# Stanvac Horizon



## ART6

96Looking through the gallery I came upon a photo of the tanker Stanvac Horizon entering Durban harbour in 1961. I was serving in her then, in the engine room as a (very) junior, and I have the same photo which was taken from Point Bluff -- the high hill by the harbour.

The Horizon was the flagship of the Standard Vacuum Transportation Company, and I well recall the commodore chief engineer. His name was James Robertson Kidd, known to all as Jimmy the Kid (although never to his face). He was one tough cookie who had spent his younger days fighting in the Glasgow boxing booths. He was a stickler for an immaculate engine room, and woe betide any watch that permitted even the slightest trace of water or oil in the bilges, or a match stick on the control platform.

The ship was built for Pakistani Moslem crews, and had the stand up heads so beloved of those people. Because many of them had never seen such things before the heads were flushed automatically on a timer system from a "pneupress" tank in the engine room, and every time the system flushed it would scare the s***s out of half the crew.

The commodore master was an old fashioned soul who firmly believed that all officers should be in uniform when not actually in bed, and he installed a "dress of the day" rule that involved temperate and tropical battledress, dress doeskin, and dress whites and khakis. Shirts were to be worn always with epaulettes of rank.

The line was transferred to Mobil Oil after my first (18 month) trip on the Horizon, due, we were told, because of a spat between the US Kennedy administration and the Rockefeller family who owned the line.

I wonder if there is anyone out there now who remembers Stanvac or sailed on the company ships -- many old T2s that had a habit of breaking in half.


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## Gulpers

ART6,

Thank you for sharing these fascinating recollections of your time on board STANVAC HORIZON.
I hope you discover some ex-Stanvac as a result of your post! (Thumb)


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## Cisco

The real reason for the demise of the company was that Stanvac was owned 50/50 by Mobil and Esso. In Aus/Africa and the east Esso had the oilfields... Mobil had the distribution networks.. Stanvac was essentially their transportation arm. By 1960 they had decided that the joint venture had served its purpose. 

Very much an 'East of Suez' outfit they had lost all their Indonesian oilfields ( nationalised) and their mainland Chinese market. 

Esso and Mobil divvied up the newer ships ( Horizon and Australia to Esso, Mariner to Mobil... not sure what happened to the other 2 27,000 tonners.. 'India' and 'South Africa') and scrapped or sold off all the T2s and T3s.

Sad end to a good outfit. There are a few ex Stanvac people on site and also a few sons of Stanvac people.


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## Cisco

This may be of interest to some... Stanvac in Indonesia...
http://books.google.com.au/books?id...Q6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=stanvac palembang&f=false


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## ART6

Thanks for that Cisco. I never knew the Horizon ended up in Esso.

She was my first ship, and my parents on the Isle of Wight were so impressed by her that they named their house after her. They had the photo of her taken from Point Bluff in Durban over their mantelpiece. Long after we had moved to Ireland and taken my mother with us, when she died aged 100 we took her back to the island. Afterward my grown up family, wife, and I took a drive to Cowes to the old house, and there over the front door was the original wooden nameplate "Horizon". I didn't get to meet the owners, but I have often wondered what they would think if they knew their house was named after a ship in a long defunct shipping line!


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## kevjacko

ART6 said:


> 96Looking through the gallery I came upon a photo of the tanker Stanvac Horizon entering Durban harbour in 1961. I was serving in her then, in the engine room as a (very) junior, and I have the same photo which was taken from Point Bluff -- the high hill by the harbour.
> 
> The Horizon was the flagship of the Standard Vacuum Transportation Company, and I well recall the commodore chief engineer. His name was James Robertson Kidd, known to all as Jimmy the Kid (although never to his face). He was one tough cookie who had spent his younger days fighting in the Glasgow boxing booths. He was a stickler for an immaculate engine room, and woe betide any watch that permitted even the slightest trace of water or oil in the bilges, or a match stick on the control platform.
> 
> The ship was built for Pakistani Moslem crews, and had the stand up heads so beloved of those people. Because many of them had never seen such things before the heads were flushed automatically on a timer system from a "pneupress" tank in the engine room, and every time the system flushed it would scare the s***s out of half the crew.
> 
> The commodore master was an old fashioned soul who firmly believed that all officers should be in uniform when not actually in bed, and he installed a "dress of the day" rule that involved temperate and tropical battledress, dress doeskin, and dress whites and khakis. Shirts were to be worn always with epaulettes of rank.
> 
> The line was transferred to Mobil Oil after my first (18 month) trip on the Horizon, due, we were told, because of a spat between the US Kennedy administration and the Rockefeller family who owned the line.
> 
> I wonder if there is anyone out there now who remembers Stanvac or sailed on the company ships -- many old T2s that had a habit of breaking in half.


My Dad Peter Jackson was an engineer with Stanvac & mobile, he's a member of this site. He was certainly with them in the sixties, coz he was at sea when I was born in 1964 so I will tell him to look the thread up.


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## callpor

Art6,
Since 2000 the successor tanker operating company for Esso and Mobil international trading vessels has been International Marine Transportation Ltd (IMT), based in Leatherhead,UK and for US flag vessels with SeaRiver Maritime of Houston USA and these companies manage the remaining vessels owned by ExxonMobil(XOM) affiliates. They also provide vetting services for all third-party tankers employed in XOM service and marine technical services supporting XOM business globally. You may find that some of your old colleagues are still employed by either IMT or SeaRiver, although considering the time you refer to, most like me, have now retired.


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## ART6

callpor said:


> Art6,
> Since 2000 the successor tanker operating company for Esso and Mobil international trading vessels has been International Marine Transportation Ltd (IMT), based in Leatherhead,UK and for US flag vessels with SeaRiver Maritime of Houston USA and these companies manage the remaining vessels owned by ExxonMobil(XOM) affiliates. They also provide vetting services for all third-party tankers employed in XOM service and marine technical services supporting XOM business globally. You may find that some of your old colleagues are still employed by either IMT or SeaRiver, although considering the time you refer to, most like me, have now retired.


Thanks Callpor. I didn't know that. I too have been long retired (from the sea, anyway). I was only a young lad on my first trip when I joined the Horizon, so just about everyone on board was older than me!


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## kevjacko

Hi Art,

My dad was on the Horizon (engine room) when that photo was taken. You could PM him his user id is Peter Jackson.

KEV


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## ART6

kevjacko said:


> Hi Art,
> 
> My dad was on the Horizon (engine room) when that photo was taken. You could PM him his user id is Peter Jackson.
> 
> KEV


Thanks Kev. I'll do that.

Regards
ART6


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## KIWI

Sailed on Stanvac Canberra about 1944.Photos of her aground on the S bend Musi river in my gallery.To make things worse we also managed to get a wire round the prop so were there for some time. KIWI


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## Jim F

Hi Art 6,
Sure do remember them,sailed on the Stanvac Australia,Japan,Mariner and the T2 Bangkok.
Cheers Mate(Thumb)


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## ART6

Good to hear from you Jim. I guess ex-Stanvac people must be getting a bit thin on the ground by now!

Regards

ART6


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## KIWI

Stanvac Canberra should read 1954 not 44. KIWI


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## frank elliott

art6. Interested in letters about Stanvac tankers.Yes rarely seen due to them trading mostly in Far East.Lovely ships. I was R/O 1961 to 1962 on the follow -on ships Mobil Acme and Royal Arrow. Mobil Acme a beautiful 16000 dwt. parcel tanker on charter to USAF.The places we got to! amazing. She had a sister ship Mobil Apex also with USAF trading Pacific area. Mobil,very good.


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## Jim F

I made a trip back to Tyneside last October and met up with a couple of buddies I had sailed with,Charlie Gregg and Dave Alexander had not seen them since 1956 do any of these guys ring a bell with you.
cheers Jim.


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## ART6

Don't recall the names Jim, but I didn't join Stanvac until 1958. I was a callow youth then and was incapable of remembering anything except the location of the bond locker! Now my memory of anything before last week fails me for different reasons.

I have a lot of very old photos on prints etc and one of these fine days I will do as I have repeatedly threatened and digitise them. There are a number of old Stanvac shots among them if I recall.

Regards


ART6


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## Jim F

Hi Art,
Memories,back in 58 I was on the Mariner,Chief Eng.was Hedley.Transfered at Bahrain and joind the Karachi.Those were the days my friend.
Smoothe Seas and Following Winds.
Cheers.
Jim


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## ART6

Hi Jim.

Bahrain I remember well -- I was discharged from the Horizon there in 1962. A motor launch came out to the ship for me, and it was about a two hour trip back to the island. The lads equipped me with a sack of beer for the trip, but I never got to drink much of it as the launch's Arab crew insisted on a brew or two of their mint tea, a ceremony in which I was invited to join. I went along with it, knowing the Muslim's feelings about alcohol, and when the launch got alongside in Bahrain I left the sack of beer in the cabin -- but gave it a bit of a shake up on principle.

I hadn't gone far along the jetty when I heard the first pop and yell of dismay, indicating that the beliefs of the crew were not that strong!


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## Merewether

Noticed yr comments on Stanvac Horizon and in particular Commodore James Robertson Kidd - my father! Just thought I would respond. Think he was known to be a hard task master but those who served under him were good engineers.



ART6 said:


> 96Looking through the gallery I came upon a photo of the tanker Stanvac Horizon entering Durban harbour in 1961. I was serving in her then, in the engine room as a (very) junior, and I have the same photo which was taken from Point Bluff -- the high hill by the harbour.
> 
> The Horizon was the flagship of the Standard Vacuum Transportation Company, and I well recall the commodore chief engineer. His name was James Robertson Kidd, known to all as Jimmy the Kid (although never to his face). He was one tough cookie who had spent his younger days fighting in the Glasgow boxing booths. He was a stickler for an immaculate engine room, and woe betide any watch that permitted even the slightest trace of water or oil in the bilges, or a match stick on the control platform.
> 
> The ship was built for Pakistani Moslem crews, and had the stand up heads so beloved of those people. Because many of them had never seen such things before the heads were flushed automatically on a timer system from a "pneupress" tank in the engine room, and every time the system flushed it would scare the s***s out of half the crew.
> 
> The commodore master was an old fashioned soul who firmly believed that all officers should be in uniform when not actually in bed, and he installed a "dress of the day" rule that involved temperate and tropical battledress, dress doeskin, and dress whites and khakis. Shirts were to be worn always with epaulettes of rank.
> 
> The line was transferred to Mobil Oil after my first (18 month) trip on the Horizon, due, we were told, because of a spat between the US Kennedy administration and the Rockefeller family who owned the line.
> 
> I wonder if there is anyone out there now who remembers Stanvac or sailed on the company ships -- many old T2s that had a habit of breaking in half.


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## Merewether

Not sure if my reply got thru.. I'm new to this. Noticed yr comments on Sanvac Horizon and in particular Commodore James Robertson Kidd - my father! I think he was known as a hard taskmaster but those who served with him were good engineers. Think we went on the 'Horizon' when it was in port in Australia once.


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## ART6

Merewether said:


> Not sure if my reply got thru.. I'm new to this. Noticed yr comments on Sanvac Horizon and in particular Commodore James Robertson Kidd - my father! I think he was known as a hard taskmaster but those who served with him were good engineers. Think we went on the 'Horizon' when it was in port in Australia once.


Merewether, it's great to hear from you! 

Jimmy the Kidd was the best C/E I ever sailed with. He was one tough guy, and our engine room was immaculate. Heaven protect the watchkeeper who allowed a trace oil in the engine room bilges, or a *** end on the deck plates. God!, there are so many stories about my time under his command, and I would be delighted to share them with you.

I never knew he had a family -- we all were convinced that he was born in a turbine builders and was fabricated from steel. He left a permanent impression on me, and I probably conducted my career later on the ways I learned from Jimmy. That's why I have been accused many times of being too aggressive!

Let's open a "Jimmy the Kidd" thread, to show these motor types what real engineering is about before they all are back in sail again!


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## Merewether

My brother tells me I was never on the 'Horizon' and I bow to his better knowledge but do recall visits to some of the other tankers he was on. . Interesting and amusing that you say you had thoughts of my father (Commodore James Robertson Kidd) being born in a turbine builders and fabricated from steel  There is no doubt he did take his job seriously and also instilled a strong work ethic into his family which I hope I have passed on to mine. Yes, he was married with three children, my brother and sister and I (me being the youngest) lived in Australia with our mother waiting on him returning home on leave every year. Moved to Australia in 1950 - after all his travels he thought he found the best place to bring up a family was Australia, and I think he was right. I have brought up my family in Britain though.. He brought home so many good tales of the places he visited and some of the tales of ship life. Nice to chat to someone who has benefitted from working with my father.


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## ART6

I was on the Horizon for around eighteen months with one leave after twelve, and Jimmy (please excuse the apparent familiarity, but that was what we all called him although not to his face! It was more an expression of respect than anything else) was the chief throughout.

I joined as a first tripper, and the S2E took me to one side and said "The first thing you must do is to climb all over this engine room until you know what every valve does, where every pipe goes and why, where every starter for every machine is and how to change 'em over in the dark, because the Chief will ask you and you'd better know". He did, and woe-betide the innocent junior who didn't have the answer to his question, because Jimmy knew that engine room inside out and backwards. In my later career at sea, as I progressed up the ranks, I applied the same principles that he had taught me. In any ship I very quickly became totally familiar with every valve and pipe run, and I insisted that all of my juniors and watchkeepers did too. There was no better grounding in marine engineering than to sail under Commodore James Robertson Kidd.

Odd things I remember:

On the Horizon we had a swimming pool in the after end of the accommodation on the engineers deck. It was, so we were told, intended as an ammunition locker for an anti-aircraft gun that could be located there in time of war, and the US government contributed to the cost of the ship if it was fitted. Anyway, one day a group of us were larking away in the pool, and someone called out that Jimmy should come for a swim. Another shouted that iron doesn't float. A few minutes later, from the senior officers accommodation a deck above, appeared Jimmy in swimming trunks. 

He stepped over the handrails and dived into the pool from that higher deck, swept below the surface, across the bottom, and up the other side, where he hauled himself out and stalked off to the companionway to his deck without a word, leaving a group of severely chastened engineers in his wake!

Another time: Somehow he had managed to trip in heavy weather and fall down a companionway and break the bones in his hand. That must have been agonising, but being Jimmy that didn't stop him. Any suggestion of shore medical assistance was rejected with his usual gruff voice. Instead, he went about his business with a bandage around his hand until it healed. I can still see him, when I was sent for something to him, sitting at his desk in his day room laboriously writing his logs with a pen held between bandaged fingers.

Jimmy had an apparent obsession with Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, and he had (I think) not less that two old vinyl records of two of them. Therefore, it was expected that in evenings in the officer's saloon, there would be a period of communal singing to them. My engineering career started from the phrase "I am the very model of a modern major general." I still can't get that bloody silly song out of my head!

It's easy to say that he was a dictatorial officer, and in some ways he was. He was, after all, the commodore chief. All I can say is that I could see (later) through that and understand the man beneath. I feel he was not a bad model for my later career.


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## Merewether

Thanks so much for sharing your memories of my father. I do recall his love of Gilbert & Sullivan and had quite forgotten him taking us to see one on one of his leaves! Your memory of recalling that phrase even now certainly brought a smile to my face
I am going back to Australia in a week or so and my sister, brother and I will be together and will take a lot of pleasure in reading your recollections of our father. Although he died some 19 years ago, it really is nice to hear these memories of him from someone who worked with him all those years ago. Thanks so much for that.


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## ART6

Merewether, here's another recollection for you:

In the Horizon we had the luxury of a lift that went from the accommodation down to the control platform in the engine room. One day I was at the lift door in the engineers accommodation ready to go down on watch, but the lift was on the next deck up. I pressed the button and the lift descended, but it went right past my deck. In frustration I hit the call button again and it started to come up, but then it stopped and set off down again.

Refusing to give up I pressed the button and this time kept it pressed. Success! The damned thing finally rose to my deck and the door opened -- to reveal a very irritated Jimmy!
"Have you been holding that ******* button?" he demanded.
"Me? Oh no Chief. I've only just got here!"
He looked very deliberately at his wris****ch. "It is now oh-seven-fifty. Why aren't you down below?"
"Um...Waiting for a lift Chief!"
"Well get in the ***** thing then!" he roared. 

We stepped out of the lift together at the control flat, and Jimmy stalked over to my senior watchkeeper, who immediately adopted an expression of alarm. "Four-oh, give that young idiot something useful to do to keep him out of my way. And don't let him press any ****** buttons!"

I will always remember the severe expression on his face, but as we often experienced, there was laughter in his eyes.


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