British Statesman, collision at sea

Hi byebyetankers, It's been awhile but here we are. I was the crew messman and I remember the feeling. For a moment it felt we had gone aground, all the normal vibration in the ship stopped. Something had happened. Well I picked up my life jacket and headed for the lifeboats. We had collided with a Grereek frieghter. The crew had all mustered on the aft deck so I took...a lot of pictures but unfortunatly forgot to remove the lens cover. The sea was covered in cartons of Kent cigarettes of which some made their way onboard. Our guys were cool and went over to rescue the Greeks who had trouble launching their lifeboats. After that experiance I never moaned about boat drill. One day I'll tell you about 'Terror on the North Atlantic when the QE(1) Burned' and what about that Hurricane? It was a great life and it was all taken in stride. Lewis

Hi Geoff in B.P.(that's Bay of Plenty,not British Petroleum),no,you've not lost it... yet. The collision off Lisbon is well-documented,and Lewis was on that one. Janathull says In his post)he was on her when she collided off Flushing,so perhaps he,or our other BP men, will be able to tell us about that.

Hi Lewis.Only just came across your asking about photo,s of the British Statesman,I dpont know if you had any luck,but if you didnt,you can click onto SS STEAMSHIPS and find about half a dozen photos of her(and one of the 1923 model). Dave Williams.

Hi Gullivar. Im still confused must be the age thing, or that I've been in the pub to long ? Are Janathull and Lewis on about the same collision or were there 2 collisions at different times Geoff

Hi Geoff in B.P.(that's Bay of Plenty,not British Petroleum),no,you've not lost it... yet. The collision off Lisbon is well-documented,and Lewis was on that one. Janathull says In his post)he was on her when she collided off Flushing,so perhaps he,or our other BP men, will be able to tell us about that. Right,I'm off to the Gripewater forum,I believe there's been a few more posted,although I can't believe that....what? Seamen griping?......Never! Gulliver

Hi, I sailed on many ships in the 1960's . I am stil trying to get pictures of The British Statesman, not the 1923 ship but the later one named for Winston Churchill. We were up the gulf for a while and on the way back we collided with a Greek Freighter off Portugal. We rescued the Greeks and their ship sank later as far as I know. We ended up paying off in Newcastle. If you were there let me know. Lewis

Hi Lewis ,a short while back I was looking at a T2 Tanker site somewhere. And if you read the following article I've copied ,The T2 tanker mentioned was converted to a dry-cargo vessel called the Theotokos.She was the one that collided with your British Statesman in 1963. Cheers from Gulliver.

s.t.REGINALD A. FESSENDEN 1943 1943 WSA (International Freighting Corp, NY) 1948 KINGSTON, First National Oil Corp.- US flag (Sieling & Jarvis Corp, NY) 1950 SEAMAGIC, Colonial SS Corp.- US flag (Orion Shpg & Tdg.Co, NY) 1953 STRAPOURIES, Azteca Cia.Armadora.- Panamanian flag (same managers) 1954 Converted to 7,185 g.t. dry cargo ship. 1955 THEOTOKOS, Cia.Comercial Transatlantica- Panamanian flag (Spiros Polemis, NY) 24.10.63 Damaged in collision with BRITISH STATESMAN near Lisbon. Towed to Lisbon but declared Constructive Total Loss 1964 Scrapped Vado, Italy

Hi, I stumbled on this site and my attention was caught by the details concerning the collision between the Br. Statesman and the Theotokos. I was on the bridge at the time, and a very scary incident it was. I recall five of us on the bridge - the Old Man (Williams?), the Mate (who I think was the Extra Mate - at 32000 tons, the Statesman was then felt to be vast enough to have two Chief Officers), me (the quaking apprentice) the bloke on the wheel, and the forward lookout. Without being melodramatic, I think the lookout owes his life to the Mate - when the Theotokos loomed into view, he stood transfixed on the foc's'le. The Mate leant over the bridge wing and yelled at him to come midships. After the collision, when we went forward to look at the damage, the area was strewn with burst rivets - I imagine anybody who'd been hit by one would have felt it. As we were loaded with crude oil at the time, we were also lucky to have avoided an explosion. There seemed to be a general consensus that the other ship was mainly to blame, although I believe both the Old Man and the Mate forfeited a lot of sea time. I hope they re-established themselves - they were both decent men. Me? I went off to do my Second Mates ticket, did a couple of trips as third mate, then quit. I never - never - regretted leaving.