by jmbrent » Tue Mar 24, 2015 2:35 pm
Hi, this vessel was towed from Klaipeda in Lithuania to Tyne Tees dockyard where she was converted to a seismographic vessel. She had been totally stripped of all her machinery and accommodation, the only thing left in her hull was the tailshaft, rudder and propeller. The hull had been shot blasted inside and out and primed prior to her leaving Klaipeda. She had all new machinery and pipework and accommodation fitted in her rebuild by Tyne Tees dockyard. When she was almost complete and lying alongside the West jetty at Hebburn during a gale at night she snapped her moorings and took off down the river, she listed and one of the extending array towing arms slid out and bent the for'd mast and bridge front on the Northumbrian Water sewage vessel moored at the Howdon sewage works, before tugs arrived and brought her back to Hebburn to complete her conversion. The reason I know so much about it I was working as foreman fitter at the yard and working on the vessel, they were truly happy days working for Mr,Albert Le Blond. Micky