sas amandla x sir john ross

[Bryan Portwig]

she is being taken out of service - end of sep 2023 - at one time together with her sister wolraad woltemande the most power tugs in the world

[Doc Vernon]

Two of the great Tugs of their Era.
Cheers

Ship SA AMANDLA (Tug) Registered in South Africa - Vessel details, Current position and Voyage information - IMO 7385215, MMSI 601524000, Call Sign ZTUG | AIS Marine Traffic


Leith Built Ships: S.A.WOLRAAD WOLTEMADE

Powerfull sea-going salvage tug, formerly the John Ross.
IMO Number: 7385215 Flag: South Africa
MMSI Number: 601524000 Length: 95.0m
Callsign: ZTUG Beam: 16.0m

The John Ross and her sister Wolraad Woltemade were for many years the worlds largest salvage tugs. The design called for ships with a bollard pull of 205 tonnes of 26000 ihp and capable of 21 Knots. They are 94,6m long with a BHP of 19 200. The Ross was built in Durban in 1976 and has participated in a number of large salvage and towing operations. In early 2004 the John Ross was sold in a black economic empowerment deal to Smit Dudula Marine, a joint venture between Dutch salvage company Smit Marine and South African company Dudula Shipping. She was renamed Smit Amandla. The Wolraad Woltemade was beached at Alang in 2010 for breaking up.

[j.sabourn]

When one talks about tugs Vernon among tug people they would normally want to know first what it’s bollard pull was . In the 80s in the North Sea I was on some older ships of 80 tons bollard pull and sometimes had to use two for towing 205 tonnes would have been quite big for its age . Today I don’t know the bollard pull in use in the North Sea but when I left the oil companies were turning away ships of less than 12000 bhp.and believe it is much higher today so 205 tonnes today may be even too small for rig shifting. Cheers JS

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Thank you Bryan, you always put some lovely ships pictures on the site, thanks.
Des

[J Gowers]

The Wolraad Waltemade towed a rig, Treasure Seeker, I was on in 1994, from Singapore to Capetown where the John Ross took over and towed the rig the rest of the way to Norway. Very nice guys on the rig and we managed to buy some beer off them which they brought across to us while crossing the Indian Ocean. Castlemain XXXX went down very well.

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[j.sabourn]

#5 Heard that name many times John. Was the treasure Seeker a jack up or a semi submersible ? Memory isn’t that good. The Jack ups. I moved in Australia I had to start from scratch when mooring and usually the Barge master did it , especially on the American rigs. I was a bit unnerved to see how they positioned them but kept my mouth shut , as they had been doing it for years . But approaching the site they would lower all 3 legs about 6 feet off the bottom . I used to slow the towing tug right down and shorten his tow line , the getting closer to the site would lower the legs further , he would decide which leg he was going to use , he knew the fallacies of his vessel better than me he would lower that one particular leg to an estimated 1 foot off the bottom and by this time the rig and tug had bare steerage way . When on the site near enough that leg nearest the bottom was lowered to land on the bottom and brought the rig to a dead stop in the water. I then adjusted the heading of the rig by using the tug and swinging and swinging on the one leg to get the required heading before lowering the other 2 legs . Then used to sit there for 12 hours whilst the legs settled into the mud or sand or coral whatever it might be before releasing the tug and when the rig was the correct height out of the water. I used to have kittens when the weight came on that one leg as always had visions of it collapsing . As I have said in the past I saw no lack of safety in oil rig crews , only thing was to watch for stupid bravado like wanting to come into a drilling site like a destroyer. I found I was more comfortable mooring a semi submersible using anchors where there was less stress on the structure itself.
Cheers JS

[J Gowers]

John the Seeker was a moored semi origionally run by Treasure Petroleum, later the company name changed to Wilrig, and later still taken over by Transocean and the name changed to Transocean Discoverer. I was Chief Engineer/Maintenance Supervisor on it for over 12 years. It drilled the template (wells) for the Piper Bravo only a short distance from where the Piper Alfa went down. Later we went to Vietnam and drilled offshore Vung Tau for a couple of years before returning to the North sea went through Suez going and back around South Africa. It came to a sad end being bought by Aban and Indian oil/drilling company who converted it to a oil platform and it sunk offshore Venezula when going to its first location, no personal were harmed though. I was only on jack-ups a few times and the problems that could occur was the legs punching though the sea bed once the weight comes on them and the rig could topple over. In my last few years in the industry I was on DP drill ships mainly the GSF Explorer which was the ship built by the CIA to lift a Russian Submarine in the Pacific. story of that here:-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Azorian
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[j.sabourn]

#7 Did the Treasure Seeker still have the thrusters on her legs .Never saw one in Oz it was cheaper for the oil companies to take them off coming onto the coast here . I worked for 11 years here it was lucky for me as conditions were good at that time due to the Unions, so being mercenary I took advantage of it and was my last go at the rice bowl. Today not sure of how well that they are treated today on the odd occasion I see someone I sailed with I don’t dwell on the subject as they appear not to be too happy. Cheers JS

[J Gowers]

#8 No thrusters only straight through propellors and shafts port and stb. I believe some other Aker H3 rigs did have thrusters retrofitted at the Fwd end of the pontoons. In the North Sea we were always anchored up pointing into where the expected weather would come from and could use them to help keep the rig steady in bad weather here are a couple of pics of North Sea weather. The anemometer only went to 85 knotts so God knows what the actual wind speed was.
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[j.sabourn]

The heading of most semis in the North seas was either NE or SW the predominate weather usually being from the NE . JS