Part of the
Acorn Archive
Hearts of Oak
Athel Line
Ships
Athelvictor
1 ship of this name
ATHELVICTOR
GSN 20007819
ON 166312
Call
Sign: GPQQ
8,410
grt; 5062 nrt; 12504 dwt.
470ft
x 64ft x 38ft 9ins
One
8-cyl, Hawthorn Leslie diesel engine.
Single
screw, 12 knots. At the time, the largest single screw ship afloat.
The
hull was built 1939 Götaverken, Göteborg. (Yard Nr 558); AB Nordstjernan; as
SILENUS for Axel Johnson & Co., Stockholm ( They had their oil refinery in
Nynäshamn ). SILENUS was sold after a demand by the British Government, and
moved to Scotland in 1940.
1941
The ship was completed by Caledon Shipbuilding & Engineering Co Ltd, Dundee
- still as SILENUS. ( Yard Nr 382 ).
1941
Sold to Tankers Ltd (Athel Line), Liverpool. Renamed ATHELVICTOR.
1942 5th December : The Lagos
Incident. Athelvictor had been escorted by HMT KELT into Lagos.
Whilst
the Athelvictor was moored in Lagos harbour some cargo [65 tons] escaped into
the harbour which resulted in a large explosion, in the ensuing spread of
flames, three vessels were engulfed and destroyed.
HM Trawler BENGALI (880t; built 1937)
HM Trawler CANNA (545t; built 7th April 1941)
HM Trawler SPANIARD (880t; built 1937)
Now reading the file ADM 1/21671
CIVIL POWER AND LEGAL MATTERS (19) DAMAGE AND LOSS SUSTAINED AT SEA (31) Subseries
within TS 32 – I am continuing with further research on this incident.
Athelvictor itself was not deemed to have been the cause of the incident, and
sailed blameless, but the company was held liable and compensation and payments
were made accordingly.
I will be including the loss of
life on the Trawlers, and details of the Trawlers sinking of HMTs BENGALI,
CANNA and SPANIARD and damage to HMT KELT. Despite claims made on the folder
references, Athelvictor did not explode and did not sink, she sailed unharmed
after the 23rd December 1942. I am very grateful to Tony Straw for
his kind assistance in providing crew lists and Log entries for the time
concerned, and those will be added to these pages shortly.
Gordon Bates
writes
I joined the MV
Athelvictor in Swansea on 30th January, 1942.
The voyage was to
last some eighteen months.
The Captain was
Guy Whittup.
It was her second
voyage since being launched.
When laden we carried 12,000 tons of spirit, generally of high octane value.
We arrived at the
oil terminal of Apapa,
which is across
the river at Lagos. It was intended that we should discharge
the remainder of
petroleum which we had earlier loaded in the Persian port
of Abadan. The
following day, a Saturday, I was to accompany the Captain to
Lagos across the
river where I was to have an ear checked following an
infection. We
were awaiting the arrival of the boat , and I was looking
down river to the
Naval Base some three quarters of a mile,
when I saw the
river was on fire.
At the time there
were three anti submarine vessels [ex trawlers] undergoing refit.
They would be
carrying ammunition and depth charges.
Suddenly there
was a massive explosion and air blast
as one or more of
the trawlers exploded.
The river was
moving down stream at about 4 knots,
and it would
appear that an amount of petroleum had
entered the river
at the terminal and had been carried
downstream to the
Naval Base.
We completed
unloading, and the next day lay at anchor in the river whilst
over the next
three weeks an enquiry into the incident was carried out.
1952
sold to S. Chiarella Soc. di Nav SpA., Genoa renamed CALIFORNIA.
Now shown as 8108grt
1961 1st October : Takeover
by Armatoriale Mediterranea Idrocarburi, Palermo.
1962 Sold to Italian shipbreakers.
1962 9th February : Scrapped at La
Spezia.
Athelvictor
Raymond
Forward