[Cisco]

Hola,
I've just wandered over from the BlueFlue page where there has been a bit of a radar discussion and Blue star got a mention in a few posts.

What are the fair dinkum true facts regarding radar in Blue Star?

I recall hearing that the only BS ships with them in the early 60's were the ones running to the US west coast cos of the pilots there refusing to handle them without...

[Rob Randle]

Hi Cisco,
All of the west coast of the US ships ( Mainly whiskey and cars outward & chilled & canned fruit homeward) had radar then at the insistence of the LA pilots I believe.Also the ships on the MANZ run initially the Queensland, Rockhampton, Townsville and Gladstone Stars had radar I was told because they loaded mostly at north Queensland ports.The" Great Barrier Reef" pilots insisting in this instance.
Rob Randle

[Shipbuilder]

Hi Cisco,
My first ship was the old RHODESIA STAR in early 1961. We were an old U.S.-built C3 & had no radar. Then again, we didn't have much. No R/T or VHF or even telephones. The odd voice pipe had to do. Not even running water in cabins. It was generally said then that Blue Star did not like radar because the first ship they fitted it to promptly had a collison that was blamed on the radar.
Bob

[FREEBEE]

Hi Cisco,
I sailed with BSL and never sailed on a vessel that had radar, and that included 2 vessels (Caledonia & California) both sailing to the West coast of the States. I believe it was the East coast runners (MANZ run) that had to have radars.
FREEBEE

[Cisco]

Oooops ... apologies for tardy response ... thanks for that

One hears a lot about the collision that brought on the aversion but few details... which are probably lost in the mists of time.

[Paul Sibellas]

I was on the "Newcasle Star" 1968 on an Austalian run that had no radar,also the "Ulster Star" to South America. We did hear that Lord Vesty didn't want a radar on the "Ulster Star" because it was his favourite ship & he didn't want a radar scanner to spoil her look! I understood that the ships with no radar were not allowed on the Yankee coast.

[Criffh]

Joined Newcastle Star in Liverpool October 1969 as R/O. Sailed straight into thick fog. No radar, so anchored at the Bar LV for 24 hours waiting for the fog to lift. The cost of this delay alone could probably have paid for a radar installation.
This was the start of the Compass Line charter, the next port of call being Cape Town. Two trips between S.Africa/LM/Beira and the Aus coast, and then a crew change in Cape Town the following May. That was a pretty good run!

[paul rennison]

Did a run job on the Empire Star from Hull to Royal docks in 1969, ended up 2 days anchored off Southend for lack of radar, was offered 2nd Stewards job deep sea by purser but had gotten too used to rock dodging and had new baby at home, so went back to Hull - Rotterdam on Abbey Boats.
Empire Star was a lovely old vessel though, sometimes wish I'd taken the job & gone down to NZ.
Cheers all

[athinai]

I remember a Blue Flu guy once telling me that they dispensed with the Radars as they were supposed to have played a part in a ''Radar Assisted Colission''
Riddle me that.

[Criffh]

When I was in digs in Southampton doing my ticket in the mid 60s, the landlord was insistent that the reason for two ships colliding in the Solent the previous night was that radar couldn't see in the dark.

[A.D.FROST]

Sometime as passed but I would like to correct abbreviation of BSL run was named ECANA (East Coast of Australia to North America) Port Line was MANZ line(Montreal to Australia and New Zealand)The ship which had the radars taken off was the GLADSTONE STAR which chopped a lightship in half off the Queensland Coast.

[Frank P]

In 1968 I sailed quite a few times to the US East coast (Baltimore and Philadelphia) on a ship with no Radar. The ship was the Mathias Reith, I was onboard for 8 months and the radar never worked at all during that time.

Cheers Frank

[Binnacle]

In 1952 a Blue Star ship sailed into Wellington harbour, dressed overall, on her maiden voyage. We admired a fine looking ship, looked hard to see the radar without success. IIRC it may have been the Wellington Star. Heard the usual tale about withdrawl of radars because of radar assisted collisions, with the added twist that the director who ordered the withdrawl was an ex army colonel. probably ex cavalry. These people always know what's best for us, or think they do.

[A.D.FROST]

It had been that long, when they started to put them back on some people thought that they were for keeping sea gulls away from the funnel to stop them sh???ing on the engineers.

[China hand]

Mendoza Star in 1967 had no radar, and we were on Bs As to Callao through the Magellans and the Patagonian Passage. There were some smashing cartoons on the bridge ( sometimes you can hear the breakers..etc.). But I learned a lot about using a ship's whistle and a stopwatch in the Smythe narrows. And the theory works.

[Split]

I was in Caltex from 1954 to 1962. We had radar and regularly traded the Australian ports and went through the Dover Straits, Malacca Straits to Singapore and during that time we never had a collision. What was Blue Star up to?

[Tony Geeves]

I was on the U.S. East Coast run on the Newcastle Star 1964 to 67, no radar, also a lousy feeder. Vesty did not like to splash the cash.