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Leith Shipyards
A history of the Ships built at the Henry Robb Shipyard in Leith, Scotland. Also a testimony to the men who built the Ships and to all who sailed in them.		  
     
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Home Ships Built in Leith 1946 to 1984 FLAMINIAN - Yard No 445 - Diesel Cargo - Ellerman Wilson Line - Built 1956
 
 

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FLAMINIAN - Yard No 445 - Diesel Cargo - Ellerman Wilson Line - Built 1956

M.V.Flaminian-sml

 Ellerman-Pappayanni-Flag.sm

 The M.V FLAMINIAN at sea

 (Photo credit unknown)

 

  
Owners    Ellerman Wilson Line (Ellerman/Papayanni Line Ltd)
           
Registered    Liverpool Keel Laid    
Type of Ship    Cargo/Passenger ship Launched    09/02/1956
      Handed Over    
Ship Details          
Length Overall     Launch Details    
Length B.P.    325' 0" Weather    
Beam    50' 0" Time to Water    
Depth Mld   33' 9"
Draught          
G.R.T.    3,100 tons      
DWT    3,552 tons      
           
Engines   Eight-cylinder Sulzer 8SAD60 by George Clark and NE Marine (Sunderland) Ltd, producing 3,400bhp       
Props    1      
Speed    13.5 knots      
           
Other known names  

1974-CITY of IZMIR
1975-CLIMAXPEARL
1981-MALDIVE PEARL

 

    
           
Current Status   Broken up Gadani Beach 1984    
Content will be added as and when available. 
 Flaminian-underway

The fine looking vesel M.V.FLAMINIAN

 
Ships History

 

Once a ship had been built and launched she then had to be out-fitted, and then complete sea trials
before being handed over to her new owners, who would look to have that ship at sea, as long as possible to pay for her build costs and of course to make the company good profits.


To this end one company may have had no requirement for a particular ship after a time and would then sell her on just like any other disposable commodity.


Hence a ship may have had a few owners and would go through many changes and names during what was hoped for a long and successful working life.

The single screw diesel cargo vessel M.V.FALAMINIAN was another order from the Ellerman Line to be operated under the umberella of Ellerman/Papayanni Lines Ltd

She was one of the larger ships ordered from the group to be built at the Leith Shipyards of Henry Robb and yet another ship that looked like a ship with her graceful lines and raised Focs'le and Poop decks, she was also fitted out for refrigerated cargo (26,550 sq ft of space) and was primarily used on the Papayanni lines Mediterranean routes.

 

 

Nice photograph above of the M.V.FLAMINIAN leaving Tilbury on another voyage (Photo by Bob Scott)

She was often to bring back a cargo of oranges from Isreal and was with the line for around 18 years before being transferred to Ellerman City Lines and re-named City of Izmir

She was only with Ellerman City lines for a year or so before being sold on to Maldives shipping interests and re-named again as ClimaxPearl

She was to sail out of the Maldives for another 9 years before going to the ship graveyard of Gadani Beach, Pakistan to end up as scrap metal.

This graceful old ship had a working life of around 28 years.


We try here to give as full an account of her history as time and research permits, if you know of missing info
or you have any photographs of her, then please get in touch and we shall update her story as we go along.

 
 

The M.V.FLAMINIAN as City of Izmir loaded with containers and still to be trimmed.

 
Tales from the Ship

 

Here you will find the stories from the men and women who sailed on the ships, what was it really like to be working on a ship in a raging sea and in the pitch dark of night, the real stories some funny some sad, some good and some bad.

Story below from Frank.

MV Flaminian,

I was an AB aboard Flaminian, and spent about four weeks in Gib while a new temp bow was fitted.
The drydock photo (Below) was taken by myself at Giraltar after a collision in Algesiras bay.
The collision occured at about 0600, 12/09/65 which happened to be my 21st birthday. we were bound for Gib, and the skipper wanted to arrive at full daylight. The wheel man and the lookout were aft getting in the logline, so the skipper instructed the mate to alter course and go round the bay to bring us to the pilot at full daylight.
French tanker "Florella" I think the name, was steaming west out of the med, and the mate decided to pass accross her stern after she had passed on our portside.
The Flaminian was on auto pilot and the mate was not familier with it's opperation. according to the story we heared the mate clicked the small control lever on the auto pilot thinking it would put FIVE degrees of rudder on, unfortunately any movment of the lever and the rudder kept turning until the lever was moved in the opposite direction.
The mates action resulted in the vessel turning hard-a-port and at about 13 knots almost overtaking the other vessel. We impacted the tanker just aft of her bridge housing, ripped out her port lifeboat and port bridge wing.
It was only as we pulled off her that she exploded streaming burning crude oil for about a mile along the straight of gib. having picked up a quantity of burning crude the forepeak (what was left of it)and No1 hold of the Flaminian was on fire
with the help of a deepsea tug we extinguished the fire and were allowed alongside at gib that afternoon. the tanker got her fies out, word was they grounded her, not sure but did hear there were NO casualties aboard her.
our only casualty was the bosuns pet budgie which had ingested the thick oil smoke and fell off it's perch.

Flaminian-dry-docked



Dedicated to all the brave men and women who sailed the vessels from the Leith Shipyards.

 Flaminian-bow-damaged

M.V.FLAMINIAN after her collision, with her bow ripped open just off Gibraltar.

 

Should you know of anyone who may have sailed on her, then please feel free to get in touch so that we can add the story here.

 

 Flaminian-with-tugs

 FLAMINIAN with a tug at her stern
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Comments   

 
+2 #5 Dave Gregory 2013-01-29 17:15
Hello Glenn. I sailed with Brett on SS Corinthian Feb 63 on the Italian run and again, this time on MV Arcadian April to August 65 on the Great Lakes, Canada/USA from German ports. I was apprentice at the time. I remember him as a smashing bloke, very easy to work with. We usually paired up on cargo work. Saw him after he left Ellermans, didn't he become a quantity surveyor? Sorry to hear he passed away far too soon.
Michael - how are you doing? Last spoke to you when you were in the process of changing your email address. Not sure if you got my last.
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0 #4 Glenn Furnice 2012-06-17 18:38
Hi there, I would like to ask if any of you remember my Father (Brett Furnice) he was possibly First mate at the time of that voyage. He sadly passed away too young about 10yrs ago and I recently found a newspaper cutting he had kept referring to the collision while sorting through personal stuff after our Mother passed away. I remember him describing the details of the collision which match the story by Frank and said he was glad he was not on duty at the time thus exempt from any involvement in the incident. He would have been about 26yrs old at the time, I have some photos somewhere during that time if that helps anyone.
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+1 #3 Michael Main 2012-05-27 15:42
Hello to Frank and Cliff, it's a while since we all sailed together! Actually I was on the Bridge (as a coffee-making cadet I have to add) at the time of the collision with "Floreal". An interesting experience, and a brilliant few weeks in dry-dock in Gibraltar afterwards! I was also a first-tripper in "Patrician" (50 years next year) as Cliff says when she sank 4 miles South of Tarifa and the only survivor from the Bridge on that occasion. I was last on board "Flaminian" in Colombo after she had been sold to the Maldives and the brass was still gleaming. She was a lovely ship in which I sailed for two happy years and also in her sister, "Florian", for about the same length of time, a few years later. Both beautiful yacht-like ships and always a nice crowd, happy ships both, as most ships were, under the Papayanni or City Line House Flags. Great days!
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+1 #2 C.M.MAY 2012-04-26 08:59
The tanker she collided with was the French motor tanker FLOREAL- built 1958- of 29,541 dwt and owned by Soc des Tpts Maritimes Petroliers,Roue n FRA .
Sold in 1968 to a succession of owners,and was not scrapped until as late as 1993 !
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0 #1 Cliff Foden 2012-04-18 22:15
Just like to add to Franks comments above. I was 3rd mate on Flaminian on this trip and remember the French tanker being the 'Floreal'. Don't know anything about the circumstances leading up to the collision but I know that the 'Flaminian' did not have an autopilot. The only Ellerman and Papayanni vessel with an autopilot was the 'Arcadian'.
Can't remember any of the rest of our crew (sorry Frank, getting on a bit now) except for a cadet - Michael Main, who, I believe was also on another E & P ship which collided with a liberty ship and sank in the straits of Gibralar a year or so earlier.
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