# Huntfield



## Pat McCardle (Jun 12, 2005)

Hi! Again. More ex M.N. guys are asking me if I know where I can get a photo of their fav ship. Unfortunately they are not into computers etc. SO can anyone pass on a photo of HUNTFIELD of Huntings of Newcastle. I thank you in advance!! (Thumb)


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## webbo56 (Aug 18, 2005)

hi pat.sorry cant help on huntfeild.but im intrested in huntings as i served on the tyne bridge in the seventies and i would love to know what happened all five of that unfortunate class.the only ship i can find any info about is the derbyshire i beleive the first 2 buildings sorry dont know their names were quite successful but the last 3 were a nightmare i know from experience the tyne bridge was.
tks mike


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## Santos (Mar 16, 2005)

Pat, sorry I cant help with a picture of the Huntfield.

Mike,

I hope the following is of interest to you :-

1. Furness Bridge Built 1971 for Furness Withy Scrapped 1992

2. Tyne Bridge Built 1972 for Hunting Line Scrapped 1987

3. English Bridge Built 1973 for Bibby Line
Re named Kowloon Bridge 1985 Lost 1986

4. Sir John Hunter Built 1974 for Hilmar Resksten Scrapped 1997

5. Sir Alexander Glen Built 1975 for Hilmar Resksten Scrapped 1994

6. Liverpool Bridge Built 1976 for Bibby Line
re named Derbyshire 1978 Lost 1980.

Kind regards

Chris.


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## Dave Edge (May 18, 2005)

Pat,
Not sure how to post a photo here so I have put one (not very good) on the tankers site.


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## ruud (Dec 6, 2004)

Ahoy,
I did some research on this item, and here the results of it, I do will have a photo in a few days of the *HUNTFIELD* and will post her.
FURNESS BRIDGE / LAKE ARROWHEAD / MARCONA PATHFINDER / WORLD PATHFINDER / OCEAN SOVEREIGN 1970
FURNESS BRIDGE, 77,316 gross tons, 964ft x 144ft was launched on 16th Oct.1970 for the Seabridge Shipping Co, part of the Furness / Houlder group. She was an iron ore carrier, but fitted to carry oil if needed and was a sister ship to the infamous DERBYSHIRE which was lost with all hands in a typhoon in the Pacific. In 1977 the FURNESS BRIDGE was sold to the Utah Transport Co, Monrovia, Liberia, renamed LAKE ARROWHEAD and chartered to the Australian National Line. 1982 she became the MARCONA PATHFINDER, owned by Marcona Carriers Ltd, Monrovia, part of the U.S.owned San Juan Carriers group. 1983 sold to Paramount Transport Co, Monrovia, renamed WORLD PATHFINDER. 1986 sold to Nerice Maritime Co, Limassol, Cyprus, renamed OCEAN SOVEREIGN. 26th Mar.1992 Arrived at Huangpu, China for scrapping. [Furness-Houlder Lines by Norman L.Middlemiss] [Merchant Fleets, vol.38 by Duncan Haws] 

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ENGLISH BRIDGE/WORCESTERSHIRE (3) was built in 1973 by Swan, Hunter Shipbuilders Ltd at Haverton Hill, Newcastle with a tonnage of 76012grt, a length of 965ft 2in, a beam of 145ft 3in and a service speed of 15.5 knots. An OBO carrier she was launched on 25th September 1972 and delivered to Bibby Bulk Carriers Ltd in March 1973 for deployment by the Seabridge Consortium as the English Bridge and later renamed Worcestershire when she reverted to Bibby management. After six years, in 1979, she was sold to Amroth Investments Corp. who renamed her Sunshine and in the following year she was acquired by Grimaldi Cia di Navigazione S.p.A. who changed her name to Murcurio. She became the Crystal Transporter when she was purchased by the Far Eastern Navigation Co. of Kaohsuing in 1983 and the Kowloon Bridge when she was acquired by Helinger Ltd of Hong Kong in 1985. On 18th November 1986, during a voyage from Seven Islands in Canada to Hunterston in the Clyde estuary, in position 51.13N 10.22W and in heavy weather, she reported cracks in her deck in front of the bridge. She made for the protection of Bantry Bay in Ireland where she remained until 22nd November when she continued her voyage to Scotland. The weather deteriorated and she lost her rudder. Shortly after midnight on 23rd November the crew were taken off by R.A.F. helicopters and on the following day she was blown ashore on the Stags in Eire. Before assistance could reach her, she broke her back and was lost
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Liverpool Bridge 1976 1978 renamed Derbyshire, 1980 disappeared in typhoon 230 miles off Okinawa; loss of 44 lives, the largest British ship ever lost at sea. 91,655
Note:
LIVERPOOL BRIDGE/DERBYSHIRE (4) was built in 1976 by Swan, Hunter Shipbuilders Ltd at Haverton-on-Hill with a tonnage of 91655grt, a length of 965ft 1in, a beam of 145ft 2in and a service speed of 15.5 knots. Launched on the 5th December 1975 she was the sixth and largest OBO built at Swan, Hunter's Haverton-on-Hill yard. When she was delivered to Bibby Tankers Ltd in the following June for charter to the Seabridge Consortium she was the largest ship ever owned by the Bibby Group. On 12th June 1976, when lying off Flushing, her engine room was extensively damaged following an explosion. When she came off charter in 1978 she was renamed Derbyshire and laid up at Stavanger for 12 months. On 11th July 1980 she sailed from Seven Islands in the St. Lawrence estuary bound fro Kawasaki with a full 165,000 ton load of concentrated iron ore pellets. She berthed at Cape Town on 6th August. Five weeks later, on 9th September, she reported her position as 25.19N, 133.11E, 230 miles southeast of Okinawa. Six hours after sending her position she reported, at 0930, that she was hove to in a severe storm and adding that she would be late arriving. She was never seen again and disappeared without trace with the loss of 42 crew members and 2 officers wives during typhoon 'Orchid'. On 24th October an empty lifeboat was spotted by the Taiei Maru 700 miles away in the Luzon Strait. The Derbyshire became the largest British built and owned ship to be lost at sea. The subsequent enquiry blamed 'Orchid' but the families of the victims and the Trade Union believed that a design fault caused the ship to break in half before an SOS could be sent especially in view of the fact that a smaller ship, the Alrai, formerly Athelmonarch, had survived the typhoon. They based their belief on the fact that cracks had been found at Frame 65 in five similar bulk carriers built by Swan, Hunter and cited the fate of the ill fated Kowloon Bridge, formerly the English Bridge, which broke her back after drifting ashore in Eire. If it could be proved that the Derbyshire was lost due to a design weakness rather than an 'Act of God' then a claim for compensation, estimated at £60,000,000, could be lodged. In October 1987 a second enquiry declined to examine the design fault thesis as there was no evidence and no one had survived to testify as to what had happened. On 23rd January 1989 following a House of Lords decision the Wreck Commissioner issued a statement saying that the loss was unexplained and that there was no specific reason for the loss. However, the families of the victims and the Unions were not satisfied and in 1994 the International Transport Workers Federation financed an expedition which eventually found the wreck lying some 2.5 miles deep, 400 miles east of Okinawa. The Department of Transport appointed Lord Donaldson to review the new development and he concluded that a detailed underwater survey would cost around £2,000,000. Funded partly by Britain and partly by the European Union the survey was conducted in two phases during 1997 and 1998 during which 153,774 electronic stills and some 200 hours of high definition film was taken. By pasting together the individual photographs it was possible to produce, as a single picture, large expanses of the wreck in clear black and white images. With the new evidence to hand and in view of certain allegations made against the crew in the first enquiry the Deputy Prime Minister ordered, in December 1998, a full reopening of the formal enquiry in the High Court. The hearing commenced on 5th April 2000 and continued for 54 days during which time the evidence was fully examined. Mr Justice Colman concluded that ' On the basis of the condition of the wreckage and of the data derived from the model tests conducted at MARIN, it can be concluded with reasonable confidence that the initiating cause of the loss was the destruction of some or all of the ventilators and air pipes located on the foredeck by sustained green water loading over many hours in the course of Sept.8 and probably Sept. 9. Water was therefore able to enter the bosun's store, machinery spaces and probably the ballast tanks in substantial quantities and, possibly to a minor extent, the fuel tank. The Derbyshire then developed a trim by the bow which, although imperceptible from the bridge, had the effect, as the bow dropped lower and lower, of accentuating green water loading on No.1 hatch cover as the sea conditions became more severe in the course of that day. By about 1700, those conditions had deteriorated so greatly that there was likely to have been green water loading in excess of the collapse strength of No.1 hatch cover. Once the hatch cover gave way, water would enter No.1 hatch, very rapidly filling the large ullage space above the cargo and thereby causing the ship to go still further down by another 3.7m. It is estimated that the filling of No.1 hold might take as little as five minutes or as much as 16.5 minutes. This flooding in turn caused the green water loading on No.2 hatch cover progressively and rapidly to increase until it exceeded the collapse strength of that hatch cover and water then entered No.2 hold. No.3 hatch suffered the same fate. At that point, the Derbyshire was irretrievably lost". No blame was attached to the crew for the loss of the ship
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The DERBYSHIRE was the last of a series of six sister ships built by Swan Hunter Shipbuilders Ltd., at their Haverton Hill Shipyard.
The six ships were:
Yard No. Completed Original Name Original Owners Comments
25 Sept.1971 Furness Bridge Furness Withy Scrapped1992
26 Sept.1972 Tyne Bridge Huntings Scrapped1987
27 March1973 English Bridge Bibby Line Total loss1986
[renamed 1985 Kowloon Bridge]
31 Jan.1974 Sir John Hunter Hilmar RekstenScrapped1997
55 April1975 Sir Alexander Glen Hilmar Reksten Scrapped1994
57 June1976 Liverpool Bridge Bibby Line Total loss1980
[renamed 1978 Derbyshire]


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## trotterdotpom (Apr 29, 2005)

Last week was the 25th anniversary of 'Derbyshire' sinking. I made a post but it was during the 'crisis', maybe nobody noticed.

Ruud, you are a gold mine of information. 

In the mid-80s I sailed on Australian BHP ship 'Iron Sirius" (I think registered in Hong Kong). She had previously been Silver Line's 'Sig Silver' and prior to that one of the 'Bridges' (Silver Line were one of the Seabridge consortium), possibly 'Mersey Bridge'. At the time, I was told that she was the world's first 100,000 tonner. This is possible as one of her defects was not having bridgewings that extended to the ship's side - a pilot's nightmare (first stop on the learning curve?). Because of that she was known locally as the 'Thalidomide Ship'. Can you confirm this, Ruud, or is it my unreliable memory? 

She was an OBO but by that time only carried coal and iron ore - in those days coal from NSW to Japan and return via Northwest Australia, loading iron ore for NSW. Glad I hadn't made the 'Derbyshire' connection when we had to leave Nagoya in preparation for a typhoon which caused a lot of damage.

John T.


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## ruud (Dec 6, 2004)

Ahoy John,
Your Iron Sirius was the Chelsea Bridge and indeed the first 100,000dwt bulk carrier ever built.
Here as Sigsilver

IMO:6706670 
Name:Iron Sirius 
Ex NameChelsea Bridge-73, Sigsilver-71 
Type:bbu 
Flag:Gbr 
Year:1967 
GRT:57318 
DWT:107477 
LOA:250 
Beam:41 
Sp.:15 
Builder:Ishikawjima Harima H.I., Aioi 
Yard:671


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## trotterdotpom (Apr 29, 2005)

Thanks Ruud - you brought back happy memories of life in with 'The Big Australian' (not to mention the Skandie Bar in Mizushima!).

John T.


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## ruud (Dec 6, 2004)

Ahoy,

Sorry there's no picture of the Huntfield, I do have her records,and some other photo's of Hunting Fleet.So if you have any reguests,try me.


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