| Also known as | Champion |
|---|---|
| IMO number | 7327768 |
| Call sign | GKFM |
| Construction number | 1793 |
| Tonnage | 29.648 ton |
| Beam | 26m |
| Length overall | 201m |
| Year of construction | 1950 |
| Year of renaming/broken up | 1991 |
| Service for Shell | 1950 to 1971 |
| Cargo | |
| Class | |
| Flag state | |
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| Manager | |
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| Status |
VELUTINA
Sailors
Anecdotes
| Date | Visitor | Anecdote |
|---|---|---|
| 01/18/2017 - 22:31 | Michael Kemp |
I joined Velutina in Mina on 23rd February 1961 3 days after paying off Horomya. I was glad of the 3 day break as I had been suffering with a poisoned toe for the previous week. We berthed in La Spezia on 9th March and paid off 2 days later with Captain Swainston (ex Aluco maiden voyage master), 4 off Mothersole 5/E Maclaughlan, and D/A Rayfield for train to the UK, on the channel crossing which lasted barely an hour I felt seasick! I put it down to the ferry stabiliser motion. On Saturday 1st April 14 Deck apprentices reported to the Greenbank hostel in Plymouth for midapprenticeship course no 3 a ...Vic Hubert, Don Travis, Tony Parkes, John Rothwell, Paddy Slinger, Phil Abbott, Norman Dixon, Bob Cheshire, Ray Baker, Colin Neason, Richard Lawson, Ian Baird and myself. Mid apprenticeship courses had started in 1960 after the Board of Trade allowed these courses to qualify as seatime for 2nd Mates ticket shel and a number of other companies took part. That first Saturday evening Richard Lawson and I were invited to a party at Freds place (her nickname) at Newton Ferrers thanks to Andy Orr and Johnny Pounder from MAR 2. Weekdays and some evenings were devoted to studies, Saturday mornings for dhobying and cleaning the hostel for Sunday inspection by Captain Hyde, our other tutors were Captains Hopwood and Danton. Thursday mornings involved travelling to HMS Drake for marching drill courtesy of the Royal Navy ! Practical seamanship took place at Mutton Cove on the Tamar with Captain Hyde where had we had the use of a lifeboat and sailing dinghy, Richard Lawson and I had the dinghy on day and sailed down tide into Plymouth Sound despite the other lads in the lifeboat trying to attract our attention, a while later we realis d why as we attempted to tack up tide only to realise we had sailed downtime on a following wind! Several hours later we walked into afternoon classes to much derision and comment! I think all of us enjoyed the the break from life at sea for those few months . I certainly enjoyed many week ends in Newton Ferrers swimming , sailing and generally having a good time. Happy memories |
| 01/10/2016 - 18:57 | David John Turner |
The Velutina was one of the early a??Va?? class tankers and the layout of her ER was such that it seemed as though the machinery had been dropped in and bolted down where it fell. Whilst I was on board the condenser needed a tube repaired and a leaking main injection valve meant that a steel plate had to be secured outside by divers using shot bolts that went through the hull plating. This was done while we at Mena Alamadi in the gulf. The whole job took about two weeks. |
| 03/18/2015 - 08:15 | Raymond Field |
I joined Velutina aged 17 at TW Greenwells No1 drydock March23rd 1953 in Sunderland my first deepsea ship experiance we was away for 9 months going all round the world . |
| 05/26/2014 - 20:59 | David Bowen |
The scale model of this ship is on permanent display in the University of Plymouth.. |
| 10/09/2013 - 19:44 | Ian Candy |
Joined her as senior R/O, just finished my qualifying seatime. Given a first tripper |
| 02/06/2011 - 19:25 | John Rigby |
My great uncle was the foreman at Swan Hunter's shipyard at Wallsend on Tyne.I went to the launch and was taken under the ship and I tapped her hull before she was launched.I was 15 years of age.I like to think my tap on the ships bottom bought her luck.After I came out of the army in 1954,I joined Shell oil. |
| 05/01/2009 - 14:49 | George Hughes |
I joined the "VELUTINA" at Smiths shipyard in South Shields, on the Tyne. It was my first ship after leaving the "VINDICATRIX" training school. It was only supposed to be a six week trip to the Persian Gulf, to get my sea legs, so they said, but it didn't work out at all like that. after the repairs were made, which took about six weeks, we finally set sail for the gulf,or so we thought, but a couple of days at sea the ship was sent on a tramp and it was months before we got to Mena al Amadi. So much for getting my sea legs. We finally got back to KG 5 dock in London Just before christmas. George Hughes. |
| 04/09/2009 - 12:11 | Roy Robertson |
In my 7 months on the Velutina we went aground in the St Lawrence River, had a collision with the lock wall in the Panama Canal, mid Atlantic a hole appeared in the ships side in the boiler room below the waterline and we had to call into the Azores to get a plate welded over it, polluted Lake Maracaibo, couldn't heave up the anchor off a U.S. port due to a lack of deck steam pressure. All in all it was a quiet trip. |
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