# For the crew of the Gulf Bandar, R.I.P.



## Cpt Dick Brooks (May 13, 2013)

I was approached by Flogger-Osborne, of Purplet Street Ship's Chandlery, back in 1973, to repaint the name and port of registry on a fleet of Greek-Cypriot registered ship's, that operated out of Ipswich. Because of the Greek and Turkish civil war in Cyprus, the port of registry was changed from Famagusta to Limasol. As the deck crew were a mixture from all over the world, with no one that could write English, I was asked if I wanted the job. I had just started my own sailing ship charter business, so the money would come in handy.
The Gulf Bandar arrived in Ipswich Dock to unload her cargo, then load general cargo for Cyprus, topping off with a deck cargo of scrap cars for resale in Cyprus. Her crew rigged planks for me to work from on each side of the bow, and around the stern. After I'd blacked out the old name and port of registry, I went to my own ship for a cup of tea, to let the paint dry. The Gulf Bandar was on the Old Gasworks Quay, and Biche was only a few hundred yards to the north, on the northern side of the Roll-on-Roll-off Quay.
After painting the new name on each side of her bow, I painted her name and new port of registry around her elliptical stern. She sailed for Famagusta, and was replaced by the Gulf Coast, then the Gulf Sea, and finally the Gulf Sky.
Because of the Arab/Israeli war in the early seventies, the price of oil went up by six hundred percent. There was no way the west could cope with that without going into a recession, so I sold my ship, Biche. If people couldn't put food on the table, let alone pay their mortgages, there was no way they were going on rod and line fishing trips in the winter, or chartering a tall-ship in the summer. I bought the Lowestoft trawler, Dauntless Star, and fitted her out as a dive support ship, then took her out to Dubai, in the Persian Gulf, to see what I could get up to. 
As we were locking-out of Ipswich Dock, a crowd came down to the quayside to wish us bon voyage. Once my chief engineer, Harold-the-Kraut, gave me ahead on her Crossley direct reversing engine, I signalled for him to come up on deck to wave goodbye to his girlfriend, Pam, and her family. Old Aubrey, the lock-master, called out, asking my next port of call, for the local arrivals and sailings for the local newspaper, and I shouted out, "Round the World".
It was while we were drinking in one of the seamen's bars down by the docks, in Port Said, that we got into conversation with a group of Egyptian seamen. As you do in such cir***stances, one of them asked me what ship I was on. And when I told him, "the small English ship, Dauntless Star", he asked me what port I was from in England. 
When I told him Ipswich, his face lit up in a smile. "I used to regularly sail out of Ipswich, myself," he told me. 
"What ship were you on?" I asked him, with some intrigue.
"The Gulf Bandar," he replied.
"But she was lost in the Mediterranean with all hands, after she sailed from Ipswich with that name!" I told him. "I painted her new name and port of registry myself."
"I got off her, just as we were locking out," he told me. "I was waving to my girlfriend, Pam, who stood on the quay with all of her family... I came over with a nasty feeling in the pit of my stomach and just jumped ashore on to the pier-head as the ship pulled away, leaving all my possessions behind on the ship."
"I had a girlfriend called Pam," my chief engineer told him. "From Greenwich Estate."
"That's where my girlfriend came from," the Egyptian seamen told him. "Can you imagine that? I wonder if it was the same girl."
"That black kid she had... it wasn't yours, was it?"
The Egyptian seamen slapped him on the back. "He's my son! We must have been going out with the same woman."
A right good booze-up followed between us, and we all raised our glasses in a toast to the Gulf Bandar... may all her crew rest in peace. All the best, Cpt Dick Brooks.


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## Cpt Dick Brooks (May 13, 2013)

*To all men of the sea.*

Through the Ships Nostalgia website, I was approached by email by Sharon Thomson, the daughter of one of the lost seamen on board the Gulf Bandar. She was only a child when her and her young brother's father was lost in the Mediterranean in 1973, shortly after the loss of their mother to cancer a few months before, and the family took over their care.
She would like to know what exactly happened to the ship. All I could tell her was that the Gulf Bandar disappear in the Mediterranean without trace with the loss of all hands on board after sailing from Ipswich Wet Dock, in England, bound for Cyrus.
She also asked which shipping line the Gulf Bandar was owned by. All I could tell her that I was contracted to repaint the names of each of the four ships that regularly came to Ipswich by Flogger Osborn's Ships Chandlery in Purplet Street, Ipswich after the civil war in Cyprus between the Greeks and the Turks. I was asked to add the prefix of 'Gulf' to each name, and change the port of registry from Famagusta to Limasol.
When I was taking my third ship, Dauntless Star, to the Persian Gulf from Ipswich, we passed the Gulf Ipswich heading north off Cape St. Vicente. More than that, I don't know.
So that Sharon Thomson should find out what happened to her father, could anyone post a thread of any information they may have, or email me on dick,[email protected] All the best, Cps Dick Brooks.


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## Cpt Dick Brooks (May 13, 2013)

*For Sharon Thomson.*

Hi, Sharon, how are things with you today? After receiving your thread last month, seeking information about your father's ship, the Gulf Bandar, I published a short story after my original thread about the Gulf Bandar requesting any information out there by those involved in world shipping about this ship, its owners or anything about the shipping agent involved in handling the ship from Ipswich, or out there in the world of the sea. Unfortunately I received no replies, although there were some 221 people log into view this new posting about the Gulf Bandar.
My only involvement with the ship was through the Purplet Street Ship's Chandlery, owned and run by Flogger Osborn, who contracted me to paint the name Gulf Bandar on the ship, and the new port of registry of Limasol following the Cypriot civil war. He is long dead and his chandlery doesn't exist any more.
The only new information I can supply to you is that when I was on passage with my third ship, Dauntless Star, to the Mediterranean, I passed the Gulf Ipswich heading north for England off Cape Finisterre at 1345 hours on 17th September, 1975. I found this information in the logbook of Dauntless Star on a closer inspection. This sighting is included in my seventh book, Whisky and Water, published by Amazon on their Kindle website, code B019G8YPOM. All I can suggest is that this new ship of the Gulf Shipping Company was to replace the loss of the Gulf Bandar.
Please don't hesitate in contacting me if there is any way that I can help you. All the best, Cpt Dick Brooks.


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## Sharon Thomson (Aug 12, 2021)

Cpt Dick Brooks said:


> *For Sharon Thomson.*
> 
> Hi, Sharon, how are things with you today? After receiving your thread last month, seeking information about your father's ship, the Gulf Bandar, I published a short story after my original thread about the Gulf Bandar requesting any information out there by those involved in world shipping about this ship, its owners or anything about the shipping agent involved in handling the ship from Ipswich, or out there in the world of the sea. Unfortunately I received no replies, although there were some 221 people log into view this new posting about the Gulf Bandar.
> My only involvement with the ship was through the Purplet Street Ship's Chandlery, owned and run by Flogger Osborn, who contracted me to paint the name Gulf Bandar on the ship, and the new port of registry of Limasol following the Cypriot civil war. He is long dead and his chandlery doesn't exist any more.
> ...


Hi Cpt Brooks. I have been attempting to research details again of the Gulf Bandar and what actually happened., do you have any further information that may be of interest to me please. Kind regards Sharon


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