Lady Chilel Jawara
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The Lady Chilel Jawara was a passenger ship on the Gambia River in the West African state of Gambia . It was the last passenger ship that operated regularly along the river, since then there have only been ferries across the river.
Technical specifications
The ship was measured with 702 gross register tons and was 51.39 meters long, 9.63 meters wide and had a side height of 2.93 meters. The draft of the ship was 2.35 m. 44 cabins were available on six decks for passenger traffic, and a further 200 passengers could be carried on deck as deck passengers. There were two single cabins, 16 two or four-bed cabins.
The ship's propulsion system consisted of two Kelvin eight-cylinder four-stroke diesel engines supplied by GEC Diesels with a total of 1060 hp, which acted on two fixed propellers via reversing gearboxes. The maximum speed was eleven knots . The on-board energy was provided by two auxiliary diesels, each with an output of 129 kW.
The construction cost at that time was £ 1,500,000 .
history
Installation
The passenger ship was built in 1978 by the Ferguson Brothers shipyard in Port Glasgow as hull number 476 for the Gambian government. The launch took place on March 29, 1978. The passenger ship was baptized in the name of Lady Chilel Jawara , the name of the wife of the then President Dawda Jawara , Chilel Jawara . The ship replaced the Lady Wright , whose voyages were suspended in April 1977.
Driving operations on the Gambia began on September 25, 1978. The ship was shown as a motif on postage stamps in 1978 and 1992. On the occasion of her visit to Africa in February 1984, Princess Anne traveled with Lady Chilel Jawara and held a parade on February 18, 1984 in Banjul on Gambia's Independence Day.
business
During its operation, it moved over a distance of 390 kilometers or 250 miles from the Gambian capital Banjul on the Atlantic Ocean upstream to Basse Santa Su . She covered this distance within a week. From November to April the line was operated weekly and in the rainy season every two weeks. The journey lasted from Tuesday noon to early Thursday, the return to Banjul ended on Friday late afternoon or late evening.
The Lady Chilel Jawara had her time from Albreda the monopoly on the Gambia for the passenger, freight and mail traffic. At that time the only mobile post office in the world was located on the tween deck and after the service on the Mississippi was closed, it was the last post office of its kind. The mail was stamped “TPO - Traveling Post Office” at no extra charge.
Stops on the route between Banjul and Basse included: Albreda , Kerewan , Tendaba , Yeli Tenda , Kudang Tenda , Kuntaur and Georgetown (today's name: Janjanbureh).
Downfall
On her last voyage, the Lady Chilel Jawara left Banjul on December 4, 1984, reached Basse, then turned back and was on her way back to Banjul. According to an eyewitness report the ship on December 7, 1984 he was awarded a 10:10 list . The ship was at Balingho west of Devil Point . The ship hit the bottom at the edge of the fairway in this river area with dangerous shoals , whereupon she capsized and sank.
Of the 73 Gambian deck passengers and 25 European passengers, four drowned: three British tourists and a Gambian girl. Two masts protruding from the river water can still be seen from the wreck .
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Lloyd's Register of Ships, Lloyd's Register of Ships, London, 1979/80, p. 20.
- ↑ a b c d e The Last Voyage of the Lady Chilel Jawara , accessed July 2011
- ↑ a b c d e f g LADY CHILEL JAWARA , accessed July 2011
- ↑ a b c d e f g Michael Tomkinson: Michael Tomkinson's Gambia. Tomkinson, London et al. 1987, ISBN 0-905500-00-8 .
- ↑ John Stidolph: The Royal Year , 1984, Volume 11, Windward, Leicester, p. 25
- ↑ Rosel Jahn; Wolfgang Jahn: Gambia. Travel guide with regional studies. With a travel atlas (= Mai's Weltführer. Vol. 29). Mai's Travel Guide Verlag, Dreieich 1997, ISBN 3-87936-239-4 .
- ^ Norman Hooke: Modern Shipping Disasters, 1963-1987. Lloyd's of London Press, London 1989, ISBN 1-85044-211-8 .
- ^ Devils Point accessed August 2008
- ↑ Bossman and Bosslady at the Hippo Stakeout ( Memento of the original from August 11, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Accessed July 2011
Coordinates: 13 ° 28 ′ 6.4 " N , 15 ° 38 ′ 0.5" W.