STEENBOK

From South Gare to Stockton

STEENBOK

Postby teesships » Tue Apr 03, 2018 5:15 pm

A real blast from the past!

STEENBOK (1960-61)
O.N. 182140 8101g 4630n 10955dw 512’7” x 66’4” x 28’0½”
3 steam turbines double reduction geared to screw shaft by Parsons Marine Turbine Co., Wallsend-on-Tyne
23.8.49 launched by Greenock Dockyard Co. Ltd., Greenock (Yard no. 471) as CLAN SHAW for The Clan Line Steamers Ltd. (Cayzer, Irvine & Co. Ltd. - managers) / 1.50: Completed / 1959: within British & Commonwealth Group transferred to Bullard, King & Co. Ltd.; name unchanged / 12.59: transferred to Springbok Line Ltd., London; name unchanged / 1.60: transferred to Springbok Shipping Co. Ltd., Cape Town, South Africa, and subsequently renamed STEENBOK / 1.7.61: company sold by British & Commonwealth Shipping Co. Ltd. to South African Marine Corporation Ltd., Cape Town, South Africa, vessel remained in ownership by Springbok Shipping Co. Ltd. (South African Marine Corporation Ltd. - managers) and subsequently renamed SOUTH AFRICAN SEAFARER / 1966: renamed S.A. SEAFARER. / 1.7.66: grounded at entrance to Table Bay and broke back; all passengers and crew rescued; total loss.

Middlesbrough Dock - 19 April 1961:
steenbok190461.jpg

Of all the Springbok ships the STEENBOK had the shortest career, but was notable for both the beginning and end of her life. Completed as the CLAN SHAW she was the first of a series of 13 distinctive vessels built at Greenock between 1950 and 1956. Many observers regard these as most attractive ships through the unique cowl, known as ‘The Helmet’ in the shipyard area, added for smoke-deflecting purposes. 16½ years later, recently renamed S.A. SEAFARER, and 5 years to the day since acquisition by Safmarine, she stranded around 0037 hours on 1 July 1966 trying to enter her home port at Cape Town. Only 4 hours later, at 0442, the vessel broke her back. In what was the first major helicopter rescue along the coast of South Africa, all 63 crew and 12 passengers had been saved by 1015.
The STEENBOK was the first Springbok vessel to be sighted in the author’s local waters, local records placing her in Middlesbrough Dock towards the end of March 1960. She made 4 visits in all and on the third of these, on 19.4.61, was the subject of the last frame of the author’s first ever film! Her final visit was in the August, reappearing in December as the SOUTH AFRICAN SEAFARER. The writer last saw her in Glasgow on 27.6.64.

As SOUTH AFRICAN SEAFARER at Glasgow - 27 June 1964:
south-african-seafarer270664x1.jpg
south-african-seafarer270664x2.jpg
Ron
teesships
 
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