New 28 January 2004
TEESSHIPS
FAVOURITE SHIPS

FERM and FRYKEN

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I previously had this on display:

New 1 January 2003
TEESSHIPS
AYE, THOSE I'S HAVE IT!

ISVANIA

Tees Dock, 30 January 1977

ISVANIA, Panama, 1000gt, completed Aalborg 8-1938, ex Svano-71, ex Fryken-61. Now preserved at Gothenburg as FRYKEN.

Yes, well, I did and I didn't take this photo! I did in the sense that I took a photo of a slide projection by my friend Mick Green. I didn't take the photo even though I saw the ship on the same day as Mick! This illustrates one of the vagaries of being a ship photographer. On that afternoon I had already recorded the Blue Funnel AUTOMEDON (probably Elder Dempster colours by then) and Elder Dempster's own FALABA. Lining up on the even more exciting old-timer ISVANIA what happened? You're right - nothing!!! My trusty camera chose that very moment to break; and this was a ship I particularly wanted, having seen her in my very early days under her original name of FRYKEN!

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28.01.04: Looking through old newspaper cuttings I found these items:

EVENING GAZETTE - 5 April 1961

and, EVENING GAZETTE - 29 March 1963

I saw the FERM 21 times myself between 17 December 1960 and 21 March 1963 which, from the above, would seem to have been her last visit to the Tees. She became KANNAS (Finland) and in 1972 GISELA (Finland). The next year she took the flag of Lebanon and although she then remained in the Registers for many years I was once able to establish (without now knowing where I made a note of it!!) that she ceased trading soon afterwards.