H class Shell tankers

[Mike Hall]

Hi David.
Welcome to this site,i hope you find what you are looking for.
A great list of ships there, hope you find some ship mates on here.

All the best

Mike

[Lucy Knight]

Lucy Knight
Was on S.S. Hemitrochus for almost 6 months ending up in the scrapyard Taiwan Oct 77. Had very lively bar. Unfortunately it became too rusty even for Shell and final leg was Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong on a lub oil run before she ended up as razor blades. There was a bad boiler fire at sea and over 100 tubes burned out which the engs had to fix at sea on way back from Black Sea earlier on.

[robpage]

There is an interesting piece at http://philpott.de/Pdf_book/Hemitroc...nkers%20UK).pd written by another r/o off that ship about another serious boikler fire , That ship must hacvve been prone to them

[Lucy Knight]

Thanks. He sent me the PDF file of his book. He was on some of the same Shell tankers and CP ships that I was on. His write up of the fire which was alongside did sound very similar. I also seem to remember one of the crew started a small one just shortly after 4 am alongside in Gibraltar. There was also a cracked liner I think on that ships which had to be repaired at sea. As for the poor old elderly Raymarks enough said about me trying to keep them going. Yhe good old 'Trochus even became too rusty for Shell and I remember being told the hull could go at any time. so off we went from the Uk at time of Spithead review to Ireland and off the the Far East on a fixed luboil charter where everyone including the British crew paid of in Taipai.

[Lucy Knight]

I was asked by private e-mail re the book I mentioned. It was written a few yrs ago by an ex merchant navy officer now living abroad. He could find a publisher at the time and it is not self published either.

One book I have recently read which mentions Shell H boat and worth a read is self published by Lulu and called:-
From Watford to Woolloomooroo by John Moxley
who was a Shell cadet and completed two trips as uncert third mate before end of cadetship, being promoted just after 19. He was lured back to sea early for his first 3rd mate trip with the promise of exotic ports. He went to Shell centre to collect mail to take out to the H boat and found the exotic ports that had lured him back early had changed to the Vietnam run on double pay. There is a picture of the half sank Amastra in it. I remember one eng on the Mangelia telling the story of how he had to swim out of the engine rm of one that was hit. I remember the purser on the Alinda who was up there telling me how the capt used to hide uder the Radio officers desk.

John decided if they had lied to him, he would do the same to them and after he had had enough Anchorage way told them he need to pay off because he had urgent probs to sort out at home. His next uncert 3rd mate's job during his apprenticeship had a Capt who according to John treated all the navigators with contempt. He illustrates the fact with an example where he was looking at nearby small island thru binoculars when the Capt arrived and asked what he was looking at. When he said an island, the capt said 'that's not an island, it's a b****y ship. John replied 'then it must be carrying a cargo of b***y trees then'. Appoarently this behaviour fm the Capt carried on throughout the trip. When John paid off the Capt's report did not criticise his work, but stated he had absolutely no respect for authority. He dared to stand up to some of the difficult ones and paid the price.

Before anyone is critical of his behaviour please ask yourself, did you ever sail with any of the senior officers who were impossible to reason in the 70's or before. I did. I resigned off the Amoria because of a chief eng. Recently a ch off who went capt a couple yrs later I sailed with in 75 told me how he behaved with a Capt later drinking 6 bottles of whisky in 3 days between them. Another I sailed with on the Alinda recently told me on the phone what his reputation in the engine rm was like and another ex master who worked for Shell told me by private email what his opinion of him was and about his drunken state when he sailed with him as deck officer. That ch eng and his merry band of engineers were complaining because I dared to lock my cabin door. In fact I slept with a shifted and elastic band on because of an incident on another ship previously with someone getting in my cabin. I was tipped off by a deck officer that this ch eng was going to get me logged for insubordination because I told him in the bar that I was keeping it logged. As it was midships/aft accommodation what were his engs up to at night time trying my door. I had already got my name in the log after a couple wks at sea because an engineer got in my cabin. I had been told to leave the door open and I was told I was at blame for leaving my door open.

I resigned then and joined another company as ER/O a better grade and a lot more pay. I was sent over to an old Shell boat a few trips later to change the Walport and who was the ch eng onboard the Shell boat who walked in the bar when I was having a drink with the R/O. The same one who grunted at me. I think we've met before.

The next company C.P. Ships took me in, chewed me up and spat me out again.

He begins each chapter with a quote. My favourite one being " Success is a journey not a destination" by Omar Kh---n. Some people think that this journey is actually the 'Hoy Grail'. If only more at sea had realised it instead of walking over others and destroying their career for their end goal. The ships might have been more productive and the companies more successful.

It is well worth a read.
It is a tale of the experiences John has growing up and joining the Merchant Navy, his travels and his various other ways of making a living. It follows his many escapades and makes you wonder what he is going to get up to next. There are wonderful descriptions of people he has met and places he has been, along with plenty of photos. It describes his battles with drink, his hate of injustice and authority, and shows how his attitude to life has led him to make choices which you may not agree with but shows things from his point of view. Would appeal to anyone who is interested in the sea, travel and how people's attitudes and beliefs effect the choices they make in life, or anyone who just enjoys a good, funny true story.




,

[Ivan Cloherty]

Masters are people like anyone else, there are good ones, there are bad ones, there are indifferent ones, going to sea in the 50's and 60's was like playing lotto, you may pick a winner, but more than likely not, but I only sailed with two I wouldn't have sailed with again. Some were complete tartars and treated everybody regardless of rank, creed or gender as if they had crawled from under a rock and not worthy to be on the planet. I also worked with people like that ashore, it's a funny old world

[Lucy Knight]

There is another book featuring an H boat in the early 70s during Simon Hall's deck cadetship which began 69 with Shell.
Called
Under a Yellow Sky by Simon Hall published by Whittles
It ends at the end of his cadetship. There is a sequel which has been written being published next year.

[Tony Cole]

G;Day.
I sailed as AB on the Hadriana for 7 months in 1959.Great ship and great crew. Also did a coastal run on the Harpula. Was glad to get back deep sea. Happy days

[len mazza]

I had four H boats,Horomia,62/63. Hindsia,64. Hadriania 64/65. Hanitia66/67. I also had two Eagle Oil ones and one V boat, between '69 and'67.

[NicoRos]

Of the scale 1:125 models of these ships are still few available. SANY0240.jpgSANY0010.jpg

There are also some 24" (static) models available for only USD 500,00 (ex works) - if ordered soon, these can be stowed free in the next container to R'dam.
Regards,
Nico