Help needed please - Ellerman Line 1970

[Katia Rogers]

Hello,
I am trying to find out whether Ellerman Line ships would have been travelling to South Africa in January-April 1970, and if so which ships.
Many thanks to anyone who can help with my question.

[Doc Vernon]

Hello Katia

Ellerman Lines - Ellerman & Bucknall Line - Ellerman's City Line - City & Hall Lines

Not the Years you want but if my memory is correct yes the Company did Sail to Ports in South Africa
Cheers

May help but one has to apply for records

https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/archivesheet16

ELLERMAN & BUCKNALL

Routes:

• 1880-1973 Glasgow - Liverpool / London - South and East African ports (terminating at Beira) - Mauritius - Madagascar.

https://iancoombe.tripod.com/id27.html

[John Gurton]

Hi Katia,

I was sailing with Ellermans during that period. You will find that a high proportion of the fleet were actually sailing that way due to the closure of Suez.
There were ships dedicated to the S Africa trade including what we called the big 4 , passenger cargo ships, Cities of Durban, Exeter, Port Elizabeth and York.
Other City ships would be calling in to Cape Town of Durban for bunkers enroute to the Gulf, India or the Far East.
You may find it useful if you can hunt down a few copies of Lloyds Confidential Index's of that period.
They do have quite a few in the World Ship Society archives in Chatham Historic Dockyard.
They were produced I believe weekly by Lloyds List and gave the movements of most of the World's ships at the time.
rgds
John

[Charles Keeton]

Hi Katie,
The City of St Albans was on that run in the early 1970s

[Doc Vernon]

Now that it is mentioned, Yes indeed it now comes back to me (the old Brain) as i was Working as a Tally Clerk at the Cape Town Docks in those times, and recall so well all the City Ships that called in there. Lots of Loading and Unloading to be done . So yes they did pass that way ,thanks for the reminder Lads!
Cheers

NB I am talking of the early 1950's onwards to the early 1960's here! After that i am not sure ??

[Harry Thorburn]

Hi,The company operated four passenger ships which regularly sailed from the UK to South Africa.I joined the company in 1971 and all four were being retired from service.The four were City of Durban,City of East London City of Port Elizabeth and,I think,City of Cape Town.
Best Regards
Harry Thorburn

[Bruce Morris]

The "Big Four" Passenger/Cargo ships were City of Port Elizabeth, City of Durban, City of Exeter and City of York.

They were the pride of John Ellerman and one of them invariably had the Commodore of the entire City Line as Master.

They entered service in about 1965 and were retired, very abruptly, in 1971.

Cargo was discharged/loaded without passengers aboard in various UK East coast ports such as Hull and the near continent eg Hamburg.

The Home port was the London Royal Docks where the 100 passengers boarded.
They were treated to absolute First Class luxury.

The regular run then was via Las Palmas for stores/bunkers and thence to Capetown.

Here some of the passengers would disembark and be replaced by locals who would join as a cruise via discharging at Port Elizabeth, East London, Durban, Lourenço Marques (now Maputo) before turning round at Beira.

The return trip would call at the same ports but oddly the passengers would disembark at Tilbury Landing Stage before we carried on to the Royal Docks.

I sailed on the City of Port Elizabeth GPLC for two round trips 1965-1966 as Chota Marconi Sahib - Junior Radio Officer.

The Master was Commodore Iorwerth Pulford and to me as a first-tripper he was higher than God himself!
He retired on my last trip - to great fanfare as we departed all the Southern African ports but to nothing at Tilbury!

Apparently the first the Master at the time learned that his vessel was to be sold was via a R/T call via Landsend Radio GLD.

They ended their time at Rotterdam being bought by Greek owners.

Some of the four languished but at least a couple were heinously butchered to become car ferries.
It grieves me that their beautiful interiors would have been ripped out.

[Bryan Portwig]

indeed they did an a cracking good fleet that had toobook.jpgbrochure.jpg

[Doug Hardie]

I did my first trip as Junior Engineer on the City of Winchester joined October 1969 in the Royal Albert dock.Sailed first port Rotterdam ,then Capetown, east London, port Elizabeth Durban ,Lourenco Marques (Maputo) Beria then loaded for Europe on the reverse of the outward voyage starting Discharge at TheRoyal Albert in London. The Master was Tommy Rigg whom was the fleet commodore in the early seventies, the chief Engineer Bill Greenacre are the second engineer was Jimmy Marr, third engineer was Chic Beverage. It was a great ship and the crew were all Gentlemen and I learned a lot from them all.
Doug Hardie

[Allen James Jones]

I did my first trip as Junior Engineer on the City of Winchester joined October 1969 in the Royal Albert dock.Sailed first port Rotterdam ,then Capetown, east London, port Elizabeth Durban ,Lourenco Marques (Maputo) Beria then loaded for Europe on the reverse of the outward voyage starting Discharge at TheRoyal Albert in London. The Master was Tommy Rigg whom was the fleet commodore in the early seventies, the chief Engineer Bill Greenacre are the second engineer was Jimmy Marr, third engineer was Chic Beverage. It was a great ship and the crew were all Gentlemen and I learned a lot from them all.
Doug Hardie

Just as an aside I did my first trip as galley boy on "Almerian" (E & P) in 1956. It was her Maiden Voyage and she was to depart later that night. There was a formal dinner arranged and all stewards and galley staff were on their toes to ensure it was a success. In the galley the chief cook was throwing wobblies due to the late arrival of the Scottish Salmon that was the centre piece. I was sent down to the dock shed to alert of the salmons arrival. Whilst hanging around I got talking to an older man who was standing looking at our ship. I filled him in on what little I knew and with the arrival of the missing fish went back on board. It was later during clean up that I discovered that the "old" man I had been talking too was non other than JRE himself. Our Chief Steward said that JRE had been invited to the dinner but declined the offer. Nevertheless he, apparently, always attended the sailing of any of his new ships. Never forgotten. As an aside the salmon was too big to fit in the steamer which caused the cook to throw a wobbly. Second cook advised cutting into three then joining up for the grand entrance. Worked a treat. Congratulations all round. One episode that did stand out on my first trip was off the coast of Algeria. We had departed Algiers for Malta and en-route watched a French fighter plane crash into the sea. We picked up the pilot and dropped him off in Valetta. Headlines at the time in the local media.