Douglas Christie

[Doug Christie]

SHIPS NAME AND SERVICE RECORD

Full Name

Douglas Christie

Discharge Book Number

R734706

Department

Engine Room

Your Rank/Rating

2nd/1st Electrician

Which Ships were you on and When

MV Rosebank 11/11/60-20/3/61 (2nd)
MV Rosebank 29/03/60-7/02/63 (1st)
MV Trentbank 30/04/63-13/05/63 (1st)

Notes:

My last trip was a relief voyage

[j.sabourn]

Welcome Doug you come from a well known and respected. Long Trip Tramp company , did you come across a surname of Young he would probably have been 1 or 2 mate during your times mentioned , was later master , and left there about 1980. Just the right timing for the Falklands do. Geordie by birth but had a private education so was a posh one by nature . Cheers JS

[Graham Shaw]

Welcome Aboard,Douglas. I notice you were on the Trentbank.

Whilst it's always good to hear happy stories about one's ships,there are times when we all must remember the not so good events and consider how lucky or not we were in our voyages.
The following report relates what happened to the Trentbank, just a year after your last voyage.....

On passage from Port Pirie and the western Pacific Islands ports “Trentbank” had just cleared the Suez Canal en route for Liverpool when on the 18th.September, 1964 she was in collision 70nm NNW of Alexandria,with the Portuguese tanker “Fogo(17,557 grt built 1958)” following a steering gear malfunction and was badly holed.
The 4th Engineer ,Richard Penketh was killed by the collision and was the only casualty.
52 crew and 8 passengers /supernumaries were taken off by the Liberian registered steam tanker. Harold H.Helm,51,320grt -built 58 -owned by Universe Tankships. , and Trentbank was taken in tow towards Port Said.
Trentbank sank on 24.9.64 due to deteriorating weather conditions and lack of proper assistance from shore. 8.5 n miles off Port Said .
Salvaged and towed on her side 650 miles to Piraeus,Greece.Reported to be demolished in 1970.

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Collision between Portuguese 17,557 grt steam tanker Fogo and British freighter Trentbank on 18th September 1964. Both ships had just gone through the Suez Canal in the same convoy. They had departed Port Said with the fully loaded Fogo in the lead doing 11 knots. The Trentbank was doing 14.5 knots. Both ships were on a course of 288. The weather and visibility were good. The Trentbank altered slightly to pass the Fogo, but the separation was only about 250 m. Just after the Trentbank passed the Fogo, the Trentbank’s steering gear failed, the ship turned to starboard directly into the path of the Fogo. The officer of the watch was working on the log book at the time. The Fogo hit the Trentbank midships starboard, flooding her engine room. The Trentbank was taken in tow but ended up sinking as the weather worsened.It came out that the Trentbank’s steering gear had suffered several recent failures.

“The attitude of the Master of the Trentbank and her Chief Officer was most lamentable towards automatic steering. The Master had given no orders to ensure that somebody was on lookout all the time. The Chief Officer, according to his own story saw nothing wrong in undertaking a clerical task given that he was the only person on this ship who was keeping any semblance of a lookout at all. The automatic pilot can lead to disaster if left to look after itself while vigilance is relaxed.It is on men that safety at sea depends and they cannot make a greater mistake than to suppose that machines can do all their work for them.” -Mr Justice Cairns, giving judgement in the Trentbank-Fogo case, 1967,

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Attachment 33953Attachment 33954

BoT WRECK REPORT



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[Ivan Cloherty]

.It is on men that safety at sea depends and they cannot make a greater mistake than to suppose that machines can do all their work for them.” -Mr Justice Cairns,

'Ain't that the truth'...........Not only at sea, but in all walks of life

[Doug Christie]

Hi JS, no I don’t recall that name, on the Rosebank the 1st officer I can’t remember his first name but his surname was McAlpine, 2nd was Alan McGregor 3rd Brian Lucy. All vey nice people and good company.
Cheers Doug

[Doug Christie]

Hi Graham, Thank you for your message, As I was only on the Trentbank as relief lecky and my memory is very vague on that time.
But I didn’t know the story of the sad out come of her accident, always sad to hear of ships sinking but when loss of life is involved it’s tragic,
Regards Doug