S.S. ´´Royston Grange´´ - 40th. anniversary - 1972-2012
11th. May 1972 - 11th. May 2012
SS ´´Royston Grange´´
A service of ´´Remembrance & Thanksgiving´´, in memory of the Crew, Passengers and River Plate Pilot who perished as a result of the collision in the River Plate, between this vessel and the M.T. ´´Tien Chee´´, 40 years´ ago, will be held at the British Cemetery, Montevideo, Uruguay on Friday 11th. May, 2012 at 10:30 a.m.
Family members of the deceased will be present at the ceremony.
Contacts (in Montevideo)
Cynthia Myers Dickin - cynthiadickin@gmail.com
Ian Dickin - iandickin@adinet.com.uy
Diana Beare - dibeare@hotmail.com
Please also see: Royston grange:
IN TRIBUTE VIA MUDCAT CAFE:
Subject: Lyr Add - ROYSTON GRANGE
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 30 Apr 08 - 02:01 PM
ROYSTON GRANGE
(Ron Baxter et al)
Tune: Ross Campbell
You men that sail the ocean, come listen to my song;
And find a lesson, if you can, in a voyage that went wrong.
For when you leave the land behind, your luck may quickly change -
Sit down, I'll tell to you the tale of the vessel "Royston Grange".
Her cargo it was frozen beef, sent from the Argentine;
Her crew they hailed from London, from Glasgow and the Tyne.
Off the River Plate they met the fog, and in that lies the blame;
For through that fog there came a ship - the doom of the "Royston Grange".
The RADAR was revolving, for an echo could be seen;
Coming fast, but it would pass by on the starboard beam;
But that heavy-laden tanker, for reasons never found,
Put her helm to starboard and the "Royston Grange" ran down.
Though the Captain called for "Full Astern" and the wheel was spun around,
The tanker's bows drew nearer, and through her sides they ground;
No explosions lit the sky, no tanks went up in flames,
But silent as a marble tomb, lay the "Royston Grange".
For her Phreon tanks had ruptured and the gas had quickly spread;
And all within a minute, the whole of the crew was dead.
And though they searched from stem to stern, no-one was left alive;
More than eighty men were dead, not one of them survived.
So let's drink to their memory, as another song we sing;
But don't forget today, lads, what tomorrow it might bring;
For Death, she stalks silent, and she strikes both swift and strange,
As when she took into her arms the crew of the "Royston Grange".
Notes (RJC) The Royston Grange
Approaching each other in a narrow channel of the River Plate, seven miles from the port of Montevideo, Uruguay, two freighters collided on May 11, 1972. A violent explosion devastated both ships and killed eighty-four persons. Destroyed were the Houlder Line's Royston Grange, a British cargo ship carrying grains and refrigerated meat to London, and the Liberian-flagged tanker Tien Chee carrying 20,000 tons of crude petroleum.
How the collision came about was never determined; all aboard the Royston Grange, ten passengers and sixty-three crew members, were killed; ten on the Tien Chee were never found. The ships locked bows, and the Liberian ship's holds were ruptured, causing tons of oil to spill into the Plate and spread out for miles onto the Uruguayan beaches. Fire then erupted, and the oil-coated water was soon aflame.
No time was available for either ship to lower lifeboats, and only thirty-one of the Chinese crew on the Tien Chee managed to jump overboard and swim through the fiery waters before the two ships disappeared in a titanic explosion. One of the desperate swimmers was so badly burned that he died only minutes after being dragged from the flaming water. Despite the immense damage, both ships remained afloat and were later towed away to be scrapped.
LINK: http://www.mudcat.org/detail_pf.cfm?...age_ID=2329945
K.
LINK: http://www.merchant-navy.net/forum/n...html#post86964
A remarkable tribute to the Royston Grange: A relative of a former crew member has named his Canal Boat Royston Grange in tribute to his father, a crew member not on board on that fateful day but never forgot his shipmates and shared in the agony of the loss of the ship and many friends.
K.
LINK: http://www.merchant-navy.net/forum/p...nal-boats.html