[ruud]

Ahoy,
Name:Amastra[2]
IMO:5013600
Built:1958
Discarded in1985
Status:Scrapped
Class:A
GT:12,273
DWT:17,600
559'0" x 69'5" x 29'10"
Yard:Smiths Dock Co. Ltd.[1252]
Eng.:2SA 6Cy 650x2320mm Doxford
Cargo:Crude & white oil products.
Flag:Great Britain
Call/Flag sign:MYCK
Owner/Manager:Tanker Finance Ltd-Shell Tankers U.K.Ltd.-London

[notnila]

Amate of mine sailed in her in the 60s.Wasn't she mined in the Mekong River during the Vietnam War?

[Jim MacIntyre]

According to 'Sea Shell' - March 1967 a limpet mine attached to the hull blew a 12 ft square hole in the engine room just below the waterline. No casualties, everyone was able to evacuate. The ship, however remained afloat although the stern was underwater. It took 25 days with assistance from a USN salvage ship 'USS Current' and from the Dutch Shell ship 'Kara' to patch her up and discharge the remaining 15,000 tons of cargo. She was then taken to Singapore for permanent repairs.

[stevecz]

Try this thread Shell Tankers 1967-1975 in the Tanker forum, there are some good links to the Amastra episode

[andyp1]

Joined the Amastra in Feb 83 as 2nd trip engineer apprentice.
Flew out to Curacao with 2 5/E's and ended up waiting 10 days as she kept breaking down en route to Curacao / Aruba.
Happy days of staying in the "Talk of The Town" in Aruba and learning to windsurf and jet ski.

[wully farquhar]

Joined her in Sunderland July 64 and paid off at Ellesmere Port October same year. Long enough

[Billieboy]

I did a few odd repairs on Amastra in the early Eighties, welded up a piston as well if I remember right. It was the only Doxford left in the Fleet at the time and the only Doxford I ever did a repair on after I'd come ashore.

[loylobby]

If my memory serves me well the Amastra had Crossley Diesels.

Quite often in the bar the lights would dim slowly, the engineers amongst us would quickly down their beer, saying "the Engineers alarm's going to go soon"; they were invariably correct and they would disappear for 20 minutes or so.

Often had senior steam engineers doing their motor time. They were always joking about the big "rubber bands" on the main engine and all the moving bits and bobs on the engine.

[Don Moorman]

Originally Posted by Jim MacIntyre

According to 'Sea Shell' - March 1967 a limpet mine attached to the hull blew a 12 ft square hole in the engine room just below the waterline. No casualties, everyone was able to evacuate. The ship, however remained afloat although the stern was underwater. It took 25 days with assistance from a USN salvage ship 'USS Current' and from the Dutch Shell ship 'Kara' to patch her up and discharge the remaining 15,000 tons of cargo. She was then taken to Singapore for permanent repairs.

Worked for Davies & Newman(Shell's Agents) in London during the late 1960's/early1970's and remember this vessel returning to UK waters. Am I right also in thinking that the Acmae was actually sunk in the Mekong and was subsequently salvaged and again came back to UK waters ?
There was also an 'H' class vessel that had its' bridge shot up whilst 'trigger'
Magee was the Master. Does anyone remember him ?

[barney b]

Forty three years ago Amastra was mined and sunk in Nha Trang on 12th April.Just saying hello to my fellow survivivors of that night. we were very lucky.Just to link up with another unfortunate vessel, the Titanic was sunk on the 11th of April 98 years ago, have just come from a memorial service in Cobh. Very moving ceremony.
Barney B

[averheijden]

L.S.
Who can help me on more information concerning the severe DOXFORD damage of the mv AMASTRA

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3...n/3e8c11ca.jpg

The top piston came out of the cylinder and caused severe damage
What was the reason of this accident, and when happened this?
Thanks in advance
Alfons
http://users.telenet.be/doxford-matters

[Erimus]

Captain Hogg was Master in 1958 in the Tees...my first Shell Tanker visit as an Agent at Constantines..........

geoff

[chadburn]

Built at Smith's Dock,

[A.D.FROST]

Originally Posted by averheijden

L.S.
Who can help me on more information concerning the severe DOXFORD damage of the mv AMASTRA

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3...n/3e8c11ca.jpg

The top piston came out of the cylinder and caused severe damage
What was the reason of this accident, and when happened this?
Thanks in advance
Alfons
http://users.telenet.be/doxford-matters

Lifting eye still in postion,looks like while lifting the top piston (regular maintainence, no top hat) the wire as snapped and the piston has been dropped.

[averheijden]

Originally Posted by A.D.FROST

Lifting eye still in postion,looks like while lifting the top piston (regular maintainence, no top hat) the wire as snapped and the piston has been dropped.

L.S.
I do not agree!
This is for sure an accident, one side-rod top-end bearing is open and the other is still connected to the yoke
In my opinion there is a possibility that the 2 bolt from one side rod bearing are broken owing to fatigue of the material
Regards
Alfons

[averheijden]

L.S.
Once more about the accident on the mv AMASTRA(2) with DOXFORD 650LBD6
The pictures from the accident are marked as: 1958-07-W2047-1252c-Amastra, the date of completion!
Someone must have heard about this accident or was onboard

Awaiting a reaction
Kind regards
alfons
http://users.telenet.be/doxford-matters

[jimthehat]

Originally Posted by stevecz

Try this thread Shell Tankers 1967-1975 in the Tanker forum, there are some good links to the Amastra episode

Unusual question,but can anyone advice what colour the decks in the accommodation blocks were painted.

jim

[Erimus]

Originally Posted by jimthehat

Unusual question,but can anyone advice what colour the decks in the accommodation blocks were painted.

jim

Green I think...............the ship certainly paid three visits to the Tees between launch and end 1960 when I left Constantines, the last trip could have been into Smiths Dock for an 'Annual'??

geoff

[chadburn]

She was still on the Stock's when I left Smith's to do my N.S. Strange there is no sign of the other Half Brass, I wonder if someone forget to fit it?

[averheijden]

Originally Posted by loylobby

If my memory serves me well the Amastra had Crossley Diesels.

The Amastra (IDAS) built in 1935 had "KINCAID DIESELS", (8 cylinder, 4 stroke, single acting) see pictures.

The AMASTRA built n 1958 had a DOXFORD !

Main engine 6cyl Hawthorn Leslie Doxford LBD giving 7,500 bhp at 112rpm in service
Max bhp 8,000 at 115rpm Bore 650mm
Three lever driven scavenge pumps and two Brown, Boveri turbo blowers.
Cylinder jackets, upper pistons and supercharge blower housings cooled by distilled water
Lower pistons cooled by lub oil.
Main engine operated at all time using heavy oil. (HVF)

I am still curious for the accident with this DOXFORD, see above

regards
Alfons
http://users.telenet.be/doxford-matters

[andyp1]

The Crossley's were the diesel generators, had to "barred over" by hand to get into the correct position for starting- take 1 steel bar, approx 6' in length, take 2* eng cadets / apprentices. Insert bar into highest hole that can be reached in the flywheel ( 11 on a clock face) and "walk down the engine" until the point of insertion reaches 7- repeat as required until start position marker on flywheel lined up.

Check frequency of on line genny and pressure in air start cylinder- if more air required adjust cycles of on line genny to approx 51 -52 and start compressor . No 2 compressor had a crankcase repair done in fibreglass & devcon,
The port engine had a JCW leak in one cyclinder.

[chadburn]

Originally Posted by andyp1

The Crossley's were the diesel generator

Check frequency of on line genny and pressure in air start cylinder- if more air required adjust cycles of on line genny to approx 51 -52 and start compressor . No 2 compressor had a crankcase repair done in fibreglass & devcon,
The port engine had a JCW leak in one cyclinder.

Other than that everything is tickety boo

[averheijden]

L.S
Once again the accident on the SHELL Tanker AMASTRA
A former Chief Engineer who had sailed on the AMASTRA wrote:

“I can confirm that the photographs are indeed AMASTRA – the originals were donated by the late Ken Armstrong and are part of the SFA Collection, currently in my possession.”

This particular incident, which happened very early in the ship’s life – probably in 1962.

This is a conclusion when you read the following story:

In the early days, there was a particular problem with seizing of centre bearing where the top piston was attached to the cross-beam. This bearing and the two side rod bearings were originally grease lubricated. The Doxford engine was designed to be very flexible so seizure often resulted in broken side rod keep bolts and if the engine was not stopped quickly enough, the damage could be severe as evidenced by the photographs.

As a result of the incident on AMASTRA, the arrangement was redesigned for forced oil lubrication – the small oil lines being routed in parallel with the cooling water hoses for the top piston. Don says that he was on AMASTRA in 1963 when the ship drydocked at Greenwells. During this docking, all the top piston assemblies were sent to Doxfords at Pallion for this modification work.
So far this C/E

Perhaps somebody knows the man on the picture who is looking to the ravage
Regards
Alfons
http://users.telenet.be/doxford-matt...rddamages.html

[abzexile]

This would appear to have happened twice.
The pictures show that it was No. 4 top piston with severe damage to the top liner and water jacket.
In 1968 I was sailing as 4/E. We had left Panama a couple of days earlier en-route to Anchorage. Whilst steaming No. 6 top piston hung up. The forward side rod bolts had sheared and the piston was siezed and bent aft, still attached to the after rod, which was also bent.
We were unable to remove the piston as we could not 'get at it' properly. No 6 cylinder being partially under the boiler room overhang. We were alos in the unfortunate position of not having all the blanking decvices on board. We manfactured the bits we did not have. Left the upper piston in position after disconnecting the aft side rod.
We slow steamed to Wilmington, Los Angeles where a 'heavy' squad came on board to remove the old piston and put all to rights. Being the USA we had to watch as the Labour laws said that this squad had to do all the work.

[Ronald N Young]

I joined the Amastra in Singpore as a junior engineer, whilst she was being repaired after her sinking at Nahtrang. From the day we began sea trials following her repairs, it took us twenty eight days to get to Pula Bukem, due to engine problems. Electrically she was grossly underpowered, and her Crossley diesels could barely carry the minimum load at sea. On Christmas day 1967, I was instructed to watch the engine room, so that the fourth and his junior could go up to the captain's cabin along with the other officers, for a Christmas day drink. We were heading north in the Indiam ocean, back towards the Gulf, and all was quiet down below. Being a good sort, I thought it would be a good idea to top up the air receivers for the main engine. With only one generator running, it was neccessary to cheat a little. This involved going to the main board and jacking the cycles up to over sixty one, so the generator would not trip off due to the starting torque of the compressor. This was something I had done on numerous occasions, and was pretty routine. On this occasion, however, after jacking up the cycles, and hitting the start button for the compressor, the lights dimmed and kept on diming, with the generator tripping off, and the ship came to a shuddering halt. As you can imagine, I was not the most popular lad on board, and there was dark hints that I had done it on purpose, as I hadn't been invited. I can categorically say that this was not the truth, and that I was merely trying to do a good job. I did however get a modicum of pleasure out of the voyage, as after loading in the Gulf we received orders for Saigon. I told the Captain that I did not have to go, as you can imagine, I was pretty high up on his sh*t list because of the earlier shenanigans, but I eventually persuaded him to radio in to find out what was going on. To his dismay, he found out that I was telling the truth, and I was duly relieved in Singapore.