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British Patience

14K views 44 replies 27 participants last post by  George Burnip 
#1 ·
Anyone out there on the British Patience around 83????
 
#8 · (Edited)
Picture of British Patience in children's book

Hey guys,

I was leafing through an obscure old book I've had since I was a kid. In it there is a picture of a huge tanker with the writeup "The giant oil tankers that ferry crude oil from the Middle East to the West are the largest man-made structures on Earth, apart from a few skyscrapers. Many of them are more then 1,150ft (350m) long, and can weigh nearly 500,000 tons. The latest tankers being built, however, are going against this trend, and are a little smaller then these Leviathans."

The tanker's name is BRITISH PATIENCE, so I decided to google "tanker british patience", and this page came up! Amazing! It just made me wonder if there was any info on the net on who served on it/when, and if it got its named changed or was scrapped.

Anyway, this is on page 26 of the book "Transport" by Mick Hamer, from Aladdin Books Ltd, 1982. Watts Publishing.

Your library might have a copy. Sorry, the page with the ISBN# is gone.
 
#9 ·
I was on the British Patience from 11.04.76 to 01.09.76.
I joined her in Ras Al Khaimah and paid off off of Taranto.
As I recall "Gabby" King did the trip from the Gulf to Taranto with us.
110662.91 NRT & 32,000 SHP according to the rubber stamp in my Discharge Book.
A big bugger, but there were bigger tankers than her. I don't think she was ever the largest in the world. (Thumb)
 

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#10 ·
I was on the British Patience from 11.04.76 to 01.09.76.
I joined her in Ras Al Khaimah and paid off off of Taranto.
As I recall "Gabby" King did the trip from the Gulf to Taranto with us.
110662.91 NRT & 32,000 SHP according to the rubber stamp in my Discharge Book.
A big bugger, but there were bigger tankers than her. I don't think she was ever the largest in the world. (Thumb)
She also had one of the shortest lives, being scrapped after only 8 years trading.
I also sailed briefly with Gabby King (incidentally, it was his wife who launched the Patience). I was a very junior apprentice on the Birch (12,000dwt) when he was a Marine Superintendant who came aboard to check out that new fangled Decca Navigator (1960).
I met up again with him again at BP's 90th Anniversary bash at Greenwich Naval College in 2005.
Kind regards,
John.
 
#12 ·
I never knew about her short trading life. I wonder why it was so short? She was a steam Ship as I recall, perhaps that was the reason?
I wonder if Gabby Kings "Tanker Practice" is still the essential literature for Tanker Men. :eek:
I'm trying to remember if his wife came with him on the Patience, I have a feeling that she did, and as she launched her then I would imagine that it is quite likely that she did.
Dickyboy,
Apparently, according to Middlemiss, (The British Tankers) the 5 P class (Patience, Promise, Progress, Purpose & Pride) suffered constant gearing problems on their turbines & none of them lasted long with the Company.
I think Tanker Practice was updated several times but I don't know whether it is a tanker man's bible today.
In Gabby's book (A Love of Ships) he states that they tried to visit her every year, if possible. He actually mentions the Taranto voyage.
Kind regards,
John.
 
#14 ·
Dickyboy,
Apparently, according to Middlemiss, (The British Tankers) the 5 P class (Patience, Promise, Progress, Purpose & Pride) suffered constant gearing problems on their turbines & none of them lasted long with the Company.
I think Tanker Practice was updated several times but I don't know whether it is a tanker man's bible today.
In Gabby's book (A Love of Ships) he states that they tried to visit her every year, if possible. He actually mentions the Taranto voyage.
Kind regards,
John.
I may be wrong, but I don't think the Pride was a sister-ship of the other four, although she may have had the same General Electric turbines. Can anyone confirm?
The gearing was indeed the fatal weakness of the class, the gear teeth pitted under stress where they meshed together and they were never run at full power/speed. I can remember taking casts of the pitting on the Patience with slabs of Devcon to be sent back to Head Office and hence the manufacturers, so that they could monitor if it was getting worse.John Parry was C/E ( if I remember correctly) He had seen the whole class through building then taken the Patience, the last one, as his own ship - nice bloke and very knowledgable.
Ref Gabby King - the officer's bar on the Patience was called "The King George" in his honour ( but most of us thought it was a bit sycophantic, to be honest)
 
#16 ·
I sailed on the Patience and when there was a following sea the gearbox used to start rumbling quite alarmingly. Very disturbing if you were standing next to it. We stopped in the Bay of Biscay to inspect the teeth on the main wheel. The sea looked calm but there was quite a swell and we suddenly we listed alarmingly so set off again. Major damage to crockery etc.
I learned later that the cause of the problem was that the main wheel in the gearbox, which was about 30 ft in dia was fabricated and not stiff enough. In a following sea the wheel used to flex excessively. For this reason the revs were restricted to 80 rpm by Lloyds.
I remember John Parry was Chief and a good guy. Other Chief was Ralph Burns. 2nd's where Ivor Holman, Tom Bell and "Steady" Eddie Whitely. All good guys. Good trip albeit 6 1/2 months and only one trip ashore.
Dave
 
#19 ·
Joined the Progress in Angle Bay where we discharged and tank cleaned for Drydock in Brest.
Bearing in mind I'm no Engineer, the main wheel was replaced amongst, I presume,other things to do with the gearbox. We left Drydock and proceeded at full speed to the Gulf, via Las Palmas for bunkers, to load for Durban and then returned to the Gulf to load for Genoa.
During these full speed passages we stopped on regular occasions to allow for inspections, I believe to check the gearbox for pitting. Eventually pitting was found when we were a few days south of the Canaries and we were then ordered to reduce to slow steaming for the remainder of the passage to Genoa - payoff port.
 
#27 ·
I was first trip engineering cadet on its final trip. It was scrapped in Pusan Korea Oct 82. A crack had developed in one of the tanks. It was specialist drilled each end but the crack continued to get bigger so it went to Taiwan to be cleaned out by hand by about 500 locals and then beached in Pusan for scrap as Lloyd’s would no long insure it.
 
#29 ·
From memory we loaded in the gulf and discharged Kaohsiung and then proceeded to Pusan for clean out and then onto Ulsan for scrapping. Not an enjoyable trip as the bosun was constantly drunk (he got carried off by medics in Ulsan after a deck accident lifting out VP tank wash machines to ship back to uk)and the crew were always fighting with each other , I was glad to get off!
 
#32 ·
BRITISH PATIENCE Very Large crude carrier (VLCC)
O.N. 363264. 117,536g. 96,350n. 253,839d. 330.01(BB) x 48.75 x 19.902 metres.
Two, GEC steam turbines by Verolme Maschinefabrik, Isselmonde, double reduction geared to screw shaft. 32,000shp.
22.12.1973: Launched by Verolme Dok & Scheepswerf, Rozenburg (Yard No. 851) for BP Thames Tanker Company Ltd. 25.4.1974: Registered at London. 5.1974: Completed. 27.10.1982: Arrived at Ulsan for demolition.
 
#33 ·
Re-reading this thread prompted a memory. I joined the Patience by chopper from Cape Town with George Patience the permanent lecky, in July 1975. It was at very short notice as I recall, because the 3/E ( or possibly his wife, or possibly both of them ?) had been involved in a freak accident off Durban. If I've got the details right, he?they? were taking a stroll on deck and were up by the bow when a rogue wave came right over it and washed them halfway down the main deck. There were definitely injuries because there was a medevac to Durban. Difficult to recall the full story now after all these years, but I distinctly remember that " promenading" on the maindeck while loaded was not allowed thereafter. Was it the same rule on all the "P" boats, I wonder? They were all flush decked with no raised foc'sle. Does anyone else recall this incident?
 
#35 ·
I recall that some of the crude carriers only had a freeboard of 11 feet, which could make for difficult re storing by boat in Cape Town. I think these were the smaller ones though.
 
#43 ·
Hello Dicky boy.
Not sure what your real name is?
My wife and myself in joined Ras Al Khaima on the 19th July 1976.We left the ship 5th Dec 1976.
We sailed on the old girl two times. Best trips of our lives.
Fond memories of John Parry, Malcolm Edge, George and Murial Patience and all the superb crew.
Will never experience this again. Sad to say a lot of of these lovely people may no longer be with us.
Any one out there please feel free to contact
Anyone who has memories from this period please feel free to contact. and get in touch.
Love to hear from anyone with the same memories

George and Ann Burnip
 
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