Anecdote

It was interesting to read Rod Stringer's account of the undercover payment for the crew serving aboard during it's time at Bonny. I joined the ship on the 2nd Oct 62 on the Tyne as 4th Eng and was on it all through the Bonny episode and left it at Cammell Lairds 22nd May 63.
We topped up 98 ships from 10 different countries during our stay at both Fernando Po & Bonny. While we topped up the various we did actualy steam while tied together but we only steamed 9,258 N mls in just under 8 months including the trip down and back. We did get ashore on a regular basis and in fact played the local team at football nearly every week. I know I'm getting on a bit but I cannot recall any extra payment being made by Shell because we were there.Perhaps if they owe me any money they might like to send it to me. It was a good ship and we all enjoyed the stay. A far cry from what Bonny is like today

my first trip to sea as a deck boy fresh from gravesend sea school

A 6 month voyage from Rotterdam to a buoyed pipeline in The Gulf, via The Cape on one boiler at 6 knots, and a similar return to Fawley, with the only sight of land being the Straits of Hormuz, persuaded me that there must be better ways of spending my life than beibg a tanker-man.

Trading from Curacao to many ports on the East Coast of U.S.A. from Miami to Maine delivering Asphalt was a piece-of-cake. Particularly enjoyable was the opportunity to get ashore to buy records of Elvis and Bill Haley, and listening to this crazy new music called Rock and Roll, before we had ever heard of it in the U.K., and to take the music home with us at the end of the voyage, we were the bees knees.
One problem on board.Although built in Hamburg the vessel was fitted with mostly British equipment so we had two E.R. stores and workshops, one Metric and the other Imperial. Doing repairs meant two sets of tools, and often the two systems did not line up.
We left the ship in Dry Dock in Curacao and flew back to the U.K., one of the first crews to be repatriated in this way, 20 hours island hopping from Curacao, Martinique, Azores, Lisbon and London in a D.C.6,

The vessel had been converted to carry Lub Oil and the tank heating coils were welded stainless steel a welcome change from my experience on the Helix. My memory of the one voyage from Rotterdam to Curacao was the conditions in the engine room. The main engine was a Werkspoor and there were so many leaks on the exhaust system the atmosphere was impossible to bear. The E.R. Log Book was kept in the engineers change room and watch keeping consisted of fast dashes through the engine room and out into fresh air before choking on the fumes. If memory serves me right the Main Engine had been salvaged from the wreck of a vessl sunk during WW2 and had never recovered.

The ship was trading mainly between Curacao and Lake Maracaibo. As the 'new' Apprentices we were given the job of repairing heating coils in the cargo tanks, a filthy job. After three months we returned to Cardiff where the hull of the vessel was cut longitudonally in 8 locations and doubler plates fitted to prevent hull cracking, as was happening on several T2 tankers, with catastrophic results. Back out to Maracaibo where we managed to run aground on the entrance to the channel and then washed an Esso 'mosquito' tanker out of the channel on our way out. We were barred from Maracaibo. We then saw a bit of the world as we headed from Curacao to Casablanca, Suez, Mena, Geelong, Singapore, Durban, Curacao, and then to Cherbourg for 'pay-off'. During our Maracaibo escapades I remember a trip to Buenes Aires and one to Newfoundland, where we spent Christmas Eve with a Black-out in the engine room and three icr breakers to get us out of port on Christmas Day. Happy days.

Served as Apprentice from Sept.52 to June 53 under Capt. E.( Gentleman ) Jacobs

Served as Apprentice from June 52 to Sept 52 under Capt. Paddy ( I was prisoner on the Graff Spey) Dove

I joined theodoxus at eastham in march 59, after id paid the taxi off i stood looking up at the ship, i realised she had a very unusual feature both her topmasts were bent. the foretopmast was folded backward almost touching the foremast, while the maintopmast was raked back some 40 degrees, a most unusual sight.i went onboard and realised i knew the 2nd mate i was relieving so i asked him to explain the masts, reluctantly he did so.the ship was loading in lake maracaibo the old man was plastered the pilot arrived and he got plastered they let go from the berth and promptly got lost eventually striling some of the power cables that criss-cross the lake like spiders web hence the new style masts.in shells house magazine sometime later there was a report on the incident the last sentence of which stated "the master has since left the companys employ"

Whilst aboard the ship we were aground for about ten days, until another shell tanker came to offload som of the cargo to allow us to float.
At this time William Alan Middlemass was the chief engineer.

During the time I was on this boat we were aground in Kingston Jamaica for approx ten days. Another shell taanker was sent to offload some of the cargo in order that we could refloat.William Alan Middlemass was the chief engineer at this time

During the time I was on this boat we were aground in Kingston Jamaica for approx ten days. Another shell taanker was sent to offload some of the cargo in order that we could refloat.William Alan Middlemass was the chief engineer at this time