# starella - converted trawler photo wanted help



## Ian (Mar 27, 2004)

can somebody find a picture of the starella she was a converted Hull trawler,
i think she was with boyd line or j. marrs in the late 70s and 80s. and had state of the art equipment way before her time in the 80s, dr ballard sailed on her when he went to look for the bismark.
thank you all i appreciate any help. don.

(Applause)


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## Bruce Carson (Jun 14, 2005)

Don--
Not very good quality, but there's a couple of pictures here:

http://www.fleetwood-trawlers.connectfree.co.uk/starella.html

Bruce C.


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## Ian (Mar 27, 2004)

hi bruce
thnks for your help but thats not the right ship dr ballard was on, he was on a converted trawler which was called starella, not the actual trawler starella.


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## Trawldoor (Feb 3, 2006)

Thers a picture in Bob Ballards book...'The Discovery of the Bismarck' published by Hodder and Stoughton. I am sure you'll find a copy on abebooks


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## Ian (Mar 27, 2004)

hi trawldoor
do you know were i can find this link or book on the internet, have you deen the photo of the starella. let us know thnks don


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## trawlercook (Aug 19, 2005)

hi don the ship dr ballard went on was the converted trawler called the swanella,it was loaned of a subsidury company of marr trawlers of hull which was called marr internatonal .all their ships were stern trawlers that could no longer go fishing many of them turned to sismic survey ships i know this is correct as i was the cook of the swanella for quite a while and when i moved back to hull i went for a walk down the old fish dock and i was talking to the skipper who i had sailed with years before and we were talking about old times when he was a deck hand on the ship and he was now the skipper and he told me all about his work now fishing has finished and what he was up to and he told me all about looking for the bismark and several other jobs he has done with the old girl.hope this helps


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## Santos (Mar 16, 2005)

*Starella*

Hi Don,

Nice pic of the Swanella at the following :-

http://www.shipphotos.co.uk/pages/swanella.htm

Hope it helps, kind regards

Chris


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## Trawldoor (Feb 3, 2006)

Don,

Trawlercook is wrong. I worked for Marr's and I know the history of the ship for sure..I repeat it here..It is fact. TC is correct re Marr's stern trawlers, some were converted for various survey roles. As for Starella...



'Starella' was ex Subsea2 ex San Simone Secondo ex Genepesca IXO-69

Built 1965 Venice 1161 GRT 408 Net. L,b,d = 73.00m; 11.03; 4.62

Designation - Submersible mother ship 

Acquired by Marr 17.4.79 : Sold 10.2.89 to New Holland Shipyard Ltd for scrap.

I have seen the picture in the book. It is taken from Stbd side frrd from a small boat of somekind. I would try www.abebooks.co.uk they do seconhand books. I dont have a scanner or I would have scanned it for you.

Cheers

TD

p.s. Swanella was sold to Kaare Misje of Norway in 1981 for conversion to DSV - renamed Archimedes. i last heard of her as Seaway Commander


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## Ian (Mar 27, 2004)

*starella*

trawldoor
thnks for that info, i new it wasnt the trawler starella, everybody is saying, there all wrong, i think your version is deffinitley right.
i would love a photo of this, starella ship dr ballard was on.

thnks trawldoor for your help. don


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## ruud (Dec 6, 2004)

Ahoy TD,


> p.s. Swanella was sold to Kaare Misje of Norway in 1981 for conversion to DSV - renamed Archimedes. i last heard of her as Seaway Commander


Now called ALLIED COMMANDER for BROOKLYN SHIPPING


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## Trawldoor (Feb 3, 2006)

Don,

No problem mate, I think the book is your best bet but I will look around the web and stuff.

Ruud,

Thanks, it is amazing what you find out on this site.

TD


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## Quiney (Oct 2, 2008)

I was on the Starella during 1978 sailing out of Fleetwood. All of the ...ella trawers belonged to J Marrs.

She had been used for mini-sub work (don't know where) and still had the large square 'house' for the sub on the aft working deck.

The trip that I did, she was acting as fishery support vessel. We carried doctor, met man and myself as electronics officer, and we followed the fishing fleet up round the top of Norway, right up to the Russia waters. 

Another 'extra' person we had on board was and RNR guy (retired RN). The Rn had fitted a bit of kit for measuring the water tempurature from surface to sea-bed. Every 6 hours we dropped a disposable sensor over the side and the results we encoded and sent back to the Admiralty (it was used for nuclear subs - I think)


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## lochluichart (Aug 24, 2005)

Quiney,
I suspect the device is what is known as a temperature, salinity dip.
It is used in seismic acquisition to measure as it implies the temperature and salinity of the seawater at set time intervals as it sinks. In seismic the data is used for two purposes one for adjusting the negative bouyancy of the cable so it "floats" at the required depth and two to calaibrate the reflected and recorded sound waves as the speed of sound in water is affected by these elements.
I could see the link to subs as the towed array used by then for detecting opposition is very similar to seismic acquisition equipment used in oil industry.


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## rickles23 (Oct 13, 2006)

No picture but a good story:
http://www.fleetwoodtoday.co.uk/seascape/MEMORIES-OF-TRAWLER-STARELLA.1216124.jp
Regards


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## rickles23 (Oct 13, 2006)

*Starella*

Finally found a photograph for you of Bob Ballard's Starella!
Regards


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## danube4 (Aug 20, 2005)

*starella*

And an other. from www.metoffice.gov.uk


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## Quiney (Oct 2, 2008)

lochluichart said:


> Quiney,
> I suspect the device is what is known as a temperature, salinity dip.
> It is used in seismic acquisition to measure as it implies the temperature and salinity of the seawater at set time intervals as it sinks. In seismic the data is used for two purposes one for adjusting the negative bouyancy of the cable so it "floats" at the required depth and two to calaibrate the reflected and recorded sound waves as the speed of sound in water is affected by these elements.
> I could see the link to subs as the towed array used by then for detecting opposition is very similar to seismic acquisition equipment used in oil industry.


I have been looking round another site and now remember it was a bathythermograph.
What looked like a lenght of 3" rain pipe was 'loaded' with a cartridge. When the trigger was pulled a teardrop shaped weight plopped out trailing behind a wery fine shellac covered set of wires (can't remember exactly how many - probably 2 or 3 - about hair thickness and all stuck together.
There was a connecting cable between the louncher and the recording equipment.
The RNR chappie said that it was costing a couple of hundred pounds everytime one was used (remember this was back in the late seventies)


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## 6639 (Apr 20, 2006)

another view of Starella, ex subsea2 taken from the book The Marr story byMichael Thompson.


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## Quiney (Oct 2, 2008)

nhp651 - that pic is just how I remember her. Although we were sailing on fishery support she still had the large box on the aft deck
(and I also vaguely remember the name Subsea2)


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## Mark Taxis (Dec 6, 2004)

One of Marrs trawlers the Marbella became the Northern Horizon, Ocean Boomer and then the John Lethbridge.
This vessel visited the site of the Titantic with Bob Ballard, I also thought they filmed the Bismark tv show from this vessel


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## palanaghan (Nov 1, 2008)

*Starella*

I sailed as second mate on the Starella with the Wood's Hole people including Dr Ballard - on the mediterranean leg, as I recall she had been called previously the "Penta pesca ###" I cannot remember the exact name.


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## spike361 (Nov 26, 2010)

i did four trips as galley boy on starella in 1974 sailing out of hull...the vessel i worked on was a sidewinder...skipper was a huge guy called johnson...nicknamed "johnno"


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