backsplice:
This one is for Raymundo, I see what you mean them were the days !!!
You’d definitely need a foc’sle head lookout for that one, be just like trying to drive an artic by sitting on the tail of the (flat) trailer. 
There is a proper little 5 hatch ship Archie. East German built I’d guess by the bridge and the long foc’sle. Lots of accomodation, did you carry some passengers too?
David
Here you go on her info, courtesy Shipspotter.com
General Cargo Ship BALTIC IMPORTER near Rendsburg/Kiel Canal westbound | Photo: 1969 | © Hans-Wilhelm Delfs, Kiel
IMO: 5035127 | Call Sign: MQYJ | Class.Society: LRS | Flag: United Kingdom/London |
GT 1.683 | NT 715 | dwt 2.560 | Grain 166.616 ft³ - Bale 155.390 ft³ |
Loa 99,10 m | Lpp 89,90 m | Br 13,00 m | Draught 5,55 m | Depth 8,10 m |
Engine: Maschinenbau Kiel A.G. (MaK) — 3.600 BHP — 15,2 kn |
Shipbuilders: Werft Nobiskrug GmbH, Rendsburg/Germany — Yard No. 564 — launched 15.06.1953 — delivery 09/1953 |
Owner: United Baltic Corporation Ltd., London |
You look at her physical dimensions with all the gear, accomodation etc (maybe some for about 12 passengers) then you look at a modern coaster/ship that can lift as much and often running to similar places with about 5 or 6 crew then you realise how much the job has gone ■■■■■■■■■■
David Miller:
There is a proper little 5 hatch ship Archie. East German built I’d guess by the bridge and the long foc’sle. Lots of accomodation, did you carry some passengers too?David
Hullo David,
Yes there was accommodation for only 6 Passengers, these were though only for Complimentary Passengers. So were not in full time use. I believe if my memory serves me right that none of the UBC Ships actually carried fare paying passengers. I was only on the Baltic Comet, she got sold to the Pakistanis, while we were in Hull. The Baltic Inporter and the Baltic Express.
Cheers, Archie.
Anyone know Spillers mill at Gainsborough?
While on about low airdraft ships, they had some built to go under the bridge at Gainsbro’. I went on one for a week to help the owner out and it took me six bloody months to escape her, was called the Blatence and a more cramped horrible piece of scrap I have never sailed on but the earning potential compensated quite nicely thankyou. 
We were paid on a share basis.
I have sailed on worse but prefer to forget them ones. 
Hi, Raymundo,
Your mention of Spiller’s at Gainsboro’ reminded of a firm I worked for who’s yard backed onto Flixboro’ wharf on the Trent.
I used to be fascinated watching the pilot bring the ships , IIRC the max was about 3500t down to Flixboro on the tide and swing them on the anchor so that they berthed with the Bow facing back to the Humber. It was a treat to watch those professionals at work, they only got one chance at it there wasn’t the room or the time to have a shunt at it.
Cheers Bassman
Archie Paice:
Ahoy there " backsplice" and “raymundo”,First of all a very big thank you to Backsplice for those Photographs of the Vauban. I never thought I’d ever see a picture of her again. Wow it was 50 years ago almost to the day that I sailed on her, a young 24 year old Chief & Ships Cook from the Prince Line, going as a Cook Steward for a few months just before I got married.
Raymundo, running up the Seine was an experience, pick up a Pilot at Honfleur, to take us up as far as Rouen. Here we used to tie up for half a day as it was nescessary to lower the mainmast, as you say to navigate under the many bridges between there and Paris. We used to berth in Paris near le Stade. A fantastic job really, a great little Sea Ship in any sort of weather, and a brilliant Crew (all 6 of them). However after the Wedding I needed to get back to the Prince Line, where I had a proper job to do.
As a bye the bye, if ever you get down again to the Pickering Traction Engine and Stean Rally, give me a call I only live a little way from the Show Field. I’ll treat you both to a noggin or three.
Cheers, Archie.
Evening all, Archie, raymundo, when you were both doing the Seine, did you ever experience the “mascaret”, or had they tamed it by then?
Showing my lack of knowledge, but I always thought that they were fair sized ships that got up as far as Rouen docks.
How did the Vauban compare in size to the normal Peniche? I presume that you were a similar size to get through the locks, is it six or seven up to Paris from Rouen ? I used to love Conflans Ste Honarine, in the 70s there were so many Peniches moored there, a totally different world, and then they were all working, not Houseboats. Some great Bars,(loads of “tacky” Van Gough prints, but no framed photographs of Erwin Rommel…funny how the French can celebrate oneprevious inhabitant, but not another)! And a fantastic, but affordable little Restaurant, with parking large enough for a lorry, on the N184, Foret St Germain.
If I really pushed my head out of my little office window in Suresnes, I could just see the one lock on the Seine, and on spring days the activity there was a welcome relief from interminable statistical ratio analysis!! Such was life with a lorry manufacturer!
I think that there was a fair depth of water through Paris, (8 metres +) ? But I presume that the bridges would be too low for a sea going vessel? Am I correct that the Peniches could go as far as Nogent sur Seine?
Thanks for your memories, and sharing them, Cheerio for now.
My first visit to Flixbrough was on the Benlow Trader with steel plates I think just a few days after the factory blew up. There was another ship on the berth with all his wheelhouse windows blown out. Little further up the road there used to be two or three small houses, all that remained were the gate posts, everything else was flattened. A caravan dealer in Scunthorpe on the verge of bankruptcy sold his entire stock in a matter of a few hours and saved the day.
To swing there as well as the other berths on the Trent we used to put the bow in the opposite bank and let the tide carry the stern around, most of but not all the pilots knew their stuff but when the rules were changed allowing some smaller ships to do their own pilotage there were some right ■■■■ ups, collisions, groundings normally just after the Apex, (where the Trent split from the main river to Goole.
As for the Seine I cant remember going as far as Paris but one of the places we often went was about 15km down river. Nothing around for miles just a small mill where we had to tie up to the trees, Not a bar or cafe anywhere and it took 2 1/2 days to load 580 ton of wheat. Poxy place, Bonieres was just as bad. Rouen was full of undesirables and the ship had to be locked down tighter than a drum, mostly Algerians. As far as I can find out the biggest ship to go there was the mv. Chinese Steel Responsibility’ at 290 mtr long, a 176,000 dwt lump but she only had 57,000 ton of coal left in her so she would have been fairly light on, and cant find any info on her draft. My only claim to fame with regards to Rouen was when skipper of the Guernsey owned ship ‘Pongo’ (don’t larf horrible name I know) I delivered the first load of steel from Dunkerque for the building of the new bridge.
Hullo Saviem,
London to Paris. As I said earlier I was only on the run up to Paris for a short while, so that I could ensure to be home for my forthcoming marriage. I was on the Ship m.v.Vauban from December 1962 till March 1963. “Le Mascaret” I must say though that I did hear about but never saw it. Although I understand that they had somehow dredged the Seine at Tankeray and stopped the turbelance by the time I was going there. In those days there was no Bridge at this point over the Mouth of the Seine. When we entered the River we used to pick up a River Pilot at Honfleure, I seem to remember that there was a beautiful Rock Carving of a Bi-Plane on the bank on the river somewhere near there too. We then used to go on up river to Rouen where we used to moor up on the Left Bank, fairly close to the Cathederal. This was where the Master, Mate and Second had the job of lowering the Mainmast in order that we could then proceed up river. I don’t believe many big Ships came up this far, although on the other side of the River just before you got to the Town there was quite a large Dock Area, in fact I think Rouen is still one of France’s largest Ports. It was great for me though, I used to be free to wander obout the City for a couple of hours, do a bit of shopping and generally do the Tourist thing. It was here that I learned that in the Cathederal was burried the Heart of Richard “Coeur de Lion”, and just out side on the cobbles, marked with a silver cross the spot where Jeanne d’Arc was burned at the stake for the first time, apparently they burnt her three times. Funny but they never do their Steaks like that, do they? When we left Rouen we started on our way up to Paris, this was always a rather long but fantastic trip, I don’t remember how many bridges we passed under, about six or seven I think, but I do remember that there were four seperate locks on the way to Paris. When we arrived at the locks, and were ■■■■■■■, then it was my job to do an Olyimpic dash along the quayside to le Magasin, here I had to exchange our empty Vin Rouge bottles, in those days the bottles of Vin Ordinaire had Cinque Etoiles round the neck and for every five empties you got one full bottle free. Fantastic! I was as fit as a Butchers Dog with all that excercise. At night , because the Seine was non Navigational in darkness hours we used to use any of the moorings that were free. We were amongst al the Peniche’s , I had fed everyone by this time, so we just went ashore to do a bit of Wine Tasting with all the families of the Peniches. On those there were usually two families, or one family but two generations. The Old Man and his Wife lived in the After quarters and the Son and his Wife, or the other family lived right Forward in the Bow. And they always had Bloody great big Dogs on board, No they were not Sea Dogs, just Guard Dogs. Some great times were had with these Water Gypsies ■■ We passed many more interesting places, Richard Coeur de Lion’s Castle, a couple of Palaces, A Gypsum Plant and many other places that I can’t remember. When we got to Paris we always berthed at Port de Paris, Genevilliers. (le Stade). A really nice trip even in the rain. I drove all around this area in a Campervan last October, I just could’nt get my bearings at all. It’s all just a great big Industrial Area now, with thousands of trucks parked up. Mostly East Europeans. Never mind, I can remember when it was a nice little spot.
Cheers, Archie.
Hi all,
The remains of the herald, at vlissingen,before being towed away to be scrapped.
by raymundo » Sun Jan 27, 2013 2:22 pm
My first visit to Flixbrough was on the Benlow Trader with steel plates I think just a few days after the factory blew up. There was another ship on the berth with all his wheelhouse windows blown out. Little further up the road there used to be two or three small houses, all that remained were the gate posts, everything else was flattened. A caravan dealer in Scunthorpe on the verge of bankruptcy sold his entire stock in a matter of a few hours and saved the day.
Speaking of explosions Ray I had a period of some years between Cable and Wireless and Texaco working for Rowbotham Tankships and in 1972 I was 2nd Mate on the good ship Guidesman discharging 4 star petrol at the Regent depot in Carrickfurgus when the Bloody Friday bombs started going off. Carrickfurgus is 7 or 8 miles from Belfast on the north shore of Belfast Lough but when the bomb in the bus station, the first and largest of the 22 bombs that went off that day, Guidesman literally jumped up. I was on deck and as the other bombs went off around the city it occured to me that we were loaded with petrol and mored on a public and, as it was then, open quay with people wandering about just above us. From then on I made damned sure that all the tank lids were firmly closed because with just a cigarette end we could have been number 23. It rather stopped me from enjoying our calls to that port.
Because I was young and dumb as a plank I did not realise where I was well off and later left Rowbotham and went driving middle east and then back deepsea with Texaco - was it the glory or the uniforms? If I had known then what I know now (how often do we say that?) I would have stayed on the coast for all my time at sea!
Here is the good ship Guidesman - what an Ocean Greyhound she was! 
And a classic photo from another Rowbotham ship, Tillerman, that would have had any deepsea man ■■■■■■■■ himself 
David
David Miller:
Because I was young and dumb as a plank I did not realise where I was well off and later left Rowbotham and went driving middle east and then back deepsea with Texaco - was it the glory or the uniforms? If I had known then what I know now (how often do we say that?) I would have stayed on the coast for all my time at sea!
I thought aboput the coast from time to time myself David, but my main driving force in those days was to see the world. Also, I thought that on the coast there were too many (spending) days ashore and not enough (earning) days at sea to pay for them. 
Nice looking ships those two. The 2nd picture reminds me of taking the St. John up the River Paranha to Rosario in Argentina. Shorelines, marshes, will o’ the wisps and strange shapes and noises in the night ( I have written elsewhere about the most frightening experience of my life there) were all in the mix and I could hardly believe that we taking an ocean going freighter that far inland.
I remember the those two Rowbottoms tankers and a few more, means I’m getting bloody old!
Few years ago I had the old Coe Metcalf coaster Hawthorn renamed Blackbird and was discharging stone from Llandulas at Northfleet, agent comes on board and said ‘Have your new orders Ray’ ( He knew me obviously) Load various bits of general at Denton deep wharf for where ■■ Never heard of that place so agent Paul (agent) went to find out. He came back later and said that I wouldn’t like what he was about to tell me. I didn’t either as it were bloody Nigeria.
After God knows how many six an six about watches (no second mate) we arrived of the entrance to the Bonny river and anchored, eventually told to proceed to Bonny where we would embark the pilot. Well we would if I had any charts of the river !! Not that they would have been much good if we had as half the bouys were either sunk, wrong place, missing or laying ashore. In the end the harbour bods called up an old three island tanker to get under way for the inner anchorage and show me the way. What an education, he asked me my max speed … 10.8knts. Too fast Captain, we can only manage 7.5 !!! We picked up our pilot at Bonny and was told the reason for not coming out for us was NO FUEL FOR THE PILOT BOAT, it’s only the biggest ‘kin refinery there in Nigeria.
2 or 3 hours up the river the pilot without any warning just went hard to Std for the trees, Mangoes or whatever they were, Wot the hell !! No worry, its OK he said. Sure enough an opening appeared in the jungle and with the current setting us up river we made the perfect fetch thru’ the gap, overhanging branches catching the stays for the masts etc depositing all sorts of creepy crawlies everywhere. I had a praying mantis for a pet for about a week. After doing battle for about what seemed an age the creek opened up to a large inland lagoon where we ■■■■■■■ to a jetty not unlike the ones that had been abandoned in the Thames a 100 years ago. Took a week to discharge about 960 ton of whatever we had and some that looked decidedly dodgy. Everything had to be locked down or it was nicked the moment you blinked, mt 25ltr plastic drums were very desirable for the locals to use for water. 200 ■■■■ an a bottle of spirits was the norm as presents for whoever demanded them and ‘officials’ came out of the woodwork like moths around a flame. The mate (idiot) drunk some of their local palm wine and caught disentry, but couldn’t seek medical aid until we got to Las Palmas and that was after going to Abidjan for the next cargo homewards, I thought he was going to die on me honestly. We left whatever the place was called and went to the anchorage in Bonny as we then at that time didn’t know about the Abidjan job. 13th June '95 it was and the customs clearance papers were stamped the same, thing is on the 14th we had a visit from the local dicks of immigration / customs officials who promptly arrested me and the ship for being illegally in Nigerian waters. Oops! more backhanders, cost me £300 and one of the swine nicked my Seiko watch that had cost me £15 earlier on in Rotterdam of an alchy deckhand who liked a drink or six before breakfast !! (OK in the end as my company replaced it with similar model that cost them £100). Was very glad to get away from there and as the harbour master in Abidjan said when he asked me where we had came from …
‘‘Nigeria not good, too much corruption. Not so here in Abidjan, no corruption but you may make donation’’
And we did about £150 for an oil spill of about 4 drips of diesel fuel when the hose from the tanker was disconnected from our bunkering point on deck. Good ole days? yea right my arse 
Toerags the lot of em!!
And if anyone wonders what happened to all the old trucks from the 60’s & 70’s and where they were scrapped … they weren’t, they were exported down to that grotty place where they were still working. Well, the bits that hadn’t fallen off were
And the fun did not stop there either, sailed from Abidjan after loading animal feed pellets for Arbenra in Denmark only for the giro compass to die on us, well it was having a grunt an groan on the way down so was not totally unexpected, luckily for us the compass for the auto pilot was separate so. … will come home on the magnetic one. Haha, when was the last time that had been looked at let alone swung or serviced ! the bowel was dry of any alcohol and the card was siezed to the pin (here we go, those who are perfect saying ‘‘My fault as ship should be in a fit condition an it’s my responsibility etc etc’’ … so go boil yer head).
Fetched her all the way back on our rather antiquated sat nav, check position every couple of hours or so and a bit to port or to std whatever was required to keep her roughly on her intended course line.
On arrival at Arbenra a car was noticed parked a wee bit away from us where the people in it were watching the ship thru binoculars. Danish customs! In what used to be the officers mess in her previous life there were some unused cups an saucers & other crockery etc with the old company logo, very posh too.
I got the cook, a lass from Harrogate (my uver arf at the time) to dig some out, she made some coffee in the proper pot along with the milk and sugar jugs and even some biscuits, put them all on a silver tray (epns obviously. otherwise it would have been weighed in as scrap years before) and of she went walking up to the quay to their car, even down to the teatowel over her forearm, cant recall the outcome to that bit 100% but they drove off shortly after. Later that day the rummage gang appeared, pulled the ship apart and found … absolutely NOWT !!
Here Lads, I’ve just heard that there is rioting in Port Said, Egypt. I hope the donkey’s OK.
(only seamen of a certain age will understand that one)
David
Where exactly do they plan on parking the hazardous?
David Miller:
Here Lads, I’ve just heard that there is rioting in Port Said, Egypt. I hope the donkey’s OK.(only seamen of a certain age will understand that one)
David
Is this to do with the donkey rides and the animals name?
Wheel Nut:
David Miller:
Here Lads, I’ve just heard that there is rioting in Port Said, Egypt. I hope the donkey’s OK.(only seamen of a certain age will understand that one)
David
Is this to do with the donkey rides and the animals name?
Yea! but the Donkey was doing the “riding” David !! Anon 1.