Luling

MV LULING

Gordon Mumford's fifth ship
with a brief summary of her history

The story of this voyage is given in The Sampan Girl

MV Luling
The Ship: T-1 Tanker (U.S. Built by Gray's Iron Works, Hull #103, MC #641, delivered December 1943 ) T1-M-A2, lendlease, under British operation. Managed by Anglo-Saxon Petroleum Co. (Eastern) Ltd. Previous managers: Bulk Oil SS Co. Ltd. Hired by the M.O.W.T. from December 16, 1943 to September 18, 1946. Sold to China Merchants S.N.Co. in 1946, and renamed Yung Show. Transferred to China Tanker Co. in 1947 and to Cosco in 1948. Still listed in 1990. The photo, taken in Bombay in 1945, shows Gordon Mumford in his tropical uniform as Chief Radio Officer.

Voyage: March 8, 1945 - September 21, 1946 (in Shanghai)
Gordon joined the Luling, a one-radio operator ship of approximately 1,750 tons, in South Shields, and sailed for Trincomalee, the naval base in Ceylon. Assigned for duty as a merchant ship attached to a naval assault force, the ship took part in the Port Swettenham and Morib beachhead landings in Malaya. After the Japanese surrendered, the Luling saw service in the naval clean-up operations in Indonesia, Thailand, and Borneo, before being transferred back to civilian control. The tanker became a China Coast trader based in Hong Kong. On September 18, 1946, the ship was handed over to the Chinese Nationalists under Chiang Kai Shek in Shanghai (Marshall Plan)

The ship was paid off in Shanghai. The officers stayed in the Palace Hotel (Bubblingwell Road) for several weeks, and were then sent to Singapore via Formosa and Hong Kong on a Butterfield & Swires passenger ship (the Nanking) in mid-October where they joined the troopship, Otranto. They disembarked in Southampton on November 10, 1946.

Otranto (photo supplied by Joe Barnett)

During WW II, the Otranto was used as a troopship. Joe Barnett sailed as a member of the crew in 1946. The ship left Tilbury on January 9, 1946, and ports called at included Gibraltar, Malta, Port Sudan, Aden, Bombay, Colombo, Hong Kong, and Singapore.

For more information on the MV Luling, please see MV Luling: Memorial.

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