TANKERS

The following two pictures were kindly provided by Alberto, Amateur radio callsign LU1DZ

The "SAN LORENZO" was built in 1951 in
N. V. Mch. & Schps. P. Smit,
Jr. Rotterdam
Holland

Below is the San Sebastian tanker callsignal LRDD.
She was built in 1945 in Panama City, Florida, Estados
Unidos and buy for Argentina petroleum company in
1948.
Was in service until 1979.
In 1983 still in service for Uruguay.

Will the originator of the "BRITISH PRUDENCE" pictures to follow please contact the webmaster - Thanks.

A turbine tanker of 71,000 tons deadweight, the BRITISH MARINER was built by John Brown & Co., Clydebank.

Hunting's FORTHFIELD is pictured above in the River Tees. She became a constructive total loss after grounding in the River Orinoco in January of 1975.

Shell's KERMIA, fitted with twin exhaust uptakes to their funnels and photographed in the Mersey at Eastham, the entrance to the Manchester Ship Canal

Above, the HALIA, the last of the "H" Class ships, passing Eastham inward bound for Stanlow where she was, latterly, a regular visitor until sold for demolition in Spain in August of 1985

Above, the streamlined AMASTRA leaves Eastham with the Rea tug Foylegarth in attendance.

In the late 1950s when the Suez Canal had reopened and Israel and the Arabs were holding an uneasy truce, a constant stream of small to medium-sized tankers shuttled to and fro continuously from European refineries via Suez to various remote oil terminals in the sweltering heat of the Gulf region. This was the end of the golden age of shipping when 36,000 ton super-tankers were just coming on the scene, all the regular liner routes were operating and British-flag ships were to be seen in abundance.
The ESSO BIRMINGHAM above (ex MAUVILLE 8/1944) was built by Sun S.B. and D.D. Co., of Chester Pennsylvania. Her port of registry was London, SHP 6,000, net tonnge 6,203, gross tonnage 10,727 and DWT 17,000 approx.

The BRITISH BEECH was the last of BP's "Tree" class tankers (1964/12,973 grt) and was sold in 1992 to Panamanian owners and renamed SEA WIND for further trading after considerably outliving her ten sister ships in the BP fleet.

This excellent colour transparency above, taken by Malcolm Fife, shows the BRITISH FORTH (Bermuda flag/1973) in the Firth of Forth during 1991. She is bound for Grangemouth Docks, 12 miles upstream from the Forth Bridge on the southern shore of the Firth of Forth.

The tanker BRITISH ADMIRAL (above) is being handled by the three steam tugs of the Falmouth Towage Company's fleet.

Above, tugs salute newly commisioned 32,000 ton BRITISH FAITH built by Vickers Armstrong and launched in Barrow-in-Furness December 10th. 1957.

The EXON MEDITERRANEAN (1986/95,169grt), formerly the infamous EXON VALDEZ responsible for the catastrophic oil spillage in Alaskan waters, is photographed here in Fawley oil terminal February 16th. 1991

The Shell tanker HALIA is seen above in the Mersey soon after leaving the entrance to the Manchester Ship Canal at Eastham. The two black cylindrical objects on the port side are rubber fenders used during 'lightening' work when cargo was transferred from larger tankers in Lyme Bay.

Terry Gardner (R/O Gallery) provided this picture of Shell's ZAPHON on which he served as Radio Officer. She was part of the Royal Dutch/Shell Group and had the same hull and funnel colours as Shell. Managed by Tanker Finance Limited, she was built in 1957, 675 feet in length and 89 feet wide, was a steam turbine vessel and had a service speed of 16.5 knots

The product tanker CLYTONEUS, above, was delivered in August of 1976 to Ocean Titan Limited by a Dutch yard. Powered by a B & W diesel engine of 18,480 bhp, the CLYTONEUS had a service speed of 16 knots.

The Shell tanker HELIX is seen here shortly after her launching in 1998 at anchor off Geelong, near Melbourne.

She was built in Poland. Small by modern standards the 29,050 grt HELIX is wearing what is believed to be Shell's new funnel colours, the first ship in the company to do so.

The HYALA, above, was photographed in the Manchester Ship Canal en route to Stanlow. With Shell tankers, vessels flying the British flag took names beginning with "H" and those flying the Netherlands flag took names with a "K". Ships built by Lithgows were prefixed "HY...".

In the late fifties Shell began to take delivery of a further series of handy-sized general purpose tankers. These became the "A" Class and had a more streamlined appearance, particularly around the bridge and funnel areas. Their fuel consumption was a considerable improvement on their predecessors.

The veteran Liberian T2 tanker SASSTOWN (1943/17,498grt) is seen above under repair at North Shields in August of 1990. The vessel's aft section was built in the U.S. by Sun Shipbuilding in 1943 when she was launched as the HOBKIRKS HILL. The forward and cargo sections, built in Japan, were added in 1963 and the tanker further lengthened in 1969.

The SASSTOWN is seen again above in North Shields in August of 1990. Remarkably, in the early nineties a few T2 tankers still remained in trade nearly 50 years after they were built. Most that survived were ;jumboised' and modified but some still retained the T2 profile, as in the case of the SASSTOWN. She was originally built as the CONASTOGA in 1943 by the Sun Shipbuilding & Drydock Co. of Chester PA. She was lengthened in 1954 and rebuilt in 1963 by Mitsubishi Nippon Heavy Industries, Yokohama. The 17,498grt/30,331dwt tanker, operated by Rector Shiping Co. Inc. of New York was still in service in 1992. The same company also operated the similar TIMBO (1943/17,549grt/30,304dwt) built by the Alabama Drydock Co. in 1943 and also extensively rebuilt at Yokohama by Mitsubishi.

The Liberian tanker SEA PRINCE was photographed above on her sea trials recently. She is a thoroughly modern vessel with an overall length of 326.19m and deadweight tonnage of 275,782. Her main engine is a MAN-Bdw 658MC unit built under licence by Hitachi Zosen developing 23,090 bhp and drives a fixed pitch propeller giving a service speed of 14 knots. Engine operation may be controlled completely from her bridge or the 'engine control room' in conjunction with a micro-computer. Accommodation is arranged for 30 which includes an owner's cabin and one spare.

The TEXACO OSLO (12,884grt) was a product of the Blytheswood shipyard in Glasgow in 1960. She had a Doxford type diesel generating 8,800 bhp giving a modest speed of 14.5 knots and was broken up in Taiwan in 1988

Above, for those readers who may recall the 'lay of the land' traversing the Panama Canal, two tankers are seen passing in Gaillard Cut, the red hulled vessel using a Canal tug for extra manoeuvability.

Above, Shell's VENASSA (25,593 grt) was built in 1982 and is seen here in the Mersey.

Above, an impressive bow view of the British-flag tanker BT BROKER (1977/177,557 grt) on passage through the Gulf.

Typical views that Shell, or for that matter, any company tankerman may recall, are seen below of the M.V. LATIRUS ploughing through heavy weather in the Bay of Biscay homeward bound from the Persian Gulf in March of 1953. LATIRUS (6,476 grt) was built in 1949.

Perhaps the most famous American oil tanker of all time was the 19-knot OHIO, completed in 1940 for Texaco and part of the famous Operation 'Pedestal' convoy which was formed to relieve Malta in 1942.. Though badly damaged by repeated air attacks, the injured vessel managed to safely deliver 14,000 tons of petrol to Allied forces before sinking to the bottom of Malta's Grand Harbour.

Representative of America's post-war building programme, the 29,680 grt tanker CHEVRON TRANSPORTER, built as the T.S. PETERSON, survived until 1976 when she was scrapped in Taiwan after being replaced by a new series of superstructure aft ships.

Possibly representing the pinnacle of U.S. post-war tanker design before split accommodation houses were done away with, the Texaco tanker TEXACO MONTANA was not broken up until 1992 but like many other American tankers, had its owner's name deleted from the hull after the infamous Exxon Valdez grounding in 1989.