Collision

[j.sabourn]

As long as it wasn’t Alan Medd from South Shields who wrote in the Shields paper under the name of the Happy Wanderer. Sailed with me on the Pennyworth , over Xmas in Oxelosund of me sitting between 2 females looking the worse for wear, the camera always takes bad shots of me , said he was going to put it in the Shields Gazette, he was a 66 year old then and told him he wouldn’t reach 66 if he did and would die penniless as would sue the ass off him beforehand. He may of appeared a kindly old Santa to some, but a lot of people rued the day he stepped on board . He got a third mates job during the war and think it made him feel indestructible .He wasn’t .Now my mam when I was home used to go through my pockets to make sure I hadnt been robbed when I rolled home. If she had wrote it , it would have been in the foreign language they speak in the Highlands or Esperanto maybe. Cheers JS

[Graham Shaw]

JS Re Yr.#49 Exmoor v.Ruys

[On August 22^nd 1962 a collision occurred in the entrance channel to Buenos Aires between the Dutch m.v. Ruys, outward bound for Yokohama with passengers and cargo, and the British mv Exmoor, inward bound part laden with grain for the United Kingdom. The Exmoor sustained damage at the forward port bow, the Ruys suffered 75 feet of damage to the port side, and returned to Buenos Aires to effect temporary repairs.]


A comment on Ship’s Nostalgia stated the Exmoor spent a total of 3 weeks in BA,repairing and cargo ops.

I suppose being a ‘minor collision’ with no loss of life and both vessels under pilotage there does not appear to be much reported on this,perhaps not even locally ,only a mention quoted above on the Ruys passenger ship history site ..
(Unlike the tragic collision 10 years later in 1972 with great loss of life when the Royston Grange and Tien Chee collided in the same locality.)

[j.sabourn]

#52.. Thanks Graham I won’t bore you again with the details as have done so previously , but minor must mean different things to different people. I had nightmares for at least 5 years after . We always try to block bad memory’s , I never even knew the Ruys was bound for Japan always was led to believe she was bound for Europe maybe because there was a large insurance claim for the passengers having to be flown back to Europe. It was the Master of the Ruys retirement trip also , as went on board her to see my opposite number and he told me he was devasted by the occurrence . Around about the same time think it was the old kirriemoor was in collission down the Red Sea. Both the ex and the kirrie were shortly after being patched up sold to foreign owners . JS

[j.sabourn]

#53. If it wasn’t the kirriemoor then it may have been the Cragmoor . JS

[happy daze john in oz]

Last week in Hobart port two tugs collided, one sank.
No one is quite sure how this happened but according to reports they were almost head on when it happened.
No doubt in time after some investigation we may find out.

[Graham Shaw]

#52.. Thanks Graham I won’t bore you again with the details as have done so previously , but minor must mean different things to different people. I had nightmares for at least 5 years after . We always try to block bad memory’s , I never even knew the Ruys was bound for Japan always was led to believe she was bound for Europe maybe because there was a large insurance claim for the passengers having to be flown back to Europe. It was the Master of the Ruys retirement trip also , as went on board her to see my opposite number and he told me he was devasted by the occurrence . Around about the same time think it was the old kirriemoor was in collission down the Red Sea. Both the ex and the kirrie were shortly after being patched up sold to foreign owners . JS

JS Re Yr. #53/54 Yes John,and that is why I put 'minor collision' in inverted comas.For we seafarers any collision is potentially serious as you will know,and can quite rapidly escalate into a life and death situation,for one or both parties involved.

I have just sifted out info from the books about your well-regarded Moor/Runciman vessels.I am always surprised at how many different vessels with the same name that some of these older British companies had,not necessarily at the same time,but frequently with the same name within say a decade of each other,(Bank Line, and Bibby Line in later years ,were good at that) !with some of these generally well-maintained older British vessels finding a ready second-hand market and thus enabling the selling company to update their fleet with new or newer stock.

I haven't time just now to fully write about the incidents mentioned so will just offer for now the following : I will follow up later.


KIRRIEMOOR of 1935 was,as the Lebanese E.MYRTIDIOTISSA wrecked off Archangel in 10/65 .
EXMOOR of 1950 was,again as a Lebanese vessel ASTIR went on to 1972 before scrapping.
CRAGMOOR of 1947 ,as the Indian RATNA SHOBHANA ,was wrecked in the Hooghly River,Calcutta in June 1966.

Cheers
Graham

[Graham Shaw]

Continuing my #56 re Histories of Kirriemoor and Cragmoor

KIRRIEMOOR-164461.jpg

Courtesy Walter Frost-city of Vancouver Archives)

m.v.KIRRIEMOOR (0.N.164461) 4,970 grt, compl.5/35 by Wm.Doxford & Sons,Pallion Yard,Sunderland as Yard No. 614 for owners Lord Runciman & Co.Ltd,London.
[ Notice how the owning company changed name variously over the 20 years of ownership I.e. from Lord Runciman & Co.Ltd,London as completed to;-
1938 Runciman Sg.Co.Ltd,London
1947 Walter Runciman & Co.Ltd,London
1950 Moor Line Ltd.]
[During the 2^nd World War years- 8/40-6/46 the Admiralty requisitioned her as a boom carrier.]1955 Sold to Rederi A/B Nordic of Stockholm,Sweden Renamed TRANSIC
1961 Sold to Lebanese Greeks,reg’d Beirut as KALLIOPI D.LEMOS
1965.Renamed E. MYRTIDIOTISSA.Same owners.
Fate
[from a Lloyds publication]

‘The Lebanese motor vessel E.MYRTIDIOTISSA en route from Cardiff to Archangel,northern Soviet Union in ballast condition arrived off Archangelsk pilot station during the afternoon of August 1^st 1965 ,but due to the severity of the weather conditions it was impossible to get a pilot aboard .As the gale force winds and high seas prevented the vessel from turning she drifted towards the shore,sending a Mayday distress signal, before being forced aground off Kumbysh Island in Lat.64-41.1N,Long.39-47.0E,over 1 mile from deep water.With her bottom being seriously damaged due to heavy pounding in the shallows ,the wrecked vessel was abandoned as a total loss.’

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
m.v.CRAGMOOR (O.N.181624)
5,253 grt cargo ship compl. 5/47 By Wm.Doxford & Sons,Pallion,Sunderland as Yard.No.741 for Moor Line Ltd,London.

1962 Sold to Ratnakar Sg.Co,Ltd.Calcutta,India.Renamed RATNA SHOBHANA
Fate
[from a Lloyds publication]
'The Indian motor vessel RATNA SHOBHANA carrying 8,500 tons of bagged rice from Rangoon for discharge at Calcutta ,ran aground at about 3.30pm on June 5^th,1966 due to a steering breakdown in the River Hooghly,off Muna Khali ,eight miles from Garden Reach,Calcutta.All efforts to refloat the vessel,even with tug assistance proved to be unsuccessful .All forward holds and the engine room flooded ,with the consequence that the Ratna Shobhana broke in two amidships.With every change of tide the wrecked vessel sank deeper.She was abandoned as a Constructive Total Loss'.
CRAGMOOR -ON.181624.jpg

Courtesy Coll.of Richard Cox

[Dennis McGuckin]

SS Iberia, 1956 in the Indian Ocean.
Collision at night with a tanker.Iberia 4.jpgIberia3.jpgIberia2.jpg

[Graham Shaw]

#52.. ...... I never even knew the Ruys was bound for Japan always was led to believe she was bound for Europe maybe because there was a large insurance claim for the passengers having to be flown back to Europe. It was the Master of the Ruys retirement trip also , as went on board her to see my opposite number and he told me he was devasted by the occurrence . JS

I Found a typical sailing schedule online LINK for Ruys and her Dutch stablemates Tegelberg and Boissevain .


March 1956 to June 1957 Schedule: Yokohama, Nagoya (optional), Osaka (optional), Kobe, Hong Kong, Singapore, Port Swettenham and/or Penang, Mauritius, Lourenço Marques, Durban, Port Elizabeth, Cape Town, Rio de Janeiro, Santos, Buenos Aires. Returning; Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Santos, Rio de Janeiro, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, East London, Durban, Mauritius, Belawan for (one call each ship, thereafter optional), Singapore, Manila (Boissevain called once, otherwise optional), Hong Kong, Kobe, Osaka (optional), Nagoya (optional), Yokohama.
Note: Optional ports were based on number of passengers booked to board in those ports, otherwise if in numbers were very small in Japan, they would travel to Yokohama, or the nearest port the ship would be berthed.

Her last years
1967
April: Royal Interocean Lines announced plans to retire the Ruys, Tegelberg, Boissevain & Tjitjalengka during 1968.
October 2nd: whilst passing Port Luis en-route for Penang the Ruys picked up an emergency broadcast from the S.A. Statesman (SAF-Marine) advising a crew member had been taken seriously ill and the ship did not have the necessary medicines on board. However the Ruys did have a supply of the medicines. With a rough sea preventing lowering of a lifeboat, the decision was made to use the 'Schermuly-rocket apparatus' to get a line between the ships. Keeping the wind on the starboard beam the faster S.A. Statesman drew alongside allowing a successful firing of the rocket, leading to a line hauled on to the ship, followed by the safe transfer of the medicines. After about four days the crewmember was well on the way to a full recovery.
1968
June 1968: the Ruys departed South America for her last sailing to Japan. As the journey progessed the ship lost time. Whilst at Hong Kong the ship departed three times! The first, on the evening of August 19th celebrated the 'Hong Kong Harbour Cocktails Cruise', with 360 invited guests and many, many 'stowaways'. On August 21st the Ruys put to sea due to the presence of typhoon Shirley in the vicinity of Hong Kong. The final departure was on August 23rd when the Ruys set sail for Japanese ports. Heavy rain from typhoon Trix kept the Ruys at Kobe for two extra days, prior to her final port of call, Yokohama. The Ruys departed Yokohama on September 6th, returning to Hong Kong with a mixture of crew & RIL staff contemplating this last voyage, lengthened slightly by the need to weave around the seasonal typhoons.

During August 1968 the Ruys was sold for breaking to Messrs Tung Ho, Taiwan, with delivery to Kaohsiung during September.



Captains
May 1959 - May 1961 C H Gosselink - retired - last command
May 1961 - ?? A J van Ankeren
?? - September 1963 H A Scheybeler
September 1963 - ?? P H Zweers
September 1964? - August 1965 E M Drukker
September 1965 - February 1966 J H W Voigt
March 1966 - August 1968 J D Jelijs

[j.sabourn]

Ref. The Runciman of London and Runciman of Newcastle , were I was always aware as two seperate and different company’s , the London one being the papers boats commonly known as , think they may have been the the Beaver boats but could be wrong. Lord Runciman was at one time the head of the BOT during the war. They also had affiliations with Anchor Line of Glasgow and in 1964 they moved up there, I was offered continued employment , without a contract but smelled fishy , so went with Dalgliesh instead , who were even smellier as regards the fish . They head hunted me after leaving Foreign flag years later and did one trip on a different Exmoor down the Red Sea taken freebies to Ivan’s diliquents in the Sudan.However going back as an extra hand everyone thought I was after their job so left, I should of gone with Chatty Chapman’s who also offered employment at the same time.
JS