page_title: MV Melbourne Star (1936)
section_title: Operation Pedestal
hierarchical_section_title: MV Melbourne Star (1936) / War service / Operation Pedestal
caption_attribution_description: English: Operation Pedestal, August 1942: A wounded seaman is carried off the Melbourne Star at Malta on a stretcher.
context_page_description: MV Melbourne Star was a British refrigerated cargo liner. She was built by Cammell Laird and Co in 1936 as one of Blue Star Line's Imperial Star-class ships, designed to ship frozen meat from Australia and New Zealand to the United Kingdom. She served in the Second World War and is distinguished for her rôle in Operation Pedestal to relieve the siege of Malta in August 1942. She was sunk by torpedo in 1943 with the loss of 115 lives.
context_section_description: In August 1942 Melbourne Star again relieved the siege of Malta, sailing with her sister Brisbane Star in Operation Pedestal. Melbourne Star's cargo included 1,350 tons of kerosene, 1,450 tons of high explosive shells and cartridges and drums containing several thousand tons of heavy oil. She also carried extra Bofors 40 mm guns as deck cargo to augment Malta's air defence, but mounted so that they could also supplement the convoy's air defence en route to Malta. The two Blue Star vessels and other merchant ships for the operation sailed from the Firth of Clyde on 2 August as part of Convoy WS 21S, which reached Gibraltar on 10 August. There they transferred to Convoy MW 12 which left for Malta the same day.
  At 0810 hrs 13 August 12 Junkers Ju 88 bombers attacked the cargo ship Waimarama, which was immediately ahead of Melbourne Star. Waimarama was carrying aviation fuel and immediately burst into flames, showering Melbourne Star with débris including a piece of steel plate 5 feet (1.5 m) long. The base of a ventilator 2 ¹⁄₂ feet (0.8 m) high hit and damaged one of Melbourne Star's machine gun posts. The bottoms of Melbourne Star's lifeboats were burnt to charcoal. The damage, fire and smoke were so close that many of Melbourne Star's crew assumed she had been hit and 36 of them leapt into the sea, although fuel on the surface of the sea was also on fire.
  The Hunt-class destroyer HMS Ledbury entered the fire and smoke, rescuing 22 men from Melbourne Star and a few survivors from Waimarama. Nine of Melbourne Star's crew and five of her DEMS gunners were not found. Melbourne Star reached Valletta's Grand Harbour later the same day. 12 hours after entering port a 6 inches (150 mm) shell from Waimarama's cargo was found embedded in the deck above the Captain's day cabin. It had been blown in the air when Waimarama exploded, smashed through the wooden surface of Melbourne Star's deck, embedded itself in the steel plate beneath but failed to explode.
  Captain MacFarlane was one of three Merchant Navy captains from Operation Pedestal who shortly afterwards were awarded the DSO "for fortitude, seamanship and endurance... in the face of relentless attacks... from enemy submarines, aircraft and surface forces".
  For their part in the Malta convoys Chief Officer Leslie Parsons and Chief Engineer Harry Blandford were awarded the DSC, and Boatswain J Cook, Chief Steward Herbert O'Connor, lamp-trimmer Frederich McWilliam and Able Seamen James Fleming and Alexander Greenwood were awarded the DSM. Petty Officer H Ince was awarded the King's Commendation for Brave Conduct. Second Officer W.E. Richards, Third Officer G.D. Knight and Chief refrigerating engineer C.W. Almond were mentioned in dispatches.
  On 7 December 1942 Melbourne Star left Malta with Convoy ME 11, which reached Suez four days later. She seems to have passed through the Suez Canal and the Indian Ocean, for on 2 February 1943 she left Montevideo in neutral Uruguay for Liverpool, where she arrived on 22 February.
  In 1943 Blue Star transferred her ownership from Union Cold Storage to Frederick Leyland and Co.
caption: A seaman wounded in Operation Pedestal is stretchered ashore from Melbourne Star in Valletta, 13 August 1942
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