Union S.S. Co. Ltd. of Monrovia had in 1971 purchased from Royal Mail Lines three Harland & Wolff built sister ships - ALBANY, PICARDY and THESSALY. The fleet was managed by Carlos A. Go Thong & Co. of Cebu, Philippines.

ALBANY was renamed TAIWAN, PICARDY became EUROPE and THESSALY the JAPAN.

The Glasgow built ALBANY was here photographed as TAIWAN in the River Elbe at dawn on 5th November 1974 from an inbound Prinz Line ferry from Harwich to Hamburg. TAIWAN had arrived at Hamburg on 29th October from Cebu and subsequently sailed from Antwerp on 13th December bound for Manila via Cape Town and Bangkok.

Early in 1976 all three ships were resold en bloc to Li-Ta Shipping of Singapore and respectively renamed LIDO, LIRA and LIHO. In August 1977 LIRA became a total loss after a fire

LIHO was laid up at Singapore from 28th June 1978 and sold to breakers at Kaohsiung where she arrived on 2nd March 1979.

LIDO, the former TAIWAN (ex ALBANY) had meanwhile put into Singapore on 16th May 1978 during a voyage from Bangkok to Nigeria, was detained and subsequently also sold to breakers at Kaohsiung where she arrived on 29th March 1979.