Manoora (ship)
 The Manoora near Nauru , January 1940
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The Manoora was a 1935 passenger ship of the Australian shipping company Adelaide Steamship Company and the largest ship of this shipping company until then. From 1939 to 1947 she served as an auxiliary cruiser HMAS Manoora (His Majesty's Australian Ship Manoora ) and landing ship for the Royal Australian Navy . Used again as a passenger ship after the war, she was sold to Indonesia in 1961 and sank in 1972 on the way to the scrapping yard.
Passenger ship
After the Manunda, put into service in 1929 , had proven to be a great success for the Adelaide Steamship Company, they ordered an even larger and faster sister ship from the Alexander Stephen and Sons shipyard in Glasgow . The result was the 10,856 gross registered tonnes motor ship TSMV Manoora (TSMV = Twin Screw Motor Vessel), which, like the Manunda, was to be used for passenger and mail traffic in the Australian coastal waters ( Australian coastal passenger service ).
Work on the Manoora began in July 1934 in the Linthouse district of Glasgow . The hull was completed so quickly that the ship was launched on October 25, 1934. The Manoora was powered by Burmeister & Wain diesel engines, which allowed an average cruising speed of 16 knots and a maximum top speed of 18.5 knots. On February 7, 1935, the Manoora was completed and then ran out to Australia. On April 11, 1935, she left Sydney on the east coast of Australia on her maiden voyage to Fremantle on the west coast. Like her sister ship Manunda , the Manoora quickly enjoyed great popularity among travelers.
Auxiliary cruiser in World War II
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After four years, the Second World War ended the civilian career of the Manoora for the time being . On October 11, 1939, the ship was requested by the Royal Australian Navy and brought to Garden Island near Sydney, where it was converted into an armed auxiliary cruiser (Armed Merchant Cruiser). It was equipped with seven 6-inch guns, two 3-inch anti-aircraft guns and two Lewis guns . On December 12, 1939, the ship was put into service as an auxiliary cruiser. The new crew was composed almost exclusively of the ranks of Australian marine reserveists and consisted of a total of 345 men. The Manoora then patrolled the Coral Sea and the Pacific .
After Italy entered the war on the side of Germany in June 1940 , the Manoora was assigned to locate and intercept the passenger and cargo ship Romolo (9,870 GRT) of the Italian Lloyd Triestino , which had left Brisbane on June 5. The Romolo's crew knew that her sister ship, the Remo , had recently been confiscated in Fremantle. The Romolo therefore headed at full speed for the Cape York Peninsula . The Manoora was able to overtake the Romolo about 220 miles southwest of Nauru . The captain of the Italian ship ordered the self-sinking and abandonment of the ship. The captain of the Manoora also opened fire on the Romolo , which sank badly damaged.
In autumn 1942, the conversion of the Manoora into a Landing Ship, Infantry (LSI) began, a landing ship for the infantry, which was completed on February 2, 1943. For this new use, the Manoora was armed with a 6-inch cannon, which was later replaced by two 4-inch cannons, two 3-inch anti-aircraft cannons and eight 20-mm Oerlikon anti -aircraft cannons . Six 40 mm Bofors guns were added later. In addition, a Supermarine Walrus aircraft was housed in front of the chimney . As a landing vehicle, the HMAS Manoora could transport 1230 soldiers. She brought troops from India and the Dutch East Indies to Australia and also drove to Lingayén , Tarakan , Labuan and Balikpapan . It was also used to repatriate prisoners of war from Singapore to their home states .
After eight years in the service of the Royal Australian Navy, the Manoora was discharged from the military on December 6, 1947. While the Manunda received a comprehensive renovation after the end of the war, the Manoora was initially launched by the Adelaide Steamship Company for a year and only then was it repaired. It was not until August 31, 1949 that the Manoora was back on the side of the Manunda in passenger and postal service on the Australian coast. This state of affairs lasted until 1956, when the Adelaide Steamship Company decided to curb its passenger service because of the drastic drop in passenger numbers. The slightly older Manunda was sold in the same year and scrapped in 1957. The Manoora remained in service, but due to the increasingly popular air traffic, the number of sea travelers decreased more and more.
Sale to Indonesia
In 1961 the shipping company sold the Manoora to the Indonesian government. On August 26, 1961, she left Melbourne for the last time. From then on, the ship was used under the name Ambulombo to carry pilgrims to Mecca . In 1965 the ship was resold to the Indonesian company PT Affan Raya, who used it under the name Affan Oceana for the same purpose. In 1966, PT Affan Raya sold Affa Oceana to PT Perusahaan Pelajaran, which gave it its first Indonesian name Ambulombo . In 1970 the ship was finally launched and in 1972 sold to Taiwan for demolition .
The former Manoora was taken in tow by the tug Fujisan Muru from Jakarta to Kaohsiung , where it was to be scrapped. However, it sank before reaching Kaohsiung at position 18 ° 19 'N-120 ° 34' E off the island of Luzon . It was no longer lifted.
