Ellerman steamer City of Paris had 3 near-misses in her 34-year career

FROM a Table View reader, I received several pages from an old photograph album. While some photographs have faded over time, others are of interest to maritime folks.

Among the eye-catching items, is a postcard showing East London harbour in the early 1950s. The date stamp on the postcard, addressed to a gent in Kitwe (then in Northern Rhodesia, now Zambia), is September 12, 1952.

My focus, naturally, is on the busy East London harbour. Where the specialised vehicle export berth now stands on the West Bank, the photograph shows two freighters working cargo, while among other vessels in the harbour is a Liberty ship and the 1922-vintage Ellerman steamer City of Paris, fresh from a post-war refit that upgraded her accommodation.

In her 34-year career, City of Paris had three near-misses. In October 1933, she grounded on France’s Mediterranean coast and was fortunate to be refloated on the high tide the following day.

Within a fortnight of the outbreak of World War II, she hit a mine laid by a German U-boat off the Suffolk coast, and was towed to Tilbury by British tugs. After repairs, she spent the rest of the war as a troopship, emerging unscathed as one of the fortunate vessels in the Ellerman fleet that lost 60 of its 105 ships .

Many will tell of heavy weather in the Bay of Biscay, that bight in the French Atlantic coast, and those aboard City of Paris during a voyage to Cape Town in 1950 will recall a violent storm in the bay.

Huge seas hit the passenger doors in the vessel’s starboard side, flooding the lift shaft, alleyways and many cabins. The master ordered passengers and crew to emergency stations but the ship’s carpenters averted a more serious situation by securing the damaged side-doors and stopped further entry of water.

Until its massive post-war building programme replaced wartime losses, Ellerman had to use war-built tonnage to fill the gaps in its global services.

Among its stop-gap vessels were 12 Liberty ships of which over 2 000 were built in US shipyards during World War II to support the Allied forces.

Although some Liberties were mothballed, prior to being placed in the US reserve fleet, hundreds were bought by shipping companies whose fleets – like Ellerman’s – had been decimated during the war.

Among the Liberties operated by the Ellerman group was City of Colchester that lay at Cape Town’s Collier Jetty for weeks, awaiting a grain cargo.

Another was City of Ely that, like other Ellerman Liberties, was built by the Bethlehem Fairfield yard in Baltimore.

On a remarkable voyage, she sailed fully-laden from Britain in December 1948 and headed for Kolkata to discharge her cargo of vehicles and consumer goods before lifting another full cargo of tea, cotton, jute and grain, heading this time for New York.

Loaded with railway bogeys, machinery and vehicle parts, the steamer sailed on another long-haul voyage from New York, reaching Sydney 42 days later, and managing about 12 knots on the trip.

Aussie dockers loaded the usual exports from their country – wool, hides, sugar and canned fruit – and the vessel crossed the Pacific Ocean, transited the Panama Canal before returning to New York.

A further fully-laden trip from Montreal to India preceded her return to Britain where she completed this 16-month voyage.

Ellerman’s elegant passenger ships – like City of Paris and the later quartet of the City of Port Elizabeth class – and the company’s large cargo fleet epitomised British merchant shipping of the time.

Now it’s virtually disappeared, as have those busy days in East London harbour.