old shipmates

[david chissel]

It would appear that all my shipmates from the 1954's t0 1961's have gone as I never see any of them on any of the MN sites. I must be the sole survivor? Where is the engineers of the Bursa, Felipes, Amastra, Drupa, Tagelus, etc all gone to the big scrapyard in the sky??

[Ivan Cloherty]

It would appear that all my shipmates from the 1954's t0 1961's have gone as I never see any of them on any of the MN sites. I must be the sole survivor? Where is the engineers of the Bursa, Felipes, Amastra, Drupa, Tagelus, etc all gone to the big scrapyard in the sky??

nay lad they'll still be around, they were just waiting for you to appear, you'll be surprised how many of us oldies are still pushing buttons on here

[Captain Kong]

I sailed on the TECTUS and NORISIA in 1954.
Cheers
Brian

[Gulliver]

It would appear that all my shipmates from the 1954's t0 1961's have gone as I never see any of them on any of the MN sites. I must be the sole survivor? Where is the engineers of the Bursa, Felipes, Amastra, Drupa, Tagelus, etc all gone to the big scrapyard in the sky??

Hi David Chissell,you probably know about the Helderline Site,?...because your name appears there with people who sailed on the BURSA(click).



And for David Roberts:- I've not heard anything about the Bursa explosion,but she went on in service until scrapped in Singapore in 1961.

You possibly mean the DROMUS.(click)After the explosion she had a new bridge and forepart,and went on until scrapping in Japan in 1962.



From The Times dated 20 Aug 1951.
The bodies of 22 men were today taken from the British oil tanker DROMUS, which early this morning caught fire at Pulau Bukom, the Shell Company's storage island near Singapore. Fifteen other men are in Singapore General Hospital, suffering from shock and injuries; 15 more were treated for shock and minor injuries.

Three Europeans lost their lives. They were the chief officer of the DROMUS, Edward James Dyer, aged 54, of Glasgow; the second officer, Samuel Bryan Pilling, 24, whose home is in Lancashire; and the third officer, Edwin Livesey Hearth, 38, of Leicester. Two Europeans, John Hunter, aged 50 and J.H. Williams, 24, are among the injured.

The DROMUS had loaded 7,000 tons of benzine and nearly 3,000 tons of Diesel fuel, ready for departure today for the Philippines, when an explosion occurred, setting the ship on fire amidships and waking hundreds of Shell employees who were sleeping in their homes on the island. The burning vessel was towed by a tug to a safe anchorage four miles from the oil wharves. The fire lasted 16 hours, but many tons of benzine were still intact in her tanks when further danger from fire was declared over.

The manager of the oil installations on Pulau Bukom, Mr W.H. Williams, dived into the water to rescue a man who had jumped overboard to escape the flames. The master of the DROMUS, Captain H.E. Watkins, who was on shore when the explosion occurred, joined the crew in efforts to subdue the flames, which threatened 250,000 tons of oil products on the island. Captain Watkins was on board when a second explosion ended hopes of getting the fire under control quickly; with others, he jumped overboard and swam to the shore to join fire fighters there.

The Shell management highly praises the courage of the local staff, who took great risks as flames licked the docks on which they worked. One man is believed to have died because he stayed inside a concrete telephone box, passing instructions to pump-houses at the far end of the wharf pipelines. Three Malays who saw motor spirit leaking from a tank on the island closed a valve against great pressure, one of them then diving into the sea to escape the flames, the other two getting away along the wharf.







Regards
Gulliver

[David Williams]

It would appear that all my shipmates from the 1954's t0 1961's have gone as I never see any of them on any of the MN sites. I must be the sole survivor? Where is the engineers of the Bursa, Felipes, Amastra, Drupa, Tagelus, etc all gone to the big scrapyard in the sky??

Hi David.
Did just the one trip(very short) on the LATIRUS
way back in the 50,s.

Dave Williams

[lennon]

hi David did a bit of time in shell back in 1958 /1959 as 2nd cook/baker sts Hadriania left Ellesmere port got into the Irish sea broke down back to Ellesmere port for repairs from there on to Germany then Denmark /home that took me from8/8/58 to 18/11/58 then i joined the Volsella on the 15/12 58 till 19/3 59 to Iraq then back to the isle of grain i did not join another tanker on till i joined the Australian tanker Mobile Flinders as chief cook on 29/7/82 till17/ 1/86then my last ship was the L N G tanker North west storm petrel ( i had got a bit old so had to swallow the hook ] never mind great life with great people , cheers mate Lennon

[john jack]

hi David did a bit of time in shell back in 1958 /1959

my brother was with shell long time chief cook then chief stewerd leslie jack ring any bells cheers im john jack

---------- Post added at 11:53 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:49 AM ----------

It would appear......

my brother sailed on lot of shell tankers leslie jack chief steward i sailed on hindsia im john jack