ShipStamps.co.uk

ARGUS POLYNESIA

Auke — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 20:18:26 +0000

Built as a 3-masted steel mother-ship by N.V. Scheepswerf De Haan & Oerlemans, Heusden, Netherlands for Parceria Geral de Pescaries, Lisbon. Managed by the Bensaude Line.
Launched under the name ARGUS.
Tonnage 696 gross, 414 net, 608 dwt., dim. 209 x 32.6 x 17.0ft., length bpp. 189.2ft.
Powered by a 4-cyl Sulzer diesel engine, 475 hp.
Bunker capacity 130 tons oil, and 70 tons fresh water. Could carry 11.093 quintals salted fish.
Crew 72, and carried 53 dories.
Schooner rigged.
Ice strengthened.
March 1938 delivered, and sailed under command of Anibal da Graça Ramalheira and a Portuguese crew to Lisbon, her homeport.

She was designed by the Brit Alexander Slate, and completed in time to take part in the 1939 fishing season.
Fitted out with electric light, radio installation and a refrigerated bait-room, which could hold 40 tons bait.

Her first voyage was when she sailed on 27 May 1939 from Lisbon and via Ponte Delgado, arrived at the Grand Banks on 8 June. The fishing was not so good and on 22 June she sailed for Greenland, where she fished in the Davis Strait mainly on the Store Hellefiske Bank from 29 June till 28 August then sailed back to the Grand Banks where she fished from 04 September till 11 October before she sailed fully loaded for Portugal via Ponta Delgado, arriving Lisbon 23 October.

Then she left every spring from Portugal for the Grand Banks even during World War II when she sailed in convoy till the end of 1945. During World War II in the off season used as a freighter between Portugal and the Portuguese Islands.

On voyage 12 in 1950 Alan Villiers sailed with her and wrote the book “The Quest of the Schooner Argus.” She was then sailing under command of Capt. Adolfo Simões Paião.

In 1969 she made her last voyage to the Grand Banks under command of Capt José Luis Nunes Oliveira, thereafter laid up.
1974 She was sold to the Canadian company White Fleet Cruise Ships for 7.000 Euros’, the same year al sold to Commander Mike Burke of the Windjammer Barefoot charter company based in Miami.

She was now refitted in cruise vessel, fitted out with air-condition and 52 double cabins, two Admiral suites and 3 cabins with berths for six people, each with its own bathroom. A new deck was added. New masts were placed with new sails.

She wax renamed in POLYNESIA II and registered in Honduras. Owner given as Bimba Ltd.
Tonnage then given as 696 gross, 413 net, with a displacement of 820 tons. Dim. 75.40 x 10.90 x 5.40m. (draught), length bpp. 51.60m.
Rigged as a 4-masted staysail schooner.

She is based at St Martin and sails from this port every week for a six day cruise in the Caribbean.
In the summer and autumn season she visit St Lucia, Grenada, Tobago and St Vincent, while in the winter and spring she calls at the Leewards Islands.

She was later registered in Equatorial Guinea till 2003.
After 2003 registered in Saint George’s, Grenada, and owned by Polynesia.
2008 as given by www.equasis.org IMO No 5023564, owned by same owner.

2007 The Barefoot Windjammer cruise company got in financial difficulties and in 2008 is given that she are out of business.
A web-site gives that the crew has abandoned the POLYNESIA in Aruba, and she still is there berthed in July 2008.

( The Portugal stamp showed only her steering-wheel with one of the men of the crew, Old Jacinto Martins, the photo is depict in the book by Alan Villiers “The Quest of the schooner Argus” on page 148. The vessel in the background of the stamp is the GAZELA PRIMEIRO see index.)

Nevis 1980 $3 sg 54 and 1981 $3 sg 471 as POLYNESIA
St Kitts 1985 $3 sg 172 as POLYNESIA
Portugal 2000 85$ sg?,

Source: Great Sailing Ships of the World by Otmar Schäuffelen.
http://www.marinha.pt/extra/revista/ra_mar2005/pag_15.html Lloyds Register.

ORINOCO (II) 1886

Auke — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 19:31:33 +0000

Built as a steel passenger-cargo vessel under yard No 244 by Caird & Co., Greenock, Scotland for the Royal Mail Line.
13 September 1886 launched as the ORINOCO. (2)
Tonnage 4.581 gross, 2.349 net, dim. 124.87 x 13.72 x 7.75m.
One 3-cyl. triple expansion steam engine, manufactured by the yard, 5.800 ihp., speed 14.5 knots.
Passenger accommodation for 257 first class and 26 second class passengers.
Clipper bow, three masts.

She was the first steel ship built for the company, and also the first fitted out with electric light. She was the last vessel of the company fitted out with cross-yards.
02 December 1886 left for her maiden voyage from Southampton in the West Indies service under command of Captain Jellicoe.
1897 Took part in it Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee Naval review at Spithead together with the DANUBE of the same company.
1901 Hull painted white, which in 1903 again painted black with a white band.

21 November 1906 in collision with Norddeutsche Lloyd liner KAISER WILHELM DER GROSSE on the road of Cherbourg during thick fog, the clipper bow saved the ORINOCO from severe damage, but three of her crew members were killed, when a lifeboat capsized. On the KAISER WILHELM DER GROSSE four were killed, and she got severe damage.

After her repair again in the service to the West Indies.

1909 Sold for scrap, scrapped at Bridgeness in the Firth of Forth, Scotland, during the scraping she got on fire in which she badly was damaged.

Bahamas 1984 31c sg 676
Cayman Islands 1989 25c sg 678

Source: Royal Mail Line by Haws. British Passenger Liners of the five Oceans by C.R. Vernon Gibbs.
Some web-sites.

Barong Panau

john — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 17:59:28 +0000

A fine local craft is featured on the 12 cents stamp of Sarawak. It is the “Barong Panau”. The word ” barong” means a boat, in the language of one of the tribes, and the word “panau” refers to net-lifting fishing. These fishing craft are locally built, the keel, ribs, and frames being built up in western fashion from local hardwood. The masts can be taken down when not in use while sails are made of imported cloth. The crew of the craft usually consists of 10 or 12 men.
SG194 Sea Breezes 1/58

Mimosa

john — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 23:39:29 +0000

IN September 25 1965 the Argentine Government issued an 8 pesos stamp to commemorate the centenary of the Welsh colonisation of Patagonia. The stamp design shows the tea clipper Mimosa, which was specially converted into a passenger vessel for this voyage, against a map of the Province of Chubut, where the Welshmen made their settlement. They landed at Puerto Madryn, Patagonia on July 28, 1865, sailing from Liverpool on May 25.
From 1853 onwards successive Argentine Governments had devised various measures for attracting emigrants. Contracts were made for bringing families of agricultural workers from Europe. Land was granted to these colonists and many of the settlements, sometimes after years of hardship and struggle, flourished and became permanent. The Welsh settlement was one of this group.
It was led by an ardent Welsh Nationalist, Mr. Michael D. Jones, who was convinced that there must be somewhere in the world an isolated place where a colony could be established for the purpose of preserving, uncontaminated, the Welsh language, customs and Nonconformist religion. Mr. Jones was impressed by the Argentine Government’s offer to settlers, promising land, sheep, horses and grain for 12 months after the settlers’ landing, and Patagonia seemed ideally remote from any other peoples and cultures to preserve the Welsh culture he so ardently championed.
The Welsh leader had not been to Patagonia and could have no idea of the desolate territory he had chosen. It seemed ideal for his purpose and the 152 Welsh immigrants who sailed with him in the Mimosa. This clipper was built by Alexander Hall at Aberdeen in 1853 and was a vessel of 410 gross tons, with a length of 139 ft. 9 in., a beam of 25 ft. 5 in. and 15 ft. 6 in. depth. Her official number was 1973 and signal letters HFMN.
The Mimosa was a full-rigged ship with raised fo’c’sle and quarterdeck. Obviously the stamp designer had no idea of the vessel’s appearance and has merely given an impression of her. She first appears in Lloyd’s Register of 1874.
Welsh records give the ship’s tonnage as 447. The discrepancy in these two tonnages could easily be explained by the amount of conversion work necessary to convert the clipper into a passenger-carrying ship. Cabin space was provided by dividing up the holds with stout planks and boards and there were no portholes. She was no pleasure ship; all passengers were carried at steerage rates, £12 for each adult.
Conditions on the specially printed passenger tickets specified that the shipowner would provide each passenger with three quarts of water daily, apart from that required for cooking, and a weekly food allowance of 31/2 lb. of bread or biscuit, not inferior in quality to Navy biscuit; 11 lb. of wheat flour; 1′/2
lb. of oatmeal; 11/2 lb. of sugar; 11/2 ozs. of mustard; 1/4 oz. white or black pepper; 2 ozs. salt and a gill of vinegar.
History records that these courageous folk left Liverpool singing hymns as they sailed towards the New World. They must have been nearly heartbroken when they reached their promised land in the middle of a Patagonian winter, after two months at sea. Although the Argentine Government advertised for agricultural workers, only four of the adult Welsh male settlers came under this category. They were an ill-selected company for an agricultural settlement and suffered terrible privations for several years. Their crop plantings were a calamitous failure and they would certainly have starved but for the supplies of food sent to them annually by the Argentine Government or left occasionally by a British warship. It was the local Araucanian Indians however who helped them most, teaching them to manage horses, to use the bolas and lasso, and to hunt wild animals such as the guanaco. During the conquest of the desert the colonists did not take up arms against the Indians, unlike the Argentinians, who tried to wipe them out. The Indians returned the Welshmen’s friendship and they became lasting friends.
After learning to canalise the waters of the Chubut River for the irrigation of their fields, the settlement began to prosper, until today the territory of Chubut contains some 12,000 descendants of the original Welsh settlers and those Welshmen who followed them to the area. Of these some 5,000 still speak Welsh, although the Spanish language is now compulsorily taught in the schools of the province under Argentine law.
The territory of Chubut nowadays has a population of approximately 150,030, but is still avoided by most Argentinians because of its cold, barren wastes. Wales is naturally very proud of her South American settlers and keeps in contact with their descendants.
SG1146 Sea Breezes 2/66

Antilles

john — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 21:57:54 +0000

The 12 cents stamp of St. Vincent shows the liner Antilles of the French Line alongside the Deep Water Wharf at Kingstown. The Antilles was built by the Arsenal of Brest in 1952, her gross tonnage being 19,828 tons. She is on the company’s Havre—Southampton— West Indies run and can carry 303 first-class, 285 second-class and 89 tourist-class passengers, with 100 first or second interchangeable.
She has eight steam turbines developing 42,000 s.h.p., driving twin screws. Her sister ship is the Flandre, but fortunately the latter has a black hull, making the identification of the Antilles a much simpler task than it might have been.
SG239 Sea Breezes 1/66

Provence

john — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 20:51:55 +0000

While reading through a recently-published history of the Battle of Navarino I was reminded by one of the plates of a Greek stamp issued in 1927 to mark the centenary of the engagement. After a comparison of the stamp with the book illustration, the source of the stamp design and the name of the ship became established.
By one of those strange coincidences the vessel was also shown on a stamp issued by Algeria in 1930 which had no connection whatever with the Greek issue. The ship of the line on both stamps is the Provence (or La Provence) of the French Navy. She was built at Toulon to the plans of the famous French naval architect Sarre, and was launched on May 26, 1815 under the name Hercule. Her length was 56 metres, breadth 141/2 j metres and she was armed with 74 guns At the time of the Battle of Navarino she had been renamed Provence, and according to Admiral de Rigny, French commander at Navarino, she was one of three ships of the line to join his forces from Toulon the day before the battle “in a deplorable condition”. She is shown on the stamp design, which is copied from a lithograph by G. P. Reinagle, lying off the town of New Navarin. Reinagle was an eye-witness of the battle aboard the Mosquito, and made a number of engravings of the battle and two fine oil paintings, now in the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich.
The Provence was the French warship which accompanied the first French settlers to Algeria in 1830 and for this reason is depicted on the centenary stamp issued in connection with the International Philatelic Exposition of “L’Afrique du Nord”, held at Algiers. Incidentally this stamp appears to have been issued on white or cream paper, although I have seen only the latter cataloged: After the expedition to Algeria the Provence was renamed Alger, a tribute to the new settlement and to the ship which took part in it.
SG106 Sea Breezes Ernest Argyle 1/66

RICKMERS NEW ORLEANS

Auke — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 20:48:40 +0000

Built as a multi-purpose dry cargo vessel under yard No. 439F by Xiamen Shipyard, Xiamen China for Wilbert Shipping (Rickmers Reederei), Cyprus.
27 May 2002 keel laid down.
03 March 2003 launched RICKMERS NEW ORLEANS.
Tonnage 23.119 gross, 9.752 net, 29.878 dwt., dim. 192.92 x 27.80 x 15.50m., draught 11.20m, length bpp. 183.56m.
Powered by one 7-cyl. two stroke single acting Diesel engine type 7S60 MC-C, manufactured by Hudong Shipyard Diesel Engine Branch, 15.785 kW., single screw, speed 19 knots. One 900 kW bow-thruster.
Ice strengthened, and strengthened to carry heavy cargo.
Lifting devices, 1 crane of 100 ton, 2 cranes of 320 ton which can work in tandem and can lift then 640 ton. 1 crane of 45 ton.
Can carry 1.864 20ft TEU’s, grain capacity 36.094 cubic meter.
Has accommodation for passengers. (12?)
15 July 2003 completed.

After delivery in August put in the Round-the-World Pearl String Service of the Rickmers Line, based in Hamburg.
When she arrived at New Orleans on her first call at this port was she christened on 06 December by the First Lady of New Orleans and the wife of the Major C Ray Nagin, when she was moored alongside Nashville Avenue B Wharf on the shore of the River Mississippi.
The World Pearl String service is from Hamburg via the Suez Canal to the Far East then across the Pacific to the Panama Canal to the east coast of the USA before the ships heading home to Hamburg.
During this voyages the ships call at least at 20 ports, but further ports may be called if required.
When you want to make a World voyage as passenger you can book a voyage one a ship used in this service.

October 2003 transferred from Cyprus registry to Marshall Islands registry and flag.

www.equasis.org gives for 2008, owned by same owner, and managed by Rickmers Reederei, Hamburg.
IMO No. 9253155. Still under Marshall Islands flag.

Marshall Island 2006 39c sg?, scott?

Source: some web-sites. Germanischer Lloyd on Line.

DISCOVERER ENTERPRISE

Auke — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 20:40:31 +0000

Built as a double hulled drillship under yard No. 275 by Ast. y Talleres del Noroeste S.A. (Astano), Ferrol, Spain for Transocean Inc. (Transocean Offshore Inc.), Panama.
14 March 1997 keel laid down.
Launched under the name DISCOVERER ENTERPRISE.
Tonnage 63.190 gross, 18.958 net., dwt. 69.500, dim. 254.4 x 38 x 19m.
Powered by 2 Wärtsila 12V32 diesel engines, 13.214 bhp., speed 15 knots.
She can be dynamically positioned via six 5.000Kw. (each) Azimuthing thrusters, three at the bow and three aft.
Has a oil storage capacity of 125.000 barrels.
Accommodation for 200 persons.
Fitted out with a heli-deck suitable for Chinook 234 helicopters.
01 August 1998 delivered to owners.
Final outfitting was completed at the Ingalls Shipyard in Mississipi, USA.

After delivery chartered by BP Amoco for five years.
This massive multi-purpose ship, the first of a three ship series ever built deep water drilling ship.
It can drill, tests and complete wells in water depth of up to 10.000 feet.
She can still work with a wave height of 13 meters, and when conditions are going bad can disconnect risers quickly before moving to an other location
For more info on this vessel see the following URL’s
http://www.deepwater.com/DiscovererEnterprise.cfm
http://www.ship-tecnology.com/projects/discoverer

August 1998 owned by Transocean Enterprise.
November 2000 owned by Transocean International.
October 2004 owned by Transocean Offshore.
February 2005 owned by Triton Hungary Asset Management LLC, Hungary, and managed by Transocean Offshore Enterprise Houston, USA. At that time transferred from Panama flag and registry to Marshall Islands registry with homeport Majuro.
www.equasis.org gives for 2008 same owner and managed by same company. IMO No. 9186792

Marshall Island 2006 39c sg?, scott?

Source: the two given web-sites. DNV Exchange on line, and Equasis.

TI AFRICA

Auke — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 20:29:20 +0000

Built under yard No. 5184 as a double-hulled crude tanker by Daewood Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co., Ltd., South Korea for Majestic Shipping (Hellespont Shipping Corporation, Greece).
24 September 2001 keel laid down.
15 December 2001 launched, built under the name DAEWOOD 5184, am not sure of she ever carried this name. Three sisters ships.
Tonnage 234.006 gross, 16.2477 net, 442.470 dwt., dim. 380 x 68 x 24.5m., length bpp. 366m.
Powered by a HSD –Sulzer 9RTA84T-D diesel engine, 37.463 kW, one propellers, speed 17.5 knots.
Cargo capacity 500.282 cubic meter.
03 June 2002 delivered to owners, under the name HELLESPONT METROPOLIS, with homeport Majuro, Marshall Islands. Her registered owner given as Metropolis.

09 November 2002 transferred to Greece flag, with first homeport Andros, later Piraeus.
2004 Sold Africa Tanker Corp., renamed TI AFRICA.
25 July 2004 transferred Belgium flag, with homeport Antwerp.
July 2005 transferred again to Marshal Islands flag and registry.

Who can identify the smaller tanker alongside the TI AFRICA?. Click on stamp to get a larger image of the stamp.

Marshall Island 2006 39c sg?, scott?

www.equasis.org gives for 2008. Owned by Africa Tanker Corp., Marshall Islands, managed by OSG Ship Management Ltd., Newcastle-upon-Tyne, U.K. IMO No. 9224764

source: www.eagle.org

GENMAR SPYRIDON

Auke — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 20:19:10 +0000

Built as a Suezmix double-hulled tanker under yard No. 1179 by Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. Ltd., Ulsan, South Korea for Metrofin Ltd. (Eyelet Navigation), Greece.
24 August 1999 keel laid down.
03 December 1999 launched under the name CRUDE DIO.
Tonnage 81.151 gross, 52.036 net, 159.959 dwt., dim. 274.5 x 48 x 23.1m. Draught 17.07m. Length bpp. 264m.
Powered by a B&W diesel engine ?hp, one propeller, speed ?
14 February 2000 completed.

After delivery managed by Metrostar Management Corp.
04 July 2002 she was blocked by Greenpeace activists from the Greenpeace vessel ESPERANZA who boarded the vessel at the north entrance to the Bosporus, preventing the vessel from transiting the Straits.
14 Activists had boarded the vessel by inflatable boats during the afternoon, while the CRUDO DIO was waiting her turn to transit the Bosporus.
They put up banners promoting a ban on oil and favouring “clean” energy.
After 11 hours of blockade 13 activist were arrested by the Turkish authorities.
The CRUDE DIO at that time was carrying a full cargo of crude oil from Novorossiysk, Russia.

June 2003 sold in block with 19 other Metrostar tankers for US$525 million to General Maritime Corp. US.
CRUDO DIO was owned then by GMR Spyridon, Marshall Islands, renamed in GENMAR SPYRIDON, and managed by General Maritime Management.

18 March 2004 she got engine trouble 700 nautical miles south-west of the Azores, towed by the tug FOTIY KRYLOV to Setubal, Portugal for repairs, where she arrived early April 2004.

March 2006 management was taken over by General Maritime Portugal.

www.equasis.org gives for 2008: IMO no 9185528.Owned still by GMR Spyridon, Marshal Islands and managed by General Maritime Portugal, Lisbon. Under Marshall Islands flag and registry.

Marshall Island 2006 39c sg?, scott?

Source various web-sites. DNV Exchange on line.