Last revised 10 June 2007
TEESSHIPS
A FAVOURITE SHIP
LAPAD
When I saw the Yugoslav LAPAD at Liverpool on 10 July 1967 I thought little more than "what a lovely ship". It was not until I looked her up that I found she had close local connections for me having previously been owned within the Constantine Group based in Middlesbrough.
Her full history as recorded in the WSS publication THE CONSTANTINE GROUP by my friend Harry Appleyard is:
1689gt. 11.1949 completed by Burntisland Shipbuilding Co. Ltd., Burntisland for Wood Lines Ltd.; 1962 transferred to Contatntine Lines (Operations) Ltd.; 1963 sold to Atlantska Plovidba, Yugoslavia, and renamed LAPAD; 1970 sold to Mediteranska Plovidba, Yugoslavia; 1971 sold to Brodospas who commenced demolition 27.4.1971 at Split.
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Photo by George Robinson (28.12.99) - but I was there as well.
It was, therefore, with quite some degree of interest that I observed a successor LAPAD berthed at the Tees Offshore Base (former Smith's Dock shipyard) on 31 July 1992, especially as she, too, had some local connection. She is 2776gt, and recorded as completed by Swan Hunter at Wallsend-on-Tyne in January 1978 as STARMAN ANGLIA, sold and renamed LAPAD in 1984. Initially also under the Yugolslav flag the internal turmoil in that country resulted in her being flagged out to Malta by the time I saw her.
The mystery for me has been that here is the STARMAN ANGLIA on 4 September 1977 fitting out - at Haverton Hill on the Tees, the former Furness shipyard by then operated by Swan Hunter. I have never actually sorted out whether she was launched on the Tyne and completed on the Tees, or launched here on the Tees (someone will doubtless put me out of my agony!?)
You wait, and wait, and in looking
into something else - the answer eventually comes up!!
8.12.01: From David Asprey:
Haverton Hill's orderbook in mid-1977 consisted:
GEROI KERCHI (products tanker for Nikreis Maritime, Cayman Islands, for bareboat charter to Sovfracht) and 2 products tankers for
Lagoven, Venezuela. (subsequently doubts expressed re Lagoven order) The Blue Star heavy-lift STARMAN ANGLIA was transferred to
Haverton Hill for fitting out after her launch on 21 Jul at Hebburn (should
read Wallsend) and two reefer container ships for Blue Star (AUSTRALIA STAR and NEW ZEALAND STAR)
were transferred from Smith's Dock's relatively ample order book at South Bank.
8.12.01: Sorry, cannot add to the uncertainty about
"Starman Anglia". She certainly came back to the Tees. On 22nd. Sept 1979 I moved her from Eston 4 to Linthorpe Dinsdale (as it was called at the time) & on 16th July 1980 I sailed her from Middlesbrough Dock 7.
Best Wishes, Tony Crompton
(former Tees pilot)
9.12.01: Mike Ridgard added:
Again from British Shipbuilding Yards - Middlemiss:
"The hull of the Blue Star heavy lift ship STARMAN ANGLIA was sub-contracted to the Neptune Yard of Swan Hunter on the Tyne. She was then towed for
outfitting at Haverton Hill but just before completion a strike at the yard caused her to be finished off elsewhere."
- Where, I might ask?!
WSS Yard list for Smith's agrees with most of this but doesn't suggest final completion was anywhere other than Haverton Hill.
9.12.01: Confirmation from
David Waller:
Just one small comment to clarify. I am sure that David Asprey meant to write that the Starman Anglia was transferred after her
launch at Neptune Yard not Hebburn. I was working at Swans at the time and worked on the design (in a small way) of the Starman
Anglia and saw her being built on the slipway at Neptune.
11.12.01: Just to round things off - from Tony
Atkinson:
My son has just drawn my attention to the question of the New Zealand Star and Australia Star built by Smith's Dock.
I have the Blue Star Magazines for this period and in Gangway No 16 there is a photograph of the Australia Star being launched at
Haverton Hill on the 21 March 1978, in the previous "Gangway" is an article about the naming ceremony on 25th January 1978 by
Mrs Sally Nixon, wife of the then Australia Federal Minister of Transport, at Haverton Hill Yard of Smith's Dock. (was there a strike or
something at the yard for the naming ceremony and launch to be so far apart?)
In Gangway 17, page 1-4 show Mrs Thea Muldoon, wife of the then Prime Minister of New Zealand naming the New Zealand Star at
Haverton Hill, with a photograph of the ship being launched. The Starman Anglia was launched, according to Gangway, by the Swan
Hunter Group, being launched on the Tyne on 26th June.
In my manuscript for Blue Star that was published back in 1985 I had shown that these vessels had been built at Haverton Hill, but all
the vessels were changed to show Smith's Dock. (This
by reference to a dispute over whether the NEW ZEALAND STAR was built by Smith's
at South Bank or Haverton Hill - which kicked things off - and provided the
solution to the STARMAN ANGLIA mystery!!)
Tony Atkinson.
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So, all in all, the name of LAPAD holds a lot of interest for me.
10.06.07: Just to complete the story this LAPAD arrived at Aliaga on 25.06.06 to be broken up.