The Seafaring Life of the Ship "Villaverde" (1968-1986)

In the early 1960s, the Norwegian shipping company Fred. Olsen & Co., based in Oslo, signed contracts for the construction of several ships at ASTANO and the National Shipyard Elcano in Seville. The first three, named “Bonn”, “Basel”, and “Brielle”, entered service in December 1962, and the remaining four – named “Bretagne”, “Bastant” – not “Bastart” – “Brisk”, and “Brilliant” – never flew the Norwegian flag, as the construction contracts were rescinded due to failure to deliver within the contractual deadlines.

Temporarily, they were designated “ASTENE 94”, “ASTENE 95”, “ASTENE 96”, and “ASTENE 97”, with the last one being launched bow-first into the water. Due to their special characteristics, the four ships were difficult to sell, and after multiple negotiations, offers were received from two foreign companies and one Spanish company, with the latter, Castañer y Ortiz, offering the best conditions. By August 1966, the quartet was completed and docked in the port of Seville, being delivered during 1967 and 1968 to their new owner[1].

They were palletized cargo ships equipped with a modern system consisting of an elevator combined with a roller system that, with the help of electric trolleys, moved the cargo from the lower decks to the corresponding upper decks and positioned it on the side and vice versa, through two large hatches on each side. They were the first of their kind built in Spain.

Weighing 2,334 gross tons, they measured 83.25 m in total length, 14 m in beam, 9.98 m in depth, and 5.50 m in draft. In two holds, they had a capacity of 4,615 cubic meters for grain cargo. They were ships with a characteristic appearance, that is, sitting stern-first and rising at the bow, so that, as Captain Antonio Bermejo Díaz, who sailed on them as an officer, tells us, when headwinds blew, they advanced little. They were powered by a Götaverken engine, manufactured under license by Elcano, with 2,500 horsepower, which gave them 12 knots in good weather.

When they flew the Spanish flag, they were renamed, in the order mentioned, “Villablanca”, “Villaverde”, “Villafría”, and “Villafranca”. The shipowners had to find crews, and an advertisement appeared in the press of the time saying “If you want to be happy, sail with Castañer y Ortiz”. They soon found officers, crew, and subordinates, and the four ships first entered service chartered to COFRUNA and later to Naviera Pinillos, among them we remember Captain Miguel Ángel Díaz de Madariaga, later a pilot of the port of Santander.

The ship in question, named “Villaverde” – which we see in the magnificent photograph by our good friend Salvador Cervantes de la Torre – was the second in the series. Construction number 95 from the Seville shipyard, it was launched on December 3, 1963, and the official delivery took place on July 19, 1965. In March 1967, the four ships entered service, and by the end of 1973, they officially passed into the ownership of Castañer y Ortiz. From 1974, they exclusively sailed on the Canary-Peninsula line – Levante, Catalonia, and Cantabria – carrying Seat cars loaded in Barcelona, furniture from Valencia, and other goods, and returning with bananas.

From its seafaring life, we must highlight the incident that occurred on September 7, 1977, when it was struck off the coast of Morocco by the oil tanker “Antigua”. Towed to Las Palmas, it entered repair at ASTICAN, and after examining the process, a tribunal in London ruled on the responsibility between both ships[2]. At the recommendation of the Protection and Indemnity Club and the lawyers for the Spanish party, an agreement was reached in which the Spanish officer on watch did not come out well, and the more appropriate decision of the oil tanker’s officer was accepted.

As a result of the frequent changes in criteria from the CREP, in 1982 it was transformed into an air-conditioned ship. The work was carried out in Vigo, and it remained in service until July 1985, when it was docked in the aforementioned Galician port. At the end of October 1986, it was sold for scrap and completed in January 1987, in the hands of Desguaces del Guadalquivir, very close to where it had first set sail. The ships “Villablanca” and “Villafría” were also scrapped, and the ship “Villafranca” passed in 1986 to Naviera Guadiaro. In 1988 it was sold to Elmore Investment Corp. and renamed “Calao Reefer”. At the end of 1992, it sank while sailing about 300 miles WSW of Freetown.

Notes:

[1] Díaz Lorenzo, Juan Carlos. Empresa Naviera Elcano. Sixty Years of History. pp. 328-330. Madrid, 2006.

[2] For more details consult: Álvarez Blanco, Ricardo. The Ships of Pérez y Cía. pp. 185-186. Santander, 2001.

Photo: Salvador Cervantes de la Torre