The Haifa Trader, of 5,300 tons deadweight, was the fifth vessel of the wartime fleet and, although negotiations for her purchase from her owners, Palestine Transport & Shipping Co. Ltd., had begun in March, 1941, she was not delivered to the company until 28th July of that year.Built by John Readhead & Sons Ltd. at South Shields in 1903, the vessel was originally named Tregothnan.

On delivery to Irish Shipping Limited she was renamed Irish Larch. The purchase price of the thirty-eight year old ship was £85,000, and Capt. E. C. G. Horne of Rushbrooke, Co. Cork, was appointed Master to take delivery on behalf of the company. This was his first command and his fellow Officers on that occasion included Chief Officer, Frank Kelly, brother of Capt. J. P. Kelly, and subsequently to become Master of several Irish Shipping vessels; Second Officer, Tom Glanville of Co. Cork; Second Engineer Kevin Curry, who served ashore in the post war period, and Chief Steward, Joe McEvoy, who also served on company ships in the post war years.

The Irish Larch (pictured right) sailed from Leith for St. John, New Brunswick, on her maiden voyage for Irish Shipping Limited on 26th August, 1941, but had to return again as she had lost her anchor on leaving the Scottish port.She sailed again on 3rd September and on her outward passage she was forced to put in to Reykavik, Iceland, for repairs to her circulating pump. Eventually the vessel arrived at her loading port of St. John at the end of October, 1941 where she was detained for further repairs due to heavy weather damage sustained on her outward passage. She duly loaded her cargo of grain and completed her first voyage for the company when she arrived at Dublin on 26th December, 1941.

The vessel was then laid-up at Dublin until 1st May, 1942, when she sailed for Rushbrooke to become the first company ship to undergo repairs at the recently re-opened Cork Dockyard. During the ship's stay at Rushbrooke, she was visited by then Taoiseach, Mr. de Valera, together with Mr. Frank Aiken, Minister for the Co-Ordination of Defensive Measures and Mr. Oscar Traynor, Minister for Defence. The group remained on board for a trial trip on the vessel to the mouth of Cork Harbour. Repairs took more than three months to complete and she sailed again for St. John on 27th August, 1942, arriving at her loading port on 23rd September, 1942.

Fourth Engineer on the ship at this time was Gerry O'Neill of Dublin who has recounted his experience on the ship in his memoirs which he recently published on another website. Gerry has had a fascinating career which has ranged over a wide variety of occupations from the Irish and British Navies to shore-based positions as business consultant, lecturer and contributor to technical publications and has encompassed world-wide travel in all five continents. I have been fortunate to know Gerry personally and to also have had his brother-in-law, Des. Stanley as a Head Office colleague.

On her outward passage, the Irish Larch picked up forty-five survivors from a Canadian ship, Stonestrest, which had been torpedoed in the Atlantic, and landed them at St.John. In her subsequent wartime service with the company, the Irish Larch made a number of voyages to St. John. Capt. David Foley was Master of the vessel from July, 1944 until December, 1945, and was also in command of the ship when she went to the assistance of the French fishing trawler, Le Cabellou, in the Atlantic in October, 1946. The Irish Larch was on passage from Montreal to Dublin when she diverted to bring the disabled vessel into Dunmore East, Co. Waterford. The ship's officers and crew were later awarded salvage for their rescue of the fishing vessel.

The Irish Larch was sold to Mehmet Hilmi Daragenli of Istanbul in July, 1947, and was renamed Sabah. In 1959, she was sold on to other Turkish owners, Sadikzade Nazim Ogullari, and had her name changed again to Kervan. She was eventually scrapped at Trieste in July, 1961.