# Esso Tankers



## ART6 (Sep 14, 2010)

I left Esso in 1970 when a little Irish girl taught me the error of my wandering ways. Some time before then, when I first got my second engineer's ticket, I was sent to Victoria street head office to the Materials Supply Group. There, they insisted upon having a ships engineer with up to date knowledge of the fleet to identify what a ship actually wanted in spares or emergency repairs when the incoming appeals were often somewhat garbled. The head office sentence was six months, after which one was sent back to sea as no longer of practical value ashore. 

That was a wild time with, generally, little to do, so I was inserted into a comfortable flat overlooking Harrods store and was designated the hospitality organiser and chaperone for American executives visiting London. I became well known to Raymond's Revue Bar and other similar dubious places, and did it all on expenses. I spent many utterly bored hours watching strippers in clubs disrobing themselves and I happily paid sums that would have bought a house for a few bottles for the executives.

I still remember going down the the telex room in Victoria Street to see if there were any incoming messages, and watching in astonishment as the machines burst into violent life, spewing tape into bins. I also remember the glorious girls who inhabited the offices, posing a something of a challenge for a full-blooded engineer. "Why go to sea?" I wondered, "When there is so much untapped resource right here?"

Years later, happily married and with a family, days of seafaring long lost to memory, we moved to Sussex. One day, the wife of my neighbor said "You don't remember" me, do you? 

I didn't, and I apologised profusely. "I pushed a mail trolley in Victoria Street." She said. "And you used to chase me around the corridors. I had been warned about you sea staff!" Fortunately she never discussed that experience with my wife! 

So what happened to the Esso fleet and the MSG? Anyone out here know?


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## John Rogers (May 11, 2004)

A little gal from Sligo almost got me to leave the sea,thank goodness she found another.


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## callpor (Jan 31, 2007)

Art6, There are a few SN members who probably know more details as they were closely involved, but here is a summary. Many of the Esso fleet disappeared in the early 1980,s and by 1984 was reduced to 14 vessels with only two VLCC's remaining. In 1994 the remnants were transferred to Petroleum Shipping Ltd and re-named with the prefix Petro.... then in 1996 Standard Marine Services Ltd was established in Mountbatten House in Grosvenor Square, Southampton and this organisation absorbed and managed not only the remaining the UK flagged PSL ships but also those left from the old Exxon Company International operation plus responsibility for providing global Marine Services (outside the US). Finally SMS was merged with Mobil Shipping in 2000 when the two companies combined as International Marine Transportation (IMT) in Leatherhead UK within the new ExxonMobil. I have a pen inscribed with "In Memorium - Esso Seafarers September 2003", when I guess the last "Esso" ship was scrapped/sold which only left a few of the ex Mobil vessels. The Auke Visser website will provide you with a lot more details.


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## ART6 (Sep 14, 2010)

Thanks Callpor


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## George Marshall (Oct 19, 2012)

Hello My Name is ; - George Marshall, I was with ESSO TANKERS, In ESSO DALRIADE / DEMETIA / HIBERNIA / ULIDIA / CARDIFF / SCOTIA ; - To name a few of them ; - from 1979 to 1984. I would like to say hell to any one who remembers me ?


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## William Clark8 (Feb 15, 2013)

*Esso Lincoln*

Any one remember the Lincoln hitting a Rock in the Red Sea on
Feb 1965? The Esso York attempted to take some Cargo to
lighten her but was unable to do so. She looked an odd sight
sitting there. (EEK)


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