[Fairfield]

One of 5 RIVER Class tankers built between Lithgow/s and Scotts' yards in the early 70s.
This was taken in 1973 at Southampton when BRITISH TWEED new,embarked on her maiden voyage carrying fresh water to Gibraltar in her unsoiled tanks.
She was only scrapped this year as MINAB I

 

[tanker]

Now i think in service remain BRITISH FORTH she is under greek flag as CHRYSSI built by Scott s.BRITISH SEVERN as MARUN and BRITISH NEATH
as MOKRAN all Iranian but built Cockerill Yards.!!!

 

[Fairfield]

Now i think in service remain BRITISH FORTH she is under greek flag as CHRYSSI built by Scott s.BRITISH SEVERN as MARUN and BRITISH NEATH
as MOKRAN all Iranian but built Cockerill Yards.!!!

Seem to remember that BRITISH TRENT had a serious collision and fire in the 80s.

 

[Springers]

Picture of British Tweed

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One of 5 RIVER Class tankers built between Lithgow/s and Scotts' yards in the early 70s.
This was taken in 1973 at Southampton when BRITISH TWEED new,embarked on her maiden voyage carrying fresh water to Gibraltar in her unsoiled tanks.
She was only scrapped this year as MINAB I

undefined

Re the Pic of British Tweed, did you take it yourself? I joined her at Greenock as a GP3 and did that run to Gibralter.

 

[Broady]

I served on a few of these
British Wye
British Fidelity
British Humber
Minab
good ships and plenty of good memories on them

 

[fazak]

I served on the British Tweed maiden voyage. The welding and fittings were a disgrace to british shipbuilders. When we sailed and started to roll a bit we discovered loads of empty beer & wine bottles rattling around in the deckhead.Painters who had painted the decks hadn't bothered to pick up rags and rubbish but just painted over them.Whilst tying up on the Bonny river in Nigeria a fairlead dolly ripped off the focsle from it's welding causing the nylon mooring rope to snap resulting in two lads loosing their legs. That said there
was a good crew on board and we did manage to have a few laughs during the trip.
Roy.

 

[rushie]

Hi,

The "River" class vessels that saw service in the Falklands were the Esk, Tay, Test, Dart, Trent, Avon and Wye. My late father served on the Test and the Avon and thought they were great ships.

Anyone know why the Tweed may have been any different..?

Cheers,

Rushie

 

[Paul Barford]

Sailed on the 'Tweed in 1985. By this time she was under Stolt management manned by Stolt personel except Master & C/E who were BP men.She was put under the Bahamas flag and renamed "BP Tweed" as was the 'Humber which was managed by Dorchester Marine.
This I believe was a try-out before flagging out the entire BP fleet and at the time,we as Stolt personnel were expecting to manage a chunk of the BP fleet but this did not materialize in the end,the 'Tweed we handed over to Dorchester in early 1986 at Tarragona.
The ship was fitted with a RAS deck & equipment which was still there at the time I was on her, but believe it was never used as the Falklands campaign had ended. It came in useful for barbeque's and sun-bathing though!

 

[willhastie]

the two guys on the weed who lost their legs, names were lenny wiseman and dave simmonds. rang them in hospital on our return to swansea,reckoned they were well looked after,but then lost contact. saw them in port harcourt hospital the nurses had mud plastered in their hair,went back onboard and told the ol man gil barber that they could not stay there as the conditions would kill them,gil must have pulled strings as a doc and nurse came down from gib and took them back.

 

[coley70]

River Class

I sailed on the Tweed when she was the Minab. We were continually shadowed by an American warship up The Gulf. We tied up on an "H" jetty at Bahrain and this warship came in diagonally behind us. Don't know what the port authority was thinking of. We had american sailors spitting at us. The daft thing was we only had 1 Iranian deck cadet aboard. I payed off in Bahrain a few weeks later. I believe she was abandoned at anchor for several weeks off Sharjah shortly after that.

I sailed on the British Forth twice. Did my 1st trip as 4/E on her. Thought she was a great ship, many fond memories. Mostly coastal trading round Oz and NZ. Made it to Fiji as well. Port Moresby but no shore leave.

Also sailed on the British Tay. Major problems with the turbo-blower. The scavenge ports kept choking up. Had to chisel them out frequently.

Coley

 

[kevjacko]

My Uncle was the Chief Steward on the Tweed on this voyage, Tony Leslie, he has now sadly passed away a few years ago now. He told me the story of the Tweed and also the trip after when 3 lads sadly lost their lives on the Renown down the tanks. As Chief Steward first aid was his responsibility. I can recall the details of his story vividly, and also from other crew members I met while serving with BP myself. I know this trhread is a couple of years old but I am fairly new to the site and just catching up.

 

[geoff_b]

i sailed on quite a few river boats, all good fun as they say,

 

[Vital Sparks]

Hi,

The "River" class vessels that saw service in the Falklands were the Esk, Tay, Test, Dart, Trent, Avon and Wye. My late father served on the Test and the Avon and thought they were great ships.

Anyone know why the Tweed may have been any different..?

Cheers,

Rushie

This class were built in yards all over Europe. The best of them were built in Sweden.

 

[gadgee]

I have moved the thread from tankers to BP Shipping.

 

[stan302]

I sailed on the Tweed when she was the Minab. We were continually shadowed by an American warship up The Gulf. We tied up on an "H" jetty at Bahrain and this warship came in diagonally behind us. Don't know what the port authority was thinking of. We had american sailors spitting at us. The daft thing was we only had 1 Iranian deck cadet aboard. I payed off in Bahrain a few weeks later. I believe she was abandoned at anchor for several weeks off Sharjah shortly after that.

I sailed on the British Forth twice. Did my 1st trip as 4/E on her. Thought she was a great ship, many fond memories. Mostly coastal trading round Oz and NZ. Made it to Fiji as well. Port Moresby but no shore leave.

Also sailed on the British Tay. Major problems with the turbo-blower. The scavenge ports kept choking up. Had to chisel them out frequently.

Coley

I sailed on the Forth in 1978. Also went to Port Moresby while serving on the Fidelity. Grim place, as I remember, on a Sunday afternoon. Only place we managed to find open to get a drink was the bowling club which was full of Aussies drinking themselves senseless through lack of anything else to do. Happy memories of both ships even though the Forth was the last ship I served on.

 

[RAF]

British Tweed maiden voyage

One of 5 RIVER Class tankers built between Lithgow/s and Scotts' yards in the early 70s.
This was taken in 1973 at Southampton when BRITISH TWEED new,embarked on her maiden voyage carrying fresh water to Gibraltar in her unsoiled tanks.
She was only scrapped this year as MINAB I

I stood by both the "Avon" the 1st of the series and the "Tweed" the 3rd od the five.

I remember loading the fresh water in Southhampton through six fire hoses - all that the Port Authority would allow us. It was quite strange loading with the tank lids all open. No need for Inert gas!

I also recall while discharging in Gibralter that it pored with rain the whole time we were there.

The accident in Okreka later in the voyage was very distressing to all onboard as we had reported suspect deck fitting strength on the "Avon" and having stood by them both I know no mods were made.

Good ships and all the modern automation at the time was a real pleasure after the old 16 teens and Bird Boats.

RAF

 

[BillH]

Can anyone say for certainty why BRITISH HUMBER although having a river name was not one of the class but more akin to the older Fidelity type in appearance?

Never did find out during our lengthy research for our BP Tanker book.

Bill

 

[Vital Sparks]

The received wisom of the time was that the shipyard at Split, having previously bult one of the "Ity" class, tenderd and won the contract to build one of the "River" class. The hull number and name were allocated after which the yard revealed it would be actually unable to build the hull. After considerable legal wrangling it was agreed that they would build another "Ity" boat instead which became known as the "Humberity".

 

[beverlonian]

Can anyone say for certainty why BRITISH HUMBER although having a river name was not one of the class but more akin to the older Fidelity type in appearance?

Never did find out during our lengthy research for our BP Tanker book.

Bill

My reply to the same question in another thread.............

Quote:
Originally Posted by James_C View Post
fishcake,
It was only the Humber. She was also the only one built in Croatia. For reasons best known to the management at the time she was given a 'River' name, and as such was included with the other 15 'real' river boats on all company Do***entation and management etc.[/I]
My recollections at the time were that the yard in Split (I think) were contracted to buld 3 vessels. Two were the Unity and Fidelity. For whatever reason the last vessel was delayed until the River class was built. Rumour at the time was that the yard did not have the technical ability to build a River class vessel, so BP settled for a third -ity boat but gave it a River class name (Humber) as it was being delivered at the same time as these.
I sailed on the Dart and Kennet, both good vessels with the exception of the boiler automation which was a nightmare.

 

[derekhore]

I stood by both the "Avon" the 1st of the series and the "Tweed" the 3rd od the five.

I remember loading the fresh water in Southhampton through six fire hoses - all that the Port Authority would allow us. It was quite strange loading with the tank lids all open. No need for Inert gas!

I also recall while discharging in Gibralter that it pored with rain the whole time we were there.



RAF

We did exactly the same on the Nordic Breeze (Wallem Shipmanagement UK), 6 fire-hoses through the tanktops to load 32, 000t of freshwater on the QE2 berth!

In Gib, the only berth that could take us was the naval one used by the old Ark Royal, so they laid hoses up the jetty for us to discharge along .. pump for 4 hours, then stop for about 10!!
Great maiden voyage!!!