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m.s Alice Bowater
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Alex Duncan
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m.s Alice Bowater built at the Cammell Laird shipyard Birkenhead, Yard No.1282. She was named after Sir Eric Bowaters mother and Christened on her launch by Marchioness Townesend. The launching of the ship took place on the 28th October 1958, six weeks late due to a demarcation dispute in the shipyard. She was finally handed over to the Bowater Steamship Company Ltd on 22nd December 1958.
The technical spec of the ship is very similar to the other motorships with her dimensions being 325`x50`x30` with a grt of 4,044, the hull was part welded part riveted. She was powered by a Sulzer type 6SD60 single acting, two-stroke crosshead diesel constructed at Werkspoor N.V Amsterdam, Holland. The general outfit of the ship consisted of eight 6-ton derricks, electric cargo winches with remote control, electric warping winch provided with a cable lifter for the stern anchor, electric windlass and electro-hydraulic steering gear controlled by telemotor from the bridge, like her sisters she also had the Pleuger"Activ"rudder. |
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m.s Alice Bowater seen at the Corner Brook mill February 1962. Courtesy of the Rene Beuchamp Collection
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| My Dad was the 3rd Mate on the Alice Bowater when the above photograph was taken. He joined her at Ellesmere Port on the 8th January 1962 and left her in April. He found himself on this ship again in May 1963.
Also on the Alice Bowater in 1963 was a young Engineer Officer, John Powell when I e-mailed him this is what he told me:" I sailed on the Alice Bowater for the best part of 1963. It was a great little ship and everything was spotless from the bridge to the bilges in the engine room. My main voyages on her took me to Holsmund, in Sweden, with the occasional trip to Risor in Norway. I can still picture the sheets of ice that used to form from the water that used to lie on the deck, and walls of ice that formed from water running off the derricks, during the winter months. |
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| The deck crew came mainly from the Scottish Highlands, an island called Barra. When the weather was reasonably warm, some of the crew would congregate on the poop deck after finishing work for the day and have a bit of a sing-song. I remember a few of them had concertinas, and a few other small musical instruments and with a few beers on the side we used to have quite a pleasant evening.
I was just looking through my discharge book and I see that the Master was D.Lockhart, the Chief Engineer was G.Jardine and the Engineer Superintendent was Mr.W.H Colson. |
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| All in all, i`d say Bowaters was one of the better companies to sail with in my time. I remember some of my mates being envious that I managed to get a position with the company, even though at that time I was only up to the rank of 5th Engineer. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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m.s Alice Bowater pictured in an extremely light state. Courtesy of the John & Marion Clarkson Collection
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Crew Contacted
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John Powell Sid Barlow Bill Cook Richard Howatson Capt Charles Batchelor " " " " " " Capt. Patrick Toomey Dudley Heaven David Mallinson John Page Mike Corden Alan Stewart |
Deck Apprentice
5th Engineer Deck Catering 3rd Mate Deck Apprentice 3rd Mate, 2nd Mate Chief Officer Deck Officer Deck 5th Engineer Deck Boy/JOS Deck Apprentice 3rd Mate |
1962
1963 1961 1960`s? 1962 1960 1962/63/64/67 1968 1960`s 1964 1964 1960 1963 1965 |
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The next series of photographs were very kindly sent to me by David Mallinson who sailed on Alice Bowater in 1964/65, as the 5th Engineer he also sailed on the Clan MacNab.
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An interesting view, note snow on the deck
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Looking forward into the ice
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Deck cargo which was lost in the storm on the way home.
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Excellent picture of the engineers stand
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Cylinder-heads on the Werkspoor Sulzer
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David told me "My last trip on the ship was from Cornerbrook to Ridham. That crossing took three weeks, we hit a hurricane (Force12) in mid Atlantic and had to ride it out for a few days. The ship started to loose her double bottom plates, sometime after the hurricane, but it was, I think the hurricane that did the damage.
David`s next trip was on the Clan MacNab which took him to South Africa, then to the Med and back to South Africa on his return to the U.K he left the sea. |
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Great shots of Alice Bowater burying her nose in a wave with some big seas building up behind her
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| Through the years that I have been putting this project together i have sought information and photographs from many sources. I e-mailed the Bowater Headoffice in Greenville, South Caroloina, U.S.A and made contact with one of the managers there he took an interest in what I was doing. In the foyer of the building must be one of the last shipyard models of a Bowater ship in existance ,here is a picture of it. My Dad seems to remember several of these models being in the ground floor of the Bowater offices in Knightsbridge, London. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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A beautiful shipyard model of the m.s Alice Bowater housed in a the foyer of Bowaters Greenville offices, South Carolina, U.S.A.
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| Alice Bowater was finally sold out of the fleet in 1969 to a Canadian shipping company Messabec Ltee of Montreal, obviously they could see the advantage of owning a ship with an ice srengthened hull. She was renamed "Quebec" and as such returned to a few of her U.K haunts such as the River Mersey. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Quebec ex-Alice Bowater photographed possibly at Gibraltar from the Malcolm Cranfield Collection.
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Alice Bowater was the only ship from the Bowater fleet to have her career cut short due to a serious accident. After being sold by her Canadian owners to go under the flag of convenience and Panamanian ownership she was renamed George-F.
On the 8th April 1982 after a serious explosion in her engine room she caught fire off the coast of North Africa, after being towed into port she was declared a constructive total loss and in July 1984 was taken to Bizerta to be dismantled |
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Quebec in the graving dock at Halifax, Nova Scotia. Photographed by Hubert Hall from the Hubert Hall Collection.
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A great shot of m.s Quebec on the Seaway, from the Skip Gillham Collection
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