STV Royston Grange
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The STV Royston Grange was a British cargo liner which was destroyed by fire after a collision in the Rio de la Plata on 11 May 1972. She was the first British ship to be lost with all hands since World War II. She had been built in 1959 and was owned by the Houlder Line.
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[edit] Disaster
The 7,113 ton Royston Grange, carrying 61 crew, twelve passengers (including six women and a 5-year old child), and an Argentinian pilot, was bound from Buenos Aires to London with a cargo of chilled and frozen beef and butter. As she traversed the Punta Indio Channel, 35 miles from Montevideo, Uruguay, in dense fog at 5.40 a.m. she collided with the Liberian-registered tanker Tien Chee, carrying 20,000 tons of crude oil. The Tien Chee immediately burst into flames and a series of explosions rapidly carried the flames to the Royston Grange, which burned particularly hot due to the cargo of butter and the oil escaping from the Tien Chee. Most of the crew and passengers were asleep. Although the Royston Grange did not sink, every person on board was killed in the fire, most of them probably by carbon monoxide fumes emanating from the refrigeration tanks, which burst in the collision.
The Tien Chee also caught on fire and ran aground, blocking all traffic in and out of the port of Buenos Aires. Eight of her forty crew, who were mostly Chinese, also died, but the remainder (and the Argentinian pilot) managed to abandon ship and were picked up by cutters of the Argentine Naval Prefecture.
[edit] Aftermath
The remains of the victims, mostly little more than ashes and charred bones (much of the flesh having been stripped from the bones by the hoses used by Uruguayan tugs to put out the fire), were buried in six urns in two communal graves in the British cemetery in Montevideo on 20 May 1972 in the presence of 130 relatives who had been flown out to Uruguay by the ship's owners. A memorial service was held at All Hallows-by-the-Tower in London on 8 June.
The report of the Liberian enquiry into the disaster concluded that the master and pilot of the Tien Chee, in an attempt to get enough water for her deep draught, had probably been navigating too far to the south of the channel and had pushed the Royston Grange onto the shelf that bordered it. The British ship had bounced off and into the tanker. The officers of the Royston Grange, it concluded, were probably not to blame, although there may have been some human error in attempting to avoid the collision. The master and pilot of the Tien Chee probably should not have entered the channel in the first place in the tidal conditions prevailing at the time. The report also criticised the lack of maintenance of the channel.
The Royston Grange was towed to Montevideo, and then to Spain, where she was scrapped. The Tien Chee was also scrapped.
[edit] Casualties
All British unless otherwise noted.
[edit] Officers
- George Boothby, 55, Master
- Colin Craddock, Chief Officer
- Stewart Third, Second Officer
- David Lewis, Extra Second Officer
- Paul Hambly, Deck Cadet
- David Hamilton, Deck Cadet
- Philip Harrison, Deck Cadet
- Hugh Watkins, Deck Cadet
- John Barter, First Radio Officer
- Gary Johnson, 20, Second Radio Officer (his first voyage after qualifying)
- Terence Teppett, Chief Engineer
- David Revell, Second Engineer
- John Kincaid, Third Engineer
- Brian Thomis, Fourth Engineer
- Colin Nolan, Fifth Engineer
- Robert Lyon, Junior Engineer
- Clive Weatherburn, Junior Engineer
- James Craddock, Engineer Cadet
- Nicholas Finch, Engineer Cadet
- George Jeary, Chief Refrigeration Engineer
- Ronald Platt, Extra Chief Refrigeration Engineer
- Andrew James, First Electrician
- Stephen Hartnell, Second Electrician
- William Hagan, Catering Officer
- James Flower, Surgeon
[edit] Crew
- Jacob Dekker, Boatswain (Dutch)
- William Townsend, Boatswain's Mate
- Ronald Williams, Carpenter
- Andrew Adams, Able Seaman
- Leonard Bruce, Able Seaman
- John Burden, Able Seaman (American)
- John Hurley, Able Seaman
- Thomas McClelland, Able Seaman
- Alexander MacDonald, Able Seaman
- Eugene MacDonald, Able Seaman
- John Macritchie, Able Seaman
- Ernest Walsh, Able Seaman
- Arthur Furrand, Deck Hand
- Brian Jones, Senior Seaman
- Stephen Brookes, Junior Seaman
- Michael Hawley, 17, Deck Boy
- David Hullis, Deck Boy
- George Morris, Engineroom Storekeeper
- David Miller, Greaser
- John Thearle, Greaser
- Reginald Watkinson, Greaser
- Carlton Davis, Fire and Water Attendant
- James Fairweather, Fire and Water Attendant
- Stanley Tracey, Fire and Water Attendant (New Zealand)
- Peter Wright, Chief Cook
- Henry Watkinson, Second Cook
- James McIntyre, Baker
- Lawrence Bassant, Catering Boy
- Graham Edwards, Catering Boy
- Roy Mills, Second Steward
- Denis Beverley, Assistant Steward
- Herbert Collingham, Assistant Steward
- Peter Harvey, Assistant Steward
- Raymond Lee, Assistant Steward
- David Potterton, Assistant Steward
- James MacCulloch, Messman
[edit] Passengers
- Harold Bateman
- Donald Campbell
- Jean Campbell
- Jan Craddock, 22, wife of Chief Officer Colin Craddock (they had been married for four months) (Australian)
- Almut Dein (West German)
- Lother Dein (West German)
- Teresa Lilian Hagan, daughter of Catering Officer William Hagan
- Valentine Hagan, wife of Catering Officer William Hagan
- Rosa Leach
- Grace Puhl
- John Treharne
- Margarita Treharne (Argentinian)
