[Fairfield]

One of the eight PRIAM Class built for Blue Funnel and Glen Lines fitting out on Tyneside in 1967.Advanced ships,but built just too late as containerisation was making vast inroads to the general cargo trade.

 

[ruud]

Ahoy Paul,

Found me this lovely postcard, showing here at her best.
PROMETHEUS (4) was built in 1967 by Vickers Armstrong Ltd at Newcastle with a tonnage of 12094grt, a length of 563ft 11in, a beam of 77ft 11in and a service speed of 21 knots. Sister of the Priam she was completed for the Ocean Steam Ship Co. in June 1967, ten moths later than scheduled. In 1972 she was transferred to the China Mutual Steam Navigation Co. with whom she stayed for five years before being sold to C. Y. Tung's Blound Co. Ltd of Hong Kong and renamed Oriental Merchant in 1979. In the following year she was sold to Panocean Shipping Co. Inc. of Liberia and had her name modified to Oriental Merchant No.1. Later in the same year she was transferred to Calm Isle Shipping Ltd of Hong Kong and her name reverted to Oriental Merchant. In 1984 she was sold to Island Investment & Agency Corp &Wattling Nav. Inc.. On 21st March 1986 she arrived at Kaohsiung, Taiwan where she was broken up.

 

[cambria21]

Priam

Paul
My Cousin was an engineer cadet on the Priam in the early 1970's he served his time with Blue Funnel and left to join BR in Dover and Holyhead where he's from.
I have a photo of the Priam and understand she was a casualty of war in the gulf. I'll post it shortly.
Bye the way my cousins name is Colin Thomas ring any bells?
Cambria 21

 

[wdkerr]

Hi,
Stood by the building of "Prometheus" at Newcastle and sailed the first three voyages on her as 3rd engineer. The super "P"'s were a culture shock for engineers who had sailed on the old conventional ships. The first two ships out of Newcastle were the Priam and Protesilaus and were fitted with hydraulic deck cranes - a nightmare, but the Prometheus had electric cranes and less troublesome. They were beautiful ships with excellent accomodation and it was sad that they only had a limited life.
Regards, Dougie K

 

[Torrin]

Hi

I joined Ocean Fleets at the same time as your cousin Colin Thomas. If my memory serves me well we were together at college then went our different ways in 1972. It is nice to hear of names from the past. I myself did one trip on a super P the Phrontis when she was on the Barber Blue Sea run.

Regards Alan Nicholson

 

[flyer682]

"The Barber Blue Sea Run".
Often I have seen it mentioned in regard to these ships - but what actually was it?
Countries, ports etc?

 

[Allan James]

David,

BBS wasa conference of three companies, Barbers, a part of the Wilhelmsen Group, Blue Flue and I think Swedish East Asia.

The runs were mainly USA to Far East.

Initially the Super P's were put on these runs, cir***navigating the globe through the Suez and Panama canals.

Fabulous runs and great ships.

Hope that makes sense

Regards

Allan

 

[john meekin]

hi dougie, idid the first 13 voyages as ab, till 1971.do you remember the malay deck apprentice who bought his girlfriend in penang a ring for a present,her mother deemed it was a engagement ring,so he was engaged,i dont know if he married her,i dont think he was too happy.regards john meekin

 

[john meekin]

the prometheus was the first merchant ship anywhere to be fitted with G.P.S.it was my last voyage on her.we sailed on 8-2-71and took a technition down as far as las palmas to calibrate it.we were told the cost was 37,000 $,a bit more than present day sat nav.they didn,t navigate by it that trip just evaluate it,they were going to use it fully next time.it was to be tested for the bay boat container ships just being built.regards john meekin

 

[Ron Stringer]

the prometheus was the first merchant ship anywhere to be fitted with G.P.S.it was my last voyage on her.we sailed on 8-2-71....

Sorry John, but the navigational system you would have aboard would have been the US ''Transit'' system, a much earlier system than GPS. The decision to design and implement what is now known as GPS was not taken until 1973 and the full satellite complement was not launched until 1993, although a workable system was available for several years ahead of that date.

For some more detail of the timings, see http://www.kowoma.de/en/gps/history.htm

 

[bert thompson]

Fitted the radars on all the Blue Funnel ships at the Naval yard on the Tyne. Waveguide was fitted inside the mast and done while the mast was lying flat at the dockside. Had an arrangement with the welders that an apprentice would do the welding of the brackets and I would stay behind him holding the brackets in position. Unfortunately only got called to do the waveguide on the day before the mast was due to be lifted onto one of the ships. The apprentice welder was on day release and I got a welder who insisted I go ahead of him and hold the brackets. Will always remember that my socks were riddled with burn holes. A most uncomfortable day.
Happy times
Bert

 

[Bill Davies]

Certainly fine looking ships. It was just unfortunate they arrived too late.

 

[john meekin]

hi ron i think you are right,if i recall,the device only gave a limited number of "fixes" each day,depending on the number of sats in range,unlike the modern G.P.S.but it was a very big step in its day,thanks for your info.regards john