GSF BRITANNIA - 20 July 2011

GSF BRITANNIA - 20 July 2011

Postby teesships » Mon Jul 02, 2012 6:40 pm

Details gleaned from the internet: GSF BRITANNIA (8750560), drilling rig, completed Norsmec, Redcar, 1968
1968 NORSMEC I - 1970(?) GSF BRITANNIA.
Seaton Channel, River Tees, 20 July 2011.
11224gsfbritannia200711.jpg
Now come on, George, you're slipping! I searched in vain for the sub-forum Shipbuilding at Redcar!! Surely your home town deserves a mention in dispatches??
Thinking back (very hard to do so!!) when this rig was completed we were still North Yorkshire, Teesside came in around that same year, and the county of Cleveland later came and went, leaving us nowhere (still Cleveland according to Royal Mail!!). But we were all proud to then be able to reclaim our North Yorkshire heritage!
It may be that where she was constructed was technically within Redcar, but if memory serves (no confirming entry in my notebook of the time!) she is shown here, as NORSMEC I, in the background of the NORFOLK FERRY sailing from the Tees from Smith's Docks on 25 July 1967.
5PHNOR~3.JPG
If my memory is accurate that, to my mind, calls into question a 1968 completion date, she was already well advanced by the middle of the previous year.
As to actual location, it was on the stretch of river seaward of Tees Dock, and also beyond what would then, I think, be the recently commissioned Shell Jetty. However, not as far as the Redcar Ore Terminal which at that time did not have the massive gantries now visible. She was put together, I think, roughly in the vicinity of Dabholm Beck, not quite opposite where I was to see her again 44 years later!
It has been interesting putting this little tale together, even if some of my "facts" are wrong!
Ron
teesships
 
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NORSMEC I (Re: GSF BRITANNIA - 20 July 2011)

Postby teesships » Tue Jul 03, 2012 12:05 pm

My notebook may have lied, but my memory didn't! For some reason I did not record seeing the NORSMEC I on 25 July 1967 in the front, sightings, section of my notebook (probably because I already knew I would not find her in Lloyd's Register). However, it was correctly listed in the back, photos, part of the notebook (back in the day when we could not afford to photograph everything we saw so separate lists were then necessary!).
So here she is in all her glory during the wonderful (looking back .... and will be sharing other sightings with you) river trip.
norsmeci250767.jpg
Ron
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Re: GSF BRITANNIA - 20 July 2011

Postby teesships » Sun Apr 05, 2015 8:57 pm

Revised and updated details (not guaranteed!)
GSF BRITANNIA (8750560), drilling rig, 1920gt, completed Norsmec, Redcar, 1968
1968 BRITANNIA - 1968 NORSMEC I - 2004 BRITANNIA - 2004 GSF BRITANNIA -
2011 GSP BRITANNIA - 2014 BRITANNIA (not in Equasis/LR)

Ron
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