I was just reading the Feb '76 newsletter and discovered that a ship called M.V. Oranjemund was launched in '75. I had never heard of it before. Is it still sailing, or did it sink somewhere along the skeleton coast ... Does anyone know anything about this ship?
During my boarding school years in the Cape, I always read the Cape TImes, and would always go to the page with the names of all the ships that were in harbour, and it was tickled me to read ORANJEMUND.... so much so that I went down to the docks one day, just to have a look....in a way it made me homesick..... as kids at boarding school, the current waterfront was out back garden, in those days there were just old sheds and run down buildings and fishing places there......
I think it was one of the first ocean diamond vessels commissioned by Debmarine?
Is it still sailing ... or was it sold?
Sorry can't help you there - maybe David Long will know?
The Oranjemund i remember, was not MV Oranjemund, but just plain Oranjemund...it was a cargo boat that went up the west coast, Cape TOwn, Port Nolloth, Luderitz and Walvis Bay..... and did not belong to De BEERS...however the MV Oranjemund I do not know.....
Patricia, I just thought you would be interested to find out what has happend to the vessel since, see attached.
Interesting! Do you know what year that was?
What did the M.V. stand for ? Marine Vessel?
Mighty Virgin..........
:emot19:
Sorry Patricia the article did not specify a year ....
Missing Vessel?
Missing Virgins.............. :emot172: okay - I'll behave...I promise!!!
Here a ship called Oranjemund
http://www.allatsea.co.za/oranjemund.htm
The Oranjemund
http://www.allatsea.co.za/shipimages/oranjemund02.jpg
i would assume m v means "mining vessel" but missing virgins or mighty virgins has a better ring to it.
@daddygeorg....ship images ..........verboten wont let me see image
Chris thats cos your dad partied on some of those ships at Port Nolloth .. he seemed to know some of the crew or just had the gift of the gab ... Mark and i were in PN one sunday .. stopped in at the hotel about lunctime .. saw your dads brown citoen parked outside .. anyhow as we were leaviing the hotel .. we observed your dad in the company of a czech couple from OM ( forgot their names , he was a big guy with a petite wife with reddish hair ) anyhow he was battling to get the car to start .. did not bother to open the bonnet to look instead proceeded to push it away from the hotel .. got around a corner . we followed in my car to gve assistance .. there was your old man .. face al ruddy from a few drinks . . I offered to help .. first he declined .. and then said " Oh Bugger it " opened the bonnet and there on each side of the engine was a hessian bag of crayfish .. the bags ahd soaked through from the wet and now shorted out the spark plug leads .. he put the bags in the boot .. wagged a finger at me saying " you tell no soul about this hey ?/ " then as if to seal our pact of silence he said ' follow me ' we followed in the car which now miraculously started .. got to the harbour .. all walked up the gangway of one of the ships in dock he chatted to some of the people including the captain . next thing we were down in the ship all having heavy scotches .. him jabbering away ( he was an ex navy man if I'm correct ) .. this little impromptu party carryin long on into the afternoon .. left the ship all of us merry and equally flushed from many vicious scotches .. all on our way home .. him with the prize of the obviously illicit catch of Kreef .. just a menory that sticks in my head of your old man ..
Yup MV stands for mining vessel....
Current Debeers Marine Namibia Fleet is -
MV !Gariep - Drill Ship
MV Debmar Atlantic - Drill Ship
MV Debmar Pacific - Drill Ship
MV Grand Banks - Drill Ship
MV Ya Toivo - Crawler Ship
Current Debeers Marine SA Fleet is -
MV Coral Sea - Drill Ship, Mining and Sampling
MV Peace in Africa - Crawler Ship
MV Douglas Bay - Drill Ship, Sampling
Retired Debeers Marine Vessels -
Spencer Bay - Sold and then sunk
Shearwater Bay - Sold and then sunk
Louie G Murray - Sold
Not 100% sure about the 2 vessels that were sunk after they were sold, that was just something one of the guys told me here when I asked.
yes sandy, defineatley jock macpherson that was. the czech couple were josef and theresa klimek,used to call the old man "chief". our crayfishing smuggleing days at mcdougals bay, used to cook on beach and give the sea fisheries inspector the run around as we could see him from the beach on top of the dunes, wow i was only 16 or 17 at the time.
and he was in the merchant navy,union castle-- safmarine........ left them and worked for mobil oil in docks. where the aquarium is now was the tank farm supplying shipping with crude and bunker oil facilities,i used to run around there @5 or 6years old. thats how he knew so many seagoing people and his gift of the gab.
Thanks .. the names now come into the picture .. they too bought a citroen club . obviously on the recomendation of old Jock ...
yes they had red one,you ,ian, me, billy summers,joe coffin,paul lisser, we all had them.
Quote from: georgswa on June 01, 2008, 12:15:37 PM
Here a ship called Oranjemund
http://www.allatsea.co.za/oranjemund.htm
Interesting article. What's even more interesting is that the Oranjemund is for sale ... or at least it was when the article was published in 2006. Wouldn't it be great if we all bought the bought together ... wow, now that could be fun!
Don't they first have to proclaim it..before they can sell it? :36_2_35:
Thanks for the site Patricia!
We'll have to paint our boat a winning colour.............Ooooh - what about RED
Hi All
If I may add my five cents worth on the mv Oranjemund saga. I remember seeing the article in the Oranjemund newsletter years ago and as far as I know she was commissioned by Unicorn Shipping Lines to bring fuel from Cape Town to Oranjemund. The fuel was pumped to the "tank farm" from an offshore connection point (I remember having to do maintenance on the tank farm equipment as an appie in the early 80's). Pat Ray was in charge of the tank farm at one stage, I think. Anyway for a little more trivia, I sailed on the mv Louis G. Murray from 1988 for about three years as an ROV pilot. Quite a lot of ex-Oranjemunders on board at the time. Actually saw the Namibian independence celebratory fireworks from the ship, we were only about 20 kilometers offshore. The ship was named after Louis G. Murray (pretty obvious) who was one of the pioneers into deep water diamond mining. Remember Sammy Collins (MDC) were shallow water. As for what mv means I think it stands for marine vessel, but will ask around. To add to the list of DBM vessels that were lost is the mv Meob Bay. She was a Kuswag vessel bought by De Beers many years ago, lengthened and used as a survey vessel. She was then sold and used as a fishing vessel and sank a couple of years ago. I believe she had her nets out and had a black out (power failure) and the full nets pulled the ship down.
Enough for now
Quote from: Rhona on June 02, 2008, 07:58:55 PM
We'll have to paint our boat a winning colour.............Ooooh - what about RED
Great suggestion Rhona ... it would look awesome in
REDDo we have any divers on this site? Lance, do they know where the boat sank?
:tifo1: :tifo1: :tifo1:
Hi Patricia. Don't know where the ship sank (assuming you are refering to the old Be Beers Marine Meob Bay) but I believe it was off the SA coast somewhere. Don't quote me on this. I had a chat to one of our marine engineers today about the meaning of MV. he told me it stands for "Motor Vessel" just as in the old days SS meant "Steam Ship". Thus I would guess most of the ships on the world's oceans these days would have the prefix MV.
Cheers for now
I still prefer Rhona's 'Mighty Virgin' ... think it suits the Oranjemund better :tifo1: :tifo1: :tifo1:
Just scanned....at Port Nolloth
The notice in 1975 of the launching of the boat ....from the Bulletin...
There used to be a ship Called Oranjemund, that belonged to CDM/ De Beers in the seventies that was used for bringing the fuel to the mine. From town it was possible to see a diamond shaped beacon on the tailings dump in the mine. It had a light in it as well.
Further, closer to the beach, was another simular beacon. The ship used these beacons to line up with the buoy at sea and so found the pipe to connect to pump the fuel (diesel and petrol) to shore. That was why the fuel prise used to be less than other towns around. The ship also brought spares etc to Port Nolloth where CDM had a store from where it was trucked to town.
Is the tank farm still sort of south west of town just inside the mining area? If my memory servse me right it had a capacity of 5 million litre. There was also an incident where a couple of would be diamond thieves wanted to blow up the tank farm as a diversion while they went for the recovery. The plan was leaked and foiled. I will try to get more info on that when I speak to my father again.
The Tank farm has been removed, the diamonds under it were worth more..... Now SHeena charges us more for our fuel...... notfair
just found this if it's still of interest.
I have seen this ship docked in Cape Town
http://www.unicornshipping.co.za/1976.htm
and
M.V. ORANJEMUND : According to Brian Ingpen's column in the Cape Times of 19
April, M.V. Oranjemund was handed over to her new Greek owners on 13 April to
provide a bunkering service in the Persian Gulf and Somalia. The new owners have
chosen the name Zambezi for their ship.