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In Remembrance

Australian-owned ships and their crews - deck, engine-room, catering and pursering departments - helped win the Second World War, particularly, but not only or exclusively, in the Asia-Pacific theatre of operations.

This website details the ships involved and the corporations that owned them. It will provide for some recollections and diary records of experiences of the people who crewed them and it acknowledges the allies alongside whom they served.

It is dedicated to mercantile mariners who, across the ages, have carried the world's goods from producer to user, but in particular it is intended as a tribute to all the Merchant Seamen who served in the 1939-1945 conflict, and indeed universally and especially to those who did not return, those who have no known grave but the depths of the oceans.

"They that go down to the sea in ships, and occupy their business in great waters"

Manoora (Adelaide Steam)

With a peace-time passenger capacity of 380, Manoora was taken over early in 1940, initially for patrolling and escort duties in Asian and Northeast Australian waters. Converted for service from early 1943 as a Landing Ship, Infantry she took part in successive island-hopping landings by Australian and allied troops. In 1945 Manoora shared in bringing Australian service personnel home from Asia and the Pacific islands.

Voyages for the next two years included troop deployments to the Australian Component of the British Commonwealth Occupation Forces in Japan and the repatriation of allied personnel to the Netherlands East Indies. After post-war refit, she was handed back to her owners in August 1945.

THE FLEETS

In Remembrance

Manoora (Adelaide Steam)