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1968

M.V. Naess Trader

Inverness Sh. Co. Ltd

Motor cargo ship

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.

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Port TalbotNarvikMurmansk

1 of 8 passages

3rd February 1968 — 8th February 1968

Port Talbot → Narvik

1,888 miles · 5 days at sea

TO LOAD

SAILED PORT TALBOT 7am 3rd FEB BOUND NARVIK

Every passage he logged in her. Press play to follow her through, or tap a port to see every time he called there.

Log entries
18
Ports
3
Nautical miles
16,096
Days at sea
48

Her longest passage in the log ran from Port Talbot to Murmansk — 2,385 miles, 7 days at sea.

The log

2 Feb 1968 to 29 Mar 1968

February 1968

  1. 2 Feb 1968

    Joined Port Talbot

    JOINED PORT TALBOT 2nd FEB 1968

  2. 3 Feb 1968
    7am

    Sailed Port Talbot — bound Narvik

    SAILED PORT TALBOT 7am 3rd FEB BOUND NARVIK

  3. 8 Feb 1968
    2pm

    Arrived Narvik

    TO LOAD

    ARRIVED NARVIK 2pm 8th FEB TO LOAD

  4. 9 Feb 1968
    6pm

    Sailed Narvik — bound Port Talbot

    SAILED NARVIK 6pm 9th FEB BOUND P. TALBOT

  5. 14 Feb 1968
    8pm

    Arrived Port Talbot

    TO DISCHARGE

    ARRIVED PORT TALBOT 8pm 14th FEB TO DISCHARGE

  6. 15 Feb 1968
    7am

    Sailed Port Talbot — bound Narvik

    SAILED PORT TALBOT 7am 15th FEB BOUND NARVIK

  7. 20 Feb 1968
    2pm

    Arrived Narvik

    TO LOAD

    ARRIVED NARVIK 2pm 20th FEB TO LOAD

  8. 21 Feb 1968
    6am

    Sailed Narvik — bound Port Talbot

    SAILED NARVIK 6am 21st FEB BOUND P. TALBOT

  9. 27 Feb 1968
    7am

    Arrived Port Talbot

    TO DISCHARGE

    ARRIVED PORT TALBOT 7am 27th FEB TO DISCHARGE

  10. 28 Feb 1968
    4pm

    Sailed Port Talbot — bound Murmansk

    SAILED PORT TALBOT 4pm 28th FEB BOUND MURMANSK

March 1968

  1. 6 Mar 1968
    4pm

    Arrived Murmansk

    TO LOAD

    ARRIVED MURMANSK 4pm 6th MAR TO LOAD

  2. 7 Mar 1968
    4pm

    Sailed Murmansk — bound Port Talbot

    SAILED MURMANSK 4pm 7th MAR BOUND P. TALBOT

  3. 15 Mar 1968
    6am

    Arrived Port Talbot

    TO DISCHARGE

    ARRIVED PORT TALBOT 6am 15th MAR TO DISCHARGE

  4. 16 Mar 1968
    4pm

    Sailed Port Talbot — bound Narvik

    SAILED PORT TALBOT 4pm 16th MAR BOUND NARVIK

  5. 22 Mar 1968
    6am

    Arrived Narvik

    TO LOAD

    ARRIVED NARVIK 6am 22nd MAR TO LOAD

  6. 22 Mar 1968
    noon

    Sailed Narvik — bound Port Talbot

    SAILED NARVIK 12noon 22nd MAR BOUND P. TALBOT

  7. 28 Mar 1968
    7pm

    Arrived Port Talbot

    TO DISCHARGE

    ARRIVED PORT TALBOT 7pm 28th MAR TO DISCHARGE

  8. 29 Mar 1968

    Home

    HOME 29th MAR

What was happening

Background written by the family, not from the logbook — but it explains a good deal of what is in it.

1954–1971

No telephone, no news

There was no way to call home. Letters were sent ahead to the agent at the next port, and if the ship was diverted the mail chased her round the world for months. A man could sail knowing his wife was expecting, and learn he had a child from a telegram handed up a gangway in another hemisphere.

1954–1971

Two years was a normal voyage

Foreign-going Articles could run for up to two years, and often did. David's longest unbroken spell in this logbook runs seventeen months, from June 1960 to November 1961 aboard the Scotstoun. Leave came at the end of it, not during.

1960–1971

The ships get very much bigger

In the 1950s a large tanker carried around 16,000 tons. By the mid-1960s the new turbine tankers carried three and four times that, and they were built too big for the Suez Canal to take them fully laden. Ports had to be rebuilt to match: Europoort was dug out of the sea off Rotterdam, and Kharg Island and Khor al Amaya were built out into deep water offshore.

In the log: David moves from the 1956 Norscot to the Naess ships, and the ports change with them — Europoort, Kharg, Khor al Amaya and Ras Tanura take over the log.

1967–1971

Suez closes again — this time for eight years

The Six-Day War in June 1967 closed the Suez Canal once more. Fifteen ships were trapped in the Great Bitter Lake and stayed there until 1975. Every tanker between the Gulf and Europe now went round Africa as a matter of course, and the Cape Verde Islands and South Africa became refuelling stops for a whole generation of ships.

In the log: David's last passage through the Canal in this logbook is on 18 February 1967, four months before it shut. That August the Naess Endeavour is bunkering at St Vincent in the Cape Verde Islands instead — out in the Atlantic, on the long way round Africa.

1967–1968

The end of Aden

Aden had been British since 1839 and was one of the busiest bunkering ports on earth, largely because of the Canal traffic. When the Canal shut in 1967 that trade collapsed, and in November 1967 the British left and the People's Republic of South Yemen was declared.

1954–1971

The map keeps changing

The place names in this log are the ones David used, and many of them have since changed. Bombay is Mumbai, Madras is Chennai, Bône is Annaba, Bougie is Béjaïa, Ceylon is Sri Lanka. He sailed through the end of one world map and into another.