The Making Of A Man.

Baptism of Fire Part 2.

The collision happened on the 19th of May between an Italian tanker called Argea Prima and the Dutch MV Fabian.

Loch Killisport arrived in the early hours of the 20th of May to the Argea Prima holed on the port side and alight in two places on the upper deck, her cargo of 28,000 tons of crude oil was mostly still intact. A U.S Navy fire tender called USS Valcour was present but they were standing off, saying that there was a threat of explosion from the tanker.

HMS Killisport had just taken onboard fuel and ammunition at Mombasa but this did not bother Commander Forbes, he continued to take Killisport alongside Argea Prima and dispatched the ships fire fighters aboard her.

Killisport's crew fought the fires for over 24 hours in very high temperatures, having to be relieved every 20 minutes because of the heat.

USS Valcour helped by cooling the structure.

Eventually the fires were put out, and the ship was prepared for towing.

On the 23rd HMS Loch Insh along with Killisport escorted the Argea Prima back to Bahrain after the crew had reboarded and she managed to move under her own power.

Queens commendations for fire fighting were made to the Chief Engineering mechanic and Engineer officer.

Salvage payments were later made to the crew with the captain receiving £473 and the lowest ratings getting £16.

David's part in the fire fighting was recognized some time later as the photo above shows his salvage payment was received some time after 1960 and he had already left the Navy and was living in Ufton. David received £23, 13 shillings.

It may be a coincident but his silk from Killisport clearly is scorched compared to the others I have.

The U.S Navy however reported it very different, in their account USS Valcour boarded the ship and put out the fire on it's own, in fact in their account there is no mention of any Royal Navy ships
being present and they celebrate the fact that they received a plaque from the owners of the Argea Prima.

I guess we will never know the truth, but I have had online chats with two crewman who were onboard and they were insistent that Killisport had done most of the work whilst Valcour stood off, one had even wrote to the US Navy complaining that they had shown their ship in false colours.

Personally I think the salvage payments tells the story......

In 1963 the Argea Prima ran aground in Guayanhilla harbour, in an attempt to lighten the vessel the captain decided to pump 11,481,000 litres of crude oil into the sea.

In the official report the cause of this is blank, citing poor navigation as a possibility, but the report also notes that the Argea Prima had major damage and a very bad engine room fire in 1955..........