The first Mormacland was a C3-M motor ship built at Sun Yards in 1939.  The Navy acquired her as BAVG1 before she went to Britain in 1940 as HMS Archer D 78.  She later became the Empire Lagan.  In 1948 she was sold as Anna Salen and later as Tasmania.  She was wrecked as the Union Reliance and scrapped in 1962.

The second Mormacland was a C3-S-A2, launched July 18, 1942 at Ingalls Shipbuilding, Pascagoula, Mississippi, but instead of being delivered to Moore-McCormack, went on a lend-lease to Britain as HMS Pursuer D73 and scrapped in 1946.

The third Mormacland was a C3-S-A5 built in 1946 (Official No. 250161) at Ingalls.  In 1947 she was delivered to Moore-McCormack.  In 1967 she was "converted" for on-deck containers at Maryland Drydocks; did no trips containerized.  She was sold on September 30, 1970, to Avon and became the Silver Swan.  She was scrapped in spring 1971.

1947 - The Mormacland discharging a record cargo of cocoa in Boston.

Ex-Mormacland Reconverted

 ("The Mooremack News," October 1948)

(Courtesy of Vincent Fiorenza)

From the Baltimore Sun comes an item about the biggest reconversion job at the Baltimore Bethlehem Steel yards since the war—the reconversion of the former Mormacland from aircraft carrier to her original status of cargo ship.  The Mormacland, named for Rear Admiral Emory S. Land, USN (ret.), was requisitioned by the Navy on May 6, 1941, and was quickly converted to an aircraft carrier.  She sailed under the name of U.S.S. Archer.  She was later taken over by the British Admiralty and renamed H.M.S. Empire Lagan.

At the end of the war she was returned to this country and laid up in the James River.  Recently, the 492-foot ship was purchased by a Panamanian company for which she is being reconverted.  The present Mormacland, built in 1946, operates in the Pacific Republics service from the United States West Coast to the East Coast of South America.