[david smith]

Lancaster (ex City of Lancaster) at Dublin after a bump with a tanker.

 

[Fairfield]

Lancaster

That brings back many memories!She was en route to Glasgow when the collision occurred.The bow was shored up with two of her derricks and she was towed to Glasgow to complete her discharge.She was then abandoned and lay for over a year if not more before being sold by the Clyde Port Authority for scrap.Must look out my shots of her.

 

[Ian]

Lancaster

Interesting shot of the LANCASTER Fairfield.

Boy, you have an interesting collection! Keep 'em coming!
You're giving a lot of us nostalgia 'buffs' a great deal of pleasure..............

Ian
(Admin). :clap:

 

[Fairfield]

lancaster

Interesting shot of the LANCASTER Fairfield.

Boy, you have an interesting collection! Keep 'em coming!
You're giving a lot of us nostalgia 'buffs' a great deal of pleasure..............

Ian
(Admin). :clap:

Not my shot-that/s David/s.I/m still looking out my shots.

 

[Les Hughes]

I was there

As second engineer I was sent up to Glasgow to pump the fuel off the Lancaster, as it belonged to Ellermans, I was chased down the gangway by a seven foot cook, I wonder if Ellermans ever got their fuel.

 

[Les Hughes]

Asked for the fuel
Les

 

[Doug Rogers]

Ah thought you might have asked him to work and cook something!!

 

[ruud]

Ahoy,

As I was just looking around here, I notized, there wasn't a piccie of her, so for all who have sailed her,and Ellerman fan's, here an piccie from the Cd-r PhotoMarine "Ships on the Net", very recommending Cd-r and most welcome for all shipslovers.

http://www.severnbore.ndirect.co.uk/pmarine.htm

Note: I'm not a sponsor, but just let you to know this opportunity.

 

[david smith]

I'll put the picture back as soon as possible!

 

[trotterdotpom]

What flag was she when the collision occurred? Presume from the funnel and ownership of the fuel, she was chartered to Ellermans.

The only time I ever heard of a cook being interested in the bunkers was a Spanish one I sailed with who poured it all over the grub.

I did a very pleasant UK coastal discharge on City of Lancaster in about 1970, very friendly and lots of laughs. I wanted to do the trip to Mauritius but had fallen out with Marconi by then. Sorry to see how she ended up.

John T.

 

[Larry Dev]

I seen her a few days prior to her collision in Avonmouth, she had her full Ellermans name then City of Lancaster. But she had a stage over the bow and stern about to paint out "City of" I presume. She was discharging tea in tea chests, the last time I seen a tea chest.
If I remember correctly she hit a loaded tanker east of Wicklow Head, the tanker was hit amidships on the port side, luckly it was an empty permanant ballast tank. The tanker was bound for Milford Haven to the Esso refinery.

 

[trotterdotpom]

According to Miramar she was broken up in 1979 - they must have considered the repair not viable. They say she was broken up at San Sebastian de (?) any ideas where?

John T.

 

[Chouan]

It would have been the late 70's, 78 or 79 when this happened, I would guess. Ellermans were busy handing over all of their older general cargo ships to greeks etc. A very unpleasant time for their officers and crews. AThey would come in to the UK from wherever, discharge their cargo, then be made redundant, or which I think is worse, discharge their cargo from India/Bangladesh/East Africa, then load for the next run, having done all the hard work, loading plan etc, and then be made redundant and a crowd of Greeks or whatever would sail the ship, still under Ellerman colours, on an Ellerman charter.
A heartless betrayal of their employees, I always thought.

 

[trotterdotpom]

Chouan, after reading your post, my first thought was that Sir John Ellerman maybe wasn't the saint he was made out to be, but I looked him up and it turns out he died in '73. Sounds like the company was taken over by the hardnoses we came to love in the 'late 70s. Business is business.

John T.

 

[Chouan]

I'm not sure that Ellermans people ever thought him, or his dad, a saint. A 3/0 I sailed with told me, that, as a cadet, when "Sir John" was onboard the City of Oxford the officers all had to use the outside access to the bridge as he didn't like seeing his employees in "his" accomodation, ie the deck that he used.

 

[Chouan]

The "hardnoses" in Ellermans were his personal friends, like "The Grinning Skull", whose son, Christopher Martin-Jenkins still irritates me with his cricket commentaries and comments, through association!
Petty I know, but still.....

 

[trotterdotpom]

Thanks, Chouan, I just remember hearing tales of this phantom figure arriving on ships, moving into the Owners Cabin and occasionally distributing largesse. Probably mostly urban myths anyway.

I'd never heard of Christopher Martin-Jenkins (I was stunned to hear that Brian Johnston had popped off) and looked him up. Looking at his photo, I can see why his father was called the "Grinning Skull". Probably, he was amongst the people who kept the company running while Sir John played with his rodents.

By coincidence, I work with a Grinning Skull right now - trouble is it's a woman! Different times.

John T.

 

[Ron Stringer]

Sir John Ellerman

Trotterdotpom,

He tended to find the "Owner's Cabin" inadequate for his needs. On the 12 passenger ships, when he took a trip he had the entire passenge deck placed at his disposal. Prior to the "City of Lucknow" having the passenger deck converted for her use as an apprentice training ship (25 apprentices taking over the 12 passengers' cabins and the public rooms were converted into schoolrooms etc,), Sir John had been aboard and used that deck as his personal accommodation for a trip to South Africa. At nearly 10,000 tons gross, she was a pretty big yacht.

 

[Chouan]

He sometimes took numbers of friends, or hangers on, with him, you know the kind of wasters, MPs, etc. All of whom, I was told, shared the same attitude to the officers and crew.

 

[crofterchief]

Can't recall exact sequence of events, but I was on the Carchester at the time and can recall seeing the Lancaster moored in the Manchester Ship Canal. We then drydocked on the Clyde only to see the Lancaster again. Sad end for an Ellerman ship, maybe surpassed by the ex City of York on its side in the medi. City of Lancaster and the others of its class were known as the small eights by those in the engine room (8 cyl. SD Sultzer) and small fours by those on deck (4 hatches). Was the Lancaster being towed from MSC to Glasgow when I caught it on camera? Once again - sad end for a ship of the once great British Merchant Navy.