Ships Nostalgia banner

Bidford Priory = 1960 - 1975

31K views 74 replies 27 participants last post by  pclive712 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
Can anyone help with a photo of the Bidford Priory or have any information on her, all replies most welcome. Mac
 
#3 · (Edited)
Mac, I don't have a photograph at this stage but do have some background information for you. Bidford Priory (and sister ship Brandon Priory), 36,000 tdw steam turbine tankers, both built in 1960 the former built for at Cammell Laird and the latter at Hawthorn Leslie. They were built when BP were seeking finance for their new-building program and one method was to float jointly owned companies such as Warwick Tankers. The funnel markings with the “BP Shield" super-imposed on the Maltese Cross was a clear indication of their joint ownership. Both ships spend their entire lives chartered to BP and were sold for scrap in 1975 following the Yom Kippur War, that saw interest in such vessel drastically reduced.
 
#8 ·
Good looking vessel with well appointed accommodation for that era of build. However the engine room was hot in the tropics and even hotter up the Gulf! Not very well laid out, with turbine main platform on one level and boilers on the next level up. Had lots of problems with machinery and carried additional 3rd and 4th engineers to try and keep up with the work/maintenance load. I understand the Brandon Priory (sister ship) was even worse with more engineers onboard, although never sailed on that one.
 
#11 ·
i sailed on that tub If i wasnt for the great crew ide have commited hari cari The engineering officers salt of the earth,A LOWERY CHIEF ENG probably saved my life when my overalls got caught in taco shaft.GEORGE CHALMERS 2ND ENG,DAVE WHEELAN 3rdeng.RON PENNYCOOK 4th FRED DIFFY EX 3rd,IAN HARDIE EX 4th eng tony yates grocer(perser)
 
#74 ·
Bidford Priory

ANYONE REMEMBER CATCHING A WHITE TIP SHARK WITH A RED RAG AND A BUTCHERS HOOK WHILE DRIFTING IN THE INDIAN OCEAN HP TURBINE HAD BLOWN.(Cloud)
3
I sailed on the Bidford in 1972, last trip as deck cadet before going up for 2nd mates. David Luff was the master. Joined in Singapore and did a couple of trips up the gulf and then down to Kwinana before paying off in the middle of the night as Ras al Khaima
 
#13 ·
I was extremely interested to read your post Brian. I sailed mostly on the Brandon and Bidford between 1961 and 1967. I served my time with Alan Lowery who was a great friend of mine and my first junior when I was promoted to fourth enginer. Dave Wheelen may well be the same Dave Wheelen who was a Alan Lowery's junior when Alan and I were both thirds.

You will probably guess where my name on this site comes from.
 
#15 ·
Hi John.

I knew "Willie" Wood well and sailed with him often. He was junior second when I first met him on the Bidford just before Christmas in 1961. I was the only Junior on board at that time on the 12 to 4 with a Duncan Batgate from Edniburgh.

Willie Wood, as he was known to his shipmates, was a salt of the earth man who was very well liked and respected by everyone who knew him. A quiet and steady a man as i have ever known.

He was one of the engineers who was involved in a change over to running on the LP turbine after the HP thrust failed on th Brandon Priory in the Red Sea in the summer under chief engineer Rory Mcdonald, senior second engineer Ellis mason and third engineer Ali Scurr. Not a pleasant experience.

I am extremely sorry to hear of his death. Thank you for letting me know.

Kind regards

Bob
 
#17 ·
Hi Bombersman,
I passed on your kind remarks to Willie's widow, Betty , tonight and she was most grateful and asked me to pass on her thanks. Willie spent some time on the Uncle John after leaving the Brandon Priory - he was an excellent engineer of the old school. Sad he passed away so soon after retiral.
Best Regards
JC
 
#18 ·
I passed on your kind remarks to Willie's widow, Betty , tonight and she was most grateful and asked me to pass on her thanks.

How kind of you, JC. I appreciate that. I never met Betty, but I know that Willie was quite upset shortly after their marriage to have to leave her at home while he returned to commence another trip at sea. I was told this by a third called Ali Scurr who sailed with Willie shortly before I joined the MN.

I was more fortunate as, with changing times, i was allowed to take my wife Nora to sea with me shortly after we were married.

Betty has my deepest sympathies, as she has lost a very nice husband.

Kind regards

Bob
 
#19 ·
Hello again John Campbell and a good evening to you.

After our recent conversation, I contacted Albert Scurr (Ali) who also sailed with Willie Wood and informed him of the loss of our much respected and highly thought of Shipmate, Willie Wood. He was very sad to hear of Willie's death and sends his condolences to Betty.

Ali was with Willie on the Brandon Priory's maiden voyage when she ran the HP turbine thrust in the red sea and was rigged to run on the LP turbine only. Betty may well remember this.

Kind regards

Bob W
 
#20 ·
Hi Bob,

I have contacted Betty and she was pleased to get your news about Ali and yourself. She remembers Willie speaking about the problems on the B.P.
She has passed on the whole thread, which I printed out for her, and passed it to her daughter and granchildren who were delighted to know something more about Willie. She says thanks for your kind condolences

I knew him because Betty was my wife's best friend having worked together in the same office. Being both at sea we met infrequently until I came ashore to work in the North Sea and Willie came to work on the Uncle John. He was a great Houlders Man and always attended the reunions. He had a good shoreside job a couple of years before retirement where he got to use his skills as a marine engineer. Sadly he passed away after a long illness with cancer of the pancreas. He is still sadly missed by us all.

I remember meeting Willie by sheer chance one morning on the jetty at Sitra, Bahrain he coming back from having a tooth out at the Dentist and going back to the B.P.at anchor and me on the way to the Agents. A great surprise for us both.

Best Regards

JC
 
#21 ·
Hi John,

Thank you for the feed back about Willie. We often wonder what became of our friends at sea after we have come ashore and this site fills that question very well.

I am very pleased that our conversation has been of interest to Willie's family. This gives even more value to this site than I would have thought when getting on board a few days ago. What a good idea that was, to give Betty a printout.

My first trip at sea was on the Brandon Priory in the summer of 1961 after she had undergone repairs to the HP turbine at Hawthorn Leslie's ( I was involved in this as an apprentice) subsequent to the HP thrust failure. I didn't meet Willie until I joined the Bidford Priory just before Christmas 1961 and was the only junior aboard. An old (to me at the time) chief engineer was a man called Baker, a fellow geordie, and the acting second was a Roly Johnson. We had a third called Franky Garvock from South Shields who ahd been torpedoed twice.

"Sadly he passed away after a long illness with cancer of the pancreas."
Another obvious question, which we are often inhibited from asking, answered. Thanks again.

Best wishes

Bob W
 
#22 ·
I wonder if anyone here rembers a man from Stonehaven called Jimmy Carnegie. Jimmy was great bloke and sailed on the Bidford, in 1962, with me to get his chief's steam time in. I met him later as chief on the Bidford when he was joining as I was being relieved. He was a quiet spoken man and sometimes difficult to hear in the engine room. His Junior was a lad called Earny Cherry who nicknamed him "The quiet man". Alan Lowery was my junior at the time.

Bob W.
 
#25 ·
Bidford Priory

Sorry folks but I sailed on the bidford for 5 Months as 5/e in 75 and it was my worst trip I ever had C/E Lowry and his side kick Dave x2/E took an instant dislike to me and that also being junior to a 4/E who drank too much and the 3/O who likewise the higherachy in ER did not take kindly to me, had my watch off for my 21st cancelled and then to top it all they stopped my tap cause the taps had been stoppped on the 3/O and 4/E so tuff tiity to me. I thank God for the great skipper Paddy Slevin and C/S Maud ( I had sailled with Maud when she as AssC/S on the Hardwicke) who smuggled me the occasional brew ( even though Paddy was dry at sea ) that helped keep my sanity. My opinion of Alan and Dave remains tainted.
 
#28 · (Edited)
MARINEJOCKEY said
"I have tried to find Alan via email with no luck so if anybody has any info?"
Likewise. I regret losing touch with Alan who was a good friend of mine and lived within a mile or so from my home. As happens all too often, on leaving the sea and starting a family, I lost touch with Alan as we took our different paths in life.

Alan is highly intelligent, and an IQ test given at Bath Lane college to all students taking S1 in 1956, showed Al to be exceptional, to a degree that he was pointed out to the examiners from the doorway to the classroom.

Alan, Dave Revell (of the ill fated "Royston Grange"), and I all got our seconds steam tickets at about the same time and were fortunate to meet up together on the Denby Grange when she was in dry dock at Brigham and Cowans. When Alan and I were both on leave at the same time, as often happened, we would visit any Houlders ships that were on the Tyne and invariably meet old friends and folk that we had at least heard of.

I was sorry to hear the disparaging remarks about Alan, which seemed out of character but then we are all different aren't we.

Kind regards

Bob W.
 
#29 ·
I was looking through a book titled "Hadley" by W.J.Harvey and there is a photo in it of the engine room of the CLYMENE when at Nelson, New Zealand with Captain W.S.S. Lewis, Chief Engineer C.H. Wall and Fred Lott and in the foreground a very young & skinny looking Junior Engineer A. Lowry ( I think that is the same A. Lowery that we know).
 
#31 · (Edited)
Alan sailed on the "Clymene" on her maiden voyege with a lad called Ernie Cherry who also served his apprenticeship with us at the Hawthorn Leslie marine engine works at St. Peters. You will no doubt be right about the A Lowery on the photograph. I vaguely remember the Chief Engineer, C.H.Wall, from the "Clymene" sea trials. If, as you say, Alan looked skinny then he must have lost some weight as he was always quite a big well proportioned lad who was a good footballer and runner..

His next trip was with me on the Bidford when I was promoted to 4/E in Cork in 1962. Ernie Cherry also joined the Bidford at the same time and it was great to be reunited with old pals from apprenticeship days. Together we had many good runs ashore including a notable one in Milazzo which I will not expand on.

Kind regards

Bob W.
 
#30 ·
Friery Fred Lott

Just to say that was the only time in my Career I had problems , and the mention of fred brings a smile to this day, all he was interested in was welding at his Bench on the poop and when I knew him ( or so I was told ) he had a habit of alwasy talking out the side of his mouth at you, was told he smoked a pipe for years, was his runarround on the Cerinthus, and again a Gent of the old school.
 
#32 ·
Clonguish, you mentioned earlier an extra second engineer called Dave. Was he by any chance a certain Dave Whelan and a fellow Geordie? If so then he would have been Alans Junior on the Bidford years earlier (c1963) when Alan and I were junior and senior third engineers respectively. John Kinkaid, again another "Royston Grange" victim, was my junior at the time.

Kind regards

Bob W.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top