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Poolta

8K views 21 replies 13 participants last post by  lagerstedt 
#1 · (Edited)
Built 1921 by Burgerhout's Mach. & Scheeps. Naamlooze Vennootschap, Rotterdam. Sold on the stocks to Tasmanian Government, Hobart and named POOLTA.
Sold to the Union Company in 1925, name retained. Laid up in Wellington in 1950. Sold to Mrs E.J. Chandris, Piraeus in 1952, renamed DESPO CHANDRIS. Sold to Emin Sadikoglu, Istanbul in 1953, renamed ARIF. Broken up Istanbul in 1961.
Photo from my collection.
 

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#8 ·
Hi Bill,

You may be thinking of the later Poolta which was still running round the Australian coast in the '80s. I was supposed to join her once but had a better offer. She had a brief moment of fame by running aground in the Barrier Reef (I think) in about '81.

I looked her up and found that she was 2085 grt and built in 1959 by Robb Caledon of Leith. She was owned by Unionsteamship Co and, I seem to recall, was managed by Unionbulkships or Howard Smith while on the Australian coast. I found a mention that in 1985 she was owned by a company called Warner Pacific and re-named Kali.

Hey, look at this - I've only just signed on and I'm on the air already!

John
 
#9 ·
Welcome aboard, John - great to have you here.
The POOLTA you mention was built for the Australian coastal trade and was owned by Union up to 1976, when she was sold to Bulkships Container Pty. Ltd., with Associated Steamships as Managers. In 1981 she was sold to H.K. Unit Trust (Hetherington Kingsbury were managers), and in 1985 she was transferred to Segment Holdings Ltd., with Warner Pacific Line of Tonga as managers. At this point she was renamed KALI.
Various sales and name changes followed and she eventually arrived at Alang in June 1999 for breaking up. 40 years service - not bad!
 
#10 ·
flyer682 said:
Built 1921 by Burgerhout's Mach. & Scheeps. Naamlooze Vennootschap, Rotterdam. Sold on the stocks to Tasmanian Government, Hobart and named POOLTA.
Sold to the Union Company in 1925, name retained. Laid up in Wellington in 1950. Sold to Mrs E.J. Chandris, Piraeus in 1952, renamed DESPO CHANDRIS. Sold to Emin Sadikoglu, Istanbul in 1953, renamed ARIF. Broken up Istanbul in 1961.
Photo from my collection.
Hi, Great photo of the Poolta brought back many memories. I joined her in Wellington as fireman ran down to Timaru she was natural draft 3 three fired boilers not a bad ship, I paid off back in Wellington to join a Swedish Tanker the Avanti as motorman, Great days. Kenneth.
 
#13 · (Edited)
Jan Hendrik said:
Never heard of Burgerhout Shipyard. Must have disappeared before WW2.

At the time this vessel was built they surely did not know how to spell "ozone layer"
Ahoy Jan,
Shame on you(*)) , you've been so long in that area, here the details:
Burgerhout's Machinefabriek en Scheepswerf, in 1925

Burgerhout startte in 1853 als een kleine grofsmederij annex constructiewerkplaats. Uit dit bescheiden begin groeide een mooie onderneming, die echter de Crisistijd niet overleefde. In 1932 werd het bedrijf geliquideerd en overgenomen door de buurman, de Scheepswerf Piet Smit Jr. Al in 1865 begon Burgerhout, toen nog gevestigd aan de Zalmhaven, zich toe te leggen op de vervaardiging van scheepsstoommachines en scheepsketels. In 1910 opende het bedrijf een nieuwe vestiging op Varkenoord.
In 1925 schreef Burgerhout in een brochure het volgende:
Burgerhout stoommachines en ketelinstallaties worden in het bijzonder in talrijke sleepboten ingebouwd, er varen honderden schepen met een Burgerhout krachtbron op de Rijn en andere rivieren. Geleidelijk is ons bedrijf er toe overgegaan, complete sleepboten te bouwen. Oorspronkelijk werd de bouw van de casco's uitbesteed; maar op de vestiging op Varkenoord zijn alle faciliteiten aanwezig om de schepen geheel in eigen beheer te maken. Zo heeft ons bedrijf een steeds breder vlucht genomen.

Naast scheepsketels hebben wij ook bouilleurketels gebouwd voor enkele grote suikerfabrieken in Indië.

Op de scheepswerf bouwen wij op onze langshellingen vrachtschepen voor de grote vaart. Verder hebben wij brede ervaring in baggermaterieel en de laatste tijd hebben we ons ook gericht op de bouw van grote droogdokken. Parel aan onze kroon is het droogdok voor de haven van Tandjong Priok, 8.500 ton groot. Onlangs nog leverden wij een 4.500 tons dok af voor Valparaiso in Chilië.

In de machinefabriek worden het laatste tiental jaren zogenaamde Burgerhout-Nobel Dieselmotoren vervaardigd, grote en krachtige oliemotoren die een zeer gunstige naam hebben verworven onder opdrachtgevers.

Met trots wijzen wij op het feit, dat Burgerhout korte tijd geleden van Rijkswaterstaat de opdracht heeft verkregen tot constructie van de stalen roldeuren voor de nieuwe zeesluis te IJmuiden, welke deuren tot de allergrootste ter wereld zijn te rekenen, en die wij geheel in onze eigen constructiewerkplaats kunnen maken. Deze laatste opdracht heeft een aanneemsom van ƒ 965.000,==.



Note: Source from www.rotterdammers.nl
 
#17 ·
The "Wairimu" had posts against the bridge front as in this view, "Wairata" lacked these as she had single gear at Number 3. In a clearer view easy to differentiate as "Wairata" was United States built standard C1-A type with lifeboat at the after end of the officers deck while "Wairimu" was a C1-B type with the lifeboat abaft the bridge. I will post a photo of "Wairata" for comparison.
 
#20 ·
The 1959 Henry Robb-built "Poolta" sailed from Port Kembla on June 19, 1968, to Hong Kong for lengthening. It was her only deep-sea voyage for USSCo (apart from her delivery) and was by way of Manila where we discharged steel products.
On arrival at Taikoo Dockyard she was put on a slip, cut through near the front of the bridge and the two halves pulled apart. Some 20' was cut from the forward piece and a pre-fab. section of 80' welded in, giving a net gain of 60'. The old cargo gear was replaced with 3 Favelle-Mort electro-pneumatic-hydraulic cranes. With those 3 power/control systems, the cranes were a bit of a headache! At the same time she was fitted with Flume anti-roll tanks and rudimentary air conditioning.
The job was pretty smartly done. We paid off on July 17, a couple of days after arrival, and rejoined on September 20.
After Hetherington Kingsbury sold her in 1984, she was re-named "Kali" and had five more names before finishing up at Alang. These names were "Kali" (1984), "Ali" (1988), "Mahan" (1989), "Sublime" (1990), "Blue Pearl" (1992) and finally "Ocean Success" (1995). All this info, and more can be found in "Union Fleet" by Ian Farquhar.
A great little ship with a Clark-Sulzer 5TD48 main engine which ran like a top.
My second ship in Union Co.
Sadly missed..............
 
#22 ·
Those of us who used work out of the site refered to it as the Herd Street office or Herd Street Building. It is next door to the now not used to often Overseas Passenger Terminal. Several of the PO engineering sections were there including the old construction branch rigging section that maintained the aerials at ZLW, Makara which is near the western approaches to Cook Strait and the long range tx/rx site at Himatangi near Palmerston North.

Regards
Blair Lagerstedt
 
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