L. MacQueen, Lismoria commenced her annual voyage to the West Coast from Glasgow on Christmas Day 1952. She had 47 passengers and except for a dozen landing in U.S. ports, the rest were making the full roundtrip. After making the usual calls en route, she docked at Ogden Point, Victoria, on 20 January 1953 and continued to Vancouver arriving on 21st. Among her cargo was 1,048 tons of 12-inch pipe for construction of the new IOCO refinery. She returned to Liverpool on 7 March and three days later, Glasgow.
The two sisters shared San Francisco Bay, if not the port, with Laurentia, outbound from Liverpool, arriving at San Francisco Pier 26 at 3:00 p.m. on 4 February 1953 and, across the Bay, the outbound Lismoria docking at Stockton at 7:40 a.m. from Vancouver. Laurentia came into Vancouver on the11th and among her cargo were two British 56-ton Centurian tanks for the Canadian Armoured Corps, 13 others earlier in the week before aboard Pacific Stronghold. She sailed for home on the 27th, calling at San Francisco 2 March and Los Angeles 4-6th and arrived at Liverpool on the 29th.
Having met aboard Laurentia in which she was a passenger from Vancouver to Glasgow, Miss Ruby Gillies was married on 9 April 1953 to First Officer Alistair M'Callum, Greenock, in Glasgow.
Lismoria departed Glasgow on 13 April 1953 for Montreal with 51 passengers and arrived there on the 21st, to begin the 1953 season. Eastbound with 46 passengers, she sailed on the 29th. Laurentia followed, sailing from Glasgow on the 22nd and landing 49 at Montreal eight days later. Her first crossing to Scotland got underway on 9 May, with 41 passengers.
"Canadian returning home from Scotland are happy about their Coronation year trip. I went down to Princes Dock in Glasgow to see some 50 Canadians embark Donaldson's liner Laurentia for their voyage home to Montreal. The weather had not been kind to them, but few regretted their stay in Britain in 1953. 'We'll be able to boast that we saw a piece of history,' was the general attitude." (Gordon Irving, Montreal Star, 28 August 1953.) Laurentia docked at Montreal on 15 August with 51 passengers.
Laurentia lost her long serving bosun, Albert Midwinter, aged 54, who died suddenly aboard on 18 September 1953 whilst the ship was laying over in Montreal, having arrived the previous day. Born in Bangor, Northern Ireland, he was one of the few non Scots among the crew although he resided in Glasgow with his wife and child. He was buried on the 21st in the Mount Royal Cemetery after a service in the chapel of Tees and Company attended by Capt. A. Bankier and the officers of Laurentia and his shipmates as well as those of Cortuna and Asia. Laurentia departed Montreal on the 26th. In addition to her 39 passengers, she also carried back to Britain two stowaways from the previous crossing.
For the second time in three years, the Janes Memorial Trophy, emblematic of soccer supremacy in the Montreal Mercantile Marine Athletic League will adorn a mantle aboard the Cunard [sic] liner Lismoria. The award was presented to William Hamilton, captain of the ship's team by Miss Gladys Bates, secretary of the league which is sponsored by the Montreal Sailors' Institutes and the Catholic Sailors' Club.
Gazette, 20 November 1953
Lismoria's team, all from Scotland, was composed of William Hamilton (captain and centre half; D. Russell, inside left; G. Aitken, goal; O. Hume, right half; A. Graham, centre; C. Holburn, outside right; R. Bruce, left back; T. Russell, inside right; W.Weir, right back; William Turner, left half; J. Metcalfe, outside left with P.McGeown and James Carrick, assistant manager.
Lismoria closed out the season with her departure from Montreal on 21 November with 26 passengers.
A difficult trading year saw Donaldson Line post a £35,000 loss for 1953.
In 1953, Lismoria completed 7 round voyages carrying 643 passengers for a 83.5 per cent load factor and Laurentia completed 6 round voyages carrying 554 passengers for a 84 per cent load factor. The cargo ships carried a total of 346 passengers on 30 round voyages.
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| Laurentia at a snowy Vancouver, 18 January 1954. Credit: Walter E. Frost photograph, City of Vancouver Archives. |
1954
The two sisters, as was now customary, rang in the New Year with their 10-week-long voyages to the U.S. and Canadian West Coasts.
Laurentia was first off, departing Liverpool on 18 December 1953, calling en route at San Francisco on 9 January 1954 and arriving at Vancouver on the 20th. Her arrival coincided with the maiden call of Orient Line's magnificent new Oronsay and berthed at adjacent piers, Laurentia was completely ignored of course. Lismoria followed, calling at Victoria on 6-7 February and coming into Vancouver on the 11th with 40 passengers.
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| Lismoria at Vancouver on 13 February 1954. Credit: Walter E. Frost, Vancouver City Archives. |
The year begin with some corporate housekeeping, it being decided on 2 February 1954 to wind up the Donaldson Atlantic Line (which dated from the 1935 break up of the Anchor-Donaldson Line) which was now comprised solely of Lismoria and Laurentia. The company was liquidated and the shares distributed to Donaldson Line stockholders at 30 s. a share. Operations of the two ships continued, but the distinctive white burgee with the thistle was no longer to be seen above the Donaldson Line's tri-colour houseflag.
This was followed by the rather more dramatic announcement by Fred A. Donaldson, Deputy Chairman of the Company, to shareholders on 10 March 1954 that the West Coast Pacific service (dating from 1922) would be ended and certain ships employed on it would be disposed. Mr. Donaldson cited a fall in earnings from the route due to poor homeward cargoes owing to dollar restrictions. The withdrawal of British subsidies for wheat and lumber shipments were also cited. "The directors consider that to build modern ships for the Pacific trade at to-days high cost would be uneconomic for the company. It has therefore been decided to withdraw from the Pacific Coast service and an arrangement made with the Blue Star Line to cover the berth, with your company booking cargo at Glasgow." The end of the service would also mean a considerable reduction in staff (as much as 40 per cent) and a sum of £140,000 was set aside to cover compensation.
Among the ships disposed of in the wake of the announcement were Carmia, Corrientes, Gracia and Laconia. In addition, the line had sold Norwegian (b.1921) and Delilian (b.1923) for scrap. Carmia (b.1943) and Gracia (b.1943) were sold to Blue Star Line for further trading and Corrientes went to Williamson & Co., Hong Kong. As a result, the active fleet was reduced to Lismoria, Laurentia, Lakonia, Salacia, Corinaldo and Cortona.
There had been, for some time, speculation that Donaldson Line was being eyed for takeover which was firmly denied at the same meeting by Mr. Donaldson, although it was admitted that profits for 1953 were "substantially less" than the preceding year.
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| Laurentia arriving Vancouver, 9 February 1954. Walter E. Frost photograph, courtesy Vancouver City Archives. |
For the first time under the "Donaldson Line Ltd." name, Laurentia flying the single houseflag, sailed from Glasgow on 12 April 1954, docking at Montreal on the 21st, with 52 passengers, to open the 1954 season. With 43 aboard, she sailed for Glasgow on the 28th. Lismoria followed from Glasgow on the 21st, coming in on the 30th with 50 passengers and sailing eastbound on 8 May with 48.
That year's St. Lawrence season was accomplished in obscurity and the biggest announcement of the summer was the news that Donaldson Line would be bringing back the venerable former Letitia, now the New Zealand Government owned (but Donaldson managed) migrant ship Captain Cook for summer sailings starting 20 April through October 1955 on a direct Glasgow-Montreal run for seven round voyages.
It had been awhile since Canadian papers had a good kippers, kilts, haggis or bagpipe yarn to spin in relation to Lismoria or Laurentia, but the Montreal Star on 1 October 1954 reported that on sailing that week from Glasgow, Laurentia would include her holds 20 sets of bagpipes, destined for Ottawa and the band of the Royal Canadian Air Force. At $138 a set, it was welcome "dollar earner" for the Glasgow manufacturer. Under Capt. T.S. Graham, Laurentia docked at Shed 2 on 9 October with the bagpipes and 49 passengers.
Lismoria and Laurentia took their final sailings for the season from Montreal on 30 October and 21 November 1954 respectively, taking out 23 and 12 passengers each, their lowest passenger totals to date.
Trading results for the year showed depressed freight rates and a shortfall in eastbound cargoes from Canada to Scotland owing to foreign exchange issues but Donaldson still posted a £95,808 profit for 1954.
For 1954, Lismoria completed six round voyages to/from the St Lawrence carrying 538 passengers for a load factor of 81.5 per cent and Laurentia completed seven round voyages carrying 614 passengers or a load factor of 79.75 per cent. The cargo ships carried a total of 332 passengers on 26 westbound and 22 eastbound crossings.
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| Lismoria at Vancouver on 26 January 1955. Credit: Walter E. Frost photograph, City of Vancouver Archives. |
1955
Lismoria, which sailed from Liverpool on 18 December 1954, called at Los Angeles 10 January 1955, Seattle on the 19th and arrived at Vancouver on the 26th.
Indicating just how epic these ten-week-long voyages were is this complete voyage itinerary for Laurentia that winter:
Donaldson Line’s LAURENTIA on voyage 46 to West Coast of U.S.A. and Canada
Captain T.S. Graham
1955
0226 on 2 January left Glasgow for Liverpool2220 on 2 January arrived Liverpool2100 on 8 January left Liverpool for Curacao1644 on 21 January arrived Curacao2100 on 21 January left Curacao for Cristobal1459 on 23 January arrived Cristobal (Panama) for Panama Canal transit1537 on 23 January left Cristobal transiting Panama Canal westbound1522 on 31 January arrived Los Angeles0624 on 3 February left Los Angeles for San Francisco0759 on 4 February arrived San Francisco0618 on 5 February left San Francisco for Seattle1148 on 7 February arrived Seattle1541 on 8 February left Seattle for Victoria2110 on 8 February arrived Victoria1529 on 9 February left Victoria for Vancouver2059 on 9 February arrived Vancouver1409 on 14 February left Vancouver for New Westminster1826 on 14 February arrived New Westminster1450 on 16 February left New Westminster for Vancouver1918 on 16 February arrived Vancouver0005 on 19 February left Vancouver for Victoria0718 on 19 February arrived Victoria1506 on 19 February left Victoria for Seattle2152 on 19 February arrived Seattle1808 on 21 February left Seattle for Victoria0033 on 22 February arrived Victoria1745 on 22 February left Victoria for Portland1718 on 23 February arrived Portland1645 on 24 February left Portland for San Francisco1504 on 26 February arrived San Francisco1431 on 2 March left San Francisco for Los Angeles1606 on 3 March arrived Los Angeles1500 on 5 March left Los Angeles for Balboa (Panama) for Panama Canal transit1104 on 13 March arrived Balboa (Panama) for Panama Canal transit1310 on 13 March left Balboa transiting Panama Canal eastbound1016 on 16 March arrived Curacao1530 on 16 March left Curacao for Liverpool0955 on 28 March arrived Liverpool2344 on 7 April left Liverpool for Glasgow1552 on 8 April arrived GlasgowVoyage 46 completed
Credit: http://shipsoftheclyde.com/
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| Donaldson's brief post-war apogee on the North Atlantic run was in summer 1955 when their former Letitia, now owned by the New Zealand Government as the migrant ship Captain Cook, was chartered for Glasgow-Montreal all-Tourist Class sailings. Together with Lismoria and Laurentia, the line offered 20 round voyages on the route. Credit: Leader Post, 3 May 1955. |
Lismoria opened Donaldson Line's busiest trans-Atlantic season since the 1930s, with her sailing from Glasgow on 12 April 1955 with 47 passengers and arriving at Montreal on the 29th. But all eyes were on her new fleetmate, Captain Cook, on her first sailing to the St. Lawrence since August 1939 as Letitia. She landed 896 passengers (more than Lismoria could carry in an entire season) at Montreal on 29th. Bringing up the rear, so to speak, Laurentia docked the following day with 50 passengers.
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| Lismoria coming down the Clyde in the charge of two Steel & Bennie tugs, photographed from the Granary looking east with Fairfields and Harland & Wolff's shipyards in the background, 1955. Credit: Glasgow Museums Libraries. |
Recalling when liners, tugs, shipyards and the Clyde were an integral part of Glasgow, is this marvelous newspaper account of a routine sailing of Lismoria in 1955:
It was like coming home again to step on the bridge of the Clyde Shipping Company's tug Flying Buzzard and watch skipper Cameron ring down to the engine room on the shining brass telegraph.
Clyde towing is done by two companies, the Clyde Shipping Company whose tugs have black funnels and names which began with 'Flying,'-- and Steel and Bennie, Ltd., whose tugs have black and white funnels and names like Battler and Cruiser.
The Flying Buzzard was lying in the outer basin of the Queen's Dock when I joined her, and she was just off across the river to take the 10,000-ton Donaldson liner Lismoria out of Prince's Dock and down river on the first stage of her journey across the Atlantic to Montreal.
When we arrived in the centre of the basin of Prince's Dock, another of the Clyde Shipping Company's tugs, the Flying Meteor, already had a line aboard the Lismoria at the stern.
We tied up ahead, the mate of the Flying Buzzard, an Irishman with a brown beret set an angle over his weather-beaten face, went aft with the skipper to see the towing pennant passed aboard. One of the uniformed sailors on the Lismoria threw a heaving line down to the tug and the wire pennant was passed up through a fairlead on the port bow of the liner.
The pennant is attached to a towing spring made of thick plaited manilla rope. In the end of it is a metal eye which dropped over the towing hook. The hook in turn is fitted with a quick release pin which be knocked out in case of emergencies to let the tow go.
When the towing pennant was made fast, the Blue Peter, signifying that the ship is about to sail, was lowered aboard the Lismoria, ropes were let go from the quay, and the passengers' friends on the quayside took out their hankerchiefs and began to wave.
Skipper Cameron looked at the quay wall, 'But low on the tide,' he said quietly with the wisdom of 47 years' Clyde experience behind him, then two blasts from the liner's siren ordered the head tug to swing the liner's bows out from the quay.
The black and white ship swung out slowly, holding on to her head tope to prevent her from swinging right across the dock into her sister ship Laurentia lying on the opposite side of the centre basin.
Suddenly the Lismoria's head rope parted with a crack, and immediately there was a rattle of chains as Skipper Cameron put the tug's wheel hard over to starboard and the engines heaved and pounded in the effort to hold the liner's swing across the basin.
Gradually the speed with which her bows swung out from the quay eased off and stopped and the Flying Buzzard went ahead slowly. The Lismoria began to move forward into the canting basin, towards the dock entrance…
In addition to the red and white flag 'H' which means 'I have a pilot aboard' the liner was flying the International Code flay 'N.' I asked Skipper Cameron what it was for.
'Permission to leave the dock,' he replied tersely, watching the liner move out into the canting basin with the Flying Meteor pulling furiously on her port quarter while we tugged mightily from the starboard bow to swing her into position to go through the dock entrance into the river.
The Lismoria's bows, which had seemed to be heading inexorably for collision with the west wall of the canting basin, began to come round slowly towards the river, and Skipper Cameron relaxed.
He pointed over his shoulder towards a railway signal which stood out on the quay besides the entrance into the river. The signal was down. 'That the harbour master giving him permission to leave, ' he said.
Now the liner was heading straight down the river, and we were dead ahead, pulling her forward, while the Flying Meteor steadied her stern as she passed through the narrow entrance.
Out in the river we swung her bows downstream, and when the liner was in the centre of the channel with her engines turning over slowly, the stern tug let go,
Now the bridle-- a rope which had been looped over the towing spring to give more control in the narrow space in the docks-- was let go, and we steamed ahead with the tow-rope taut from hook to the liner's bows swinging now this way, now that, to keep her steady in the middle of the channel.
Down through the towering steel forests of the shipyards, past the huge white hull of the new Empress of Britain which the Queen is to launch this month from the Fairfield yard, past the tearful waving passengers' friends on the river banks, on to John Brown's where the new Cunarder Ivernia lies in the fitting-out basin almost ready for sea.
I thought we had left all the wavers behind, but as we approached Erskine Ferry there were two trim female figures standing down on the ferry jetty waving the largest hankerchiefs I have ever seen. They waved and waved furiously until the little Cairn terrier which accompanied them turned and slunk up the jetty towards the decent decorum of the road, obviously embarrassed.
At Bowling bend, we dropped the tow and the Lismoria steamed majestically past us. But the tug's responsibility didn't end at Bowling. Although the pilot felt the Lismoria could negotiate the rest of the river under her own steam the tug still had to be in attendance and we followed her down-- into the bright path of beaten gold which the late afternoon sun made of the river.
At Greenock we took off one of the company's representatives from the liver, and with everybody waving-- including the captain high up on the white bridge-- we blew three farewell blasts on our siren and turned towards the shore.
The white foam churned up at her stern as the Lismoria increased speed, and the acknowledged siren blasts floating back to us on the evening breeze.
I watched her wistfully as she steamed out into the sunset towards Canada. Suddenly it seemed an awful anti-climax to be catching a bus back to Glasgow.
Iain Crawford, Evening Times, 1 June 1955
Making it three wins, Lismoria's football squad clinched the Montreal Mercantile Marine Athletic League Cup which was presented aboard on 17 November 1955.
Better freight rates and carryings on the Canadian services were cited as reasons for Donaldson's £135,150 profit in 1955. The fall of the Peron Government in Argentina resulted in a resumption of meat exports and resumption of the historic Donaldson service to South America starting with Cortona.
In 1955, Lismoria completed seven round voyages on the St. Lawrence route carrying 573 passengers for a load factor of 74 per cent and Laurentia completed six round voyages carrying 509 passengers for a load factor of 77 per cent. Including Letitia and the company's cargo ships, Donaldson Line carried a record 10,470 passengers that year.
1956
The familiar black-and-white banded Donaldson Line funnel is back on Vancouver's waterfront-- and not for good.
The company's Laurentia is around these parts to load grain, lumber and general cargo for England, under charter to the Blue Star Line. Normally, she's one of the seven Donaldson ships plying the Atlantic trade routes.
The appearance of the Donaldson funnel will remind old timers along the waterfront of the days when the company was running a regular service here.
The line turned its Pacific coast service over to Blue Star two years ago, and sold most ships of its Pacific coast fleet to Williamson and Company of Hong Kong.
Vancouver Sun, 30 January 1956.
The Atlantic liner Laurentia, normally on the Halifax to Glasgow run, sails from New Westminster today with 14 passengers. By the time she clears Los Angeles she'll be carrying a full load of about 58.
The 8,500-ton Donaldson liner has palatial lounge room forward, bar, sun room, smoking room and library aft, large dining room along the starboardside and carries with her a ship's doctor, purser, and everyone else who goes to make up the crew of an Atlantic liner.
Vancouver Sun, 1 February 1956
That year, only Laurentia was dispatched to the West Coast, once again on account of Blue Star Line (cargo) and Donaldson acting as passenger agents. She began loading at Glasgow on 5 December 1955, arrived Victoria on 21 January 1956 and reached Vancouver the next day. She sailed for home on the 26th and arrived at Liverpool on 7 March where her passengers landed and then proceeded to Glasgow, docking there on the 18th.
Doubtless to the disappointment of her crew, Lismoria spent the winter on the Glasgow-Halifax (westbound)-Saint John run whose rough seas, ice, snow and all the rigours of "W.N.A." (Winter North Atlantic) awaited instead of the languid passage from Curacao through the Panama Canal and up the California coast. She sailed on 23 December 1955, too, so Christmas was spent at sea and she arrived at Halifax on New Years Day, landing 10 passengers. Her first sailing from Saint John that winter was on 12 January 1956 with all of five passengers. Lismoria had two more winter roundtrips and only six disembarked at Halifax on 13 February, but 40 landed on 18 March.
On 9 March 1956 Charles G. Donaldson, Chairman of Donaldson Line Ltd. issued a statement that Captain Cook will not be chartered that season, citing a "disappointingly small profit" from the service. Profits were up for 1955 over 1954 due to an increase in eastbound cargo carrying from Canada.
Opening the St. Lawrence season, Laurentia left Glasgow on 11 April 1956 and came into Montreal on the 20th with 51 passengers. With 45 aboard, she sailed on the 26th. Lismoria followed on 24 April, arriving at Montreal 3 May with 49 landing there and eastbound on the 9th with 48.
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| Arriving in Glasgow from Saigon on 29 May 1956, Captain Cook's (the former Letitia) master, Capt. Alex. Bankier, photographed Lismoria alongside and looking... immaculate! Credit: Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections 1525-AB162 |
Laurentia, which departed Glasgow on 24 July 1956 got only as far as Arran when one of her crew, James Wilson, a seamen, aged 24, came down with acute appendicitis. The ship turned around and landed him at the Tail of the Bank, for transport to hospital. Back on her way, Laurentia docked at Montreal on the 31 with 49 passengers.
Lismoria made her final sailing for the season from Montreal with 20 passengers on 2 November 1956 and Laurentia followed on the 21st with 33 aboard.
Donaldson's Chairman Charles Glen Donaldson (b. 1904) died on 18 November 1956, aged only 52. Grandson of the founder of Donaldson Line, also a director of Elder & Fyffes Ltd. Chairman of the line since 1948, he joined the firm in 1922 and became managing director in 1929. He was replaced as Chairman by Fred A. Donaldson.
It was the turn of Laurentia on the winter route to Halifax and Saint John, but first she went into dry dock. Coming into Glasgow from Montreal on 2 December 1956, she went into the graving dock at Elderslie on the 11th and left on the 19th for Prince's Dock to load for her first crossing which commenced on Boxing Day.
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| On Blue Star Line's Vancouver run now, Lismoria sailed on 1 December 1956. Credit: Glasgow Herald, 14 November 1956. |
Donaldson had a very good year, reporting a £186,275 profit for 1956 and invested £170,000 to refit Cortona to re-enter the revived South American meat trade after the collapse of the Peron government in Argentina.
In 1956, Lismoria completed nine round voyages (three to/from Halifax and Saint John and six to/from Montreal) carrying 643 passengers with a load factor of 65 per cent and Laurentia completed seven round voyages to/from Montreal carrying 639 passengers with a load factor of 83 per cent. The cargo ships carried 256 passengers on 22 westbound and 19 eastbound crossings.
1957
Lismoria transitioned between 1956 and 1957 as well as from rigours of the northern winter to the lanquid warmth of more southern climes as she voyaged to the Pacific Coast. She transited the Panama Canal on 30 December 1956, called at San Francisco on 11 January 1957, Seattle on the 14th, Victoria on the 17th and arrived at Vancouver on the 18th. Sailing through Lions Gate on the 28th, Lismoria called at San Francisco on 5 February and returned to Glasgow, via Liverpool, on 15 March.
Making her first Canadian arrival of the New Year, Laurentia disembarked 20 passengers at Halifax on 6 January 1957 before proceeding to Saint John to load for her first eastbound crossing which commenced on the 17th with six passengers. She made two more winter crossings to Halifax and Saint John.
Lismoria began the St. Lawrence season with her departure from Glasgow on 10 April, arriving at Montreal with 48 passengers on the 19th followed by Laurentia from Glasgow on the 23rd, reaching Montreal on the 2 May with 50 aboard.
The year marked a high water mark for the Post-War North Atlantic Ferry and certainly for the Canadian route with Cunard's new Ivernia-quartet completed by Sylvania that June and Canadian Pacific's Empress of England introduced in April. Yet the now nine-year-old Lismoria and Laurentia more than held their own.
The skirl of the pipes and rattle of drums were wafted around the harbor this morning when Lochiel's ship arrived at Shed Five.
Also known as Lt. Col. Donald Hamish Cameron, Lochiel is the 26th hereditary chief of Clan Cameron, who is in Canada to strengthen Canadian Camerons' bonds with the home group.
As the Donaldson Line's SS Laurentia was manoeuvered into her berth, dockside listeners found their feet tapping to the spirited pipe version of 'Road to the Isles.'
Lochiel was pleased. His ruddy Scot face beamed over the ship's side.
With him came a flood of history and tradition. Here was a man who could look back on an unbroken line of ancestor chiefs, stretching to the ninth century.
Montreal Star, 11 July 1957.
At just about 10 a.m., the end of Alexandra Pier belonged to the Scots. The show was better perhaps than one possibly could see even on the Clyde.
As her Glasgow-born master, Capt. J.L. Downie, brought the vessel "around the corner,' a piper and drummer in full highland garb broke into tune to mark the arrival of Laurentia and her distinguished passenger.
There was a brief pause as the Clydebank ship made secure her ropes. Later, Cameron of Locheil, descendant of the man who unwillingly committed the Highland clans to Bonnie Prince Charles' last futile attempt on the English throne, met the press.
Gazette, 12 July 1957.
It was a welcome return to some good old fashioned ocean liner publicity when among the 51 passengers disembarking from Laurentia at Montreal on 11 July 1957 was Lt. Col. Donald Cameron, the 26th Chief or Lochiel of the Clan Cameron, who came ashore to ashore to a bagpipe salute from two Army cadets. A wartime commando leader, the 47-year-old was bound for three months at Jasper, Alberta and would also be guest of honour at the Prince Edward Island Highland Games, 31 July.
As it was Laurentia was a day late, due to come in on 10 July 1957, it was not until 10:00 a.m. the following day that she tied up. Late season ice and fog in the approaches to the Gulf of St. Lawrence being responsible.
Symbolic of that last great Atlantic season, six liners, carrying more than 4,600 passengers, arrived in the Port of Montreal 18-19 September 1957. On the 18th, Empress of France from Liverpool with 650 aboard, Seven Seas from Bremerhaven with 1,000, Saxonia from Southampton with 900 and Laurentia with 49 docked followed by Arosa Star from Continental ports with more than 900 passengers.
The St. Lawrence season ended upon Laurentia's Montreal departure, with 32 aboard, on 30 October 1957 followed by Lismoria on 21 November with 13.
With the South American meat trade booming again post-Peron, Donaldson posted at £147,467 profit in 1957 with Corinaldo to be withdrawn from the depressed Canadian trade and refitted with reefer space to join Cortona on the River Plate run.
In 1957, Lismoria completed seven round voyages to/from Montreal carrying 571 passengers for a load factor of 74 per cent and Laurentia completed three voyages to/from Halifax and Saint John and six to/from Montreal carrying 713 passengers for a load factor of 72 per cent. The cargo ships carried 265 passengers on 22 round voyages.
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| Lismoria. Credit: shipsnostalgia.com |
1958
There would be no voyage to the West Coast for either Laurentia or Lismoria that winter. Indeed, Laurentia was, upon arrival from Montreal on 9 December 1957, laid up at berth 10, Prince's Dock, Glasgow "repairing" for that winter. Indeed, such was the state of the Canadian cargo trade, especially eastbound, that Donaldson cancelled seven of 16 sailings for the first three months of the year.
Lismoria, following drydocking at Govan, was in Prince's Dock for loading on 20 December 1957 for the first of three winter crossings to Halifax and Saint John. She came into Halifax on 3 January 1958 with nine passengers and sailed from Saint John on the 10th with six aboard. Her ensuring two voyages carried a total of 67 passengers and clearly the demand for a year-round passenger trans-Atlantic service was minimal.
Conversely, the sisters continued to maintain good load factors running to Montreal during the May-November St. Lawrence season. The long languishing Laurentia returned to service upon her 10 April 1958 sailing from Glasgow for Montreal where she arrived on the 20th with 40 passengers, sailing eastbound on the 25th with 47 aboard. Lismoria made her first trip to the St. Lawrence from Glasgow on the 22nd with 44 passengers who landed at Montreal on 2 May. Homewards on the 7th, she took out 46.
The balance of the season escaped the notice of the shipping columns on both sides of the Atlantic and after a decade of service, the Donaldson sisters had assumed the un-noticed stature of middle aged merchantmen plying their trade with nary a mention.
The only incident was a tragic accident. On the evening of 1 July 1958, Colin Headridge, aged 25, a donkeyman aboard Lismoria, fell overboard in the Clyde and presumed to have drowned. He was reported to have fallen into the river at 10:40 p.m. just west of John Brown's basin as the liner was sailing down the river. A search was immediately undertaken by an accompanying tug and later by boatmen from Rothesay Dock but it was some days before his body was recovered. Lismoria docked at Montreal on the 9th.
With 29 passengers, Lismoria left Montreal for the final time that season on 29 October 1958 followed by Laurentia on 20 November with 40 aboard.
Citing a continued shortage of eastbound from Canada and "unremunerative rates of freight on grain" Donaldson reported a £68,804 loss for 1958.
In 1958, Lismoria completed three round voyages to/from Halifax/Saint John and six to/from Montreal carrying 613 passengers for a load factor of 62 per cent and Laurentia completed seven to/from Montreal carrying 590 for a load factor of 76.6 per cent. The cargo ships carried 180 passengers on 15 westbound and 14 eastbound crossings.
1959
Unlike in winter 1957-58, one of the sisters made a single voyage on the behalf of Blue Star Line to the West Coast. Lismoria was again nominated for the trip, sailing from Liverpool on 12 December 1958. Among the usual waystops, she called at Los Angeles (San Pedro) on 6 January 1959, Oakland on the 9th and reached Vancouver on the 15th. Sailing for home on the 28th, she called at Nanaimo, B.C. two days later to load wood pulp as well as Seattle (4 February) before continuing to San Francisco (6th), Los Angeles, etc., to arrive back at Liverpool on 2 March.
Laurentia was stuck with the Glasgow to Halifax and Saint John run again that winter, sailing on 23 December 1958 and coming into Halifax on 3 January 1959 with two passengers. With three fares, she was off eastwards on the 11th and all told, her three round voyages that season carried a total of... 17 passengers.
At the company's Annual Meeting in March 1959, F.A. Donaldson Chairman of Donaldson Line. cited a depressed freight market for a net loss of £68,804 for 1958 compared to £147,467 profit in 1957.
The St. Lawrence season commenced with Lismoria taking the first sailing from Glasgow on 10 April 1959 and arriving with her 43 passengers at Montreal on the 20th, two days late after a very rough crossing as described by Dugald Semple in the Evening Times (Glasgow) of 25 May 1959:
The ship I sailed in was the Lismoria (Lismore Isles) of the Donaldson Line, an 8000-ton cargo ship which took only about 40 passengers.
I had a more comfortable cabin and every attention one could desire.
After saying good-bye to the Wee Cumbrae and the shores of Arran, we round the Mull of Kintyre and sailed right into teeth of a great storm.
I felt like swimming across to my little hut at Saddell, for the ship was going at half-speed with the propeller occasionally being lifted out of the water.
It was truly a terrifying experience, and some of the passengers were not only sick but injured by accidents. I saw chairs smashed, dishes broken, with a busy time for the stewards and the doctor.
Even in bed one had to hold on the railing or lie on the floor.
I wasn't seasick and found that fasting for a few days was the best preventative. One, too, should avoid all greasy foods and live as much as possible up on deck in the fresh air.
We arrived at Quebec three days later, but were glad to be in calmer water and see land again. The captain gave us a special dinner before disembarking, and everybody felt most grateful to the crew for all their kindness.
Among the 49 passengers disembarking from Lismoria at Montreal on 30 July 1959 was Canadian actor Paul Massie and his Scottish wife Ann McPherson on their honeymoon, after a London wedding. Mr. Massie recently co-starred in "Sapphire."
Laurentia's crossing from Montreal to Glasgow beginning 23 September 1959 was one of her roughest ever, severely southern storms and high seas encountered 100 miles off the West of Ireland most of the way across had her dock, a day late, at Glasgow on 2 October.
These were busy, "working" cargo and mail vessels throughout their long careers and indicative of a typical British-bound cargo is this freight list/loading plan for Lismoria from Montreal on 14 October 1959:
5,650 tons of cargo comprisingWheat Hold 2 1,270 tonsHold 3 1,022 tonsHold 4 1,208 tonsCorn Hold 3 536 tonsPeas Hold 1 103 tonsFlour Hold 1 100 tonsHold 4 186 tonsHold 5 37 tonsGluten Feed Hold 1 200 tonsScreenings Hold 1 70 tonsHold 3 88 tonsHold 5 18 tonsWP. Board Hold 3 155 tonsHold 4 100 tonsApples Hold 2 94 tonsHold 3 200 tonsEggs (Reefer) Hold 1 14 tonsPine Hold 1 127 tonsFlooring Hold 2 35 tonsHold 3 20 tonsHold 5 10 tonsMagnesite Hold 3 21 tonsSundries Hold 3 2 tonsHold 5 9 tonsMail Hold 3 24 tonsHold 5 1 tonFreight prepaid $19,889Freight collect $11,091 ( £8,624 pounds sterling )
Credit: http://shipsoftheclyde.com/
After winning nine out of their 10 matches, the all-conquering Lismoria football team won, for the fourth time, the Montreal Mercantile Marine Soccer League trophy which was presented to the team aboard the ship on 19 November 1959.
The shipping industry continued its slump and for 1959, Donaldson Line reported a £66,496 loss. attributed to depressed cargo rates owing to overtonnaging.
In 1959, Lismoria completed seven round voyages to/from Montreal carrying 626 passengers for a load factor of 81.25 per cent and Laurentia completed three round voyages to/from Halifax and Saint John and six round voyages to/from Montreal carrying 519 passengers for a load factor of 52.50 per cent. The cargo ships carried 167 passengers on 17 westbound and 15 eastbound crossings.
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| Laurentia outbound in the Clyde off Greenock, having just received the last mails from a "puffer" in the 1960s. Credit: shipsnostalgia.com. member "bobby." |
It was not called the Jet Age for nothing, and the introduction of regular jet trans-Atlantic service in 1958 and its irresistible inroads on ocean liner's share of the market made the 1960s an era of both final glories in terms of new ships for lines with the capital, private or government, to commission them and the winnowing out of modest, older ships operated by smaller players. That, strikes and the evolving shift to containerisation and consolidation, made it a decade fraught with challenges that many line could not weather. Lismoria, Laurentia and Donaldson Line would not survive the decade and would, in fact, be one of the first old-established firms to bow out, almost simultaneously.
For the Donaldson sisters, their passenger carrying voyages were soon limited to the April-November St. Lawrence season, but they managed to maintain a load factor of 64 per cent 1960-1966 which, for the times, was pretty good going and they maintained both their core market and core quality to the inevitable end by which time they were the very last Scottish overseas liners.
1960
After an absence of a few years, Laurentia finally got a chance to spend the winter on the West Coast on one voyage on the Blue Star Line berth. She departed Glasgow on 16 December 1959 and Liverpool on the 23rd and arrived at Los Angeles 3 January 1960.
Laurentia's call at Los Angeles was notable for the wholesale pilfering by dock workers on 9 January 1960 of her valuable cargo whisky which came to light when two of her crew were found by the Chief Officer to have a bottle in their cabin from the consignment. During their trial upon return to Liverpool, they told investigators "We got it off the dockies." Chief Inspector J.W. Bonner told the Liverpool City Magistrates Court "although the dock labourers there were undoubtedly responsible nothing was done because of their threat to cause the port to go on strike." The crew members were fined £5 each. And as events proved, Los Angeles dock workers never had another chance to plunder one of the Donaldson sisters.
Laurentia arrived at San Francisco on 11 January 1960 and sailed two days later for Victoria, calling there 17-18th and turned around at Vancouver 19-27th. Homeward, she made her first call at Longview, Washington State, on 1 February, to load pulp at the Weyerhaeuser pier, stopped at San Francisco (8th) and Los Angeles (10-12th) and then proceeded home via Panama and Curacao.
Lismoria made three round voyages on the winter run to/from Saint John and Halifax, starting with her departure from Glasgow on 23 December 1959 and arriving on 1 January 1960 with seven passengers and sailing on the 8th for home with six. Introduced on her next sailing, from Glasgow on the 27th, were regular calls at Bristol Channel ports (usually Avonmouth but sometimes Swansea) en route to/from Canada, augmenting Donaldson Line's long established service there. Her final winter voyage commenced from Glasgow on 2 March, turning around at Saint John 14-18th and in all, she carried a total of 41 passengers on six winter crossings, a substantial improvement over the previous year!
Donaldson opened their 1960 St. Lawrence season with the dispatch of Laurentia from Glasgow on 11 April for Montreal where she docked on the 21st with 47 passengers. Homewards on the 27th, she took away 25. Lismoria made her first Montreal arrival on the 29th, coming in with 34 and sailing for Glasgow on 5 May with 32.
That summer was marked by a protracted but "unofficial" strike by British seamen over demands for a 40-hour week and an increase in pay that would simmer and boil over several times, impacting the sailings of British liners to varying degrees.
Lismoria, set to depart Montreal for Glasgow on 16 August 1960 was delayed when her crew staged a brief sitdown strike, but she still sailed with 37 passengers. The lingering strike also delayed the outbound Laurentia which having left Glasgow on the 24th, was found to be short eight deckhands and anchored off the Tail of the Bank while replacements were recruited, embarked and she continued her voyage late that evening to arrive at Montreal on 1 September with 52 passengers.
With 2,000 seaman still out on strike, ships were dispatched from Glasgow with as many crew signed on as possible, and then anchored off the Tail of the Bank to await recruitment of sufficient deckhands to proceed to sea. On 9 September 1960 three such vessels, including Lismoria, finally sailed. The Donaldson liner had Glasgow on the 6th, the day before she was scheduled to sail to Montreal and on was finally on her way on the 9th two days late. Her 48 passengers were taken by coach from Glasgow to board a tender at Prince'ss Pier, Greenock to take them out to the liner. She arrived at Montreal on the 18th.
Lismoria and Laurentia closed out the St. Lawrence season with their Montreal sailings of 26 October and 19 November 1960 respectively. Before the year was out, Lismoria had commenced the winter service to Halifax and Saint John via Avonmouth with departure from Glasgow on 3 December, arriving at Saint John on the 17th with six passengers and homewards on the 23rd with five.
Financially, it was a bad year, posting a £181,367 net loss, attributed to the costs entailed to build two ships (Santona and Colina) suitable for the new St. Lawrence Seaway and reconditioning the reefer ships to re-enter the South American meat trade upon the overthrow of the Peron government in Argentina. Chairman Frederick A. Donaldson firmly denied rumours of a possible merger with Manchester Liners.
In 1960, Lismoria had completed four round voyages to/from Halifax and Saint John and six round voyages to/from Montreal carrying 539 passengers for a 49 per cent load factor and Laurentia completed seven round voyages to/from Montreal carrying 580 passengers for a 75 per cent load factor. The cargo ships carried 103 passengers on eight westbound and seven eastbound crossings.
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| Lismoria in the Bristol Channel. Credit: benjidog.co.uk |
1961
There would be no more winter voyages "out West" for Lismoria and Laurentia and thus passed a popular and memorable highlight of their annual routine, both with passengers and crew as well as the last links with the old Donaldson Line Pacific Coast service.
Instead, both plied the Glasgow to Saint John and Halifax (eastbound now only) run through the winter. Following Lismoria on 3 December 1960, Laurentia followed on Christmas Eve, arriving at Saint John on 7 January with two passengers and home from Halifax on the 10th with nine aboard. In all, Lismoria completed one round trip on the route and Laurentia three, carrying a total of 47 passengers.
The big event that year was the launching of the new Letitia, by Mrs. Grace Donaldson, mother of Fred Donaldson, at Hall, Russell, Aberdeen, on 16 January 1961. The trim 4,445 grt cargo ship, designed to navigate the St. Lawrence Seaway, had cabin accommodation for 12 passengers.
That year, Donaldson schedule some 40 sailings on their various cargo service between the U.K. and Canada, including 19 from Montreal (Laurentia, Lismoria and the new Letitia), ten from the Great Lakes ports to the Bristol Channel and Glasgow and through August 1961, seven from Montreal to the Bristol Channel.
Three ships were damaged on 20 February 1961 when the Anchor Line's Circassia struck the bows of the Blue Funnel's Jason whilst manovering alongside Meadowside Quay, Glasgow, which, in turn, pushed Jason's stern into the Lismoria moored aft of her. Lismoria was not severely damaged and took her next scheduled sailing to Saint John the following day.
Montreal-bound for the first time that season, Lismoria cleared Glasgow on 11 April 1961 and, unusually, called at Quebec for cargo purposes on the 18th before arriving at her destination on 19th where she disembarked 36 passengers. Outbound on the 26th, she had 46 aboard. Laurentia sailed from Glasgow on the 25th and had 45 debarks at Montreal on 5 May. Her first eastbound crossing, with 44 aboard, commenced on the 10th. They were joined that season by the new Letitia whose maiden voyage, the last for a Donaldson liner, commenced from Glasgow on 5 May, arriving at Quebec on the 13th and Montreal the following day, and sailing home on the 20th.
A reasonably well-patronised but uneventful St. Lawrence season ended with the Montreal departures of Laurentia on 4 November 1961 and Lismoria on the 22nd.
It also marked the end of their passenger carrying until the next spring. After years of marginal passenger carryings on the winter Saint John route for the pair, Donaldson decided, without any formal announcement, to operate the ships from December-March as pure freighters, not even "twelves," as it was more expedient and efficient to simply seal off the passenger quarters and not sign on any stewards, pursers or doctor. Indeed, the reduced crew were allowed to occupy the passenger cabins amidships during the winter cargo crossings, considerable perk given the often dire weather and sea conditions on the route.
Even with these economies, Donaldson Line posted a staggering loss of £277,900 as all the pressures on income coupled with the expenses of the three new ships took their toll.
In 1961, Lismoria completed one round voyage to/from Saint John/Halifax and seven round voyages to/from Montreal carrying 563 passengers or a load factor of 64 per cent and Laurentia completed three round voyages to/from Saint John/Halifax and six round voyages to/from Montreal carrying 523 passengers or a load factor of 53 per cent.
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| Lismoria alongside Meadowside Quay, Glasgow, to unload another shipment of Canadian grain. Credit: shipsnostalgia.com, member Stuart Smith. |
1962
Now pure cargo boats from December-April, Lismoria and Laurentia's winter run between Glasgow and Saint John (calling now at Halifax eastbound only) remained pretty much the same but by not carrying passengers, their schedule and ports of cargo was more flexible.
Lismoria commenced the winter schedule with her departure from Glasgow on 19 December 1961 and homewards from Saint John on 7 January 1962 and Halifax on the 9th calling at Avonmouth before Glasgow. Whilst Laurentia was drydocked, she made another voyage commencing on the 26th. Laurentia followed, calling at Avonmouth on the 27th and homewards from Saint John 20 February.
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| A once familiar scene in Glasgow docks as Clyde Shipping Co. tugs shift Lismoria from Meadowside quay after discharging grain to Prince's Pier to load for her next crossing to Canada. Blue Star's handsome Columbia Star is in the background. Credit: shipsnostalgia.com, member harry t. |
Indicative of the hustle that once characterised the Port of Glasgow and the life of a breakbulk cargo ship, is this account of Lismoria's turnaround there, arriving on 23 February 1962 from Saint John and Halifax and sailing again for Saint John on 2 March:
Arrived from Saint John (New Brunswick, Canada) and Halifax (Nova Scotia, Canada)Arrived in berth 10/11 Prince's Dock, Glasgow, head west, bow 5 1/2 blinds from bottomSailing for Saint John (New Brunswick, Canada)Sailed from berth 14/15 Prince's Dock, GlasgowDraught forward on arrival 25' 5"Draught aft on arrival 25 feetCargo carried on arrival 2,500 tons of grain and 3,049 tons generalCommenced discharge of inward cargo 24th February at 0800Stevedore discharging inward cargo Clyde StevedoresCompleted discharge of inward cargo 1 March at 1500Commenced loading outward cargo 0800 on 1 MarchOutward cargo 400 tons generalStevedore loading outward cargo Clyde Stevedoring CompanyHeavy lifts loaded 2 x 32 tons heavy lifts on 1 MarchCompleted loading outward cargo 1615 on 2 MarchDraught forward on sailing 16 feetDraught aft on sailing 21' 2"
Lismoria arrived in Prince's Dock, Glasgow, from Canada at 1315 on 23 February 1962.
On 28 February at 0452 she shifted from Prince's Dock to Meadowside Quay, Glasgow to unload her 2,500 tons of grain. Her draught on shifting was 18 feet forward and 22 feet aft.
On 1 March, having completed discharge of the grain cargo, Lismoria shifted from Meadowside Quay to berth 14/15 Prince's Dock, arriving there at 0715, her draught forward being 9' 6" and aft 21' 2"
Later that day, 1 March, the floating crane Newshot came alongside Lismoria and loaded 2 heavy lifts, each of 32 tons, onto the Donaldson vessel
Lismoria departed from Prince's Dock, Glasgow, for Saint John (New Brunswick) Canada, at 1710 on 2 March 1962.
Homewards, Lismoria departed Saint John on 17 March 1962 for Glasgow and arrived on the 25th:
Arrived from St John (New Brunswick, Canada)Arrived in berth 14/15 Prince's Dock, Glasgow, head East, stern on 15/16 wallSailing for Montreal (Canada)Sailed from berth 10/11 Prince's Dock, GlasgowDraught forward on arrival 22 feetDraught aft on arrival 23' 6"Cargo carried on arrival 2,500 tons grain and 2,116 tons generalCommenced discharge of inward cargo 26 March at 0800Stevedore discharging inward cargo Clyde Stevedore CompanyCompleted discharge of inward cargo 2 April at 1200Commenced loading outward cargo 0800 on 2 AprilOutward cargo 1,563 tons general and 45 passengersStevedore loading outward cargo Clyde StevedoresHeavy lifts loaded 1 lift of 17 tons on 10th AprilCompleted loading outward cargo 10th April at 1500Draught forward on sailing 16' 2"Draught aft on sailing 21' 3"
Donaldson Line's Lismoria arrived in Prince's Dock, Glasgow, at 0300 on 25 March 1962 from St John (New Brunswick)
At 1735 on 29 March she shifted downriver from Prince's Dock to the nearby Meadowside Granary on Meadowside Quay to discharge her cargo of 2,500 tons of grain.
Having completed discharge of the grain, she left Meadowside Quay, and returned to Prince's Dock, tying-up at berth 10/11 at 1740 on 31st March
At 1000 on 10 April the floating crane Newshot came alongside and loaded one heavy lift of 17 tons onto Lismoria.
Lismoria departed Glasgow at 0610 on 12 April for Montreal.
Credit: http://shipsoftheclyde.com/
On 26 March 1962 it was announced that Donaldson would operate a joint cargo service between Liverppol, the Bristol Channel and Montreal with Cunard. Chairman Fred Donaldson said "this was a measure of rationalization it was hoped would, with improved frequency of sailings, benefit all concerned." Donaldson would continue their 10-day Glasgow and Montreal service as well as the direct service via the St. Lawrence Seaway. At the same time, Donaldson Line announced their St. Lawrence programme with Lismoria and Laurentia "plus a chartered vessel." Lismoria would take the first sailing on 25 April. The joint Donaldson-Cunard Bristol Channel service would be held down by Letitia and Calgaria and Cunard's chartered Esperanza, with Letitia the first from Montreal on 14 April.
When Lismoria came into Montreal on 20 April 1962 she did so restored as a "proper" passenger liner, her accommodation opened up, her stewards, purser, doctor and extra galley staff "back on the job," the silver and woodwork gleaming and with a good list of 45 aboard to enjoy it. Laurentia followed, arriving at Montreal on 4 May with 37 passengers.
That spring brought the challenges of more strikes, this time by tugboat men in Glasgow. Laurentia, whose officers and crew knew the Clyde as well as any, navigated up the river on 13 April 1962 to her berth in Glasgow without any assistance by tugs.
Winding up another quiet St. Lawrence season, Laurentia departed Montreal on 31 October 1962 with 22 passengers and Lismoria followed on 12 November.
That year saw losses considerably pared to £82,000.
In 1962, Lismoria completed seven roundtrips to/from Montreal carrying 493 passengers for a load factor of 64 per cent and Laurentia completed six, carrying 450 passengers for a load factor of 68 per cent.
1963
The last sailing of 1962, went into the New Year, and was one of two by Laurentia from Halifax and Saint John to Bristol Channel ports (Avonmouth or Swansea) en route to Liverpool. She departed Halifax on 17 December and from Saint John on Christmas Eve with another voyage beginning 28 January 1963 from Halifax and 5 February from Saint John.
For her part, Lismoria held down the direct service to Glasgow from Saint John and Halifax (two days later) with two voyages beginning 7 January and 13 February 1963, followed by Laurentia on 16 March and 3 April.
Another inconspicuous St. Lawrence passenger season began with Laurentia's Montreal arrival on 21 April 1963 with 48 passengers and 44 aboard for her return to Glasgow beginning on the 27th. Lismoria's first Montreal call was on 9 May where she landed 37 and sailed on the 15th with 27.
Friday the Thirteenth… some people might regard that as an unfortunate day on which to board a ship.
But more than 100 members of the Canadian Club of Glasgow will have no qualms about boarding the Lismoria on Friday, September 13.
'The club is opening its winter season with a cocktail party about the ship,' explained Miss Isobel Lang, the honorary secretary.
The Lismoria, which plies between Scotland and Canada, will be tied up at Princes Dock. Club members will have the run of the ship, there'll be a buffet meal available and the bar will be open.
We usually start the season with a cocktail party in a hotel, but the Donaldson Line invited us to use the ship instead, and we thought it would be a pleasant change.'
Evening Times, 26 August 1963
The final Montreal sailings that season were by Lismoria on 6 November 1963 and Laurentia on the 23rd.
Emulating Cunard in not only embracing air travel but investing in it, Donaldson announced November 1963 they announced they bought a 25 per cent share in Caledonian Airways who maintained trans-Atlantic services from Prestwick followed in March 1964 by the acquisition of White Heather Holidays of Glasgow.
Finally emerging from five years of losses transitioning the 1950s into the 1960s, Donaldson posted a £117,184 profit in 1963 thanks to good results from the revived South American trade.
In 1963, Lismoria completed six round trips to/from Montreal carrying 465 passengers or a load factor of 70.5 per cent and Laurentia completed seven roundtrips carrying 550 or a load factor of 71.5 per cent.
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| Postcard showing Laurentia docked in front of a changing 'sixties Montreal skyline, dominated by the new Tour de la Bourse, completed in 1964, and the tallest building in the Dominion. |
1964
Making her first sailing of the New Year, Laurentia left Saint John on 13 January 1964 and Halifax two days later for Glasgow. Running on the Cunard-Donaldson Bristol Channel service, Lismoria cleared Halifax on 3 February and Saint John on the 11th for Avonmouth and Liverpool. Destined for Glasgow, Laurentia sailed from Saint John on the 18th and Halifax two days later. Closing out the winter schedule, Lismoria left Saint John and Halifax, 19/21 March, for Glasgow followed by Laurentia for the Bristol Channel and Liverpool on the 27th.
The summer passenger service began with Laurentia's Montreal arrival on 25 April with 49 aboard and sailing on the 2 May with 41 passengers with Lismoria coming in on the 14th with 38 and leaving on the 20th with 24 aboard.
A harbinger of the labour chaos on the Montreal waterfront in a few years time, a wildcat strike by 1,500 longshoremen there on 14 June 1964 idled 50 ships and had passengers arriving in Empress of England on the 16th, Carmania on the 17th and Lismoria on the 18th, carry their own off the piers until it was settled. Lismoria landed 48 passengers and sailed on the 24th with 45, indicative of the relatively good business the Donaldson service enjoyed well into the decade. But the decline of the Atlantic Ferry had already set in, Canadian Pacific having withdrawn the nearly new Empress of Britain at the end of 1963 and Cunard's Canadian service now down to two ships, Carmania and Franconia.
Results from 1964 included a net profit of £126,072 due to improved results from the Canadian services, both to Quebec and the Maritimes but also the St. Lawrence Seaway route although the meat trade with South America continued to be a drag on profits owing to prevailing restrictions on exports by the Argentinian government.
In 1964, Lismoria completed six round voyages carrying 408 passengers or 62 per cent load factor and Laurentia completed seven round voyages carrying 523 passengers or a 68 per cent load factor.
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| Lismoria arriving at Avonmouth on 27 February 1965. Credit: shipspotting.com, photographer Malcolm Cranfield |
1965
That year's winter sailings from Saint John and Halifax to Glasgow were all routed with a call en route, in both directions, at Avonmouth or Swansea. This commenced with Lismoria from Saint John on 2 January 1965 (Halifax on the 4th) with subsequent sailings by Laurentia on the 14th and 16th respectively, Lismoria on 13 February and the 15th, Laurentia on the 25th/27th and Lismoria on 6 March and the 8th.
Lismoria was used as the venue, alongside Princes Pier, Glasgow, the evening of 26 January 1965, to unveil Donaldson Line (Air Services) Ltd. to operated their White Heather Holidays using British Caledonian Britannias on all inclusive charter packages from Prestwick to Barcelona, Palma and Rimini.
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| A rare Donaldson Line advertisement, the line almost never doing so after the war. Credit: Aberdeen Evening Express, 29 March 1965. |
Laurentia's Montreal arrival on 19 April 1965 with 24 passengers opened Donaldson's St. Lawrence season and she sailed for Glasgow on the 24th with 47. Lismoria's first passenger crossing that year landed 47 at Montreal on 5 May with 22 aboard for her first eastbound crossing beginning the 12th.
Closing out the season, Laurentia sailed from Montreal on 22 November 1965 with 26 aboard. This was Donaldson Commodore Capt. T.S. Graham's final voyage before retirement: "Who says sailors never like their skipper? Biggest in the round of farewell parties here for Captain Thomas S. Graham, commodore of the Donaldson Line, was the shindig tossed by the crew of the Laurentia, which he sails to Glasgow tomorrow for the last time." (Montreal Star, 21 November 1965).
Reminding that they were always a dangerous cargo to work, George Bresland, 59, a docker, was killed on 8 December 1965 whilst unloading a shipment of logs from Laurentia alongside Princes Dock, Glasgow, when one of the logs struck him on the leg and plunged him into the water. Able Seaman James Barr of Laurentia, shinned down the ship's crane wire into the water, got a rope around the docker and held him for 10 minutes until a boat arrived but he never regained consciousness. Seaman Barr, of Glasgow, was given a bravery award by the Royal Humane Society on 2 June 1966 for his actions.
More than anything, the South American trade… which was, afterall, the roots of the company… impacted Donaldson's profits more than any route and 1965 saw a considerable fall off in the meat trade owing to local demand and inflated prices which reduced the amount of chilled and frozen meat for export. Cortona and Corinaldo were withdrawn from the trade. All this reduced profits to £31,742 that year.
In 1965, Lismoria completed six round voyages to/from Montreal carrying 484 passengers or a 73 per cent load factor and Laurentia completed seven round voyages carrying 543 passengers or a 63 per cent factor.
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| Laurentia outbound from Avonmouth, passing Portishead, 30 March 1965. Credit: shipspotting.com, photographer Malcolm Cranfield. |
1966
That winter's Glasgow and Bristol Channel ports to Saint John and Halifax service by Lismoria and Laurentia got started with Lismoria from Saint John on 21 December 1965 and two days later from Halifax followed by another voyage by her with the eastbound crossing beginning from Saint John on 12 January 1966 and Halifax on the 14th. Lismoria followed with two consecutive voyages on the route, from Saint John on 29 January and 13 February via Halifax. On her 18 March 1966 voyage from Glasgow to Canada, Laurentia called en route at Belfast (19th) and then called at the Tail of the Bank for mail before proceeding to Halifax and Saint John.The final two winter voyages, one by Laurentia and one by Lismoria, began from Saint John on 25 February and 27 March respectively.
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| Credit: Evening Times, 10 January 1966. |
Beginning what would be an odd and indeed final St. Lawrence season, Lismoria made the first arrival at Montreal from Glasgow on 17 April, landing 28. Her eastbound crossing, beginning on the 23rd, with 44 aboard, was to be the last for almost two months.
Summer 1966 is best remembered for the British Seaman's Strike. The first national strike by the National Union of Seamen since 1911, began 16 May 1966, over wages and reducing the working week from 56 to 40 hours. The devastating and prolonged walk-out, which immobilised most of the Merchant Navy in London, Liverpool and Southampton not only cost the country millions but was seen as the beginning of the end for the British merchant fleet, especially passenger liners and conventional cargo ships most effected by higher salaries.
Yet, by some coincidence, the two Donaldson liners were not effected by the strike in Britain but rather by a equally protracted wildcat strike by 4,250 Montreal longshoremen that marooned both in the port during most of the Seaman's Strike in the U.K.
Laurentia, which had sailed from Glasgow on 23 April, arrived there on 6 May with 44 passengers. She had just begun loading for her eastbound crossing scheduled to begin 11 May, when Montreal longshoremen staged a wildcat strike on the 9th which became legal by the 24th by which time Canadian and indeed American Mid-West trade via the St. Lawrence Seaway had been crippled. In all, some 67 vessels, 49 ocean-going and 18 inland, were tied up which had spread from Montreal to Three Rivers and Quebec.
On 16 May 1966 65,000 British seamen walked off some 300 British merchantmen to begin the National Seamen's Strike that would paralyze the country's Merchant Navy into July and have profound consequences for its future and that of the traditional passenger and cargo liner, not the least of which were the Donaldson sisters.
Amidst it all, Lismoria arrived at Montreal on 22 May 1966, her 32 passengers having to carrying their own luggage off the pier and the ship's inbound cargo left in the holds. Donaldson now had both their liners effectively stranded in the Port of Montreal. Alexandr Pushkin sailed, without cargo, on 1 June but with the Seaman's Strike in Britain, the Donaldson sisters had no place to go and were the only passenger ships tied up in the port with Canadian Pacific's Empress of England and Empress of Canada and Cunard's Carinthia tied up in England.
When the Shipping Federation tried to introduce non-union longshoremen, union members turned violent and ugly on the 31st, ransacking shipping offices, hijacking trucks with passenger luggage for Alexandr Pushkin and vandalizing it and even trying to hack the mooring lines of Laurentia lying at the adjacent Pier 2. Over 500 policemen were called out to restore order.
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Montreal's dock strike has closed one more chapter to the long seafaring career of Mrs. Margaret Jack. A stewardess on the Donaldson liner, Lismoria, Mrs. Jack had been around the world a couple of time and in and out of many of its exotic ports. This is the first time she has ever been halted by a strike.
In an interview on the strangely quiet waterfront yesterday, she said that being strikebound is not a holiday. Everything aboard is kept shipshape, the genial Scotswoman said. Stewardesses do small tasks such as mending linen, but it is not nearly as interesting or as satisfying as meeting passengers and making them comfortable…
A widow whose husband was lost at sea during World War II, Mrs. Jack has sailed on big and small ships. She's gone into most of the Far East ports but her favorite isn't in that part of the world. It is San Francisco which was regular port of call when the Lismoria was sailing through the Panama Canal and up to Vancouver.
Mrs. Jack likes one-class passenger vessels. There are about 50 passengers on the summer sailings of the Lismoria and 'it's like one big family,' she said.
Montreal Star, 14 June 1966
The Montreal Dock Strike was finally settled on 16 June 1966 and although the British Seaman's Strike would carry on until 1 July, Donaldson dispatched Laurentia from Montreal on 17 June, the first liner to depart the St. Lawrence since early June, and she had 43 passengers to land on arrival at Glasgow on the 25th. To get the two ships back into their voyage pattern, Lismoria remained in Montreal until the 30th when she sailed for Glasgow with 18 passengers.
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| Montreal, 1966, with Carmania about to sail for Southampton and Laurentia alongside. Credit: Archives de Montreal. |
The rest of the season passed quietly although during a routine shifting of Laurentia from one berth to another at Glasgow on 7 September 1966, two of the attending Clyde Shipping tugs, Flying Merlin and Flying Demon brushed against each other.
The Donaldson Line is the oldest existing carrier operating in the North Atlantic between the United Kingdom and Canada. Its ships, Lismoria and Laurentia, are being withdrawn from the Glasgow-Montreal passenger run because of age. They were built as Victory ships during the war. They will become freighters with limited passenger accommodation.
Montreal Star, 29 September 1966
"It is no longer economically possible for us to continue the passenger side as commerce must come first," explained a Donaldson Line official to the press following the company's announcement on 28 September 1966 in Glasgow that the direct passenger service between that port and Montreal would be discontinued by the end of the year. With both Lismoria and Laurentia approaching major and expensive 20-year Lloyd surveys and the knock-on effect of that summer's strikes coupled with the gradual decline in bookings for increasingly outmoded ships, it was not an unexpected decision and, as events proved, presaged a more surprising turn of events for Donaldson Line.
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| Credit: Evening Times, 29 September 1966. |
Lismoria sailed from Montreal for Glasgow the day of the announcement with 34 passengers and she would have on more roundtrip and Laurentia two before the service closed. Still proving her popularity, Laurentia had 48 passengers land at Montreal on 27 October 1966 but the final eastbound crossings, late in reason, had few takers to experience Donaldson service with only 11 aboard when she left Montreal for Glasgow on 2 November. Making her final voyage, Lismoria docked at Montreal on 12 November with 22 aboard and made her final crossing from the port on the 19th with 19 passengers.
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| The final Donaldson Line passenger sailing notice, Gazette, 13 October 1966. |
Closing Donaldson's Glasgow-Montreal passenger service which had begun on 20 April 1878 with Eirene, Laurentia (Capt. A.L. Hunter) sailed from Glasgow at 4:30 p.m. on 20 November 1966 with 20 passengers and arrived at Montreal on 1 December. With nary a notice, she departed on the 9th at daylight with 12 aboard and was the last overseas liner to dock at Prince's Pier, Glasgow, at 1:35 p.m. on the 17th.
For the last year, Lismoria completed six round voyages carried 417 passengers or a load factor of 63 per cent and Laurentia completed six round voyages carrying 391 passengers or 59 per cent.
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| Credit: Evening Times, 28 December 1966. |
1967
Laurentia's sale to shipbreakers was finalised upon her arrival at Glasgow, Messrs. Aquilar Peris S.L. of Escollera del Tuira acquiring her for £71,000. After destoring, Capt. A.L. Hunter and a skeleton crew took Laurentia to her reward, departing Glasgow at noon on 28 December 1966 and delivering her at the scrapyard at Valencia, Spain, at 9:33 a.m. on 4 January 1967.
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| Lismoria at Boston in Dec 1966-January 1967 on her final voyage as a freighter. Note she carries only two boats per side, |
True to the initial press reports, Lismoria was retained, albeit fleetingly, as a freighter, although published data on her movements is incomplete, her arrival at Baltimore on 6 January 1967 "from Avonmouth via New York" and sailed "for Swansea via Norfolk" from Baltimore the following day being all that is recorded although she was photographed at Boston.
The passing of Donaldson Line is a sad event although probably an inevitable one. It is also a fresh reminder of the rough passage through which the entire shipping industry is ploughing and will undoubtedly send a shiver through the board rooms of some of the largest shipping groups.
The Daily Telegraph, 6 January 1967
On January 6 the directors of the Donaldson Line intimated that they had decided to go into voluntary liquidation. The winds of change had made it clear that in a shrinking shipping market only specialist bulk carrying vessels were likely to earn their keep, and, because of the capital cost involved for vessels of this type, re-equipment is beyond the reach of many of the smaller companies.
Glasgow Herald, 30 January 1967
On 5 January 1967 Donaldson Line announced they were "disposing of a number of their shipping interests as a result of changing trends in the industry" and that a special meeting of the shareholders would be held "as soon as practicable" to seek approval for the firm to go into voluntary liquidation and sell the existing fleet of six ships. The company had already sold its interests in the South American refrigerated trade to Blue Star and would transfer its Clyde-Canada interests to Ulster Steamship Co., Ltd. Bristol City Line announced they were assuming Bristol Channel interests of Donaldson, which had traded out of Avonmouth since 1912, and had run a joint weekly service with Bristol City for a year.
The decision was based on the realisation that with the coming of containerisation, a small company like Donaldson simply could no longer get the return going forward on the enormous capital investment in suitable tonnage amid rising labour costs.
During the a special meeting of Donaldson Line, Ltd. on 20 February 1967, Chairman Fred A. Donaldson, announced the sale of Lismoria for scrap (for £65,000), the sale for further trading of Santona and Cortona to Panamanian owners, and the purchase of the rights and goodwill of the Clyde to Canada services by the Ulster Steamship Co. By special resolution, the name of the company was changed to Donaldson Line Holdings, Ltd. With the successful sales of the fleet, the shareholders got some 50 s. a share so the liquidation proved a windfall for them, at least. The Donaldsons, too, ensured that long term employees of the line, ashore and afloat, received ex gratia payments in recognition of their service.
Purchased by Astroguarda Cia Nav SA and renamed Neon, the former Lismoria arrived at at Kaohsiung on 24 May 1967 for breaking up.
On 5 September 1967, the contents of Donaldson's historic headquarters at 14 St. Vincent Place, Glasgow, were auctioned off including a 12-ft. builders model of the Athenia and two half models.
So it has come about that after 112 years of voyaging in fair weather and foul in the North Atlantic and South American trades, the Donaldson Line has 'finished with engines' and furled its houseflag. The company is but one of many who in recent years have been required to take the difficult decision to withdraw from the shipping scene as a result of economic problems stemming from the rapidly-changing conditions in methods of sea transport and increasing competition.
The world of shipping is the poorer for their passing.
T.E. Hughes, 112 Years of the Donaldson Line (2), Sea Breezes, June 1967.
R.M.S. LISMORIA (1948-1966)
133 voyages Glasgow-Montreal/Saint John/Halifax (9,976 passengers)
10 voyages Glasgow-Saint John/Halifax (cargo only)
7 voyages Glasgow-Vancouver
total nautical miles steamed: 1,006,488
R.M.S. LAURENTIA (1947-1966)
5 voyages Glasgow-Montreal (as cargo ship)
1 voyage Glasgow-Vancouver (as cargo ship)
126 voyages Glasgow-Montreal/Saint John/Halifax (10,174 passengers)
10 voyages Glasgow-Saint John/Halifax (cargo only)
7 voyages Glasgow-Vancouver
total nautical miles steamed: 1,017,533
 |
| Will Ye No Come Back Again? R.M.S. Laurentia outbound in the Clyde. Credit: shipsnostalgia.com, member Dlongy |
Built (Lismoria) by California Shipbuilding Corp., Wilmington, California, yard no. 32 as Taos Victory
Built (Laurentia) by Permamente Metals, Richmond, California, yard no. 586 as Medina Victory
Gross tonnage 8,323 (Lismoria)
8,329 (Laurentia)
Length: (o.a.) 455.2 ft.
Beam: 62.2 ft.
Machinery: one cross compound steam turbine, double reduction geared to single screw two Babcock & Wilcox boilers, 465 psi, 6,000 shp
Speed: 17.5 knots (trials)
15.5 knots (service)
Passengers: 55 one-class
12 one-class (Laurentia, 1948-49)
Officers & Crew: 86
North Atlantic Seaway, Volume 3, Bonsor, N.R.P., 1979
Sea Breezes
Aberdeen Evening Express
Aberdeen Press and Journal
Brisbane Telegraph
Daily Colonist
Dundee Courier
Evening Times
Falkirk Herald
The Gazette
Glasgow Herald
Kingston Whig Standard
Kirkintilloch Herald
Leader Post
Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Post
Medina County Gazette
Montreal Star
Ottawa Citizen
Ottawa Journal
The Province
Star Phoenix
The Scotsman
The St. Maurice Valley Chronicle
Sunday Post
Times-Colonist
Wishaw Press
Vancouver Sun
Victoria Daily Times
https://www.archives.gov/
https://archivesdemontreal.ica-atom.org/
https://www.awm.gov.au/
https://vancouver.ca/your-government/city-of-vancouver-archives.aspx
http://cm-trip1961.blogspot.com/2011/09/september-12-21-1961-ss-laurentia-to.html
http://drawings.usmaritimecommission.de/drawings_v_types.htm
https://www.flickr.com/
https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ship/victory-ships-design.htm
https://heritagemachines.com
https://www.nps.gov/articles/liberty-ships-and-victory-ships-america-s-lifeline-in-war-teaching-with-historic-places.htm
https://www.maritime.dot.gov/
http://mcdlgenealogyspot.blogspot.com/2017/09/ss-medina-victory.html
www.merchant-navy.net/
https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/
https://www.nps.gov/index.htm
http://shipsoftheclyde.com/
https://www.shippinghistory.com/
https://www.shipspotting.com/
https://www.shipsnostalgia.com/
https://transportsofdelight.smugmug.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victory_ship
https://tags-ship.com/Victory_Ships/Victory_Ship_Conversions/Victory_Conversions_NEW.html#Donaldson
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Victory_ships
https://uswarships.jounin.jp/VC2-S-AP2.htm
Additions/Corrections/Contributions welcomed
contact the author at posted_at_sea@hotmail.com
© Peter C. Kohler
