© 2005 - Mike MacKenzie, Largs and District Historical Society , Kirkgate House, Manse Court, LARGS, Ayrshire, KA30 8AW, United Kingdom. The information is provided for the purposes of private study and research - Commercial Rights Reserved.
It was around 1984 when I first discovered that there had been a ship called HMS LARGS. In subsequent searches in books about our Royal Navy vessels I became aware that the ship had previously been a French merchant ship and then in the French Navy as an Auxiliary Cruiser, under her original name CHARLES PLUMIER, and that there had been another Auxiliary Cruiser called VICTOR SCHOELCHER, seemingly built to the same design as CHARLES PLUMIER and at about the same time in 1938 but in a different shipyard.
As a result of the Depression in the nineteen-thirties the French merchant fleet had become much run-down and the French Government felt obliged to commission a number of new ships to make good this deficiency. The vessels were paid for by the Government - an existing commercial design may have been used - but the ships were then placed with various commercial shipping companies to manage and operate them. CHARLES PLUMIER and VICTOR SCHOELCHER were two of these, built as banana carriers, but I had no way then of determining the identities of any others, nor how many others there were.
In 1994 a French shipping enthusiast who knew of my interest in CHARLES PLUMIER told me that he had discovered that there were three other French vessels, QUERCY, ESTEREL and BARFLEUR, which appeared to have been built to the same design (in 1937/1938). (In fact there was a fourth vessel in this group, named MAURIENNE .) It turned out that these ships were perhaps 10% less in length and 10% less in breadth than the other two, single engine and screw instead of two engines and twin screws, but their lines and appearance were remarkably similar. From the scant information which I have it seems possible that these three were paid for commercially and it seems likely that at least one of these may already have been being built before CHARLES PLUMIER was started.
In February 2005 I was searching on the Internet for something else when I found, to my great astonishment, two more ships built in 1947, named DUBREKA and DJOLIBA, which appeared to have almost identical lines with CHARLES PLUMIER and VICTOR SCHOELCHER and which appeared to have almost identical measurements, including two engines and twin-screws.
All eight ships mentioned above are listed in the Shipping Registers as Refrigerated Motorships. I had asked the HMS LARGS men on my mailing-list several times if any of them could remember evidence of refrigeration equipment on board, but apart from cork-lined holds and rows of hooks from which to hang the fruit no-one could tell me anything else. My recent searches have now also discovered on the Internet a short extract in English, dated June 1938, about the construction of CHARLES PLUMIER and VICTOR SCHOELCHER, which gives an outline of the refrigeration arrangements. This involved ammonia refrigerating machines, circulating cooled brine and electric fans to circulate cool air within the hold spaces where the fruit was hung.
Brief details of the eight vessels are as follows :-
QUERCY, built by A/S Burmeister & Wain, Copenhagen, completed 01/1938, operated by Cie. Générale Transatlantique of Le Havre. (Requisitioned for the French Navy, 09/1939-11/1940, as Auxiliary Cruiser and from 1944-01/1947 as Armed Transport.) Re-named ARCTIC REEFER in 1955 and operated by Volusia SS Co. of Monrovia, later Arctic Steamship Co. of Monrovia. Scrapped 03/1965 following a grounding.
ESTEREL, built by A/B Gotaverken of Gothenburg, completed 02/1938, operated by Cie. Générale Transatlantique of Le Havre. (Requisitioned for the French Navy, 10/1939-11/1940, as Auxiliary Cruiser. Seized by Germans 12/1942, seriously damaged by Royal Navy, 03/1943, and not returned to commercial service until 10/1950.) Re-named DIMITRIOS K in 1965 and operated by D. Kyriakos of Piraeus, then in 1966 by Kyriakos Shipping Corp., Panama, Ltd., of Piraeus. Re-named DIMITRIOS KYRIAKOS in 1967 and operated by Helen & Dimitrios Kyriakos ("K" Shipping Enterprises Ltd.), of Piraeus. Scrapped 03/1970.
VICTOR SCHOELCHER, built by Forges & Chantiers de la Méditerranée, S.A., of La Seyne, completed 02/1938, and operated by Cie. de Navigation Fraissinet. (Requisitioned for the French Navy as Auxiliary Cruiser, 09/1939- 10/1940. Later re-named BOUGAINVILLE and operated in the French Navy (Vichy) as Auxiliary Sloop. Sunk by Royal Navy, 05/1942, at Diego Suarez at the N. of Madagascar - there were probably two reasons, firstly to deny a useful vessel to a hostile power and secondly to block the entrance to a strategically useful anchorage.) [ A later French Navy vessel, built as a Sloop-Escort in 1958, named VICTOR SCHOELCHER, by an amazing coincidence was involved in the evacuation of the French Naval Base at Diego Suarez in 1975. ]
BARFLEUR, built by A/S Burmeister & Wain, Copenhagen, completed 08/1938, operated by Cie. Générale Transatlantique of Le Havre. (Requisitioned for the French Navy, 11/1939, as Auxiliary Cruiser and from 1944-07/1946 as Armed Transport.) Re-named BOSWELL in 1955 and operated by Lamport & Holt Line Ltd. of Liverpool, subsequently re-named CROME in 1959. Re-named ROMAN STAR in 1960 and operated by Blue Star Line Ltd. of London, subsequently re-named BEDE in 1961. Re-named VICTORIA ELENA in 1964 and operated by Rahcassi Shipping Co., S.A. of Piraeus. Scrapped after fire damage 09/1967.
CHARLES PLUMIER, built by Chantiers & Ateliers de Provence, S.A. of Port de Bouc, completed 10/1938, operated by Cie. Générale Transatlantique of Le Havre. (Requisitioned for the French Navy, 09/1939-10/1940, as Auxiliary Cruiser. Seized by Royal Navy, 11/1940. Re-named HMS LARGS as Ocean Boarding Vessel, and from 10/1942-12/1945 as a Headquarters Ship for most of the major landing operations. Returned to owners and resumed original name CHARLES PLUMIER, 12/1945.) Re-named PLEIAS in 1964 and operated by Kavounides Shipping Co. of Piraeus. Scrapped 05/1968.
MAURIENNE, built by A/S Burmeister & Wain, Copenhagen, completed 11/1938, operated by Cie. Générale d'Armements Maritimes of Le Havre. Seized in Montreal , 08/1940 and put in charge of Canadian National Steamships Ltd. Sank following a fire, 02/1942, but was eventually repaired and returned to the French. Operated by Cie. Générale Transatlantique of Le Havre in 1945. Re-named FORECARIAH in 1953 and operated by Cie. de Navigation Fruitière of Nantes. Operated by Lien Tung SS Co., Ltd., Panama (Taipeh) from 1962. Scrapped following fire damage, 12/1962, during re-fitting at Hong Kong.
DUBREKA, built by Forges & Chantiers de la Méditerranée, S.A., of La Seyne, completed 01/1947, and operated by Cie. de Navigation Fraissinet, subsequently Cie. de Navigation Fraissinet et Cyprien Fabre. Operated by Veb Deutsche Seereederi of Rostock from 02/1960, re-named FRITZ REUTER in 01/1961. Operated by Ching Lien Nav. Co. of Panama from 1973. Scrapped 12/1974.
DJOLIBA, built by Forges & Chantiers de la Méditerranée, S.A., of La Seyne, completed 1947, and operated by Cie. de Navigation Fraissinet, subsequently Cie. de Navigation Fraissinet et Cyprien Fabre. Subsequent details gleaned from Lloyd's Registers - 1961-62, operated by Mercantile Marine Engineering & Graving Dock Co., Antwerp; 1962-63, re-named JOHN BRINCKMANN, operated by Deutsche Seereederei, Rostock; 1971-72, re-named JOHN BRINCKMAN, operated by Deutfracht Internationale Befrachtung-u, Rostock; 1974-75, re-named FAIR FRUIT, operated by Ching Lien Nav. Co. Ltd., Panama; 1975-76, no entry in Register, presume lost or scrapped.
Approximate comparative principal dimensions :-
4504 Gross tons, 358.6' x 51.8' x 19.6'
3184 Gross tons, 336.5' x 45.5' x 18.9'
3259 Gross tons, 320.5' x 45.5' x 18.9'
4908 Gross tons, 375.6' x 51.8' x 21.2'
I wonder if there were any other 'look-alikes' ?
[ see also the Introduction page ]
Further details of other similar vessels will be welcomed by the Society. Please contact Mike MacKenzie at the address given at the top of this page [ or by e-mail to Mike MacKenzie ].
[ return to the Home Page of this Web Site ]
[ latest update - 13 March 2005 ]
Visitor Counter :-