[bisonphil]

Yes she was also built by Swan Hunters,1970 and scrapped
in 1983!
Phil.

 

[Shieldsman]

Yes she was also built by Swan Hunters,1970 and scrapped
in 1983!
Phil.

Cheers Phil, that has settled an argument i had with someone who said the Hibernia was built in Belfast by haarland and wolfe, i thought i was right, i was one of the children who were given the day off school to see the Northumbria being launched, i was six at the time, i can still remember it. awesome.

 

[bisonphil]

The ESSO ULIDIA was built at Harland and Wolff's 1970.

Phil.

 

[Shieldsman]

The ESSO ULIDIA was built at Harland and Wolff's 1970.

I was aware that Swans and H&W were both contracted at the same time to build supertankers, maybe thats my friend got mixed up. Thanks again for your help.

Cheers Paul.

 

[harvey19a]

The Northumbria was certainly not a great testament to British shipbuilding. I remember her at Fawley when I was Shift Super there in 81/82 - she had a metre of solidified crude in 2 wings ballast tanks, permanently in place, ensuring that those tanks could never be completely filled or emptied.

Of course, as Chris Allport rightly said, the stresses weren't completely understood at the time, but there has to be an element of penny-pinching when the 2 x Esso and 2 x Texaco were ordered - they needed scrapping relatively quickly, but another of the series, layed up after building as Tyne Pride but eventually renamed Thermidor, was a fine ship which lasted much longer than the Northumbria. I inspected this ship, and it was hard to believe it had come from the same yard as the Northumbria - suggesting to me that you get what you pay for.

I sailed on the Scotia (bit of a wreck - lots of holes in the stripping system for Neville Humble and me to fix); the Demetia (beautiful ship); and the Caledonia (too dreadful for words)!!

 

[quietman]

The Northumbria i seemed to remember was actually the worst in the VLCC fleet, I do remember her limping back down the west coast of Africa with failed steering gear.

The story i heard was the engineering department did a superb job of rigging a up steering gear system involving a 50 gallon oil drum as a header tank to a locally steered jury rigged hydraulic pump system, to get her to a repair port.
She was actually put out as a navigation warning at the time.

The rest are right ,these ships where built with every expense spaired.

Another thing i heard, the Esso Dalriada and Demetia, where built in Malmo Sweden, where the Swedes actually turned around to Esso and said you can cut costs and corners with the accomodation, but not with the basic design and build, which they seemed to be able to do with the UK built ships.

As said, it was a time of strikes and massive inflation, and Esso cost cutting on the build of these ships.

Dalriada and Demetia both came out with twin boilers not single, and did seem to be a lot more reliable.

So i don't think it was bad building on the British yards part, but more bad management, in allowing Esso to make so many cost cutting changes.

I sailed on the Esso Dalriada,Ulidia,Scotia(twice) and Hibernia,(circa 1975-77, as cadet and third mate) and Dalriada was definitely the best of the bunch to me.

Anyone remember A. Holt,( i think it was Alfie), catering officer on the Scotia? he signed me off twice,and it sticks out in my discharge book.

Pete

This has just reminded me of my time on this ship, picking up the pilot at Le Havre, starting to weigh anchor when the steering gear failed. I was on the wheel at the time.I remember reporting the helm failing to answer. The skipper practically had a baby. Apparently one of the steering motors failed and started to work in opposition to the other. We took her in the next day on one steering motor after being told not to mention the fact to the pilot.

 

[david young]

esso hibernia

hi
i was on esso hibernia when she went to scrap,being in the catering department i was not aware of build problems,but had many a good voyage
on her as well as northumbria,demetia,ulidia,scotia,when hibernia was scrapped i remember we could not pay off because a writ had been put on her from the people that bought a previous esso ship and a story of missing anodes
regards

 

[McCloggie]

I know very little about these ships or the times in whcih they were built, but seems strange that they had a life of only 10 -13 years.

My company (the company I work for!) ru an ex Maersk D class ship as an FPSO in the North Sea and she has been there for over ten years meeting all UK standards. The current rumour is that after she comes off field this year she has another contract as well.

Other Maersk D class tankers now FPSO include the Curlew which is still going strong.

Is it just because we in the oil game can pay for the Repair/Life Time Extension costs for these ships or were they actually better built to start with?

Other companies building FPSOs almost always use existing ships - even ex-RFAs as I have recently seen.

McC

 

[jimmys]

I am like yourself McCloggie I know nothing about these ships. I sailed on the Texaco Great Britain a number of times. I was on her when she was young and I was on her when she went to scrap. She steamed to scrap, a Mate and four engineers steamed her to scrap. I was the lead engineer. Her back was broken like the MSC Napoli. She was not a ship she was a steaming hulk. She could not be towed any further, she was in the Malacca Straights at the back of the Salvageman. We flashed a supertanker off Penang dangling at the back of a tug. The Mate was in the engine room as we cut the blocked shaft free his words were " If you are not out of the engine room I will be there with you". The Mate and every engineer were fully qualified. It was not a ship it was a hulk, a steaming hulk.
We were given the choice about the ship and everyone chose to steam her to scrap. I was the sole dissenter the three engineers wanted to steam I was against, the Mate said "You are steaming I go where you go". We went and made it I dont know how. I still dont know how.
Dont put any off these ships in the North sea they are different.

regards

 

[gyca]

I worked at Swan Hunter when she was built. A few things come to mind: -

The final sections of the bow had to be secured in place during a weekend because they were over the design office, which needed to be evacuated during the process.

She could only be launched on one day in March, to co-incide with the Spring tide. The unions naturally thought that this was going to be a bonanza for them, but they were completely outflanked by Tom McIver, the great Swan Hunter MD at the time. The local schools were invited to the yard for the launch and free beer in the Wallsend Boilermakers Club for the night after the launch.

It was the first launch performed by the Princess Royal and she was as excited as anyone.

A certain amount of the south bank of the Tyne had to be excavated to clear the launch path. Tom McIver was not entirely convinced about the calculation and he made the Director responsible stand on the the bank during the launch. The calculation was correct, but the stern wave surged over the bank and produced a very wet Director.

It was a very dank March day and all the launch photographs were rather poor quality.

Although a large number of people came to see the launch, far more turned out to see her depart for Lisbon for dry-docking. Well over 250,000 blocked all roads leading to the river.

She was built during a period of raging inflation and Swan Hunter lost about 20% of the sale price building her. We tried to obtain a contract revision, but got nowhere, but Esso took out their own insurance to cover 40% of the price of the ship in case she was lost before hand-over.

Fred(Thumb)

Fred,
Do you happen to remember who the launch controller was for the Northumbria?

 

[Ghost]

Northumbria, Hibernia and Great Britain all broke there backs. How strange.

 

[Harrygrimsby]

...re the loss of steering...I was on her at the time and down in the engine room working the 'wankey wankey' as we called the makeshift steering rig was murder...I was also on her when the rudder started to drop off and resulted in a few weeks alongside in Capetown...oh.and the ac never worked...Harry Greenwood AB

 

[Jim Bullough]

I remember seeing her bows on the slip at wallsend when the Tyne tunnel was opened in 1967.I was in the Northumberland Hussars TAVR unit from Blyth and part of the opening ceremony honor guard.Who would have guessed i would be part of the trials crew as a JOS in 69.We left the slip with no ballast,no fuel and no supplys of any kind.The ship had 5 tugs on her,3 on the bows and 2 on the stern,i think there was 2 more standing by.As we went down the tyne i could not belive how many people had turned out to watch her.As we proceded to go thru Tynemouth Jettys,we had 1ft to spare on either side.We anchored offshore and proceeded to take on supplys and fuel/oil for the main engines and generators to get ready for sea trials.

 

[lesliedobson]

I did two trips on the Northumbria and don't recall her being any worse than others including the 'D' boats. Think the second trip was shortly after the rudder episope and remeber a photo of her under repair with her stern in the air. Anyone got a copy to post? Got a couple of old Mariners with crew lists in - could try and post these if anyones interested.

 

[BlythSpirit]

I remember seeing her bows on the slip at wallsend when the Tyne tunnel was opened in 1967.I was in the Northumberland Hussars TAVR unit from Blyth and part of the opening ceremony honor guard.Who would have guessed i would be part of the trials crew as a JOS in 69.We left the slip with no ballast,no fuel and no supplys of any kind.The ship had 5 tugs on her,3 on the bows and 2 on the stern,i think there was 2 more standing by.As we went down the tyne i could not belive how many people had turned out to watch her.As we proceded to go thru Tynemouth Jettys,we had 1ft to spare on either side.We anchored offshore and proceeded to take on supplys and fuel/oil for the main engines and generators to get ready for sea trials.

Jim,
I think your memory is fading a bit, the distance between the piers at the mouth of the Tyne is 1200 feet - not even the Northumbria was that wide(Jester)

 

[Cutsplice]

Agreed BlythSpirit It perhaps looked is if a foot either side was spare as one approached the piers. I think you could turn her short round between the piers, but I would not like to try it.

 

[Jackaroo]

In all my years with Esso the Northumbria was the biggest load of crap that was my misfortune to sail on she could be a nightmare to work. All that class had problems but Northumbria took first prize. regards Jim B.

 

[R893891]

I never sailed on the Northumbria, but I flew out to Aruba with a Captain Steele, his last ship was the Northumbria. We were joining the Lincoln, this was in the early seventies, I was 3rd mate. Due to a cock up in the travel arrangements we missed the Lincoln and spent a (very enjoyable) week in Aruba. I also served on the Demetia and a couple of the coasters, Brixham and Woolston (not very enjoyable being a deep sea man).

 

[arthurryan]

I sailed on Scotis, Ulidia, Caledonia, Northumbria. The Scotia was my favourite, of course she was a continental build, Holland I think. She was one of the first British ships to have satellite navigation on trial. About 12 accurate positions in 24 ours if i remember correctly. I was with Esso from 1969 to 1974, i enjoyed their 3 month trips, i had only done 2 trips before on trampships, a 4 year trip and a 2 year trip !!!!!. The benefit was that i was 3rd. mate at 17 1/2 years] Arthur Ryan

 

[Ahab]

Did anyone sail with Alan Eadie?

I did on my first trip as Cadet on the Dalriada Jan 75. He relieved Capt Ian Smith. Never sailed again with him!