CAPE RACE

[TEESMAN]

CAPE RACE discharging at Blyth 18.06.79

Photo Michael Green

[magoonigal]

Alcan Shipholding (Bermuda) Ltd. POR Glasgow.
Built Tonsberg, Norway in 1971.
14,885 Gross. 23,684 Dwt.
15 kts.
Subsequent History:

86 NORTHERN PIONEER - 90 FLAG EVA - 94 SEAQUEEN

Disposal Data:

BU Aliaga 27.9.02

[TEESMAN]

Photo Michael Green

As FLAG EVA at the Potash Terminal Tees Dock 19.11.93

[creemaster]

Her and BARON BELHAVEN built especially for the trade from Port Esquival, Jamaica, to Blyth.
Shared the trade with POLYTRADER and BARON BELHAVEN was registered at Ardrossan - but she couldn't get in there !

[baronboat]

The Cape Race and Baron Belhaven were frequent visitors to Blyth with alumina. Both were delivered in 1971. Cape Race was owned by Lyle Shipping Co. Ltd of Glasgow and Baron Belhaven by H. Hogarth & Sons Ltd of Ardrossan. Both were managed by Scottish Ship Management Ltd. (SSM) and placed on charter to ALCAN (Bermuda). Provisional names had been Suncape and Sunbaron, following the naming system of ALCAN associate shipping line Saguenay Shipping.
Both were strengthened for navigating the St. Lawrence during the ice season primarily engaged in carrying bauxite from Chaguaramas in Trinidad which had been transshipped from Guyana to the ALCAN smelter at Port Alfred on the Saguenay River.
Bauxite was also loaded in Suriname, Brazil and Kamsar, Guinea
Cargoes of alumina to Blyth and to Kubikenborg (near to Sundsvall) in Sweden were usually carried during the summer months loaded at Port Esquivel or Rocky Point, Jamaica.
Cargoes other than alumina and bauxite were occasionally carried but due to the condition of the ships holds they weren’t cleaner commodities such as grain although in November 1975 the Cape Race loaded a full cargo of soya beans in Norfolk Va. for Santander. Petroleum coke was sometimes carried.
The two ships were fitted for carrying part cargoes of Bunker C oil if required. This was to be loaded in Chaguaramas for use at the up-river loading ports in Guyana. These cargoes were rarely carried during the first years of the charter and then not at all. Only part cargoes of bauxite could be loaded at Mackenzie, taken to Chaguaramas, discharged, vessel returned to Mackenzie, loaded another part cargo and returned to Chaguaramas where the first cargo was reloaded for onward delivery.
In 1979 both ships were sold to ALCAN Shipholdings (Bermuda). SSM retained the management of the ships and the only thing that changed was that the pink funnel with black top lost the blue seahorse and trident. In the photograph by Teesman the bolt holds in the funnel where the seahorse sat can be clearly seen.
The management of the two ships was transferred to Denholm Ship Management of Glasgow in 1986. The Cape Race became the Northern Pioneer and the Baron Belhaven was renamed Northern Explorer. The ships were by then already registered in Bermuda; this had been SSM flagging out their fleet to cut costs. British crews had replaced the Caribbean seamen who had been carried from new. The funnels were repainted with the ALCAN logo and lasted until 1990 when both ships were sold to Greek owners Golden Union. The Cape Race/Northern Pioneer becoming the Flag Eva and the Baron Belhaven/Northern Explorer the Flag Marina.
Tales of crew joining the ships in Blyth and getting lost were almost legend in SSM. Camboise was at first pronounced as written by the SSM personnel department and more than one crew member was found looking across to the ship from the Dun Cow Quay.

[creemaster]

Cambois is pronounced Cammus but I have been asked how to get to Cam mois and probably a few other pronunciations
It's not actually Cambois but North Blyth. Cambois was to the north of the power station and to the south was few streets and British Rail's Working Men's Club. South towards the river mouth was the Alcan 'ship unloading facility' and beyond that a row of houses and he Seven Stars pub
Graham

[baronboat]

A couple of photographs from 1976 showing the Cape Race at Port Alfred with a cargo of bauxite loaded at Chaguaramas, Trinidad. During the winter months it took a bit of time to clear the hatch covers of snow and ice before discharge could commence.