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Tuscan Star

4K views 12 replies 6 participants last post by  Pat McCardle 
#1 ·
Tuscan Star at Casablanca 1979.
This was the good one of the two Clipper Boats that Blue Star bought. She had a lovely main engine and generators.
Always remember the F/Peak tank was a 270ton fuel oil tank and bunkering was fun.

Brian
 

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#2 · (Edited)
There were 40 clippers built in three groups, Pre-Clippers 2, Standard Clippers 22 & Super Clippers 16.

Tuscan Star was built as the Labrador Clipper & was the only one with a Clipper name that was not built at Middlesborough, she was built at Drammen with the Sulzer 9RND68 engine rated at 14,850bhp, the same as the Middlesborough ships & the highest rated of any of the Clipper family. She was scrapped at Mumbai as Chios Pride, arriving 27.03.93 & fetching $156/ldt.

The Trojan Star was built at Middlesborough as Newcastle Clipper & scrapped at Aliaga as Roman Hurricane, arriving 12.04.95.

4 Standard Clippers sank & 1 was a CTL with a flooded hold.
3 Super Clippers also had sad ends with 1 sinking, 1 burning & the other a CTL with a flooded engine room.

I sailed in 1 Standard (Greek flag) & 1 Super (Morrocan flag) as a charterers representative. They were economically built but were good money earners with an impressive performance being effective reefers & with a good turn of speed. I personally liked the ships but their poor inherent stability required respect & careful handling.

Brian, as I write I have the Standard Clipper capacity table in front of me which indicates that, as built, the forepeak was a 222m3 ballast water only tank & I suspect that it may have been converted to a heavy fuel tank to allow for ballast water or permanent ballast in some of the double bottoms to enhance the stability. I would be very interested to hear any further comments you may have about your experiences on the Tuscan Star.

Tony
 
#4 ·
One of the Blue Star boats actually touched the quay in Harwich and punctured the fore peak tank. This resulted in fuel into the dock.
I can remember opening the tank lid and this was the last tank to fill, we watched it come up.
We did put fresh water ballast into No.2 Inner DB's (I think) and this gave us better stability. I seem to remember all was ok with stability until the dreaded focsle deck was loaded.
I never had trouble with frest water as the evap produced enough to keep up with consumption.
She was a lovely ship, the Winterthur Sulzer and Mirelees generators gave very little trouble and full power was achieved easily.
A few years later I sailed on another Clipper Boat the Artic C, now she was a Norwegian one originally called "something 5" but I forget the original name at the moment. Now she was a shambles. I was Super Cargo and the best she did was 17-18 knots with the engine red hot and all generators running and they were also red hot. The purifier room was almost always flooded and Engineers were always in wellington boots.
A real sorry state she was in and I doubt they ever improved her much.
The engine pumped out black smoke from Turbo to Europe and we arrived well late with the bananas.
I later heard she sunk in the Indian Ocean and there was loss of life.
 
#5 · (Edited)
Hi Brian,

Arctic C was built at Drammen as Nordland & her following names were Nordland V, Arawak, Nordland V (again), Nissos Paros, Arctic C & Arctic Reefer.

She sank 160 miles from Japan on 01.01.94 after taking in water following an engine room explosion during a voyage from China to La Guaira. A contract was already signed with Chinese breakers at that time. 17 crew were lost.

The dreaded focsle (as you put it) was a major problem with these ships: the 2 Pre-Clippers did not have this & were fine ships. The focsle had a volume of 28,867 cuft at a very high CG but was of course a big money earner - cream on top!

Your comment that the Drammen built ship was the better of the two is valid: I worked for the major charterer of these ships for some time & the Middlesborough ships were not thought well of in our house. It was considered that Blue|Star were the best UK operator of these ships.

I must correct my first post as I was actually looking at the Standardcore details. I confirm that the forepeak of the Standard Clippers was a Fuel Oil tank of 321m3 capacity.

Tony
 
#6 ·
Brian, Peter and Tony,
Nice to find some fans of Clipper ships. I sailed on Edinburgh, Glasgow and Smara (Moroc). Best ships I ever sailed on. Did a spell in IFR's office, and when doing officer reliefs (Deck and Engineroom) when you mentioned Clipper to many appointees, it was amazing the number who suddenly had funerals to attend etc. and were unavailable. Mention the bigger reefers and they were ready to go instantly - they don't know what they missed.
Regards, Dennis.
 
#13 ·
Dave,
I was only on Wild Fulmar, Gannet, Grebe, Marlin & Mallard. Unfortunately it was only for a drink while I was on Somerset. I did spend 5 days on Wild Mallard in Auckland until the cops arrived & I was ordered back to Mount Muanganui & back to Somerset. Cap't Sandy Stalker was very good at the logging, even asking if I had enjoyed myself. Now there was a true Gent(Thumb)
 
#11 ·
Hi Guys,

You are correct. P & O group built 4 Super Clippers in two pairs. FLAMINGO & FULMAR were the first pair & were also the first two Super Clippers. They were built with normal union purchase cargo gear. FLAMINGO was lost as FRIO CHILE on 08.01.95 560 miles from Miyagi, Japan after taking water during a voyage from Callao to Hachinohe with fish. FULMAR as STARSEA caught fire & was abandoned 100 miles from Balboa on 29.05.90. She was subsequently declared a CTL & towed to Alang for scrap under the name MIDWAY. Litigation between the owners & underwriters went right to the house of lords.

WILD GANNET & GREBE were the eighth & ninth Super Clippers & were fitted with a weird looking swinging/luffing derrick arrangement of the type favoured by Lauritzen at the time. This was possibly due to the Lauritzen Peninsular Reefers consortium. GANNET was scrapped at Aliaga arriving 13.07.02 & GREBE was scrapped in India commencing on 31.10.03.

Looks like we have quite a few Clipper fans.

Tony.
 
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