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 -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 role 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. Building Cammell Laird and Co in Birkenhead, England built the sister ships Melbourne Star and 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. Melbourne Stars engines developed a total of 2,806 NHP. Her navigation equipment included wireless direction finding, an echo sounding device and a gyrocompass. War service On 5 October 1940 Melbourne Star was in the North Atlantic between 400 and 500 miles west of Achill Island in Ireland en route from Freetown, Sierra Leone to Glasgow, Scotland, when a Luftwaffe aircraft attacked her with several bombs. Only one hit the ship and it failed to explode. The aircraft then subjected the ship to cannon and machine gun fire, wounding an able seaman, L Williams, who later died. The ship was repaired and returned to service. Melbourne Star seems to have spent Christmas 1940 and New Year 1941 in Suez. Operation Substance In July 1941 Melbourne Star and another Blue Star Line Imperial Star-class ship, , were among six merchant ships that took part in Operation Substance to relieve the siege of Malta. The two Blue Star vessels and other merchant ships for the operation sailed from the Firth of Clyde on 12 July as part of Convoy WS 9C, which reached Gibraltar on 20 July. There they transferred to Convoy GM 1 which left for Malta the same day. Melbourne Stars Master, Captain David MacFarlane, had already survived the sinking of in 1940 and was appointed Commodore of the Operation Substance convoy. During the voyage Melbourne Star was attacked in the Mediterranean by an E-boat on 24 July but reached Valletta