MV Brisbane Star was a British refrigerated cargo liner. She was built by Cammell Laird and Co in 1936–37 as one of Blue Star Line's -class ships, designed to ship frozen meat from Australia and New Zealand to the United Kingdom. The ship served in the Second World War and is distinguished for her role in Operation Pedestal to relieve the siege of Malta in August 1942. She was owned by a succession of Blue Star-controlled companies until 1963, when she was sold to a Liberian-registered company who renamed her Enea. Later that same year she was scrapped in Japan.
Building
Cammell Laird and Co in Birkenhead, England built the sister ships and Brisbane Star and launched them on the same day, 7 July 1936. Melbourne Star was completed in November 1936, followed by Brisbane Star in January 1937. Both ships were initially owned by Union Cold Storage, a ship-owning company controlled by Blue Star Line.
The Imperial Star class were motor ships. Melbourne Star and Brisbane Star each had a pair of 10-cylinder two-stroke single-acting Sulzer Bros marine Diesel engines driving twin screws. Brisbane Stars engines developed a total of 2,806 HP. Her navigation equipment included wireless direction finding, an echo sounding device and a gyrocompass.
Second World War service
Brisbane Stars regular cargo liner route was from London via South Africa to Australia or New Zealand, returning by the same route laden with frozen meat. En route she tended to call at either Las Palmas or Cape Verde, presumably for bunkering.
During the war it was strategically important to continue meat imports to the UK. However, under wartime conditions Brisbane Stars route was increasingly changed. After France surrendered to Germany in June 1940 the Port of London became too dangerous, so instead the ship used Liverpool or sometimes Avonmouth or Newport, Wales. From 1940 her voyages home from Australia or New Zealand tended to be eastward via the Pacific Ocean and Panama Canal instead of westward via the Indian Ocean, South Africa and the South Atlantic.
Eventually Malta sent Spitfires to escort Brisbane Star the 200 miles to Valletta, where she and her cargo safely reached the Grand Harbour on 14 August.
thumb|left|Brisbane Star damaged bow at Malta, August 1942
Brisbane Star stayed in Malta for almost four months, while her bow received temporary repairs good enough to return to deep sea service. On 7 December she left Malta with Convoy ME 11, which reached Port Said four days later. She then passed through the Suez Canal, called at Aden on 20 December, and spent Christmas 1942 and New Year 1943 heading south through the Indian Ocean. After calling at Cape Town in early January she reached Argentina. This may be when Blue Star had her bow further rebuilt at Puerto Belgrano Naval Base. She was at Buenos Aires at the end of January and again in late February, before leaving for home on 26 February. She went via Gibraltar, where she arrived on 21 March. A week later she left and joined Convoy MKF 11, which was en route from Bône in French Algeria to the Firth of Clyde. She reached Liverpool on 5 April. "for fortitude, seamanship and endurance... in the face of relentless attacks... from enemy submarines, aircraft and surface forces". His Chief Officer Robert White, Chief Engineer Allan Nichol, Second Officer C.R. Horton and Junior Second Engineer J Dobbie were awarded the DSC. Boatswain F Wilson and ship's carpenter A Nylander were awarded the DSM and Junior Third Engineer A.J. Pretty was mentioned in dispatches.
Nominal change of ownership
In 1943 Blue Star transferred her ownership from Union Cold Storage to Frederick Leyland and Co. The repairs were accompanied by alterations that considerably increased the ship's tonnage and deepened her draught by .
London and Hawaii
In May 1945 Germany surrendered to the Allies, and in June Brisbane Star returned to London for the first time in five and a half years. Her final voyage of the war was from Norfolk, Virginia via the Panama Canal to Pearl Harbor, where she arrived on 29 August, three days before the Surrender of Japan.