BP Tankers 1972

[John Sleigh]

My name is John Sleigh and I am trying to get a copy of BP fleet news from the early 70s. I was on the British Fidelity when she caught fire in Lagos in 72. There was quite a write up about it at the time and I have misplaced mine. Thanks

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Hi John.
If you go to Forums then scroll down you will come to Shipping Companies, click on the BP|BTC and someone in the posts there might be able to help.
Cheers Des

[David Bowley]

G'Day John,
I served with BP Tankers from 1956 to 1967 My first ship (as Apprentice) was MV British Captain, 12,500 ton 'clean oil'. I was 2nd mate on the SS British Resource (32,000 ton Crude Oil) when we were one of the rescue ships which attended the 'abandon ship' position of the cruise liner Lakonia when she was set on fire deliberately 22nd -24th December 1963 As 2nd mate I went out in our motor life boat and picked up over a dozen bodies before sea conditions made it too dangerous to keep hooking back up to the starboard aft davits. I am trying to find out if any of the members of this web site were on any of the other 'rescue ships' but I cannot find my original post about this from last week.
Cheers,
Dave Bowley (Master Class 1)

[Doc Vernon]

Look in here may help??

http://www.merchant-navy.net/forum/b...leet-news.html

[j.sabourn]

#3... Hi David was the Lakonia the liner off the Canary Islands, if so cost me a full day in the Orals room as was up for masters orals during the occurance in 1963. Spent all morning trying to bamboozle myself and the examiner on fire sprinklers which were absolutely and totally unknown to me at the time. He sent me down to the L and G people for 1 hour during the lunch break to find out more information. Also hammered me in the afternoon on ship handling and lifeboat work as had lost my lifeboat ticket and couldn't produce. Anyhow about 1700 hrs. he practically threw the pink slip at me saying all your
answers are correct in theory. I hadn't read the paper about the disaster. If this was the lakonia it happened at a very importune moment for me. Anyhow I sailed on the pink slip until the turn of the year. Think he was a bit lenient with me as there were only 3 of us got through the writtens that week.
Know what is like handling burned dead bodies so hope you got over the trauma soon. Cheers JS

[David Bowley]

Hi John,
Yes the disaster happened near the Canary Islands. 22-24 Dec 1963 Apparently a disgruntled assistant in the men's Barber shop or Ladies hairdressing salon set fire to the day's pile of hair clippings, neck tissues etc and unfortunately it was beside the cupboard storing all the spirits used in hairdressing and the fire caught and spread rapidly. The Lakonia was only a few days out of Southampton after a refit and reports said that the davits were 'painted up' and some stuck, others went down one end not the other dropping people out of lifeboats and the fire fighting system was not working properly with only minimal pressure to the hoses. The RFA Tanker Montcalm was the rescue ship coordinator and the Aircraft Carrier HMS Centaur used their helicopters to retrieve bodies from various ships using strap up stretchers from ships where they could not land safely. As 2nd Mate I went out several times with a small crew and picked up more than a dozen bodies some in pretty horrific state. The young apprentice with us lost his breakfast. One body had what appeared to be looted items in his pockets, lots of different currencies, small cameras, jewelry etc. When we had searched the entire 'abandon ship' area the Montcalm instructed all the rescue ships to form a line abreast and using searchlights, flood lights and even aldis lamps we steamed slowly Southwards towards the burning hulk and every time we spotted another body we would radio HMS centaur and they would send out a helicopter with a scoop net to retrieve the body. One thing that did annoy us, (we were loaded with 32,00 tons of highly volatile green Venezuelan crude oil) was the Captain said that the rescue ships should have come close to the burning liner....good idea mate! Once again I would like to know if anyone else in this forum was on one of the rescue ships, there were seven more I think. Needless to say Christmas was a very sombre day for us.
Re list of ships. I have been on so many ships in my long sea career (50 years) in BP Tankers, then in the Australian Merchant Navy the list (which I have) would be far too long to publish.
Cheers,
Dave Bowley

[j.sabourn]

When you read accounts of such disasters they bear little resemblance to the actual facts of the memories of those who were actually there, for instance although hearing of the Lakonia never knew that the actual fire was started as how stated. Initial stories are very often only the imagination and wishful thinking of the press, and as for actual facts portrayed on google and the likes I have found definite errors in, so what everyone thinks of indisputable information is only as accurate as the person who formulated such. People are not 100 percent infallible and a lot print what they know at the time to be untrue, it is the way of the beast. One only has to read the political press to realize the misinformation that is put out. I hope you can make contact with others who actually experienced the same as yourself, all the best . JS.

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Hi David.
Welcome to the site, hope you enjoy and maybe meet up with old shipmates. I was on the British Captain but in 53, also on the Scout, Fern,Navigator, Piper, four trips on the Guardian and the Builder.
Cheers Des

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