NEWS

I am searching for any information on the S.S. British Crown fire and subsequent sinking in August 1966 at Umm Said in the Persian Gulf. If anyone has information please contact me at

wallaceg@bpapprentices.com

In May 2004, I moved from Ontario to British Columbia, Canada.

I also welcome mail from any ex-BP crew or anyone else who wants to chat about ships. In 2000, I came across an obituary for Keith Ledingham Collins, an ex-Apprentice I sailed with, who became a lecturer at South Tyne Side College for 30 years. I want to contact people before we get too old!

Updates

March 25, 2012
Sorry for the long delay between updates. We've been working on migrating the site to a platform. The info will all stay the same, but the site will get a bit of a facelift and some long-over due updating of the code! Hopefully the new pages will be up and running soon!

Previous Updates

April 5, 2009
With the purchase of my own domain: bpapprentices.com, I now have a huge amount of space and the potential to upload a large number of photographs, scanned images and other details. This will be a continuing process, so this news page will only be updated after significant changes.
In the meantime, I have added a large number of Dry Dock Crewlists between the years 1960-1965, a full list of available Ships Movements 1969-2001, and a new section for photographs.

May 14, 2007
Added a new link to David Carpenter's website on the book he wrote about his experiences as an apprentice marine engineer. I'm also in the process of adding names to some of the photos and updating some of the content. There should be a few more updates in the next couple of days.

June 4, 2006
In 1959 two E/A's were killed in a pumproom incident on the British Vision, CFW Dean (1955 entry) was sent as a replacement on 1st August 1959 Does anyone have any idea of the names of these two apprentices? I think they were 1955 intake.

Just a quick update to show the page hasn't been totally neglected! A few small updates to numbers of Apprentices, added about 30 names to the list of Engineer Apprentices and added a new link for a page that searches for the current position of ships.

August 9, 2005
BP Shipping are celebrating their 90th Anniversary on September 1, 2005 at the National Maritime Museum Greenwich. An invitation list is being compiled, you must contact BP head office to be included. More information about this event may be included later.

The list of ex Engineering apprentices that I have located has been revised to 265 and the balance known for all years now revised to 1386. I have a few details about each of the latter but to date have not located any of them.

Three photos have been introduced; the whole of the 1955 Apprentices entry at Bolton Tech (including about 5 BP), the whole of the 1975 Apprentices entry at Poplar Tech (including a number of BP), and the final photo is of the 1955 entry at the Isle of Grain Refinery in August 1958 prior to entering their sea phase time. The names of all known BP personnel in the three photos will be added at a later date.

I now have a full list of all E/A's for the following years: 1952-1959 inclusive, and 1964 ONC/OND at South Shields and Bolton Techs.

June 7, 2005
The most unusual guestbook signing in the last few months was a "lady" signing on with her porn site url and suggesting we were a bunch of wild guys. I thought best to delete her! In terms of updates, it was mostly some minor updates, but there will be 3 new pictures comming up soon on the Apprentices page.

July 18, 2004
Due to some bad luck, a number of things have gone wrong with this website in the past few months. First of all, my service provider changed their name and relocated my website. You might have noticed that old links and web searches were ineffective. Hopefully all of these have been rectified, and the website should regain search engine status soon. Secondly, my counter, which had been acting up, eventually vanished completely. I have a new counter up, complete with the number of hits the old counter had registered before its demise. Also, the list of Engineering Apprentices is up! You can see it by clicking on the link in the left-hand table of contents window.

Finally, I am considering making two lists. The first, a listing of people who own photographs of various BP Tankers. If you have pictures, please let me know. The second list would consist of ex-shipmates that others were looking for or wondering about. Once again, if you're interested, contact me.

April 28, 2004
A few updates to tweak some small things. Added a new option in the table of contents for a page listing Engineering Apprentices. The list is not up right now, but should be going up within the next week. Added a new link in the links page to a ships reunion page. Also, one new piece of information on the British Crown page.

March 6, 2004
Having arrived back from Vancouver, I have made a few small changes. I have added a few pictures to the Apprentices page that were sent to me by Ken Goodison and donated by Brian Elford. Also, I have added two links from my Guestbook to the Links page.

December 17, 2003
I have fixed a few spelling errors and updated my contact info. I will be on vaction on the West Coast for the next several months, but I am still available by email and always looking to make new contacts. Feel free to send me info, pictures or ships photographs.

May 20, 2003:
I have just fixed up a few things on the pages and an update on the numbers of apprentices successfully contacted. I will be on vacation for the next little while, so I may be slower than usual replying to any messages. However, don't let this stop you!

December 11, 2002:
I finally have a Guestbook. Please feel free to sign it, no matter whether you were in BP or not. I welcome all comments.
For the last 15 months, I have been actively searching for information about the British Crown disaster of 1966. I have decided to include some of the information I have gathered on this webpage. All the pictures have been lightened. I just bought myself a new scanner and will be adding more apprenticeship photographs as well as memorabilia.

Sept 5, 2002:
Finally some new updates! My webmaster has returned from overseas and we are both raring to go. I have plenty of new information and pictures to put up. Many thanks to all those who have helped me in my search for ex-Apprentices and Crew Members. Special thanks to those who have provided information on the British Crown.
Future plans include a special section covering all I have discovered on the British Crown disaster as well as a Guestbook and located ex-BP Crew Members. I have managed to contact approximately 50 Apprentices and am have names for about 100 more. Look for many updates in the next few weeks.

Sept. 7, 2001:
Well, the page is up! I have a lot more information, but if it doesn't get put up in the next few days, it might be a long time before it actually appears. My webmaster (my daughter Vivienne) is moving and will not have much access to me or the internet. However, all hope is not lost. A few updates may occur sporadically.