[Makari]

Can anyone help with a photo of the Bidford Priory or have any information on her, all replies most welcome. Mac

[Bruce Carson]

Hi Makari:
There is a decent picture of the 'Bideford Priory' at the following:

http://www.solen****ers.co.uk/JAlbum...%20Priory.html

Bruce C.

Sorry, the URL was too long. Try this for another picture of the ship:
http://www.merchant-navy.net/Picture...%20priory.html

[non descript]

Mac, I don't have a photograph at this stage but do have some background information for you. Bidford Priory (and sister ship Brandon Priory), 36,000 tdw steam turbine tankers, both built in 1960 the former built for at Cammell Laird and the latter at Hawthorn Leslie. They were built when BP were seeking finance for their new-building program and one method was to float jointly owned companies such as Warwick Tankers. The funnel markings with the “BP Shield" super-imposed on the Maltese Cross was a clear indication of their joint ownership. Both ships spend their entire lives chartered to BP and were sold for scrap in 1975 following the Yom Kippur War, that saw interest in such vessel drastically reduced.

[gdynia]

Mac
Similar to what Tonga wrote

Bidford Priory 1960 chartered to British Petroleum, 1975 scrapped.

[Makari]

Originally Posted by gdynia

Mac
Similar to what Tonga wrote

Bidford Priory 1960 chartered to British Petroleum, 1975 scrapped.

Big thanks guys, got the photo and all the information required, you are brilliant, cheers and all the best Mac.

[Allan James]

Theres a photo of her in Shipping Today and Yesterday, April copy....and they even get the name wrong and have renamed her the BIDEFORD PRIORY

Regards

Allan

[Fairfield]

Also a nice (trials?) shot of her at:
www.merchant-navy.net/ thumbs26.html

Very BP Bird like. No complaints about that!!

[hercules]

Good looking vessel with well appointed accommodation for that era of build. However the engine room was hot in the tropics and even hotter up the Gulf! Not very well laid out, with turbine main platform on one level and boilers on the next level up. Had lots of problems with machinery and carried additional 3rd and 4th engineers to try and keep up with the work/maintenance load. I understand the Brandon Priory (sister ship) was even worse with more engineers onboard, although never sailed on that one.

[Magnus Flaws]

My first trip was on the Brandon Priory as Junior Engineer, what an eye opener. When soot blowing you had to have a rag in front of you to check for steam leaks that would certainly have caused some pain. Hard work but good fun.

[non descript]

Our new member Emma has posted this * and if anyone has any news for her, I am sure she would be delighted to hear.

* https://www.shipsnostalgia.com/showthread.php?t=7009

[BRIAN HERDMAN]

i sailed on that tub If i wasnt for the great crew ide have commited hari cari The engineering officers salt of the earth,A LOWERY CHIEF ENG probably saved my life when my overalls got caught in taco shaft.GEORGE CHALMERS 2ND ENG,DAVE WHEELAN 3rdeng.RON PENNYCOOK 4th FRED DIFFY EX 3rd,IAN HARDIE EX 4th eng tony yates grocer(perser)

[BRIAN HERDMAN]

ANYONE REMEMBER CATCHING A WHITE TIP SHARK WITH A RED RAG AND A BUTCHERS HOOK WHILE DRIFTING IN THE INDIAN OCEAN HP TURBINE HAD BLOWN.

[Bombersman]

I was extremely interested to read your post Brian. I sailed mostly on the Brandon and Bidford between 1961 and 1967. I served my time with Alan Lowery who was a great friend of mine and my first junior when I was promoted to fourth enginer. Dave Wheelen may well be the same Dave Wheelen who was a Alan Lowery's junior when Alan and I were both thirds.

You will probably guess where my name on this site comes from.

[John Campbell]

I had a great pall who was 2nd Eng on the Bidford Priory or Brandon Prory he was William (Bill) Wood who sadly passed away some years ago.The outline of that fine looking tanker is etched on his headstone in Newbrugh Churchyard Aberdeenshire.
JC

[Bombersman]

Hi John.

I knew "Willie" Wood well and sailed with him often. He was junior second when I first met him on the Bidford just before Christmas in 1961. I was the only Junior on board at that time on the 12 to 4 with a Duncan Batgate from Edniburgh.

Willie Wood, as he was known to his shipmates, was a salt of the earth man who was very well liked and respected by everyone who knew him. A quiet and steady a man as i have ever known.

He was one of the engineers who was involved in a change over to running on the LP turbine after the HP thrust failed on th Brandon Priory in the Red Sea in the summer under chief engineer Rory Mcdonald, senior second engineer Ellis mason and third engineer Ali Scurr. Not a pleasant experience.

I am extremely sorry to hear of his death. Thank you for letting me know.

Kind regards

Bob

[Bombersman]

As well as Having the BP shield in the funnel, the names Bidford Priory and Brandon Priory also reflected connection with BP in their initials.

[John Campbell]

Hi Bombersman,
I passed on your kind remarks to Willie's widow, Betty , tonight and she was most grateful and asked me to pass on her thanks. Willie spent some time on the Uncle John after leaving the Brandon Priory - he was an excellent engineer of the old school. Sad he passed away so soon after retiral.
Best Regards
JC

[Bombersman]

I passed on your kind remarks to Willie's widow, Betty , tonight and she was most grateful and asked me to pass on her thanks.

How kind of you, JC. I appreciate that. I never met Betty, but I know that Willie was quite upset shortly after their marriage to have to leave her at home while he returned to commence another trip at sea. I was told this by a third called Ali Scurr who sailed with Willie shortly before I joined the MN.

I was more fortunate as, with changing times, i was allowed to take my wife Nora to sea with me shortly after we were married.

Betty has my deepest sympathies, as she has lost a very nice husband.

Kind regards

Bob

[Bombersman]

Hello again John Campbell and a good evening to you.

After our recent conversation, I contacted Albert Scurr (Ali) who also sailed with Willie Wood and informed him of the loss of our much respected and highly thought of Shipmate, Willie Wood. He was very sad to hear of Willie's death and sends his condolences to Betty.

Ali was with Willie on the Brandon Priory's maiden voyage when she ran the HP turbine thrust in the red sea and was rigged to run on the LP turbine only. Betty may well remember this.

Kind regards

Bob W

[John Campbell]

Hi Bob,

I have contacted Betty and she was pleased to get your news about Ali and yourself. She remembers Willie speaking about the problems on the B.P.
She has passed on the whole thread, which I printed out for her, and passed it to her daughter and granchildren who were delighted to know something more about Willie. She says thanks for your kind condolences

I knew him because Betty was my wife's best friend having worked together in the same office. Being both at sea we met infrequently until I came ashore to work in the North Sea and Willie came to work on the Uncle John. He was a great Houlders Man and always attended the reunions. He had a good shoreside job a couple of years before retirement where he got to use his skills as a marine engineer. Sadly he passed away after a long illness with cancer of the pancreas. He is still sadly missed by us all.

I remember meeting Willie by sheer chance one morning on the jetty at Sitra, Bahrain he coming back from having a tooth out at the Dentist and going back to the B.P.at anchor and me on the way to the Agents. A great surprise for us both.

Best Regards

JC

[Bombersman]

Originally Posted by John Campbell

Hi Bob,

I have contacted Betty and she was pleased to get your news about Ali and yourself. She remembers Willie speaking about the problems on the B.P.
She has passed on the whole thread, which I printed out for her, and passed it to her daughter and granchildren who were delighted to know something more about Willie. She says thanks for your kind condolences

I knew him because Betty was my wife's best friend having worked together in the same office. Being both at sea we met infrequently until I came ashore to work in the North Sea and Willie came to work on the Uncle John. He was a great Houlders Man and always attended the reunions. He had a good shoreside job a couple of years before retirement where he got to use his skills as a marine engineer. Sadly he passed away after a long illness with cancer of the pancreas. He is still sadly missed by us all.

I remember meeting Willie by sheer chance one morning on the jetty at Sitra, Bahrain he coming back from having a tooth out at the Dentist and going back to the B.P.at anchor and me on the way to the Agents. A great surprise for us both.

Best Regards

JC

Hi John,

Thank you for the feed back about Willie. We often wonder what became of our friends at sea after we have come ashore and this site fills that question very well.

I am very pleased that our conversation has been of interest to Willie's family. This gives even more value to this site than I would have thought when getting on board a few days ago. What a good idea that was, to give Betty a printout.

My first trip at sea was on the Brandon Priory in the summer of 1961 after she had undergone repairs to the HP turbine at Hawthorn Leslie's ( I was involved in this as an apprentice) subsequent to the HP thrust failure. I didn't meet Willie until I joined the Bidford Priory just before Christmas 1961 and was the only junior aboard. An old (to me at the time) chief engineer was a man called Baker, a fellow geordie, and the acting second was a Roly Johnson. We had a third called Franky Garvock from South Shields who ahd been torpedoed twice.

"Sadly he passed away after a long illness with cancer of the pancreas."
Another obvious question, which we are often inhibited from asking, answered. Thanks again.

Best wishes

Bob W

[Bombersman]

I wonder if anyone here rembers a man from Stonehaven called Jimmy Carnegie. Jimmy was great bloke and sailed on the Bidford, in 1962, with me to get his chief's steam time in. I met him later as chief on the Bidford when he was joining as I was being relieved. He was a quiet spoken man and sometimes difficult to hear in the engine room. His Junior was a lad called Earny Cherry who nicknamed him "The quiet man". Alan Lowery was my junior at the time.

Bob W.

[chadders]

Originally Posted by BRIAN HERDMAN

i sailed on that tub If i wasnt for the great crew ide have commited hari cari The engineering officers salt of the earth,A LOWERY CHIEF ENG probably saved my life when my overalls got caught in taco shaft.GEORGE CHALMERS 2ND ENG,DAVE WHEELAN 3rdeng.RON PENNYCOOK 4th FRED DIFFY EX 3rd,IAN HARDIE EX 4th eng tony yates grocer(perser)

I remember Dave Whelan he was 3/E on the Cerinthus when I was apprentice in '69 and Ron Pennycook was 3/E on the Hardwicke when she was a cadet ship in '76/77. TAG was the Old Man and Bomber Harris was C/E. I was 2nd Mate

[Bombersman]

Originally Posted by chadders

I remember Dave Whelan he was 3/E on the Cerinthus when I was apprentice in '69 and Ron Pennycook was 3/E on the Hardwicke when she was a cadet ship in '76/77. TAG was the Old Man and Bomber Harris was C/E. I was 2nd Mate

Mornin' chadders, nice to hear from you.

Dave Whelan was a first trip junior on the Bidford, along with John Kincaid who was sadly killed on the Royston Grange. I remember one morning in the Caribbean heading for Las Salinas in Lake Maracaibo, when we had one of those torrential storms and the engine room skylights were vertical. This happened as Alan Lowery was taking over the watch so Kinky was left on the plates at the controls (in keeping with standing orders) while Dave, Alan and I stripped boilers suits ( we were almost about to go under a waterfall ) off and scuttled up top to close the skylights before any water got to any electrics.

Bomber on the Cerinthus Eh! How did they manage to prise him from the Bidford I wonder, which was looked on as his ship.

Kind regards

Bob W

[clonguish]

Sorry folks but I sailed on the bidford for 5 Months as 5/e in 75 and it was my worst trip I ever had C/E Lowry and his side kick Dave x2/E took an instant dislike to me and that also being junior to a 4/E who drank too much and the 3/O who likewise the higherachy in ER did not take kindly to me, had my watch off for my 21st cancelled and then to top it all they stopped my tap cause the taps had been stoppped on the 3/O and 4/E so tuff tiity to me. I thank God for the great skipper Paddy Slevin and C/S Maud ( I had sailled with Maud when she as AssC/S on the Hardwicke) who smuggled me the occasional brew ( even though Paddy was dry at sea ) that helped keep my sanity. My opinion of Alan and Dave remains tainted.