Great Britain The Sulisker Leith-Fisheries protection vessel-May-2013

[SuZyQue]

Decided today on my day off to go exploring, had my eye on a ship that I keep seeing from the train,

it's a rusty old girl and tied up in the inner harbour, so rung a mate and off we went,

We walked through most of the waterside industrial estate and found some disused buildings and an abandoned bus lol,

Eventually came to a industrial estate where she lives.

Theres alot of boat restoring going on and security at the gate,

lucky for us there was a cafe/caravan near the site so after a bacon buttie and chat to the lady in charge

she tipped us off security had gone for lunch so in we went, rude not to, and we walked everywhere, and finally I found my ship, and it had a walkway on board, so on we went.

There is two other ones I've got my eye on rusting away but more of that later.

Now for some history:-The sulisker Leith IMO 782443 was a fisheries protection vessel launched in 1980, and built in 1981

owned byScottish fisheries protection - Leith.

Built in Ferguson shipbuilders's Glasgow. The older Sulisker type are offshore patrol vessels and do a speed of 18 knots, with a displacement of 1,365 tonnes.

They can spend up to21 days on patrol, she was decommissioned in 2005. Did read that she was going to be made into a luxury yacht,

but so far she is rusting away in the dock here.

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t was great exploring this ship,all the doors to inside were rusted shut, and wanted to get on and off before we got caught by security,

but great fun, hope you enjoy the pics. Sorry about the size of pics don't know how to make em smaller, and nearly lost all of this as I got logged out.De

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[skeleton key]

That cool and great to see you out playing splore pirates

cheers for the share

:band:

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[Ninja Kitten]

i love boats and not seen her before!!! brilliant share!

 

[SuZyQue]

Thankyou SK and soz for the muck up, tried to edit but it won't let me, I'm a nervous wreck updating this, and don't get me started on photobucket, there is a great pic of her in action and in good nick but can't get it on here. There is alot of stuff around about but security everywhere and very prickly high fencing. Just glad I got something today.

 

[Banshee =}]

What a cool share

 

[SuZyQue]

Thankyou all

 

[Lowri Jen]

A ship! My favorite kind of splore!

Top work, really nice report this and loving the pictures!

 

[skeleton key]

Cool Suzi Just sorted a few links down was all and welcome

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[shaddam]

boats boats boats ! something about them just shouts awesome splore , cheers

 

[SuZyQue]

Thankyou SK it looks wonderful, will try harder next time lol.

 

[Wevsky]

Nice report that mate,nice to see some more Boats

 

[SuZyQue]

Thankyou wevsky. Heres the other two I wanna see.

 

[Scattergun]

This brought a tear to my eye. This is the first proper time i've seen a site that I have fond memories of as a functioning place. I know her very very well. My dad was 2nd mate on board Sulisker fae 1993 and was promoted to mate toward the end of the 90's before leaving Scottish Fisheries for Gulf Offshore in 2003. Before Sulisker he served on her sister, Vigilant and the coastal patrol boat Morven.

My first ever trip to sea was on board Sulisker in 1994. I was 10 lol. We were based out of Leith and ran 3 weeks (spot on suzy) up the east coast of Scotland and around the orkney and shetland isles, stopping at Kirkwall, Lerwick and Fair Isle which is a small island in the middle. Sulisker would run patrols in the North Sea on fishing vessels to keep them within Scottish fishing regulations. (Vigilant was based on the west coast out of Greenock). This meant measuring net sizes dependent on the licensed catch, inspecting the catch, logs and general safety of the vessel fae an environmental standpoint. I accompanied the mate on watch, spent a lot of time being taught how to splice rope and tie knots with the bosun, piloted the rib on boardings and even got to steer the ship, (which engineering was really pissed off about)

The crane in your pic suzy was used to launch the secondary rib, Sulisker had two with a newer faster rib on a second crane further aft on the quarter. The remaining superstructure incorporates the officers quarters. It's mapped out as a ring of cabins with two central offices in the middle. In fact your last shot is only just up fae my cabin! The mess hall is gone now sadly, it sat on top in front of two stacks which also housed the spare screw blades and the captains cabin was forward of that under the bridge. She sits very low in the water (approximately deck to waterline height, I forget how many meters but then it has been nearly 20 years) and as such is not a shallow berth vessel. Top speed was actually around 22 knots if you put the throttle down but she'd happily cruise at 16 That crew knew how to get the most out of their boat.

Sorry for rambling, I've a lot of memories of this boat. Was the first time I'd ever seen a Klondiker, or killer whales! So sad to see her like this. She was supposed to have been converted as you say, clearly she's destined for the gas cutters torch When I next visit the parentals I'll see if I can find some pics, they're all on 35mm. In the meantime I do have a plaque fae Vigilant somewhere whichI'll snap and post Thanks for the shots suzy

 

[SuZyQue]

Wow thankyou for that info, and sorry if it upset you, it is sad seeing a ship left like this.Nice to have the memories.