Master Mariner · Merchant Navy
David Russell
For seventeen years he kept a logbook. Every port, every sailing, every arrival, in his own hand — from a first ship out of Middlesbrough in 1953 to the last homeward passage in 1971.
This is that logbook, opened up: 14 ships and 808 entries, with every place he named put back on the chart.
- nautical miles
- 909,073
- days at sea
- 2,613
- ports
- 167
- ships
- 14
More than 42 times round the world
7 years and 2 months
In 64 countries and territories
From 1953 to 1971
Distances follow the sea lanes a ship of his day would actually have taken — down the Atlantic, through the canals, round the Cape when the Canal was shut, and never across a country. They are our reconstruction of his tracks, not his own reckoning.
The Fleet
In the order he sailed in them — four of them he served in more than once, going back to them years later.
- 1953–1954First ship
S.S. Hollypark
J & J Denholm
David's first ship in this logbook. A tramp steamer working ore and general cargo: three trips to Vitoria in Brazil, a dry-docking at Birkenhead, and a run down to Konakri in West Africa.
7 entries · 2 ports
- 1954–1955Second ship
S.S. Gleddoch
Scottish Ore Carriers
An ore carrier, and a hard, cold trade. She shuttles between the iron ports — Bône and La Goulette in North Africa, Pepel in Sierra Leone, and Narvik inside the Arctic Circle — and discharges at Barrow, Irlam, South Shields and Salford.
15 entries · 7 ports
- 1955–1956Third ship
S.S. Wellpark
J.&J. Denholm
The voyage that took him furthest from home. She loaded 247 cars, 165 barrels of tar and 5,000 tons of fertiliser at Southampton, went through Panama, passed the Galápagos, and worked her way round New Zealand and Australia before coming home through Suez — seven months, and very nearly all the way round the world.
34 entries · 18 ports · 28,200 miles
- 1956–1959Fourth ship
M.T. Norscot
Norscot Shipping Company
A brand new ship, and David was there for the beginning of her. He signed on at Schiedam in July 1956 while she was still being finished, went out on her trials in the North Sea that September, and stayed with her for sixteen months. She is the most closely logged ship in the book.
158 entries · 39 ports · 104,833 miles · 2 spells aboard
- 1958–1959Fifth ship
M.V. Clunepark
J & J Denholm
The one voyage in the logbook that goes behind the Iron Curtain and into the People's Republic of China: iron ore loaded at Yulin on Hainan Island in June 1958, carried to Poland.
56 entries · 29 ports · 43,791 miles
- 1959–1968Sixth ship
M.V. Clarkavon
H. Clarkson & Co.
A ship he served on twice, eight years apart — a short spell at the end of 1959, and another at the end of 1967.
27 entries · 8 ports · 21,197 miles · 2 spells aboard
- 1960–1961Seventh ship
M.T. Scotstoun
Falkland Shipowners Ltd.
Eighteen months of tanker work at its most relentless: the Gulf to Britain through Suez, then a long spell running short hops between Venezuela, Curaçao and the refineries — sometimes three ports in a week.
103 entries · 26 ports · 91,522 miles
- 1962Eighth ship
M.V. Clarkeden
H. Clarkson & Co.
A brief spell in the spring of 1962, running Algerian iron ore from Bougie and Bône into Port Talbot.
10 entries · 4 ports · 7,381 miles
- 1962–1971Ninth ship
T.T. Naess Champion
Anglo-American Shipping Co.
The ship that took him across the Pacific. She works between the Gulf, Japan, California and Australia — the longest single passages anywhere in the logbook.
56 entries · 12 ports · 143,655 miles · 2 spells aboard
- 1963Tenth ship
M.V. Cragallian
Scottish Ore Carriers
An ore carrier on a tight circuit: Seven Islands in Canada, Almeria in Spain and Pepel in Sierra Leone, all of it into Port Talbot, Cardiff and Tees-side.
20 entries · 8 ports · 21,184 miles
- 1964Eleventh ship
T.T. Naess Spirit
Norcape Shipping Co.
A supertanker, and too big for the Suez Canal when she was full. She goes out to the Gulf light through the Canal and comes home the long way, round the Cape of Good Hope.
23 entries · 8 ports · 63,935 miles
- 1964Twelfth ship
M.V. Dunard
St. Andrews Shipping Co.
A short winter voyage from Savona in Italy to Poti in Soviet Georgia, and home to Tees-side.
6 entries · 4 ports · 11,357 miles
- 1964–1971Thirteenth ship
T.T. Naess Endeavour
Sovereign Shipping Co.
His ship above all others. David served in her four separate times between 1964 and 1971, more than half of all the entries in this logbook. She ran the Gulf to Europe, the Gulf to Thailand, and once broke down off Brixham and was towed into Falmouth.
275 entries · 50 ports · 357,523 miles · 5 spells aboard
- 1968Fourteenth ship
M.V. Naess Trader
Inverness Sh. Co. Ltd
Six weeks of hard shuttling in the winter of 1968 — Narvik to Port Talbot and back, four times over, with one run up to Murmansk.
18 entries · 3 ports · 14,495 miles
Add to the logbook
If you have photographs from any of these ships or ports, they belong here beside the entries. Anyone in the family can add them, and say which ship and which port they came from.