m.v."Clyde Ranger" ex"British Ranger"

After 'Standing-By' as  O.I.C., or 'Officer-In-Charge' of a number of BP Tanker Co Ltd., ships which were under repairs, on the River Tyne including the 'British Power', 'British Crusader' 'British Scientist' and the 'British Guardian', I was sent to King Harry Ferry, Falmouth to join the 'British Ranger' as Third Mate, in November 1957. We then went to Swansea in South Wales to load. The ship was transferred to BP's BP Clyde Tanker Co and renamed 'Clyde Ranger'

The 'British Ranger' was typical of the BP Tanker Co Fleet, she carried around 18,000 tons of oil. They were virtually all built  to a common style which pointed them out to experienced seamen.

We spent the Month of December 1957 running up and down the Bristol channel between the BP refinery at Llandarcy, Swansea to either Cardiff or Newport. 

We then took one load to Antwerp in Belgium, and upon our return to Swansea, we then loaded at Llandarcy for Porsgrunn in Norway. We arrived there at 0100 am on New Year's Day 1958. The temperature as we went into port could be seen to be dropping down the thermometer scale. Because the harbour was freezing the Captain thought it best to drop the anchor to enable us to pull off the wharf some 2/3 days later. This was to be a brilliant idea as we would never have got away had he not done so.

From Porsgrunn we sailed for Abadan, in Iran where we loaded crude oil for Australia.

Map, shewing the area of the Bristol Channel in which we were trading. 

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