Built as a passenger vessel by Alex Stephen & Sons, Glasgow for the Adelaide Steamship Company., Australia.
24 October 1934 launched under the name MANOORA.
Tonnage 10.856 gross, 6.261 net.,dim. 146.8 x 20.2m.
Powered by two 8-cyl B&W diesel engines, manufactured by J.G Kincaid & Co. Ltd., Greenock. 8.200 bhp., speed 18 knots, twin screws.
Passenger accommodation for 250 first class and 130 second class.
07 February 1935 she made her trials, reaching a speed of 18.5 knots. Service speed mostly 15 knots.
25 March 1935 she sailed from the U.K bound for Adelaide.
MANOORA was registered in Melbourne.
She was built for the coastal passengers service between Sydney and Fremantle with calls at Melbourne and Adelaide.
22 May 1935 was her first sailing in this service from Sydney.
11 October 1939 requisitioned by the Australian Government, and send to the Garden Island Docks at Sydney to be converted in a Armed Merchant Cruiser.
Got an armament of 7 – 6 inch, 2 – 3 inch AA guns, 2 – Lewis MG. Carried one Seagull V aircraft for reconnaissance.
12 December 1939 commissioned as HMAS MANOORA.
05 February 1940 conversion completed. Crew 345.
After her trials and exercises in Port Phillip Bay she proceeded to Sydney before heading to Northern Queensland waters.
After conducting further exercises off the Queensland coast and the Coral Sea MANOORA sailed for Macassar where she arrived on 1 April and carried out patrol duties to prevent the breakout of German merchant ships from Dutch East Indies ports as German invasion of the Netherlands was considered possible. She was relieved by HMAS WESTRALIA on the 10th and departed for Darwin. Subsequent to the German invasion of Denmark and Norway on 09 April it was necessary to ensure that the occupied countries merchant vessels came under Allied control.
To this end the MANOORA intercepted and boarded the Norwegian tanker HAVBOR and escorted her to Darwin. She then escorted HAVBOR and another Norwegian tanker THORDUS to Thursday Island where two further Norwegian vessels were collected and escorted to Brisbane.
For the next three months MANOORA operated mainly in New Guinea and northeastern Australian waters. With the likelihood of the entry of Italy into the war, MANOORA shadowed the Italian liner ROMOLO that had departed Brisbane on 05 June. When, by the morning of 09 June, Italy’s attentions were still unclear and the shadowing might continue indefinitely, MANOORA was called off.
By that evening, however, the situation had become clearer and MANOORA was ordered to find ROMOLO and recommence shadowing. By this time the Italian liner was 160 miles away, steering northeast. She was eventually caught by MANOORA approximately 220 miles south west of Nauru and scuttled herself, her sinking being by gunfire on 12 June 1940.
As she returned to Australia with ROMOLO’s crew and passengers, MANOORA embarked the complement of the American merchant vessel ADMIRAL WILEY that had run aground on Kitava Island in the Trobriands. She reached Townsville on 17 June.
After refitting in August MANOORA sailed for Fremantle from where she escorted a convoy to Sunda Strait at the end of August. On her return she conducted patrols in the Indian Ocean before moving to Darwin in October and commencing patrols to Thursday Island.
After attacks by German raiders on Nauru and Ocean Island in December, MANOORA was dispatched there at the end of the month for escort and patrol duties. She remained until 07 February 1941, before returning to Sydney for refit. The remainder of the year was spent on patrol and escort duties in Australian and New Guinea waters with two deployments to Nauru and Ocean Island areas in May and September/October.
After a refit in November MANOORA sailed for Singapore, arriving on 06 December. After the entry of Japan into the war, MANOORA was employed on patrol and escort duties between India, Ceylon and Burma until March 1942, when she returned to Australia as part of the escort of convoy SU.1, the first of the ‘Stepsisters’ convoys returning Australian troops from the Middle East.
After reaching Melbourne she remained there until the 17 April when she departed escorting a convoy to Noumea, returning to Sydney on the 27th. She made another trip to Noumea in May, escorting the minelayer HMAS BUNGAREE. In June she refitted in Sydney then proceeded to Fremantle to escort a convoy to Sydney. Further escort duties between Sydney and Fremantle followed until 30 September when she arrived in Sydney to begin conversion to a Landing Ship Infantry (LSI).
Got an armament now of 1 – 6 inch, later replaced by 2 – 4 inch guns. 2 – 3 inch AA. 8 – 20 mm Oerlikon AA guns. 6 – 40mm Bofors AA guns added later.
Accommodation for 1.230 troops.
On 02 February 1943 MANOORA recommissioned. Her conversion was completed in March and she proceeded to Port Stephens for a few days before returning to Sydney.
She then departed for Melbourne where, until mid June she was involved in exercises with United States troops. She returned to Sydney and operated in the Sydney/Port Stephens area until 26 July when she departed for Milne Bay transporting Australian troops. She returned to Port Stephens on 16 August and remained there until 02 October. She then visited Sydney and after returning to Port Stephens for a short stay transported troops to Ora Bay, New Guinea, a voyage she repeated early in November. During this period she also carried out landing exercises in the Cairns area. On 15 December she commenced a major refit at Garden Island.
MANOORA’s refit was completed on 09 February 1944. From March to June 1944 she was in New Guinea waters and on 22 April, with the Landing Ship Infantry HMAS KANIMBLA and four other transports, 16 landing Craft Infantry and seven Landings Ship Tank, landed troops at Tanahmerah Bay without incident. On 17 May MANOORA landed troops of the American 41st Division on Wakde Islands.
In early September 1944 MANOORA and KANIMBLA prepared for the Morotai landings. On 10 September MANOORA embarked 1.272 men at Maffin Bay. The ships then sailed to Morotai.
The landings took place on 15 September with little opposition and a few casualties to the Allied forces. On the 16th MANOORA and KANIMBLA departed for Humboldt Bay, arriving on the 18th.
At Humboldt Bay MANOORA and KANIMBLA, joined by the third Australian Landing Ship Infantry, HMAS WESTRALIA, overhauled equipment and embarked troops and supplies for the landings on Leyte. A full-scale rehearsal was carried out at Tanahmerah Bay on 10 October. On the 13th the three Australian LSIs departed for Leyte as part of a large assault convoy escorted by a covering force of American and Australian cruisers and destroyers. The Australian landings ships were part of the Panaon Attack group which detached from the main group at 2.00 am on the morning of the 20th and arrived off Panaon at 08.45. No Japanese resistance was encountered. Cargo was discharged by 04.00 pm and the ships sailed for Humboldt Bay arriving on the 25th.
During November the three LSI’s were engaged in transporting troops from Humboldt Bay to Leyte. On 30 November they, and 15 other ships designated Transport Group ‘A’, commenced embarking troops and stores for the Lingayen landings. Transport Group ‘A’ then proceeded to Lae where, in company with Landing Group ‘B’ practice landings were carried out. The ships then sailed for Manus Island. On 31 December they departed Manus to execute Assault Mike I on Luzon Island in Lingayen Gulf.
As part of Task Force 79, the Lingayen Attack Force, KANIMBLA, MAOORA and WESTRALIA passed through Surigao Strait and proceeded up the western side of the Philippine Archipelago to Lingayen Gulf, arriving on 08 January 1945. As the ships made their final approach to the gulf they came under air attack, one aircraft being shot down by WESTRALIA. The troops were landed on the 9th, supported by heavy bombardment. The LSI’s discharged their cargoes rapidly and left the area that evening to avoid further air attacks, returning via Leyte to Morotai.
MANOORA and WESTRALIA were then engaged in the Australian landings on Tarakan. Embarking Australian units for the first time the LSI’s sailed from Morotai on 27 April 1945, each ship towing a Landing Craft Tank (LCT). The transport force arrived off Tarakan on the 30th and the LCT’s were slipped. The troops were successfully landed on 1 May and the ships finished discharging their cargoes the next day. They departed for Morotai where further stores were loaded and brought forward to landing beaches.
The LSI’s next operation was the invasion of Brunei. Departing from Morotai on 04 June in company with a large group of American vessels, mostly landings ships and landing craft, they arrived off Brunei on 10 June and commenced landing their troops on Green Beach just before 9.00 am with little or no opposition. They unloaded their cargo that day and set sail for Morotai on the 11th, arriving on the 14th.
The final amphibious operation in which the LSI’s took part was the Balikpapan landing. After embarking troops and cargo at Morotai, MANOORA, KANIMBLA and WESTRALIA sailed on 26 June, arriving off Balikpapan on 01 July. That day was spent disembarking troops and unloading the cargo after which the ships sailed for Morotai at 07.30 pm. Arriving on the 4th, they embarked reinforcements and departed the same day, returning to Balikpapan on the 7th. It was the LSI’s last operation together and the remainder of the war was spent on transport duties around New Guinea the Philippines and Borneo.
MANOORA began post war operations in September 1945, repatriating troops from New Guinea, New Britain, Morotai and Borneo. This work continued until April 1946, when she made the first of four trips to Japan.
06 December 1947 decommissioned, and converted at the Cockatoo Island shipyard, which took 19 months, and with a price tag of two times the original building cost of the ship in 1935.
31 August 1949 handed back to the Adelaide Steamship Company.
05 September 1949 sailed out again in the coastal service from Sydney to Fremantle. The next ten years she was used in the summer between Sydney and Melbourne and during the winter between Melbourne to Cairns.
Air travel took over the passenger’s service along the Australian coasts, and in the summer of 1959/60 she made a series of cruises from Sydney to Fiji and New Caledonia.
03 July 1961 was she sold to the Indonesian Government, and when she on 09 August arrived in Sydney ended an era in the Australian coastal passenger service.
15 August taken over by the new owners and renamed AMBULOMBO and managed by P.T. Planarian National Indonesia.
Then used as a pilgrim vessel between Indonesia and Jeddah during the pilgrim season, the rest of the time lay up or used for coastal voyages in Indonesian waters.
1965 Sold to P.T.Aftan Raya, Indonesia and renamed AFFAN OCEANA.
Also used in the pilgrim trade.
1966 Sold to P.T.Perusahaan Pelajaran Arafat, again she got back the name AMBULOMBO.
Till 1971 used in the pilgrim trade, thereafter laid up at Jakarta.
12 October 1972 sold to Taiwanese shipbreakers.
November 1972 under tow of the tug FUJISAN MARU she left Jakarta for the breakers in Kaohsiung.
18 November off Luzon she made water, and the same day she sank in position 18 19n 120 34E, in shallow water, her upper works were still visible.
She was still there in 1981 and not any salvage attempt was made.
Source: Modern Shipping Disasters 1963-1987 by Norman Hooke. Australian Coastal Shipping by B. Pemberton. Australian Coastal Passenger Ships by R. Parsons. Passenger ships of Australia & New Zealand by P. Plowman.