# Caltex Edinburgh



## japottinger (Jun 16, 2004)

During the last year of my eng.apprenticeship at Scotts' of Greenock I worked on the outfitting of above tanker. From memory she had quite high boiler steam pressure and and temp. 
The boilers were on a raised platform aft of the turbines.
A enduring memeory on this ships was when our foreman said only 1.5 threads should protrude past any nut on a bolt joint made, any more than that it would either rust or be difficult to,release.
Anybody still about who sailed on her.
Jim


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## John Campbell (Aug 30, 2005)

Yes I was 1st Mate on the Caltex Edinburgh from for eight months paying off on 10.4.69.

At that time in her life she was quite a trial as she had been on white oil since new. When I joined and her bulkheads were wafer thin so much so that loading grades were a great problem so she had to go on to black oil cargo for the rest of her career. Devcon Cordabond and cement kept us going - what would we have done nowadays with risk assessments etc.? There were even doublers on top of doublers around the aft accommodation. But we kept her going and Caltex certainly got their money's worth from that ship 
.
We did about four trips to Saigon during the war there and we never had any qualms -all we though about was the double pay. She had quite a large cargo hold ,forward and we used to carry a few parcels of drummed lube oil and on one occasion carried drummed aviation spirit to Madagascar.


She was a well built ship and had comfortable accommodation - the engine room was very hot and pretty much of a wreck and I had great sympathy with the engineers who had to cope with aged boilers, condensers and evaporators notwithstanding numerous faults with the generators.
JC


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## gordy (Apr 18, 2008)

Jim,
we were told in Fairfields that one thread above the nut was Admiralty standard.
Gordy


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## lakercapt (Jul 19, 2005)

Think that Caltex fleet at that time had shares in the company that made "Thistlebond" as I sent many an hour after watch patching pipelines and bulkheads with that fine product. Kept them operational !!!


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## Ian6 (Feb 1, 2006)

Hi Jim

I was at Scotts 'standing by' as a 2nd year Deck Apprentice in May and June 1956 during the last weeks of her fitting out. I then sailed in her until December of 1956.
She had speed trials in the Clyde on 22nd June and sailed on her maiden voyage on the 29th (passing HMY Britannia off Dunoon). That voyage was to load in Aruba and discharge at Canvey Island and Immingham - during the loaded passage the Andrea Doria had her fateful meeting with the Stockholm. 
She was a comfortable, well finished ship when I knew her but not a very happy one. I always found the T2's had a better atmosphere, perhaps because we were all too busy to moan.

So after 53 years I guess we wouldn't recognise each other but we must have passed somewhere in Greenock. I lodged in Robertson Street until the handover from Scotts to Caltex.

Ian


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## Burntisland Ship Yard (Aug 2, 2008)

And leading on for the Texaco fleet - Devcon Rules !
Bet the shares in Devcon dropped in value with the demise of the T.O.T fleet.
Have a happy festive period
Cheers !


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## gordy (Apr 18, 2008)

I kept the Devcon and Thistlebond shares going when offshore. 
We had an accomodation unit that had all the domestic piping brazed with that dodgy American flux that attacked the brazing. Me and my mate had our technique perfected so that we had a leak repaired and back online so that the offgoing shift still got their shower(Hippy)


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## Scousegit (Aug 18, 2005)

One of her masters during the sixties Capt. Ted Bushell lived, occasionaly, next door to me. I think he went on to command the Caltex Bristol afterwards.

Scouse.


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## Ian6 (Feb 1, 2006)

Hi Scouse

The ship in which I served prior to joining the brand-new Caltex Edinburgh was commanded by Capt Bushell. That was the Caltex Canberra, an earlier British built ship but launched on the other coast and further south by Furness at Haverton Hill on Tees.
Ian


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## Burntisland Ship Yard (Aug 2, 2008)

The one other thing I forgot, was our shares in the "Bandit Tape" and Rubber insersion companies !


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## John Campbell (Aug 30, 2005)

Captain Bushell was a legend in Caltex and then Texaco. Although I never met him I served with pleenty who had - he was renown for his singing prowess and was nicknamed _Captain Bushelli -the Nightingale of the Pacific_.
Third mates detested being serenaded on the 8-12 I have been told .

He left Texaco under a cloud when he refused to take one of their VLCCs into Zeebrugge - stating that it was hazardous . Many agreed with him but he had to go.

I believe he died when in command of a large LNG carrier in another company"
JC


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## howardws (Aug 15, 2009)

As first trip Fourth Engineer I joined Caltex Liverpool in 1967 in a Singapore drydock. Five Engineers and an Electrician joined as a large Aussie crew left - she has just come off the Aussie coast. When they re-named her Texaco Glasgow I suggested that the 'Caltex' logos should be replaced with a 'Devcon' logo on one side of the funnel and a 'Blue Circle' logo on the other. Chief Van der Weg (?) (who later saved me from six months in a Persian prison) was not amused!

She was a real mess. I can remember rigging a tarpaulin over the switchboard one night in heavy weather - the valve compartment above was filling from it's forward bulkhead and draining onto the switchboard.

Blackouts were so frequent that when the Engineers alarm went off we all turned to and carried out what became a routine, with no instructions.

The forced draught fans, mounted right at the top of the boiler room had ring oiled bearings. The port one had to have it's oil changed each watch and it had to be done by the watchkeeping Engineer. Asbestos gloves were the order of the day - just to hold the handrails!

In 1968 we took her to Yokohama to lay up prior to jumboising. The Engineers and Electrician stayed wiith her and we spent two weeks blanking things off, draining boilers, putting trays of silica gel in various places and many other things. Then the local Lloyds surveyor came round with his little hammer and said "Jumboising - you must be joking!" It was then decided that she should be scrapped and we went home.


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## cunamara (Aug 9, 2005)

I think my late uncle, Andy Roche, was an engineer with Caltex for a short period, does anyone remember him ?


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## biggerbob (Mar 26, 2010)

I served my time in Kincaids before joining the MN in 1955. In 1961/62 I was Junior on the Caltex Edinburgh. We took her to Newcastle to prepare for a trip to Aussie. Spent a year there carrying "parcels" around the Gold Coast. Based at Kernell in Botany Bay we even shipped chemicals. Great ship then, I loved it.


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