British Confidence

Built by John Brown & Co of Clydebank & completed in August 1965. She was of 67,944 dwt. By 1975 BP had her laid up at Singapore. She was sold for demolition by April 1976 - a very short life. She had been superceded by the ULCCs & proved uneconomical. I think she was also one of the last turbine powered, from a British yard at least.
Once had a very good night in Stavanger.
Kind regards,
John F.

Correct John, the last steam job from a UK yard.
BP did of course have other steamships built later. Those being the 6 R class VLCC's and the two sisters which were taken on bareboat from P&O. Those being British Trident/Norness.
All the LNG carriers built upto 2003 were all Steam. The last one was the 'British Merchant' in 2003.
A bonnie funnel though!

Pretty much true John so far as British yards and steam turbines go. Of the 5 "C" class of 67,000 tonners only the Confidence and the Captain were turbine powered and both of them were scrapped in 1976. The other three diesel engined ships did much better with Commerce and Centaur lasting 18 years and the Commodore 16. The two turbine powered 75,000 tonners, British Mariner & Ensign, completed in '63 & '64 only managed 11 years before being scrapped and the company's first two 100k+ ships, Admiral and Argosy, turbine powered and completed in 1965 & '66 respectively also only made it to 1976. That was it for British built turbine powered ships. Far eastern yards took over the large ship builds after that execpt for the turbine powered "P" class of 3 x 220,000 and 2 x 250,000 ordered from the Netherlands and France. The British Patience, built in Rotterdam, was so troublesome with the gearing problems that bedevilled all this class that the company scrapped her after only 8 years. They managed to flog both the Promise and the Pride to the National Iranian Tanker Co. after only 2 & 3 years service repectively and the other two, British Purpose & Progress were scrapped in 1985 having both been completed in 1973. After that ships built in the far east were the future.
Regards,
Alastair

Compare the proud & regal funnel colours to todays watered down version!

Bound to be watered down again sometime in the future to become yet more anaemic and anonymous.

Regards,
Rick

Maybe not the funnel colours Rick, but I don't think the 'British' prefixes will last too much longer, all in the name of PC of course.
The hull colours are changing over from black to orange, with the decks going light grey.

"The British Patience, built in Rotterdam, was so troublesome with the gearing problems that bedevilled all this class that the company scrapped her after only 8 years."
She was launched by the wife of G.A.B. King (who was MD of the Company).She (the ship, of course) must have tried his patience no end.....
Kind regards,
John

John,
I swear the colours are not so vivid on the new ships ( or is it my eyesight failing further ?)

Regards,
Rick

Rick,
At least they could build sexy funnels with curves in those days. These days they're all angles & cubes. Russell Flint or Picasso? I know which I prefer! (Never thought I'd call a funnel sexy).
Kind regards,
John.

Rich,
You're correct, they aren't so vivid. On today's funnels the green band is too thin, and there is no black borders between rings, which would improve the look no end. The paint is plain signal red, originally it was sort of halfway between that and maroon.