BINTANG BOLONG in Middlesbrough Dock 07.11.79

You see before you what, at the time, comprised the Gambian merchant fleet, in port to load a cargo of ICI compound fertilisers in 50kg bags, for Banjul, and upriver calls on the Gambia River. This was an annual cargo for the Gambia Produce Marketing Board. As well as the Bintang Bolong other callers were units of the Helmsing and Grimm fleet, capable of navigating upriver in The Gambia. Cargoes Northbound were usually the country''s main export of groundnuts, for which GPMB were responsible, as their name suggests.