SAN CIPRIANO

Submitted by Kees Helder on Wed, 04/15/2015 - 10:06

About

Completed 1937 as "SAN CIPRIANO" for Eagle Oil. 1954 scrapped Briton Ferry.

IMO number	1165480
Call sign	GZRP
Construction number	45
Tonnage	7.966 ton
Beam	18m
Length overall	134m
Year of construction	1937
Year of renaming/broken up	1954
Service for Shell	1937 to 1954
Cargo	Crude and white oil products
Class	San (Eagle Oil)
Flag state	Great Britain
Home port	London
Manager	The Eagle Tanker Company Ltd
Shipyard	Blythswood Shipbuilding Glasgow Scotland
Status	Sailing / Sailed for The Eagle Tanker Company

Photo(s)

Comments

181-1051-4673

Permalink Submitted by Ken Hughes on Fri, 08/14/2009 - 16:22

378-1051-5497

Permalink Submitted by Stuart Bowlerwell on Sun, 08/29/2010 - 22:10

958-1051-7677

Permalink Submitted by Roy Kennedy on Sun, 10/13/2013 - 12:35

987-1051-7677

Permalink Submitted by Roy Kennedy on Fri, 02/07/2014 - 20:04

1622855511-194816

Permalink Submitted by Geojayne on Sat, 06/05/2021 - 03:11

1697896523-351228

Permalink Submitted by MrD on Sat, 10/21/2023 - 15:55

1728677657-16580

Permalink Submitted by Jos Odijk on Fri, 10/11/2024 - 22:14

Sailors

Name	Job	Period	Details
Hughie Taggart	2nd cook	1940 to 1941
Len Barrett	gunner	1942 to 1943	My uncle l/sgt W.W.J. Beldam was the leading gunner kiled on this ship by German bombing on 10 jan 1943 at the Kola inlet near Murmansk. RIP lest we forget.
Robert Thomas Crane	3rd mate	1942
Michael Blackledge	junior engineer	1945 to 1947	gordon (my dad was junior engineer on 2 separate voyages)
James Brindley	able seaman	1946 to 1947
Robin Scriven Martin	assistant steward	1947 to 1948
Albert Redmond	4th engineer	1950	my dad wwas 4th engineer for a few months on the early 1950
Hermand De Werd	mess room boy	1952
Jerry Hall	junior engineer	1953
Edward Mcniff	deck boy	1953
Alexander Dunca...	deck boy	1954

Anecdotes

Date	Visitor	Anecdote
10/11/2024 - 22:14	Jos Odijk	I have a database with ships that went to Murmansk in WW2, Also the San Cipriano. John Dodds was on board of the San Cipriano as a Chief Steward from the 1st December 1942 ( joined in Ellesmere) He was on board till 22 March 1943 and left the ship in South Shields. In this period the San Cipriano went to Murmansk in convoy JW51a and returned with convoy RA53. As next of kin is mentioned his wife Bertha, living 43 Eglington st Sunderland The ship he sailed before the San Cipriano is mentioned the Seminole.
10/21/2023 - 15:55	MrD	My great uncle Jack Purvis (Chief Cook) was also killed on this fateful day in 1943.
06/05/2021 - 03:11	Geojayne	Hi, just stumbled across your page this morning on a search for my husbands grandfather and in the search his name appears to have been linked to the sans cipriano. Wondering if there was any way to check if he was on the ship and possibly killed when it was bombed in jan 1943 His name was John dodds born 1910 in South Shields. He was absent in the 1939 census, but his wife was still showing as married. Next record we have for my husbands nana is she remarried in the December of 1943. No one ever spoke of John dodds and unfortunately that side of the family is now long gone. Ancestry records show nothing of merchant seaman to check if this was possibly him. Hoping someone might be able to point me in the right direction please. Thank u
02/07/2014 - 20:04	Roy Kennedy	Update to my previous anecdote. I now have in my possession my father's discharge book. He joined San Cipriano on 27th May 1943, and signed off on 15th July 1943. He obviously wasn't aboard in Jan 1943, as he was then serving on Empire Norseman. His book was brought up to date from official records in 1975, as he didn't have it signed after 28th Dec 1942 when he joined the Norseman. (Empire Norseman was sunk 23rd Feb 1943, see my anecdote for that vessel on her page). My Dad, Ken Kennedy did do a trip to Russia and remembered being shot up after discharging. He was certain it was in the Cipriano, so does anybody have any details please? Dad crossed the bar on 5th February 2014, aged 91. An old seadog indeed!
10/13/2013 - 12:35	Roy Kennedy	My dad, Ken Kennedy was 3rd mate on the Cipriano when she was bombed. He stood by her when she was repaired on the Tyne. He was asked to stay on board one Saturday afternoon as the ship was going to be used for some scenes in a film.So instead of watching Newcastle United, he helped the film company by ringing the engine room telegraph for the soundtrack of the film. The Cipriano was also filmed as she sailed to join her next convoy. The film was released as "San Demetrio London" and is still shown on television, and has been available on dvd. That is why in the opening scenes, "San Demetrio" appears in an all grey livery instead of her original wartime livery of black hull and grey upperworks.
08/29/2010 - 22:10	Stuart Bowlerwell	My grandfather was 2nd Officer T. Roy Bowlerwell who sailed on the San Ciriano when it was bombed just outside Murmansk on 10th January 1943. Thanks to his quick reactions to the warning sounded by a apprentice (Mr. C. Fookes) and his following actions, he was awarded an MBE. Mr. Fookes, who stopped the ammunition room exploding by tipping the red-hot shell boxes into the flood water, was awarded the George Medal. I've known for years that my grandad had an MBE, but it wasn't until my dad found some Eagle Oil documentation that we discovered - via local press reports - just what happened. Thanks to their actions, many lives were saved and the San Cipriano sailed again.
08/14/2009 - 16:22	Ken Hughes	I served on the San Cipriano as mess room boy in 1952 and remember that in a 6 month trip we had 49 engine room breakdowns.On one of these stops in the Indian Ocean we sighted sharks so some of the deck crowd got a piece of liver from the cook put it on a line with a meat hook and threw it over the side nothing happened for a while although the sharks were getting closer then one took the bait and the sailors hauled it on board and tied it to a awning spar,it was fighting all the time,they then cut its belly open and threw it back into the sea and the other sharks tore it to bits,as a young lad on only my 2nd trip to sea it frightened the life out of me.