ELDER DEMPSTER’S  ‘AUREOL’ OF 1951

Built by Alexander Stephen & Sons Ltd at Glasgow in 1951.  Yard No. 629

Official Number: 183819    Signal Letters:  G M G J

Gross Tonnage:  14,083; Nett: 7,715    Length: 502ft; Breadth: 70·2ft

Owned by Elder Dempster Lines, Ltd.

2 Doxford diesel engines, twin screws.

            In March 1949 Elder Dempster ordered the third and final passenger ship to enable a fortnightly service from Liverpool to West Africa to be maintained. The new Aureol (named after a mountain in Sierra Leone ) was launched on 28^th March 1951 by Mrs E Tansley, and just over seven months later left Liverpool on her maiden voyage on 8^th November, under the command of Captain J.J. Smith.

            The new ship was larger than her earlier sisters and had cost twice as much to build as the Accra and the Apapa combined! The Aureol had accommodation for 253 first-class passengers, with another 100 in cabin-class. A crew of 145 was required to man her.

            By the mid 1960s the West African passenger service was becoming less and less profitable. After the sale of the Accra and the Apapa, the Aureol was left to carry on the service on her own, and was converted to a one-class liner with 451 berths. Although the southbound voyage usually carried a near full-complement of passengers, berth occupancy northbound had been little more than 60% for several years. More significant than the decline in passenger numbers was the increase in operating costs in a ship which necessarily carried a large crew. Speaking at a trade mission to Nigeria in November 1971, Mr Peter F. Erlam, a director of Elder Dempster, commented: “The Aureol is now an old ship and is expensive to operate, maintain and repair.”

            On 16^th March 1972 the Aureol made the final West African passenger sailing out of Liverpool . Her departure was held up by thick fog which prevented the liner leaving her berth in Brocklebank Dock for the landing stage. More than 400 passengers were on board – almost a full complement. Chief barkeeper on the Aureol, Malcolm Hanlon, summed up the feelings of regret when he said: “ Liverpool is such a great port. To see a ship like this leaving for the last time really does hurt.”

            The Mersey Docks & Harbour Company commented: “We are pleased to note that the Aureol will be replaced by an express cargo service to West Africa from Liverpool .” Not much sentiment there!

The Aureol returned to Southampton at the end of this voyage as the Mersey Docks & Harbour Company had closed the passenger facilities at Princes Landing Stage. Southampton remained the UK terminal for the Aureol for the next two and a half years until 21^st October 1974 when the ship was laid up in the southern port after completing 203 round voyages in the West African passenger trade.

            Mr G.J. Ellerton, the chairman of Elder Dempster Lines, said that the withdrawal of the Aureol was a matter of deep regret. It would mean the end of a service begun in the 1860s and for that reason they had hoped it would be possible to find a replacement ship which would enable a viable passenger service to be continued.

            The Aureol was quickly sold to the Marianna Shipping & Trading Company of Panama and in January 1975 she was renamed Marianna VI. In March she arrived at Jeddah to be used as an accommodation hostel. Four years later, in 1979, the former Aureol was towed to Piraeus to be overhauled and refurbished.

            The following year the Marianna VI was back in the Red Sea at Rabegh, some 125 miles north of Jeddah, once again in use as an accommodation ship. Ten years later in 1990she was returned to Piraeus where Elder Dempster’s last passenger ship was laid up in good condition.

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