Nigerian Creeks Anchorage Marathon

[Stephen James Singleton]

Looking for folk who "suffered" the 93 day anchorage waiting for a berth at Warri, up the Nigerian Creeks.......On Bhamo

I was the Sparks..... Capt was Stan Garside.......I think.....

It was the time of when there were in excess of 500 ships at anchor outside Lagos.....mostly carrying cement. The rumour was they had ordered the total amount of cement need to do the complete rebuilding of Apapa & Lagos docks......and it all arrived in the rainy season!

Probably an urban myth but I certainly remember the anchorage at that time.......we had ammunition on board for the Nigerian Army which was prioritised & thus jumped that particular queue....we were not so lucky with Warri though.

BRGDS: Steve.

[Phil Crawley]

I was in the apapa at that time and remember all the ships anchored off Lagos, ours was a 28 day round trip and the same ships were there trip after trip, quite a few dressed overall with sheets towels and pillow cases.

[Ivan Cloherty]

Certainly not a myth Steve. I was involved with cement purchase for UAE and we found it very difficult to get freight coverage as most ships were bound for West Africa. The Greeks! Bless em! used to buy ships and hulks that had just been delivered to the breakers, get the engines to work on a serviceable ship then tow the hulk with the ship to cement loading port, then the loaded ship would tow the loaded hulk down to WAfrica at around 4 - 5 knots. Speed wasn't important they got their payment on Bill of Lading 72 hours after leaving discharging port. The freight earned more than was paid for the old ship, the hulk and the loading costs, so they were never bothered whether they got the ship or the hulk back. Most times the Hulks were towed to deepwater after discharge and "unfortunately" sank as did the towing ship, but there was always another vessel magically close by to take off the crew with their suitcases! There was so much money involved in these scams thet rarely ended up in court nor was insurance paid, the world still rotated though!

The Greeks saw gold where others saw problems, bet the Greeks wished they had those guys in Government now!

[Gulliver]

Lagos and to a lesser degree Port Harcourt :-Memories of keeping anti-piracy watches at anchor, having to go along the coast to neighbouring Cotonou in Benin to replenish fresh water after several weeks , the incessant chatter on VHF Channel 16 of ships calling their agents in the day (and the music-usually Greek-at night(yes,still on Ch 16 !) from the many dozens of ships at anchor..the half-finished flyover to nowhere ending in mid-air over on the Lagos side…
I didn’t really know about the ‘cement ship problem’ at the time but given the general state of corruption in West Africa and in Nigeria in particular,I can well believe it.
　
Quoting a bit of history:-
“A major scandal that had international implications and reached the highest levels of government and the business community took place in the mid-1970s; it involved the purchase abroad of construction materials by state agents at prices well above market values. Rake-offs were pocketed by public officials and private contractors. Other scandals in hospitals and orphanages shocked the populace, while corruption in importing medical drugs whose effective dates long since had expired revealed that even the health of Nigerians was at risk.
Inefficiencies compounded the impact of corruption. In mid 1975 , 400 cargo ships--250 of them carrying 1.5 million tons of cement--clogged the harbor of Lagos, which had been paralyzed for fifteen months with vessels waiting to be unloaded. To compound the error, spoiled and inferior-grade cement was concealed by mixing it with acceptable material for use in public building projects. Later, buildings collapsed or had to be dismantled because of the inferior product. New roads washed away because of bad construction and inadequate controls. In these scandals, as in others, the culprits were a combination of Nigerian businessmen, government officials, and foreign companies. Few people and few projects seemed exempt from the scourge. “


Gulliver

[DENIS.WILSON]

I was was eds lycaon ex blue flue 1975 out side lagos we were at anchor for 105 days we used to get stores of the f boats when they came in used l boat to collect from them i remember the first night on the hook we got the got the paint locker stripped always remeber water was rationed i think the reason was if you went some where for stores etc you lost your place in the q

[cappy]

nice bronzie though cappy

[Steve Singleton]

Hi Ivan,
Many thanks for the background information to a part of my life spent in Nigeria.
It certainly was a sight....500+ plus ships riding at anchor. (I rather doubt they even managed those kind of numbers during WW2.)

And many apologies for the belated reply!

[Steve Singleton]

Hi Denis,
I can well imagine the daily routine.......although your 105 days makes my 95 look small beer. (Speaking of which, that was also a major problem.)

As we had ammunition for the Nigerian Army, we were fast-tracked into Lagos, where they unloaded virtually all the cargo to get out the ammo....then reloaded the cargo & sent us away!
The same happened in Warri...they unloaded us as far as the ammo destined for Warri....then put it all back & we had to re-join the queue!.....for 90+days!

Big apologies for the belated reply......I've been awful busy!

[Steve Singleton]

Hi Cappy,
Well a nice bronzie was a bonus I guess....in those days we had not heard of depleting ozone layers etc!
(I live in Chile now.....and believe me, here in the Coronel area....the sun is extremely fierce.....No more Bronzi-ing for this lad!)

Must admit...it was kind of comforting to know for every two days you were at anchor, you also had a days leave & pay to look forward to.

But think how much more interesting it would have been to have had access to the Internet........Could have done an on-line degree!

Thanks for the reply.....sorry for the late response:

Cheers,
Steve.