The Brief Passage of the Gas Carrier “Valle de Ibaizábal” (1968-1969)

The gas carrier “Valle de Ibaizábal” belonged to the Vasco Madrileña de Navegación company –founded in 1943 in Madrid and moved its headquarters in 1962 to Bilbao, where it developed its shipping existence–. It had a twin named “Valle de Nervión”, which in 1972 was transferred to Naviera Montañesa and for two years sailed under the name “Isla de Horadada”.

Both had the unmistakable mark of the Tomás Ruiz de Velasco shipyard, with the peculiar shape of its chimney, where three other ships named “Ine”, “Río Hijuela” and “Tomás Ruiz de Velasco” were built, which would later be transformed for the transport of liquefied petroleum gases. The last two were taken over by Butano, S.A. and sailed under the names “Butasiete” and “Butaocho”.

This time we will focus our attention on the first of them, the ship named “Valle de Ibaizábal”. It is a little-remembered vessel, possibly due to its brief passage through the Spanish merchant navy. Delivered in October 1968, a few months later, in February 1969, it was sold to the company Cispa Gas Trasporti S.A. and until its scrapping in 2000, it flew the Italian flag renamed as “Andalusia”. There was a second “Valle de Ibaizábal”, which sailed under the Spanish flag between 1982 and 1989.

Construction number 103 of the aforementioned shipyard, it was a ship of 1,777 gross tons, 979 net tons, and 2,256 deadweight tons. It measured 80.17 m in overall length -71.73 m in length between perpendiculars-, 12 m in beam, 6.71 m in depth, and 5.50 m in maximum draft. It had six horizontal cylindrical tanks, with a cargo capacity of 2,195 cubic meters and was powered by a Naval-Stork-Werskpoor engine, with a power of 1,795 horsepower on a shaft, allowing it to maintain a speed of 14 knots. IMO Code 6906024.

Photo: Archive of Juan Carlos Díaz Lorenzo