EMPIRE SANDY tall ship

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aukepalmhof
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Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2009 1:28 am

EMPIRE SANDY tall ship

Post by aukepalmhof » Wed Mar 06, 2019 7:04 pm

Built as a tug under yard no 66 by Clelands Successors at Willington Quay, Wallsend, U.K. for the British Ministry of War Transport.
22 December 1942 launched as the EMPIRE SANDY .
Tonnage 479 grt, 44 nrt, dim. 43.6 x 9.2m., length bpp. 41.5m
Powered by a triple expansion 3-cyl steam engine 192 nhp. One shaft, speed 11 knots.
Armament: two Hotchkiss AA guns.
14 July 1943 completed. Managed by Overseas Towage & Salvage and registered at Newcastle.
30 July 1943 maiden voyage in convoy to Iceland.

1947 Sold to Risdon Beazley Ltd., Newcastle.
1948 Renamed in ASHFORD.
1952 Sold to Great Lakes Paper Co. Ltd., Port Arthur, Canada and renamed CHRIS M.
1971 Sold to Gravel & Lake Services Ltd., Port Arthur, not renamed.
1975 Sold to Strathearne Terminals (Hamilton) Ltd., Port Arthur, not renamed.
1978 Sold to Joyce E. Rogers, Port Arthur, not renamed.
1979 Renamed by owners in EMPIRE SANDY .
1982 Sold to EMPIRE SANDY Inc., Thunder Bay, Canada, not renamed. She was converted to an auxiliary 3-masted schooner.

Wikipedia gives then on her:
EMPIRE SANDY is a tall ship providing chartered tours for the public from Toronto, Canada. She was built as an Englishman/ Larch Deep Sea-class tugboat for war service by the British government in 1943. After the end of World War II she was renamed ASHFORD and then CHRIS M before reverting to the original name of EMPIRE SANDY and being converted to a schooner.

Tugboat history
EMPIRE SANDY was one of 1,464 Empire ships built or acquired for war service by the British government. Built in England in 1943 as a deep sea tugboat, she was tasked with Royal Navy work and salvaging merchant ships damaged in the Battle of the Atlantic and other naval engagements during the Second World War. She served in the North Atlantic Ocean from Iceland to Sierra Leone, the Mediterranean Sea, the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal during the Second World War.

EMPIRE SANDY 's Second World War 'Official Log-Books' documented all her wartime voyages. Of notable interest are the complete particulars of the crew, names, addresses, ages, next of kin etc. The oldest is the Master, E Thomas, 63, and the youngest is the Cabin Boy, Kenneth Lewis 15. These are in 'Log Book 014'. Another interesting entry is in TNA-25-5-05-094 describing the storm while towing, with His Majesty's Rescue Tug HESPERIA, AFD24 (Admiralty Floating Dry=dock 24) off the coast of Libya on 8 February 1945. The tug HESPERIA and AFD24 were both blown ashore and lost.
In 1948 she was bare-boat chartered by Risdon Beazley who renamed her ASHFORD Together with their Bustler-class tug TWYFORD, ASHFORD entered the rescue towage market. ASHFORD is listed, in 'Part of the Acorn Archive – Hearts of Oak' as part of the salvage team attending the battleship HMS WARSPITE after WARSPITE went aground on 23 April 1947. ASHFORD is incorrectly identified as tug ENGELSHMAN however all other particulars are of ASHFORD (EMPIRE SANDY ).
ASHFORD was handed back to the Admiralty in 1952. She was then sold to a Canadian firm, the Great Lakes Paper Company, and renamed CHRIS M (after Chris Michels, a senior employee of Great Lakes Paper). She then came to the Canadian Great Lakes where she spent fifteen years towing timber rafts for Lake Superior logging companies. In the early 1970s the aged ship was to be sold for scrap, but the steel hull was still in very good condition and she was bought by Nautical Adventures Co. for a possible conversion. They completely rebuilt CHRIS M as a three-masted schooner in the style of the 1880s and she assumed her original name EMPIRE SANDY.
Tonnage 338 grt, displacement 740 tons, dim. 61.87 x 9.17 x 4.62m (draught)
Powered by an auxiliary Caterpillar diesel, hp?
Rigged as a three-masted gaff-schooner.
Accommodation for 275 day-passengers and 25 crew.
Based at Toronto.
On 5 August 2017, EMPIRE SANDY was in collision with the Liberian freighter INA at Port Colborne, Ontario
2021 In service, IMO No 5071561.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_Sandy http://www.equasis.org https://www.miramarshipindex.nz http://www.tynetugs.co.uk/empiresandy1943.html Erhard Jung
Niger 2016 750F sg?, scott?
Djibouti 2020 in margin sgMS/, Scott?
Attachments
Chris_M3.jpg
Empire Sandy.jpg
2016 EMPIRE SANDY (2).jpg
2020 Europa---Netherlands.jpg

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