Elena

Comments from the forum - 1

I flew out to Kobe, along with ten others, and joined "Elena" on 21st June 1974, taking her over from her previous owners Johnston Line of Sweden. On board already were Chief Officer David Mockett and Second Engineer Mel Paddock who had done a "Familiarisation" part voyage on her. She'd been crewed by Swedish Officers and Chinese Ratings previously and, rather surprisingly, we found her to be very badly infested with cockroaches, so "Rentokil", in the form of one Aussie Gent named Bluey Elder, was called in to disinfest the accommodation, and this was accomplished before the later arrival of our Indian crew members.
All settled in quite quickly and I think we all enjoyed the three months that followed , up to our being relieved at Yawata 29th september 1974.

Officer complement as follows :
Master: A. D. Lightfoot, C/O: D. J. Mockett, 2/O: R. S. MacKay, 3/0: E. Bingley, R/O: B.Stagg, C/E: J. G. Howell, 2/E: R. M. Paddock, 3/E: D. Quaye, 4/E: R. Sanders, J4/E: A. Frost, Elect: T. Willoughby, C/S: R. G. Moylon, Eng Cadet: C. Rees.

The majority on this list remained together for a further voyage each on Amparo and, again, Elena. Tony Lightfoot. Posted on forum 27th February 2010.

I was a Jnr Engineer on the Elena when her name was changed to Samia. The name change took place in Rotterdam and it was my understanding that the name change was due to her changing flag from Panama to British. All the Indian crew were sent home and were replaced by Pool crew from Cardiff. Mick Taylor. Posted on forum 29th October 2013.

Just to say I'll bet the Officers enjoyed that. John Cann. Posted on forum 30th October 2013.

You are correct, it did not go down well. The change of flag took a couple of weeks and I have sent Mike a copy of a letter sent to all officers inviting them to a free bar for the work done during the flag change. Mick Taylor. Posted on forum 30th October 2013.

Disclaimer: The statements on this page are the views of the person who posted them on the forum. The events took place many years ago and in most cases rely on those people's memories, and so we cannot guarantee the accuracy although every effort is made to check it.

Elena. Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
Memories from RSL staff. Page No. [1]