HMS HERALD-Updates

The photo above is from a booklet kindly sent to me some time ago by the then Commanding Officer of HMS HERALD I. M. Bartholomew, Commander Royal Navy, on the occasion of HMS HERALD celebrating 21 years of service in the Royal Navy in 1995.

(If the Commander should see this would he be so good to contact the BLOG

We now arrive at the ships built at the Leith Shipyards of Robb Caledon (Henry Robb) from around the late 1960's and into the 1970's with some fine and well known ships built in the yard at this time including Ship No 508 BRANSFIELD which was an Antarctic Survey Ship Ice strenghtend for work in the Antarctic in support of the British Antarctic Survey teams down there.

Also the launch of the biggest tug built in the U.K. at the time the mighty tug LLOYDSMAN Ship No 509

built for the famous United Towing Company of Hull.

Then onto a couple of Ro-Ro Container ships one of which tradically went down with the loss of one of her crew in the North Sea she was called the M.V.HERO Ship No 511

Then the next launch at the yard was the Oceanographic survey ship for the Royal Navy

 HMS HERALD and some of her story is started below.

HMS HERALD was an order from the M.o.D. Navy for a Hydrographic Survey ship to be built at the Leith Shipyards of Robb Caledon.

She seemed to take forever to build and she was on the stocks for a couple of years, this was mainly due to changes that were forced on the yard by the navy team that was in attendance at the yard, no sooner would a deck level be complete and along would come the navy and insist that this deck or bulkhead would have to come out or be moved due to all the constantly changing gear that she was being fitted with.

Leith Ships 1965 to 1970

The Leithshipyards website is now getting into some of the later ships that launched from the yard of Henry Robb from the late 1960’s and onward through the turbulent times that were the 1970’s.


We feature such ships as the “S”Class ships for the Ellerman Wilson Group, the largest single order for ships received at the yard outside of World War II

The “S” Class ships were the SALERNO,  SALMO,  SORRENTO, SILVIO and SANGRO.

SORRENTO seen here in a photograph by Stuart Smith and shown here with permission.

There is also a large feature on the largest ship ever built at the Leith Shipyards of Henry Robb she was called RFA ENGADINE a Helicopter Support ship built as a first for the Royal Navy.
You will soon be able to read about the ships built at Leith from circa 1850 to 1918 in the first Volume of my new book, so keep looking in to see when it will be in a bookshop or online.

The ice strengthened ship RRS BRANSFIELD is also featured this famous Red ship was the primary source of transport for expeditions to Antarctica for the Antarctic Survey Teams that braved the extreme conditions down there for up to 9 months at a time.


In what was another first for a Leith built ship she reached the furthest South that a ship had ever been able to achieve at the time and this was done on her maiden voyage down there we have some great photographs from her time down there from two men who spent time on her and at the station in Antarctica.

 

This photograph is from Ivan Stevenson who was in Antarctica with the BRANSFIELD and his photograph is reproduced here with his permission.

 

 

ENGADINE on a visit to Glasgow from a photograph taken by Paul (Fairfield)


And shown here with his permission.

April 2012-Titanic 100 years on.

A model of the RMS TITANIC

Perhaps you may be aware of the fact that it is 100 years ago this month that the Titanic set out on her fateful maiden voyage and terrible as this event was it made me think about a similar disaster at sea which happened only 8 years prior to the Titanic going down and it involved as a proportion just as large a loss of life with even more women and children involved.


The ship was called the NORGE and she was on her way around the North of Scotland with a full cargo of poor immigrants looking for a new life in the new world of North America. (The Edinburgh Evening News recently done a story on her as well)

Image is from the http://www.norwayheritage.com/ website. The NORGE


Click through the link where you can find out more about this sinking.

The ship was a converted livestock carrier carrying mostly Scandinavian’s but no famous or wealthy people on this vessel. She was built by Alexander Stephen & Sons of Glasgow in 1891.


She foundered on the Isle of Rockall and it was entirely the Captains fault as he did not believe there were any rocks in the area. The sinking was not even reported for a few days and made the newspapers for a small time, there was as I have said a very large loss of life and in particular many women and children. Almost 600 passengers and 45 crew perished.

But the bit that really got to me about this story was the fact that after the disaster and lose of life the chairman (J.B.Ismay) of the White Star Line (Titanic owners) was to send to the owners of the Norge a telegraph to commiserate them on the loss of the ship one ship owner to another with no mention at all made of the huge loss of life. This was from the same chairman who 8 years later would be on the fateful Titanic and who would end up pushing women and children out of the way to get onto one of the few lifeboats on the Titanic.

So perhaps it is time we took off the rose tinted classes when we look back on this terrible event and be glad that some good did come out of it, such as making watertight bulkheads run right up to the underside of the main decks, and providing many more lifeboats for passengers along with the wireless act which required every ship to carry two wireless operators so that one would always be listening for distress calls..

It is an interesting topic with the sudden spate of “Cruise Line passenger ships” involved in sinking or collisions and makes one wonder what it is going to take before the owners and designers realise that some of those huge floating hotels are an accident waiting to happen which may make the Titanic disaster pail.

Picture above of the recent Costa Concordia sinking in which there was also loss of life


(Picture from the guardian newspaper)

I happen to think that the owners should be looking at double skinning the ships hulls at least to a height of around 2m above the water line.


I am sure the owners and designers would whinge about cost and loss of internal area etc, (make the area usable for water ballast, pipes and systems with the area also filled with a foam plastic to aid buoyancy etc) and stability questions etc, but this could be done and help to make the floating glass and steel boxes a little bit safer to take to the sea in. Sure it would make the build a bit more expensive but would create more work for shipyard workers and I also happen to think that while great strides have been taken in the design of Lifeboats more needs to be done into how the Lifeboats get into the water from a heavily listing ship.