and on waking up one morning saw that there was an Irish Shipping ship at anchor near us. She was a bitumen carrier and was on a regular run between Cicillcap and S, Korea but I cannot remember her name.
rgds
JA
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and on waking up one morning saw that there was an Irish Shipping ship at anchor near us. She was a bitumen carrier and was on a regular run between Cicillcap and S, Korea but I cannot remember her name.
rgds
JA
I was employed by Irish Shipping in the 60s.
Sailed on The Irish Pine, Irish Maple, Irish Oak and Irish Rowan.
RE Irish Elm she was built in '53 as stated but sold 10 years later in '63, at the time I.S.L. had sold their steam reciprocating engined ships she was the last to go. There was an wartime Irish Elm (built 1910) which in the company 1941 to 1949 and a later Car carrier/Bulker built 1968 and sold in 1979. The company folded in 1984 along with many other companies. I sailed with them 1962 to 1971. A good outfit to sail with but badly managed at the top.
John asked me to post this one.
The Irish Elm In 1970 was the Glendalough and was renamed previously various others . However in 1969 / 1970 was the Glendalough and registered under the Gibraltar flag, and owned by one of the Hong Kong’s shipping moguls sons, Harley Mullion. I beleive another of Irish Shipping was also bought by same for another son, it was arrested in Montreal and the Yugoslav crew had a good lawyer and the ship was sold to pay the crews wages. The Glendalough /Irish Elm I walked off in Japan as considered her unsafe. I always thought after leaving she had gone down in a typhoon, and had a guilty. Conscience on leaving as had managed to keep her going for 11 months. However found out by someone on the site that she had gone to the scrap yard shortly after I left. Who knows it may of even have been the author of the post itself who told me . The ship started off the time I was there in Rotterdam, where she was discharging Copra, needless to say all the waterfront cafes had to close due to the Copra bugs infesting same. Went to Gdańsk to load coke for Karachi. Needless to say again the charter party requirements did not match up with the ships capabilities so was a sleight of hand job to make it appear that it did. The Indian second mate went over the side in the Kiel canal and was last sighted sprinting down the road as we left the locks. He was never replaced, the Chinese third mate and myself were the only two Bridge watchkeepers for the next 11 months. The Chinese 3 mates brother was the Bosun and spoke no English so all communication was through the 3 mate. However it worked OK as I did all the 3 mates sights for him and he in return used to give me early reliefs and leave a couple of cold beers on my desk when came off watch. Needless to say going from port to port it always had to be planned to pick out the available ports in between for ports of refuge as water consumption was phenomenal due to leaking boilers etc. and was always on water rationing usually using buckets out of 40 gallon drums on the boat deck. The stories are to numerous to explain and most would think they were fibs. Beleive me if you haven’t experienced such ships you haven’t seen nothing. Saigon was another port of refuge but due to the armed conflict in the area we had enough sense to turn around and get out of the area before the end of the tracer trail came in contact with us, be as it was flat out at 3 knots. Regards John S. ps the masters name was Lundy and his knowledge of deep sea traditions had a few holes in them , as had been on the Irish coast for the previous 20 years or so. JWS
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I remember seeing her laid up at anchor in Bantry bay in the winter of '71/72 and I believe she was towed to Spain for demolition shortly afterwards.
I believe that was the Aramon ex Irish Pine of 1948, in 1979 her cargo of bagged bitumen solidified in the holds and was scrapped in Taiwan with the cargo still in her.
John ref. Michael Kelly’s post re the Glendalough. The picture you sent me of her was the ship in question. The time scale of her getting back to Europe looks a bit dubious to me, I don’t think the ship towed to Spain fo break up was the same ship ? She was a total disaster in my eyes and better to cut ones losses. I came home broke off her and spent the first week in bed trying to reconcile myself to the previous 9 months , but I had debts to pay off, and was re-employed by John I Jacobs on the Beechwood one of their ore carriers . I had to go through the federation who at that time were imposing penalties on people who went foreign flag. I told them it was none of their business where I found work. They backed down . What a difference today there are very few british registered ships in any case. JWS
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