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Niarchos Ships

20K views 42 replies 28 participants last post by  shipmate17 
#1 ·
Does anyone know a site where I can get information on 2 Niarchos ships please? (1) World Conqueror (new in 1962) and Saxon Glen (could be Glade) sailing around in 1953. Thanks. Helen
 
#2 ·
Hi Helen....the little information I have is taken from a small book I had as a child called 'Ian Allan Ocean Tankers' printed in the late 1950's. It refers to ships starting with the name 'Saxon....' being part of the Niarchos group but does not list any ships beginning with 'Saxon' although it has a photo of the 'S S Saxonsky' with an attached note 'since renamed World Sky.' With that info in mind there is a ship called 'World Glade' details as follows..
World Glade - Built 1952. Tons Gross 11,222. Length 556 Feet. Breadth 75 feet. Speed 14 1/2 knots. Engines Steam Turbine.
There was also a 'World Glen' with all the same statistics except..Built 1953 and Tons Gross 11,221 (1 ton lighter!!)
There were 4 ships in this section of the Niarchos group... Imperial Shipping Investments Co. Ltd. Niarchos (London) ltd. The other ships were the 'World Dale' and the 'World Mead.'
The only 'World Conqueror' I can find (in another book) was built in 1971 so I don't think it's the one you are interested in.
I hope this is of some assistance.
Kind regards.....Bill Burton...Tassie.
 
#4 ·
Hello Helen,

I think the ship is Saxon Glade. There is a reference to it on Brians site;
http://www.merchant-navy.net/alphalist.html

the list of ships shows people looking for old friends. When you click on Saxon Glade I am afraid there is no mention of anyone conected with the ship, so I suspect that person is no longer available. May be worth giving Brian an email on his site in case he may have some info for you.

Rgds
 
#6 ·
Niarchos Ships info.- a thank you!

Just like to thank you all for taking the trouble to reply and for the scanned list.

WORLD CONQUEROR: My father has done a folder of pictures of his ships, bar one or two. I have two of WC and the funnel has an N painted over a white band. He describes it as, "a unique ship of two parts. An old engine from a USA wartime tanker and a complete new hull forward...joined to each other" (and there's more!). No wonder they kept it quiet!!

SAXONGLEN (or GLADE which is what it says in the Cardiff papers I have): Joined it in May 1953 at Walkers Naval Yard and took it on trials. No picture.

I think I possibly sent Brian/Billy a list of his ships to add to the collection a couple of years ago and that's how they got there.

"Ocean" is now another source I can check. All the internet has on Niarchos is personal to the family and nothing about the ships. Again, thanks for trying for me. I'm sorry I started this now, its hard work. Helen
 
#7 ·
Hi all - again.
Just looked through Ruud`s list of Niarchos ships.I see there is no mention of the World Duality which I sailed on as R/O between Dec 72 and May 73 - maybe the whole trip was a dream.
I also sailed on the World Justice from June 73 to Jan 74.
Bloody awful feeders.
Bob
 
#8 · (Edited)
Ahoy Bob,
Wakey,wakey.(*))

That list was from 1967, and she was built [World Duality] in 1970 as Ore/bulk/oil carrier. Tons Gross:56800 Tonnes DWT:114150 LOA:264 x 38 x 15½
Sorry I can't scan at the moment, cos my 3-1 printer broke down, and will be repaird now, or maybe I should buy another new one.
 
#10 ·
niarchos ships

(*)) Does anybody remember an incident which occured in the Suez Canal early January 1955.
One of the Niarchos World Tankers, [possibly the 'Glory'] collided with the bridge at El Qantara, blocking the canal for a few days and causing quite a backlog of shipping awaiting transit.
I was on the 'Rhexenor' homeward bound from Freemantle to Europe, we moored in the congested anchorage at PortTewfik for a day or two.
I remember one night in the anchorage [Iwas watch below at the time], an Onassis tanker I think the 'Olympic Honour' collided with a sister the 'Olympic Thunder' which was lying at anchor. The Tanker underway struck the anchored vessel just for'd of the bridge on her port side, causing an explosion and a fire. Our motor lifeboat [which as an emergency boat was always lowered and bowsed in at prom deck level at sea] was lowered and crewed.
I don't remember if the boat was sent away to help, I think not.
I remember come daylight seeing the large gash in the anchored ships' hull and a blackened bridge front, a complete contrast to the normal gleaming white paintwork of these fine looking ships.
Can anybody confirm the names of the ships involved or shed any further light on this incident of long ago.
Bruce.
 
#12 ·
niarchos ships

(*)) R651400;
Thanks for the info. Yes 'World Peace' was the ship, you have jogged my memory, I dont know where i got the 'World Glory' from, must have something else about the same time. I think it was the 'World Concord' that broke her back in the Irish Sea 1953/4 ish, I may have got that wrong as well.
I wonder what became of the other tankers I mentioned in the incident the 'Olympic Thunder' and the 'Olympic Honour'. I notice Ruuds' Onassis fleet list posted yesterday includes the Thunder but no mention of the 'Honour'.
Thanks. Bruce.
 
#35 ·
hello happy 2011 iwas a 4th engineer with world guardian round 1965 1966 when we had to resque 5 members from world Glory burst in to flames in the red sea after colide with a norwegian tanker the rest gone to the dam surks, it was very ruff sea the chiff stuart was a old frient of mine we got some bonus as we had to guard the vessel for over 3 days, both we are going to the gulf
 
#24 ·
"Ships of two parts"



If I remember rightly, a lot of the oil tankers of the 1950's were refurbished Liberty Ships from WWII. I was told that they had a long rigid beam and, in high seas, when on top of a wave, as it were, could "break their backs". I would be delighted if someone could confirm or correct this. Might explain the "two parts", if they were welded together in the middle.

By the way, as a novice typist in the supplies department of Niarchos, I once ordered one thousand pounds of potatoes, instead of one hundred pounds, to be loaded on one ship! I expect someone corrected my error - but I was teased that they had to order ships to meet "my" ship, mid-ocean, to redistribute the surplus spuds!

Cheers - Janice
 
#18 · (Edited)
Jan,
that looks like the Hellenic Shipyards known as HSY at Skaramanga near Piraeus, I spent three weeks there once, and visited Marias Bar outside the Gate, anyone remember that ? And by the way Niarchos did own the Yards then, as I worked with his company.
 
#21 ·
I finally got around to checking my Tyne shipyard files and found the following about the Niarchos order.

There were to be four tankers built. They were launched and delivered from the Vickers Armstrong Walker yard, in 1953-1954. The ships (In delivery order.) were named Saxonglade, Saxondale, Saxonglen, and Saxonmead. Each was to be approximately 13,322 tons and 20,500 tons dwt.

I have a quote from the one of the launch parties, that they were named differently from the fleet norm of using the prefix "World" because all were specifically ordered fro charter to Anglo Saxon Petroleum Company. Perhaps that charter was up when they were all renamed.

Regards,

Joe
 
#22 ·
World Enterprise

This ship was launched by my grandmother (Lady Micklem) and my brother (Michael Holford). Attached are two photos and an article. The people in the photo are:Mr P.H.Muirhead, Sir Frederick Yapp, Lady Micklem, Michael
Holford, Lady Weekes, Sir Ronald Weekes.
 

Attachments

#25 ·
Ah, that's nothing. I was on one ship where the Catering Off (Chief Thief) fouled up royally with the stores order.
He wanted to order 75kg of Chicken and 200 Blueberry muffins. Now, having had a few 'shandys' (as they tended to do), he misplaced the decimal point for the chicken, and didn't realise just how many Muffins came in a box.
Result?
750kg (3/4 of a tonne) of Chicken and 2000 blueberry muffins.
We had 2 chicken courses with EVERY meal, and muffins for every smoko for 6 months afterwards.
The muffins went hard of course, so when the appeared in the messroom they were invariably used for bun fights!
The Old Man did not approve....

Hahaha.
 
#26 ·
Hi Helen,
YOu mentioned, that you have spome old pictures of the "World Conqueror". Do you have them scanned so that you can post them here? I am searching for old pictures of the "world..." ships (world conqueror, world felicia and world seafarer"). Information ist rare...for the World Felicia I had to translate from French, bu at least I got it ;-)
Nice story! I would like to eat 2000 blueberry muffins :)
 
#27 ·
There seems to be some wrong information over the World Enterprise - I sailed on her from May 1970 to may 1971. In those days she was chartered to Esso and made regular trips from Maricaibo/Aruba/Amuay Bay to Newyork. At that time she had never been broken in half !

After her annual drydocking (June 1971) she was prgrammmed to go for another year back on the same run with Esso. after which time she would be scrapped.

Sometime later I happened to be travelling by bus from Piraeus to Piremar and saw her hull in the skaramanga shipyard, on her side. I was told she was being used as some kind of storage facility. When this was I can't remember. But if she had broken in half after I sailed on her she would surely have been scrapped not repaired - she was too old.

She had been British Built (see previous post of her launching) and a model of her used to stand outside the Niarchos office door in Piraeus. I was told by the Office people there that she was the first big ship Stavros Niarchos had commissioned from scratch and that he held her in high regard.

The World Glory did indeed break in half off South Africa and went down very quickly but there was no fire. I understand that only the Mate and the R/O were saved, and this after a lengthy time in the cold sea in lifejackets. They had been virtually washed off the wing of the bridge as she went down. Their rescue was somewhat miraculous as a passing ship happened to see them in the water.

I'm pretty sure the World Conqueror was still going in Oct 1978, I was on the Spyros at that time, making regular trips from Malaysia to USA across the Pacific, and an R/O from Liverpool named Ian was on her making the same trips, so we had many regular QSO's.
 
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