Suffered a fire on April 29, 1969. The ship was rebuilt and the steam turbine was replaced with a diesel engine.
Excerpt from www.skipshistorie.net
1960 Built as TT MOBILE APEX at Alexander Stephen & Sons Ltd, Linthouse, Glasgow, Scotland for Mobile Tankships, Ltd (Mobil Shipping Co. Ltd), London, England. Launched 10/06, delivered in December.
1964 Transferred to Mobil Tankers Ltd (Mobil Shipping Co. Ltd), London .
1969 Came on fire 29/04 during loading of gasoline and naphta at Hess Terminal, Limetree Bay, St. Croix for New York, NY, USA. A leak was detected in the pump room and 20 min. later an explosion occurred and then a fire in the engine room and cargo tank no. 9 1 people died while the rest of the crew was saved. The vessel was towed out and anchored in the Hess Oil channel where USCG tried to extinguish the fire. The vessel was then towed out to about 21 nm from land. Due to danger of explosion with a cargo of about 68,000 bbls of gasoline and about 42,000 bbls of naphta on board, the USCG abandoned the fire extinguishing. The next day she had drifted to about 35 nm from shore and USCG manged to extinguish the fire. The rest of the cargo was pumped over in barges before it was towed to Ponce, Puerto Rico on 29/05 where the vessel was declared a total loss. The wreck was sold to Sameiet Pollo (Svend Foyn Bruun), Tønsberg. Renamed POLLO and towed to Sandefjord then to Kristiandsand mek. Workshop, Kristiansand for repairs and converting. The midship house was moved aft, all steam machinery and boilers removed and diesel engine and new boilers installed.
1970 12 repairmen died 05/11 when the CO² fire extinguishing plant was activated by accident. Conversion and repairs completed 03/12.
1977 Sold to Kingsford Shipping Co. (Oddmund Grunstad, Stavanger), Monrovia, Liberia. Renamed REDSEA VENTURE .
1980 Sold to Soc. Maritime de Transports Pétroliers Petromer, Bordeaux, France. Renamed CIRON .
1984 Renamed AUMA . Registered in Panama.
1985 Sold to Congelados Jesus SA, Panama. Renamed IZARA .
1995 Reported tasks taken by Nigerian authorities in Calabar, Nigeria in non-seagoing condition "no owners - owners out of business".
2004 Reported renamed ESPADON (St. Thomas & Principe flag). Presumed used as a floating storage. |