CUNARD`S MEDIA

I have posted this before but not many seafaring stories on at the moment, so here it is again

built by John Brown Clydebank,
Yard No 629
Engines by shipbuilder

Last Name: LAVIA
Previous Names: 1947-61 MEDIA / 61-82 FLAVIA / 82-86 FLAVIAN / 86-89 LAVIA
Port of Registry: Liverpool
Propulsion: 4 team turbines dr geared to 2 sc shafts 15000shp 18 knots / 2 x Water Tube Boilers supplying steam at max pressure 450lbs (430lbs Superheated)
Launched: Thursday, 12 December 1946
Built: 1947
Ship Type: Passenger Vessel
Tonnage: 13345 grt now 15465 grt
Length: 531 feet now 556 feet 0
Breadth: 70 feet 4
Draught: 30 feet 2
Owner History:
1947-61 Cunard Steamship Co Ltd Liverpool
61-68 Cia Genovese Di Arm SPA Italy
68-82 Costa Line Italy
82-86 Flavian Shipping S.A PA
86-89 Lavia Shipping S.A PA
Status: Scrapped - 1989
Gutted by fire at Hong Kong 07/01/1989 while undergoing renovation. Towed to shallow water where she heeled over onto her side on a sandbank. She was righted and towed to Kaohsiung, Taiwan, arriving 17/06/1989 for demolition.


I sailed on Cunard`s `MEDIA` in December 1955 to January 1956. I didnt intend to, the Western Ocean in Winter is atrocious, but a crowd of us had just paid off the GEORGIC after taking her to the breakers so we would be home for Christmas,
We were having a bevvie in `Tom Halls` PUB at the back of the Cunard building IN Liverpool and someone came in and shouted `The MEDIA` wants a crowd, signing on in the Cunard Building.`
So somehow I was swept along in the rush as someone else said she was a good job. When I sobered up I found I was signed on and due to sail the following day for New York. I also discovered that I had signed on as a Quartermaster, well that would keep me out of the weather on deck. It was the only time I paid off one ship and signed on another one on the same day, must have been bevied and I was due to be home for Christmas as well. Ah well, Cie la vie as the froggies say.
We sailed bound for New York and it was blowing a gale and sleet. on the way across I have never seen before or since seas as big as that trip. She was climbing verticle upwards and on top of the huge swells it was terrifying looking down the deep valleys then falling 70 or eighty feet and the next mountain of sea waiting to smash her under shaking like a dog out of water as seas cascaded off the fore deck. Very difficult to sleep when you float off the mattress weightless and then fall and the mattress wraps itself around you. By the time we got to New York we were knackered. We had Christmas at sea but we were getting smashed around so much it was a no no. All the big plate class windows on the Prom Deck for the lounges and restaraunts smashed due to the ship twisting like a cork screw, We had no passengers on board that trip and we were one of the few ships at that time to have Stabilizers fitted but we never used them, the Captain said it costs a lot more in fuel with the drag. There was a Pig on board but it didnt get used much, the ale was being spilled all over. I was glad when we got into the Market Diner in New York.
Up on Broadway at night time it was very glitzy, bright as a sunny day with all the lights, Santas, ringing bells everywhere collecting for charity. snow flakes falling, a whole technicolour world. No contest with Liverpool`s dull and gloomy atmosphere, pubs shut at 10pm and surrounded by all the bomb sites around town. New York was a good place to buy the winter gear, thick wool Tartan three quarter length jackets, shirts and hats with ear mufflers on, gloves and scarves, it was freezing and we needed to have this gear.
We had New Years Eve on Broadway and Times Square, fantastic, I have never ever been kissed by as many women in all my life, some pretty ones, Ugly ones, fat ones, thin ones and some of doubtful gendre, ugh, spit. but a great time was had by all until the early hours.
When the Long Shoremen were working cargo , they sometimes called us over, "Hey what size shoes you wear?" I would say tens, `OK here try these` and give us a pair of export shoes, It was so bad over the years that they started to export shoes by shipping all the left shoes on the Media and all the right shoes on the Parthia.
On the 2nd of January we were sailing and the Hudson was frozen over, the temperature had gone down to 28 degrees below freezing, The Captain tried always to get her off the pier, going ahead and astern , the ice was holding her fast. so Ice breakers were called for and they smashed their way through and got us out, jeez, it really was cold, and so we went to Norfolk Virginia to load a cargo of Tobacco, we did`nt go ashore there. A week before some Royal Navy ships had paid a visit there to the US Navy base and as always when the RN and US navy get together there is always a big battle, some men were killed and many injured so feelings ashore were a bit tense so we were advised not to go ashore.
We completed loading in a couple of days and made our way back across a wild Western Ocean to Liverpool. where I paid off and caught up with the leave I should have had off the GEORGIC.


The MEDIA was a cargo passenger ship. she carried 250 first class passengers, six hatches and 20 derricks.
The ship was built for the Cunard as a cargo-passenger liner in 1947.
In 1961 traffic across the Western Ocean was getting a bit thin so she was sold to Codegar Line of Italy and rebuilt as the Europe-Australia emigrant ship Flavia. In 1968 she was chartered to Costa Line, who refitted her as a cruise ship. She operated Caribbean cruises from Miami, and was so successful, Costa bought her in 1969. Her engines became troublesome, so she was sold in 1982. She was sold to Hong Kong based C.Y. Tung Group. Her name was changed to Flavian and was to commence cruising locally. Instead, she was laid up for four years and was sold in 1986 to another Hong Kong shipping company, Virtue Shipping, who changed her name to Lavia. She remained laid up at anchor near Landau Island.
On January 7, 1989, but neglected Lavia caught fire. She was completely gutted and her hulk was sold to
Taiwanese shipbreakers.
cheers
Brian