Fal River

Who is this user, there are some great shots in their gallery. Seems odd that so many vessels were laid up in 1948 when there must have been a post war boom for the shipping industry. Anyone guess at the vessels involved? 3 Sam boats, Fort/Park type make up the first clutch, then a raft of what look to be tankers,after that can`t make them out.
David

David,

I believe that this is a "catch-all" User Gallery to which the photos posted by members who are no longer part of SN for one reason or another are put by the Administrators rather than the postings of an individual.

Regards,

Brian

Thanks Brian, at least that clears up that part, now for the vessels........?
David

"Seems odd that so many vessels were laid up in 1948 when there must have been a post war boom for the shipping industry."
I wonder if this photo was taken in 1948? I think it may be 10 years later, 1958, soon after the Suez Canal re-opened, when freight rates, especially tanker rates fell through the floor. BP had 13 vessels laid up in the Fal at that time. These were the Advocate, Earl, Gratitude, Harmony, Holly, Lancer, Liberty, Marquis, Marshal, Restraint, Success, Supremacy & Venture. Some of these vessels were loaded. Some of them - the Lancer was one - never carried another cargo & went straight from lay up to demolition in September 1960.
Kind regards,
John F.

Is it me or do some of the ships look like 'Liberty' ships?
Three of the forground ships look all alike.
Regards
Mike

Mike
The raft of 4 ships in the forground are 3 Liberty (Sam boats) & 1 Fort/Park type.
John F.
There is another photo somewhere showing a raft of tankers (BP) laid up & may just be the ones in this photo but from another angle. I tend to go along with your idea about the date of 1958. It looks as though there are 9 tankers in the raft on this photo.
David
ps found the photo of laid up tankers in the gallery for tankers(logical) & a date of 56/58 is mentioned

john it is 1948 river fal truro or some thing put mouse over . com
terry music man

Terry,

Whilst I can see what you are saying, I think that the conclusion you reach is based on a basic flaw. The act of hovering the mouse over the image, will as you correctly observe, bring up a text in a small box, but that is only a file name give by someone when adding it to their computer, it is in no way any proof of the actual date of the image.

I tend to agree with John that 1948 is actually most unlikely, but I stand to be corrected.

Regards
Mark

John & Mark, like you I don't think this could have been 1948 because the 9 tankers do look like elderly BP vessels and the company wasn't laying up ships in 1948. Rather the reverse as, having lost almost 50% of their fleet during the war, they were fantically trying to obtain new tonnage. The had purchased 6 ex Empire ships from the MOWT, bought 10 T2s from America in 1947 and had ordered 10 x 8,400 dwt, 54 x 12,250 dwt and 20 16,800 dwt. new builds the first of which were only just starting to be delivered. I do, however, have a different theory as to the year the picture was taken. Between 1953 & 1954 9 elderly tankers were laid up by the BTC in the River Fal. In 1955 they were all given major overhauls, each of which took approximately 6 months to complete with all steel internals being renewed. The ships involved were: British Confidence & Diligence (refurbished in Smiths Dock, North Shields). Endurance, Integrity, Power & Resolution, (Swan Hunter, Wallsend). Destiny (Middle Docks, Southshields). British Zeal, ( Lithgows, Clydeside) & British Fortitude, (Cammell Laird, Birkenhead). Following their rebuild Fortitude, Confidence & Diligence were put out to management contract by Common Bros., Newcastle, and had the "British" prefix of their names changed to "Anglian". They also had the green band on their funnels changed to red. Destiny, Integrity & Fidelity were also put out to management contract, this time to J. & J. Denholm, Glasgow. Their "British" prefix was changed to "Gaelic". The other three returned to company service. All that is a very long winded build up to my suggestion that this picture shows those 9 ships in the Fal, putting the most likely date at 1954 or early 1955 as all nine of them are there.
Regards,
Alastair

Alastair,
As usual, your research is much more thorough than mine ever will be! Well done! I'm sure you're absolutely correct.
I think you must have a highly developed version of Photoshop as well! At the first touch of the zoom button on my version (Elements) the image started to pixelate & I couldn't tell if I was looking at a tanker or a dredger. I thought that the next raft of vessels just round the bend may possibly be tankers which made me think that it could be '57 or '58.
Well done once again - go to the top of the class!
Kind regards,
John.