This vessel, sister ship of SUNADELE was ordered by Reederei Zürich AG, Zürich and built by H.C. Stülcken Werft, Hamburg under hull No. 809. The launching was on September 27, 1952 and the ship was christened AMELIA by Mrs. Amelia Göhner, the wife of Mr. Ernst Göhner, a well-known Swiss industrialist and share holder in the shipping company. The delivery to her owners took place on November 10, 1952. The vessel was registered under Swiss flag and named SUNAMELIA, a charter name, as all the names of the vessels chartered by her charterer commenced with "SUN" (Official No.: 51, call sign: HBFM).
The building supervision and the technical management was allocated to C. Clausen, Copenhagen, Denmark. The master, officers and crew were mainly from Denmark, but also a few Germans, only one Swiss, Godi Banz from Lucerne was on board. The working contracts were according to Danish regulations and the hire was paid in Danish kroner. In 1955 this agreement was terminated and Reederei Zürich AG took over full control and management of the vessel (the exact date we do not know).
The crews changed after the first 2 to 3 years rapidly to Swiss nationals and at the end of 1956 about 75 % were Swiss. Later almost all crew were Swiss, except for the master and the deck officers, who remained mostly German and Dutch nationals.
The first voyage was to Valencia in Spain to load a cargo of fresh Oranges back to Hamburg. Afterwards the vessel was time chartered for six years, probably at the begin of 1953, to Saguenay Terminals Inc., Montreal, Canada.
The SUNAMELIA sailed for many years for Saguenay on the same trading pattern as her sister vessel SUNADELE, until the charter was terminated on December 31, 1968 and the vessel resumed again its original name AMELIA. (Since 1964 the ship got the Lloyd’s Register No.: 5344566)
After termination of the Saguenay charter the ship was employed in the tramp trade and spent a great part in the Indian Ocean, calling at places like Pakistan, Cambodia, Madagascar, Australia and also on such exotic places as Cocos Islands (also called Keeling Islands) to load copra and up the rivers of Brunei and Sarawak, where the crew had to discharge the cargo themselves. Later the AMELIA returned to the Atlantic Ocean and visited amongst other places Nigeria, Mauretania (port of Nouakchott) and the Spanish Sahara (Rio de Oro).
On February 27, 1970 the AMELIA was sold for a reported sum of 1’400’000.- USD to Silver Star Shipping Co. S.A., Piraeus, Greece, renamed SILVER STAR and was registered under the flag of Greece (Official No.: 3641, call sign: SVCS, GRT: 4998, NRT: 2666). The management was by Silver Crest Shipping Company Ltd. (Cosmas Dimitriadis), Piraeus.
On March 20, 1974, on a voyage from Colombo to China, the vessel went aground on the approaches to Whampoa (Huangpu District) in the Pearl River delta in Southern China, but was refloated later on.
Sold to the Maldives Shipping Co. Ltd., Male, Maldive Islands, registered under the Maldive flag and renamed MALDIVE ENERGY (Official No.: 49/10/T, call sign: 8QFG, GRT: 4847, NRT: 2687, DWT: 6391) in late 1974 after idling at Hong Kong for several months when a planned sale, and intended renaming to CHELSEA F.C., fell though.
In 1980 the vessel was sold for demolition to Lung Fa Steel & Iron Co. Ltd. and she sailed from Colombo on February 25, 1980 for her last voyage to Kaohsiung, where the vessel arrived on March 10, 1980. Scrapping commenced on March 15, 1980. Scrap Price $ 219.00 per Ltd.
Additional Information and Stories
Main engine problems from late Capt. Paul Accola
On Christmas eve, 24.12.1954 on the way from Halifax to Ciudad Trujillo (today Santo Domingo) during calm sea, a first crosshead bearing broke down, after about 24 hours another crosshead bearing went and the captain and the officers discussed already the possibility to call a salvage tug. However the ship could limp at greatly reduced speed to the port of Ciudad Trujillo, where she arrived on 31.12.1954.
Much to the delight of the sailors, the ship stayed in the port for one month and the repairs were effected by the crew with the assistance of Sulzer engineer Maier. The passengers were partly repatriated home and the Christmas trees loaded in Canada for Venezuela lost their needles and were useless on arrival in La Guaira in February. Afterwards the SUNAMELIA continued to Maracaibo and on departure from this port trouble commenced again with some main bearings and she headed to Willemstad (Curacao) as a port of refuge. The ship stayed in the local shipyard for another month for repairs. Then the vessel continued trading between Canada and the West Indies and returned to Europe only in August 1955.
The Danish superintendents and the Sulzer engineer allocated the problem to the bauxite dust, which entered the engine room and eventually contaminated the lube oil system of the main engine and caused the bearing failures.
However this apparently is not the entire truth and the story told by the engineers said, that too high engine speeds were maintained and the main engine was sometimes overloaded. As quite common, charterers insisted on the agreed charter speed, which the owners probably declared too high anyway to obtain a favourable charter rate. We would say not an unusual story in shipping.
Warnings of the engineers were disregarded and to maintain the speed, the engine was run from time to time on overload. If the engineers took the speed back and the revolutions decreased, the bridge used to say "What is the problem, the telegraph is on full ahead".
Fire in the North Atlantic
from Ernst Tschopp
During a rough Atlantic crossing in April 1967 from Montreal to Avonmouth, England with general cargo and about 10 passengers (from Canada and USA), the crew repainted the crew bar and the lower alleyways in the poop deck accommodations and on Saturday evening the big "inauguration party started". At about 21:00 smoke was noted in the shaft tunnel and around same time the look-out on the bridge observed smoke coming out from the poop deck accommodation and raised the alarm.
With the fresh paint the fire spread rapidly throughout the entire poop deck accommodations. Since all crew, except for one was assembled in the bar, located in the deckhouse on top, all could escape without harm and fire fighting operation could be commenced at once.
Paul, the O.S. (ordinary seaman) from Jamaica was on the midnight to four watch and therefore had a rest in his cabin. While the vessel still was steaming full ahead with 16 knots, he woke up and realized there was a fierce fire out in the alleyway (in front of his cabin door). As per his explanation later, he briefly considered to open the port-hole of his cabin and jumping out into the sea two meters below. But instead he chose to run up the stairs through the blazing flames and despite blankets wrapped around his body, he was very seriously burnt. In fact his pyjama melted together with his skin on his back. He made however the right choice, since jumping out into the sea in the dark and stormy night with the vessel still plowing on at full speed, would have been his sure death.
About 3 hours later the fire was extinguished, however due to the intense heat and huge amount of water used, the electrical systems and especially the cables of the steering gear were completely destroyed. The manual emergency steering wheel on the upper poop deck had to be engaged and two sailors were required to keep the vessel on course in the heavy seas. The ship’s electrician could install a temporary the power supply to the steering gear motors and after about 2 days, power steering was possible again, but control of the steering gear was only by the mechanical hand steering from the bridge.
Meanwhile the radio operator got in contact with a Swedish navy vessel in the vicinity to get medical help for the injured O.S. Paul. A medical team was transferred on a rowing boat to the SUNAMELIA, in the mountainous seas, a remarkable feat. Due to the adverse sea conditions, the risk to bring Paul to the war ship was considered as too great and it was decided to have two male nurses to sail with the SUNAMELIA until Paul could be landed to a hospital in Avonmouth, England (for the fans of royal families it is noted, that Carl Gustav, who later became king of Sweden in 1973 was on board of the war ship at the time as a cadet, as it was told by the nurses).
During fighting of this serious fire, the vessel’s only fire-pump broke down for good. The not so good condition of this fire pump was known and the alternative supply of seawater into the fire fighting system (hydrants) by way of the main sea water cooling pumps was regularly exercised, and therefore within a short time, the fire fighting could be resumed.
The crew member living aft (sailors and motormen) were put into the available passenger cabins or could sleep on another free places mid ships, for example on the Chief engineers sofa in his day room. The personal belongings of the crew were to a large part destroyed or suffered bad damage from the smoke and the water. The leftovers were spread out on the hatch covers 4 and 5 for drying in the sun, which came back after about two days.
The reason for the fire was believed to have started in the drying room below the stair on the lower deck, apparently a piece of cloth placed too close to the permanent installed electric heater ignited and set the place on fire. The steering gear, including the automatic pilot system and the cabins were permanently repaired during the forthcoming stays in the ports of Antwerp and Rotterdam.
SwissShips, August 2011