The M-Class (English: "M" class or "M" Boats) of the British Blue Funnel Line was built in six units from 1957. The design was created in six units at two different shipyards. The M-Class was one of the shipping company's last drafts of a conventional general cargo ship. The design was a further development of the A-class ships, the design of which was based on the Glenearn-class ships built between 1938 and 1942 for the subsidiary Glen Line , but developed by Holt .
The class ship Melampus belonged from June 1967 to May 1975 to a group of 15 ships trapped in the Suez Canal , the Yellow Fleet .
The ships had a carrying capacity of almost 10,000 tons, six holds , cold storage rooms and sweet oil tanks. The ships were the shipping company's first with steel MacGregor hatch covers . The cargo was handled with conventional loading gear . The drive was provided by a Harland & Wolff six-cylinder two-stroke diesel engine. The Maron's machinery was the first ship of the shipping company to receive data monitoring and an alarm system. The superstructures arranged amidships had (also for the first time at the shipping company) air conditioning and some passenger seats.
The ships
Blue Funnel M-Class
Ship name
Shipyard / construction number
IMO number
Commissioning
Later names and whereabouts
Menelaus
Caledon Shipbuilding /
5232086
1957
1972 Mano , 1977 Oti , 1978 Elstar , scrapped in Pusan from February 27, 1979
Menestheus
Caledon Shipbuilding /
5232103
1958
1977 Onitsha , 1978 Elisland , scrapped from March 19, 1979 in Kaohsiung
Memnon
Vickers-Armstrong /
5231941
1959
1975 Stentor , 1977 Owerri , 1978 Europe , scrapped in Alang in 1988
Machaon
Caledon Shipbuilding /
5216422
1959
1977 Obuasi , 1978 Med Endeavor , scrapped in Kaohsiung in 1979
Melampus
Vickers-Armstrong /
5231501
1960
Trapped in the Suez Canal from June 1967 to May 1975, Annoula II in 1975 , scrapped in 1982
Maroon
Caledon Shipbuilding /
5226142
1960
1975 Rhexenor , 1977 Opobo , 1978 Europe II , launched March 26, 1982 in Eleusis, scrapped in Aliaga from April 5, 1987
literature
Haws, Duncan: Blue Funnel Line . 1st edition. TCL Publications, Torquay 1984, ISBN 0-946378-01-0 .