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British Skill

16K views 21 replies 17 participants last post by  MTC 
#1 ·
BRITISH SKILL, Delivered from Harland & Wolff 1952,was similars to others tankers delivered from British yard: BRITISH ADVENTURE-BULLDOG-CROWN TALENT and REALM.(old pic collect)
 

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#2 ·
Interesting this one had one of the first IG plants in the fleet. It was obviously installed later than the King HAKKON, Malpassa and Matra incidents. It was BP's solution to what Mobil, Shell, Esso and other tanker companies where doing to combat explosions within a cargo space when Tank washing.
 
#10 ·
The British Skill had, I believe, have a retro fitted I.G. system. The first BP tanker to have an I.G. system from new was the British Prestige. This was very basic unit with all sampling and purging done by hand. This was done twice a day which was,nt a great job on a ship with 44 cargo tanks. The I.G. deck line had only a simple non-return valve fitted and on one voyage just after leaving Umm Said cargo gas got passed the valve and caused a small explosion and fire in the fan room situated on the funnel deck. Lots of panic.
 
#3 ·
Hi David,
I sailed on the Skill as R/O in 1959 (bit of useless information I know)

The real reason for this msg is your comments about BP pensions which I read somewhere else on this site.

I was on Bp contract covering 8 years around 1960.
I have not contacted Bp with regards to receiving a pension but from your comments the qualifying time had to be 10 years.
Have you actually received information confirming this is the case?.

Seems a bit unjust considering the non contributory pension was used to recruit employees into the company.
 
#6 ·
I checked this out twice. Once 10 years before retiring on change in employment and again 1 year before retirement in 2002. Yess 10 years was quoted to me as the minimum service in the company pession scheme. The date you start the scheme is important. Although I was 21/2 years of age on completion of my apprenticeship : No credit appears to have been granted for being over 18 years of age until you came out and signed on the first ships articles as a junior engineer. Hard cheese as on may say?
 
#4 ·
David,
When I joined BP in 1966 the 50,000T 'Guardsman' class had been in service since 1963, the 100,000T 'Admiral' since 1965. In 1968 the 24,000T clean oil 'Liberty' class were introduced. All of these ships were built with IG plants. I do not know which ship was the first in the fleet with an IG plant.
The Shell ships Marpessa and Mactra and the Kong Haakon V11 all exploded during December 1969.

Regards
Jon
 
#22 ·
The british skill's inert gas system was installed by Swan Hunter Dry Docks at Wallsend in the late fifties. the funnel was enlarged to accomodate the scrubbing tower.
The work was actually done in early 1961 &t Swan Hunters. Captain G.A.B. (Gabby) King was the Marine Super in charge and he sailed on the first voyage Banias to Isle of Grain where there was a reception for the industry to demonstrate the IG system. I was a first trip navigating apprentice on that voyage and joined at Wallsend 27/3/61
 
#17 ·
I joined the Skill as my first ship in 63, came back into falmouth for repairs and the mate inerted and ballasted simultaneously in one tank which resulted in the intertank b'heads being blown out. They sent me on the sovereign after that for a couple of months. The skill's IG scrubbing system was shot to pieces and staggers staincliffe and self (eng app) used to spend almost all our time thistlebonding the pipework.
After the Sov I went to the Kestrel and stayed with motorships for most of my time thereafter.
 
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