Aberdeen and Commonwealth Line SS LARGS BAY. One class service between England and Australia via Suez
Date1940
Object number00003116
NamePostcard
MediumPhotographic print on paper.
DimensionsOverall: 89 x 139 mm
Display Dimensions: 93 x 143 mm
ClassificationsPosters and postcards
Credit LineANMM Collection
DescriptionThis postcard depicts the Aberdeen and Commonwealth Liner SS LARGS BAY.HistorySS LARGS BAY was built by Wm Beardmore and Company Dalmuir and launched on 20 June 1921. It was built to service the London-Australia passenger route and its maiden voyage commenced on 4 January 1922. It was sold to the White Star Line in 1928 and then to the Aberdeen and Commonwealth Line in 1933.
A 1930s Aberdeen Line promotional brochure detailed how the vessel had caught up with the 'modern' age:
'The passenger to England of yesteryear who could not afford to pay for a saloon passage had to be prepared to undergo the trial of indifferent food, poor and draughty accommodation and a tedious voyage.
What a change has been wrought by the modern "Bay" Liners! ... At a coast that is within the reach of all, a passage to England or Italy may be booked in an Aberdeen & Commonwealth Liner ...
A cabin which is spacious, nicely furnished and well ventilated makes sleeping a pleasure.
Spacious and airy public rooms are for the use of one and all.'
[Source: http://www.timetableimages.com/maritime/images/acl30si.htm, accessed 24 July 2013]
During World War II the vessel was requisitioned as a troopship and then returned to the Aberdeen Line to be refitted between 1948 and 1949. The LARGS BAY was scrapped at Barrow-in-Furness, England in 1957, one of the last Aberdeen Line vessels in service before the company was dissolved.
