# What happened to Gardline Tracker?



## igater (Dec 19, 2005)

Does anyone what happened to this ship since I sailed on it in 1983.


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## Coastie (Aug 24, 2005)

igater said:


> Does anyone what happened to this ship since I sailed on it in 1983.


IIRC, she was Sister Ship to the Gardline Seeker which became the MV Communicator which was home to Laser 558 etc in the 80's. If this is the case, the Tracker was broken up in Germany latter end of the 80's and the Seeker was broken up at St Margarets Hope in the late 2000's.


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## Coastie (Aug 24, 2005)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/radar666/4005851766/


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## Coastie (Aug 24, 2005)

http://www.shipsnostalgia.com/showthread.php?t=17595

Dunno if the above link is of any help.


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## MikeK (Jul 3, 2007)

Thats just cast a shadow over my day ! I spent a few trips on her when I worked for Wimpey Hydrographic dept sub contracted to drive the thing up and down endless lines of survey. If I remember correctly the steering was rod and chain, the compass was magnetic with an electrical fault somewhere that made the card jump violently to one side every so often ! As the auto steering was on the magnetic compass the sound of all the rod linkage clanking away madly while the autohelm vainly tried to catch up with a spurious course deviation is fixed in my head ! This was Gard Lines contribution while our crowd were using the latest position fixing gear and echosounders and the contractor had thousands of quids worth of side scan gear etc behind the bridge. Every leg was a gamble as you could never rely on the last leg magnetic course being near this one, so you zig zagged into the survey area plotting like mad trying to steady her on a good course. It got to me so much that I woke the wife up on leave shouting out 'the next one might be the first one ' which was the call to everyone telling them the next signal beep would be on the line of survey. Quite often at the end of fighting the elements and the Tracker to steer a straight course the oil company rep would glance at the printout and cancel the whole thing. Back in the office it used to be a joke chant - Tracker, Tracker, Tracker !
Sorry about the rant, blame it on the Tracker !

Mike


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## shipmate17 (Jun 1, 2005)

Hi,
id 5302738. Built 1953 by Abeking & Rasmussen. Lemwerder. as RYFYLKE. grt 439. 1973 TRACKER. 1976 GARDLINE TRACKER. scrapped Sittingbourne July 1986.
Cheers.


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## Rogerjohnhateley (Oct 29, 2011)

Stirling Ash.
My only contribution to those of you who communicated about this vessel is to report that I took an 8mm film of her construction and launch in 1976 at the Beverley shipyard (now closed) which was shown on ITV's programme "The way we were" about two years ago. My film is now in the Yorkshire Film Archive. Since then I understand that she has been sold to an Arabian company and re-named as Al Mojil 42. She is described as a Rescue and Salvage ship.


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## Coastie (Aug 24, 2005)

Also, of her near Sister Ship, see: http://www.broadcasting-fleet.com/communicator.htm

The Tracker was in the process of being broken up when the Communicator (Seeker) had been brought in from her stint as a Radio Ship on the Northsea after some part failed, spare parts were obtained from the Tracker to get the Communicator back up and running again.


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## Coastie (Aug 24, 2005)

Rogerjohnhateley said:


> Stirling Ash.
> My only contribution to those of you who communicated about this vessel is to report that I took an 8mm film of her construction and launch in 1976 at the Beverley shipyard (now closed) which was shown on ITV's programme "The way we were" about two years ago. My film is now in the Yorkshire Film Archive. Since then I understand that she has been sold to an Arabian company and re-named as Al Mojil 42. She is described as a Rescue and Salvage ship.


Not the Tracker, she's broken up. I read somewhere that she'd been broken up in Germany, but aparrently it was the UK. Definitely broken up though as is her near Sister the Seeker.


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