# Ships names



## stan mayes (Jul 22, 2006)

SN member Wilf has asked me a question I am unable to answer..
Why does a ship change its name after sale to breakers?
Stan


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## benjidog (Oct 27, 2005)

An interesting question Stan. I noticed that Napoli's name disappeared from her bows as she was being dismantled.

A couple of possible reasons that come to mind are:


Potential to allow re-use of the name
Previous owners don't want photos of their ships being scrapped for publicity reasons.
Be interesting to hear the real answer from someone in the know.

Brian


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## non descript (Nov 18, 2005)

Stan,
You ask a very fair question in _“Why does a ship change its name after sale to breakers?” _and it can best be answered in part with “It does not”, but that is actually misleading and in certain events also wrong.(EEK) 
When a ship is sold, it is standard practice to make a condition in the Sale Agreement that the name must change – this clause is worked around in a variety of ways depending on the ingenuity and style of the buyer. The *British Pioneer* became *Tish Pion*, whilst the *Tevoitbank *became _*Teviotban*_; but both these were examples of sales for further trading.

Going back to your question and my strange initial answer, the name does not change if the ship is delivered into the breakers yard and the breaking up starts there and then. e.g. _The World’s Favourite Tanker _was sold to breakers in Faslane during the spring of 1976, but the sale was on the basis of her delivering to the breakers at their yard, i.e. that is the point that the old owners handed her over and got paid; so she steamed to Faslane, still owned and crewed by HSC and insured by them, and of course still bearing her name, arriving 23rd July 1976 still called *Cerinthus* and was broken up as such. Had she been sold, for example, to a breaker in the Far East and the sale was basis her delivery on sailing Rotterdam, then she would become the new owners’ property there (at Rotterdam) and would need to be re-named and insured by her new owners (the ship breakers), for she would be their property and no longer a HSC vessel. An example of selling a ship *here* for delivery *there* is the *Uganda*, which was sold basis delivery in the River Fal and re-named *Triton *before her (temporary) owners took her on her final voyage to Taiwan where she was to be (eventually) broken up. Interestingly, these new owners were a perfect example of why one needs not only to re-name the ship, but also insure it, even if one is only taking her to the scrap yard… for having been taken to Taiwan and anchored ready for the cutting torches, she was driven ashore by a Typhoon Wayne) on 22 August 1986 near Kaohsiung, with the insurers paying out on the hulk and then the insurers themselves selling her on so, she was only finally broken up in 1992. From that brief saga one can see that B.I. would not have been too keen to have a ship called _Uganda _on the rocks of Southern Taiwan for six years for the world to see.
(Thumb) 
Mark


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## stan mayes (Jul 22, 2006)

Thankyou Mark for a perfect explanation and reminding us of the fate of UGANDA.
In asking this question of name changes I had forgotten that I was in SAN ROBERTO and we delivered her to breakers after an eleven month voyage,with no name change.
Following discharge of cargo at Ghent we lay by for a week while prospective buyers inspected her for future trading but at 28 years old we eventually sailed her to the breakers at Blyth,arriving there on 15th November 1949.
Stan.


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## kees de ru (Dec 13, 2009)

info requested on T2 tanker ''Birch Coulie".

in 1979 I delivered the T2 tanker ''Birch Coulie'' from Mobile, USA at the breakers yard at Faslane.
I lost all my pictures of that trip.
Also I believe the yard at Faslane does not exist anymore.
I do remember though that the yard's main office did resemble a museum with all floors filled with beautifull ship's antiques.

I wonder if anyone out here still has a picture of that transport/vessel for me or has a suggestion where I could find more info on this vessel.

thanks in advance and brgds,
kees de ru


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## Santos (Mar 16, 2005)

Hi kees,

There is a picture and information on Birch Coulie *HERE*

Kind regards

Chris.


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## Ian6 (Feb 1, 2006)

Tonga's expert explanation says it all. An (albeit enecdotal) example was popular in the early 1960's when P&O sold the 3 'C' class Far East mailships progressively for scrapping. 'Canton' was delivered by P&O (I was 3/O on that sad trip) to HK so she was not renamed. 'Corfu' was sold earlier for scrapping in Japan and taken from KGV London by her new Japanese owners. She was to be renamed 'Corfu Maru' but initially, and briefly, merely gained a comma after the 'R' and a 'K' after the first 'U'.
Ian


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## kees de ru (Dec 13, 2009)

Santos said:


> Hi kees,
> 
> There is a picture and information on Birch Coulie *HERE*
> 
> ...


Tks Chris, However the Birch Coulie I was looking for appears to be the ex P. C. Spencer, (O.N. 264903) built at Bethlehem Steel 1953 of Sinclair Refineries, Tx.


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## Erimus (Feb 20, 2012)

Wow....8 years later!

If you are interested in any of the Bethlehem/ Maryland vessels this link may help.

http://shipbuildinghistory.com/shipyards/large/bethsparrowspoint.htm

There are pictures on Google of a vessel of the name Birch Coulie...don't know if it is same one.

geoff


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## Smuggler (May 26, 2010)

… nice to see Stan remembered.


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