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Blanchland - a general history

This 'Noticeboard' contains snippets of information about the ship drawn from a wide range of personal and documentary sources and is updated as and when new material is received:

From Mr. Stan Lithgo: "Went to Hartlepool on October 31st, 1961. Pilots from the Tees were often sent to nearby ports to save time picking up a Pilot in Tees Bay. In my case, the Blanchland was bound to drydock at Smith's Dock, South Bank. Derrick Southern (my cousin), was the Hartlepool Pilot. The ship was delayed by half an hour because the swing bridge was not opened on account of shift workers crossing. When clear, Derrick stayed on board, but when we reached Smith's it was too late to drydock.
When the Blanchland sailed from Smith's, the Pilot, W. Garthwaite (known as 'Big Bill'), was unable to disembark on account of north-easterly gales and heavy seas. The ship was bound for Dalhousie in Canada and was going north-about, so arrangements were made to land the Pilot by fishing boat at Scrabster in the Pentland Firth. Maybe some of Gray's personnel could have been on board?"

A “Casualties” listing in the January 1986 issue of Marine News states that Ionian Princess  “which arrived at Inchon [South Korea] 20/8/85 with engine damage sustained during a voyage from Shekou [southern China] to Qinhuangdao [northern China] and has meantime been laid up there, has now been sold by the mortgagees to Chinese shipbreakers.”

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