Alistair Macnab
20th September 2010, 17:17
Several of SN regular contributors seem to have fond memories of m.v."Ettrickbank" of 1937 (same vintage as myself!) She was a small nearly-Doxford Economy but with a four cylinder oil engine instead of the standard three-cylinder. Nevertheless she was only good for about 11 knots and was consigned captive to the Oriental African Line for many years. Although Glasgow was the port of registry, it might as well have been Durban which was her home port.
Some features were worth mentioning.
She had full wooden decks fore and aft. They were originally through-bolted over a light steel deck to the deck beams. I know this because when caught in the eye of a South China Sea typhoon in 1956, the working of the ship in the ferocious seas caused many dowels to pop out and seawater to enter the tween deck through the badly corroded deck holding down bolts and drilled holes. This caused maximum destruction of the tween deck cargo of paper-bagged pyrethrum powder going to Shanghai from Beira.
She was completely overhauled on the following year at her 20-year survey in Japan. The wooden deck sheathing and many of the deck plates were renewed but this time the sheathing was held down by studs welded to the steel deck. Can you imagine a full working deck of Oregon Pine laid in Japan in 1957!
In typical Bank Line fashion, this beautiful clean wooden deck was immediately compromised by a deckload of oil-leaking second-hand school busses from Yokohama to Manila!
Other main upgrading features were that the original suite of girder derricks, except for the jumbo, was replaced by tubular derricks, a welcome improvement, as was the introduction of hot and cold running water throughout the midships house. Before the Special Survey, the loading of logs around the Philippine Islands and North Borneo had been conducted using the groaning open girder cargo booms flexing longitudinally and shedding paint and rust in showers down upon anyone daft enough to walk underneath the stressed equipment.
Altogether my favourite ship where more happened on a two-year trip than any other that I experienced. Some SN members have expressed the opinion that the older ships were the happiest. I tend to agree.
Some features were worth mentioning.
She had full wooden decks fore and aft. They were originally through-bolted over a light steel deck to the deck beams. I know this because when caught in the eye of a South China Sea typhoon in 1956, the working of the ship in the ferocious seas caused many dowels to pop out and seawater to enter the tween deck through the badly corroded deck holding down bolts and drilled holes. This caused maximum destruction of the tween deck cargo of paper-bagged pyrethrum powder going to Shanghai from Beira.
She was completely overhauled on the following year at her 20-year survey in Japan. The wooden deck sheathing and many of the deck plates were renewed but this time the sheathing was held down by studs welded to the steel deck. Can you imagine a full working deck of Oregon Pine laid in Japan in 1957!
In typical Bank Line fashion, this beautiful clean wooden deck was immediately compromised by a deckload of oil-leaking second-hand school busses from Yokohama to Manila!
Other main upgrading features were that the original suite of girder derricks, except for the jumbo, was replaced by tubular derricks, a welcome improvement, as was the introduction of hot and cold running water throughout the midships house. Before the Special Survey, the loading of logs around the Philippine Islands and North Borneo had been conducted using the groaning open girder cargo booms flexing longitudinally and shedding paint and rust in showers down upon anyone daft enough to walk underneath the stressed equipment.
Altogether my favourite ship where more happened on a two-year trip than any other that I experienced. Some SN members have expressed the opinion that the older ships were the happiest. I tend to agree.