Thursday 2 December 2010

DP-ZPS-7 (Crane Barge)

Ship No 525

The second of the 2 dumb barges from a dumb government in the “Quango” shape of “British Shipbuilders” which was run at the time by a guy who had already closed down most of the British Automotive industry (He would have known a lot about shipbuilding eh!.)

The order had been secured from the Polish Government, and it did amount to a fair size of ship orders, but for the men in Leith it was just crumbs.

While work of any kind was welcome at the time, they were in fact just large boxes with a crane on top, work that the men of the Leith Shipyards of Robb Caledon just got on with, in fact they may even still be operating in Poland.

They were for the port of (Zarzad Portu) Szczecin.

With a tonnage of 290 grt, and a length of 36.6 metres, and a beam of 18.5 metres they had a shallow draught of 3.66 metres, with this one being launched on 10th of May 1979.

Watch out tomorrow for some "BIG" news about the new website.

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