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VICKERS VIKING and VISCOUNT and BRITISH VOYAGER

23K views 32 replies 22 participants last post by  DavidHCuthill 
#1 ·
VIKING and VISCOUNT taken at Leith in 1979 and BRITISH ex- VICKERS VOYAGER also at Leith in 1980.
VICKERS VIKING was a stern trawler originally I think;VICKERS VISCOUNT again I think was the old cattle carrier MEATH and VICKERS/BRITISH VOYAGER was one of the former Salvesen FAIRTRY fish factory ships.All regulars in Leith.
 

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#4 ·
Vickers Viking

Looking at your Photo of this vessel it looks like an ex German stern trawler. She is of the type that we Brits used to call "Black and White Minsterls" owing to the big funnels aand Hulls being black and superstructure white. Most were named after German university towns eg. Hiedleberg.

A new series of larger trawlers were built using the same names after the class that the Viking was part of were sold.

Jim Brechin
 
#5 ·
jimbrechin said:
Looking at your Photo of this vessel it looks like an ex German stern trawler. She is of the type that we Brits used to call "Black and White Minsterls" owing to the big funnels aand Hulls being black and superstructure white. Most were named after German university towns eg. Hiedleberg.

A new series of larger trawlers were built using the same names after the class that the Viking was part of were sold.

Jim Brechin
Hi Jim,
I did a few trips on the Viking, and I'm sure that she was German Built, as I remember giving the chief a hand once with some hydraulics schematics translation....
 
#7 ·
Nope!
Still in Harness.... Building * Commissioning new sonar systems and stuff, and in a quiet lull, managed to catch up on 500 new posts.. back over to Germany tomorrow to switch on new trinkets that I've made for the Natives... Will try and not be so long off line next time.... Tcheusse!
Marcus
 
#9 ·
Really do share your passion for these ships guys but additionally it makes me think about the Vickers Viscount Whispering T Jets which on occassions whisked me from ship to home and back, anyone got just one photo of one of them, please, just for the memories.
Cheers
Ted
 
#12 ·
Manchester Drydocks

Hi Marcus,

We met twice: once on a coastal trip in Brocklebanks - MAIPURA in 1970; I was going deep sea as Second mate.

Second time I was working as an assistant Naval Architect in Manchester Drydocks in the period when we converted Three of the VO vessels - DORTMUND, FRANKFURT AND MEATH. I am not sure whether MDD did the FAIRTRY vessel?

Sounds like you are doing very well.

Good luck


David Byrne
 
#13 ·
MDD Convertions

Hi Marcus,

We met twice: once on a coastal trip in Brocklebanks - MAIPURA in 1970; I was going deep sea as Second mate.

Second time I was working as an assistant Naval Architect in Manchester Drydocks in the period when we converted Three of the VO vessels - DORTMUND, FRANKFURT AND MEATH. I am not sure whether MDD did the FAIRTRY vessel?

Sounds like you are doing very well.

Good luck


David Byrne
Hi David,
I worked on the Meath an ex cattle ship as well as Dortmund, Franfyrt in the Dry Docks Trafford Park, I have a photo of the Meath berthed in Dry 2 round about mid 70's. Hope this is of use to you. The MDD did the Fairtry early 70's, not sure of the rename at present. I was a welder.

Many thanks Ken
 
#14 ·
I once served on a ROV support vessel where apparently the leading ROV pilot was a bit of a celebrity. It appeared that he and another chap nearly died when their mini sub was stuck on the seabed and it was a race against time before they were rescued. I' sure it was on a Vickers vessel where the incident took place. I can't remember his name but he wrote a book about his experience and went on to appear on 'This is Your Life'. I do recall he went on to start his own ROV company in ***bria, I think it's name was 'Rumic' or something similar.
Ray Jordan
 
#16 ·
Hi, this may be a little bit late, but I have only just seen this post.
The ROV was a Vickers Pisces and the cause was flooding of the machinery chamber. A line from the mothership fouled the hatch locking nut, causing it to rotate and unlock, allowing the hatch to be dislodged. The divers were Roger Mallinson and Roger Chapman.
Roger Chapman then formed Sub Sea Surveys based in Barrow, and they bought an unmanned ROV from BAe Filton - Consub 2. I worked with them using a hired Consub1, doing survey work for the installation of Thistle "A" platform in the North Sea. Roger Chapman promised me a signed copy of his book, but I never received it, but it was at a party at his house, and we had a lot to drink.
Another member of SSS was Marcus Cardew, who I believe is a member of this site, he was an ex-P&O bridge officer.
Harry C.
 
#17 ·
Vickers voyager



I remember her being converted in Palmers Hebburn Dry Dock Interesting equipment and my first introduction to a dive support vessel with two Dive chambers and a dive chamber lifeboat. Sometime 1976/78? I maybe wrong. Later I say the NEDDRILL III dive support semisubmersible- made more sense and space to move around in!
 
#32 ·
Vickers voyager



I remember her being converted in Palmers Hebburn Dry Dock Interesting equipment and my first introduction to a dive support vessel with two Dive chambers and a dive chamber lifeboat. Sometime 1976/78? I maybe wrong. Later I say the NEDDRILL III dive support semisubmersible- made more sense and space to move around in!
sorry but your information is not correct, the conversion of the vickers ships were done at manchester dry docks
first was the voyager (fairtry), followed by the two german trawers , and then a cattle boat meath, vickers
viscount. first was 1 voyager, 2 viking, 3 vanguard, 4 vicount .
 
#18 ·
Sailed on The Vickers Viscount as second mate and mate from April - October 1976 she was the Meath, Old men were Mike ..... ex Commons Brothers, Alan Mellor and Lennie Edwards, the Mate was ex Mannie Liners Trevor ......, was a bit of eye opener as I had come from a company which used Indian crew and when the old man came on the bridge all was quiet until he spoke. Enjopyed every minute of it but decided after the autumn being thrown about like a cork in a bottle was not for me, and then promptly ended up on two phosphorus tankers also managed by Fishers which went backwards and forwards across the North Atlantic for the next ten years.

Wally H
 
#21 ·
Hi Guys,

I know I'm coming late to the table,but I also was involved with the ship conversions. Firstly Meath/Vickers Viscount and then both the Franfurt/Vickers Viking and Dortmund/Vickers Vanguard. Later I was on the Project Team who managed the re-conversion of the Vickers Voyager with her Saturation Dive System and 100 Tonne A Frame.

I was also responsible for the Battery Changing System and the Skirt Handling System for LR5. When BUE went down the pan my company, Drawing Office Services in Barrow, was working on a new build but that sadly never happened.

I was then headhunted by Sandy Hook and went to work for him at Aqualogistics. When they were sold I worked for Acecape Offshore Services building containerised dive systems with Divex in Great Yarmouth.

When I was in Barrow we also worked with Roger Chapman and SSS doing their Survey Reports by hand with ink and pen!

I hope some of you remember me "behind the scenes" as it were. I certainly remember a lot of the names in this blog.

I'm now retired and writing my memoirs so if you have any stories you wish to pass on - e-mail me.
 
#22 ·
Hi Paul
Thanks for the photos of the Viking + Viscount brought back a lot of memories.One was the time when me + a big guy called Andy Cunningham were on a punt painting the Viscount Andy was so engrossed in his work he walked of the punt into the dock,he managed to grab the pilot ladder and hold on but as he was hanging one of the scuppers flushed all over him,i could not help him as i was rolling about in the punt with laughter.Another one was when the galley boy was giving big Andy some lip,Andy picked him up + sat him on the stove,he did not upset Andy again.I also sailed on the Vanguard they were good ships to sail on as the work was different+interesting.Thanks again for the photos.
All the best Jimmy Scougall
 
#24 · (Edited)
Manned Submersible Vickers L2 recovery on to Vickers Viscount

Submersible Vickers L2 recovery on to Vickers Viscount
See Attached.
I was a Survey Engineer in 1997-8. On this trip, I remember we were doing HASINS testing in the Forth Estuary and during the dive had a major smoke alarm with the Ferranti Client aboard. HASINS was someone's bright idea to take an inertial nav system out of an airliner and put it in a sub. It worked fine, but we had to all-stop on the seabed every 30 seconds. This surged the power too much for the wiring.
It was the middle of the night we did an emergency surface and to cap it all, the A-Frame jammed on recovery, leaving us hanging, much like in the photo. Being a L boat it was warm inside - so we were wearing thin clothing. We had to crawl between the dangling sub over a set of wooden ladders on to the back deck in the dark, in the rain wearing pyjamas.
The sub engineers worked all night but couldn't find the problem on deck without applying full power to the thrusters. And as the motors were water cooled, they couldn't test them in air. So in the morning they dived us again (sans client this time). The Pilot went to the bottom pushed the manip into the sand and applied full downward power. They had pushed me into the machine compartment on my back with the lights off to look for sparks!
I could see a 9mm cable loose in its connector arcing away.
It was adventurous work.
 

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#25 ·
Roger Chapman worked for Vickers Oceanics in 1977 as a Submersible Pilot. I dived with him several times on N.Sea ops (In Pisces 3 I think).
Brent Field. He said very little. We often were stuck on the seabed waiting for "Viz" for up to 10 hours at a time. He had tapes of all the Bach Fugues. Like Bach, Toccata and Fugue in D minor. It sounded like a Hammer Soundtrack.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipzR9bhei_o)
 
#28 ·
See from a newspaper report here in NZ that there is talk of making a film of the incident, now Roger Mallison is a one off and Lennie Edwards the old man of the Voyager at the time of the incident he was very different so should be interesting who they cast in those roles
 
#30 ·
Hi Jimmy
That's the time I was there. 77-78. I was a survey engineer mainly on Vanguard. We had to fit the survey kit to the submersible, and carry out the operation of the instruments.
They were great days, and there was a 'can-do' attitude. I trusted the ops team and the sub-engineers implicitly. It was a privilege to be the one on the spot, and it was a big responsibility as the ship's day-charter rate was something like £10,000 and you could buy a 2-bedroom flat for that!
The surface divers were sometimes a rough lot. Good mates if you had their respect. Many were ex-RN or Paras. I remember as soon as we passed through the customs limit the purser opened the bond and we scooted down to get our 'slabs' of beer.
(Actually, reading my last post, I think I may have mixed up the Rogers. It would have been Roger Mallinson who was the Sub Pilot.)
 
#33 ·
VIKING and VISCOUNT taken at Leith in 1979 and BRITISH ex- VICKERS VOYAGER also at Leith in 1980.
VICKERS VIKING was a stern trawler originally I think;VICKERS VISCOUNT again I think was the old cattle carrier MEATH and VICKERS/BRITISH VOYAGER was one of the former Salvesen FAIRTRY fish factory ships.All regulars in Leith.
I was privileged to work for Vickers Oceanics as a Subsea Survey Electronics Engineer.
We did 3-week trips. Vickers Viking, Viscount and Vanguard.
I was 25 at the time. 1977 to 1978
We surveyed the geometry of the tie-in of new oil pipelines to the new production
platform jacket. We did this using custom made ultrasonic transponders fitted in arrays to
both flanges. Our were then used in the manufacture of the spoolpiece made to connect
it all up.
We used a PDP 11 minicomputer to work out and plot the charts.
We also did more bread-and-butter work, fixing the positions of discarded material like
broken cables, anchors and chains to provide the diving salvage vessels with good data
to enable them to clean up the seabed
 
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