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.

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 the Belfast built LIRA, here seen at Singapore on 18th March 1977, became a total loss after a fire during a voyage from Penang to Rotterdam with a cargo of rubber, timber & tin.

scanned from a slide in my collection - identity of original photographer not known