58 • Summer 2018 • http://www.shipsmonthly.com
Ian Buxton recalls a voyage he made on a small coastal tanker
in the 1980s and recounts what he learned from his trip.
VOYAGE ON
A COASTAL
TANKER
sunshine, and underneath the
new bridge. We berthed at the
oil jetty downstream from the
town on the east bank, where
we discharged 1,080 tonnes of
premium motor spirit (petrol),
1,140 tonnes of gas oil for
diesel road vehicles and 420
tonnes of kerosene.
With Captain Barry Lohnes
and the cook, I took a taxi
into town. While they went
to the local supermarket to
buy provisions (each person
aboard had a daily victualling
allowance), I had a wander
around the town and the old
quaysides, seeing plenty of
smaller craft, followed by a
rather hot walk back to the ship
in time for our sailing at 1600.
Dinner was my fi rst proper mealA
s a young naval
architect, I had
benefi ted greatly
from a voyage
in 1960 on the
cargo ship Wendover (see SM
Dec 2017). So after I became
Reader in Marine Transport
at Newcastle University, I
arranged voyages for students
in the summer vacation. With
contacts I had in the shipping
industry, I thought it would
be timely if I undertook a
voyage myself to bring me
up to date, but this time in
a tanker, and so Captain RayHall, marine superintendent at
Shell UK Oil, kindly arranged
for me to sail in the coastal
tanker Shell Marketer in the
summer of 1984.
I boarded her at Shell
Haven on the Thames late at
night on 8 August, and was
given the owner’s cabin two
decks below the bridge. One
window faced forward – great- but the view from the side
window was obscured by the
starboard lifeboat. We left at
0400 for Ipswich, enjoying
a sail up the River Orwell
past yachts in the morning
Shell Marketer heads down-channel for Shoreham with a full cargo of petrol and gas oil.sHeLL MarKeter
TyPe Coastal tanker
BuILT 1981, Cleland’s, Tyneside
DIMenSIOnS 79.2m oa x 13.1m x
6.5m (depth) x 5.5m (draught)
TOnnAGe 1,599gt, 3,027dwt
enGIneS Mirrlees KMR6 diesel of
2,700bhp
nAMeS 1993 Amoria, 1999 Allurity,
2007 Balluta Bay The author on board Shell Marketer.