lycaon

Rick writes:

MV Lycaon

Engineer Cadet Rick's first trip at sea following 2 hard years at Birkenhead Tech and several Ian Dalgleish lectures. I joined the MV Lycaon GRT 11,893 tonnes in Antwerp on 29/7/80. The ship, as with its sister ship MV Laertes, were built in USSR and were picked up cheap by Ocean T & T, I think a couple of years before. If I remember right they had specially strengthened hulls built to ice breaking regulation for the Baltic!! (Not much good off West Africa) The ship in the photo had just come out of dry dock and looked not too bad. Being chartered on the Elder Dempster Europe-West Africa run it had just been painted and had the yellow ED funnel. We spent a very enjoyable trip down the west coast of Africa which was quite uneventful. The main engines were B & W licenced Russian jobs, 6 cylinder with a single exhaust valve mechanically operated by push rods. Manoeuvering at stand by was still on diesel fuel with heavy oil deep sea. This was the last ship and trip to do this before HO was used throughout and all the pumps were converted. The generators were pretty awful Russian pieces. I remember some of the spare cylinder heads didn't fit all the cylinders!

Trial and error.

MV Laertes

The sister ship to Lycaon was almost identical and equally naff. The aircon was awful too. I remember the shared toilets and showers in the cadet corridor were right above the boiler flue and were stinking hot. The Russian toilets were a weird design too with lovely inspection shelves and salt water flushing. In the heat they were the pits. Just what a young sea sick eng cadet wanted. It was off down West Africa for me again on charter to ED for the 1st time in October 1980. It had a Blue flue until then. The ship had taken on containers of whisky in Leith bound for Nigeria. Unfortunately the pirates in their motorised canoes liked whisky too and we had to hide in the accomodation block as they boarded and forced the containers and took as much whisky as they could. Once they were off the brave crew got out the fire hoses and kept them at bay. The only other memory of the trip was that 2 of the 3 generators dropped their bats on Boxing Day when the pedestal bearings caught fire. Loads of fun for several days I seem to remember.

. photo "Rick" LYCAON 3 built at Khorson Shipyard, Khorson, USSR in 1976, 11,893gt, 533 feet
Rick writes: MV Lycaon Engineer Cadet Rick's first trip at sea following 2 hard years at Birkenhead Tech and several Ian Dalgleish lectures. I joined the MV Lycaon GRT 11,893 tonnes in Antwerp on 29/7/80. The ship, as with its sister ship MV Laertes, were built in USSR and were picked up cheap by Ocean T & T, I think a couple of years before. If I remember right they had specially strengthened hulls built to ice breaking regulation for the Baltic!! (Not much good off West Africa) The ship in the photo had just come out of dry dock and looked not too bad. Being chartered on the Elder Dempster Europe-West Africa run it had just been painted and had the yellow ED funnel. We spent a very enjoyable trip down the west coast of Africa which was quite uneventful. The main engines were B & W licenced Russian jobs, 6 cylinder with a single exhaust valve mechanically operated by push rods. Manoeuvering at stand by was still on diesel fuel with heavy oil deep sea. This was the last ship and trip to do this before HO was used throughout and all the pumps were converted. The generators were pretty awful Russian pieces. I remember some of the spare cylinder heads didn't fit all the cylinders! Trial and error. MV Laertes The sister ship to Lycaon was almost identical and equally naff. The aircon was awful too. I remember the shared toilets and showers in the cadet corridor were right above the boiler flue and were stinking hot. The Russian toilets were a weird design too with lovely inspection shelves and salt water flushing. In the heat they were the pits. Just what a young sea sick eng cadet wanted. It was off down West Africa for me again on charter to ED for the 1st time in October 1980. It had a Blue flue until then. The ship had taken on containers of whisky in Leith bound for Nigeria. Unfortunately the pirates in their motorised canoes liked whisky too and we had to hide in the accomodation block as they boarded and forced the containers and took as much whisky as they could. Once they were off the brave crew got out the fire hoses and kept them at bay. The only other memory of the trip was that 2 of the 3 generators dropped their bats on Boxing Day when the pedestal bearings caught fire. Loads of fun for several days I seem to remember.
LYCAON Sold after the Falklands conflict. Broken up in Alang 1998	LAERTES Sold after the Falklands conflict. Broken up in India 1998

Lycaon / Laertes

From Russia with love?