LAUNCH DAY PHOTOGRAPHS

JOHN HARKER SHIPYARD KNOTTINGLEY

1st SEPTEMBER 1959

' BELDALE H '

Official No. 301620

Registered at Hull number 33 on the 23rd October 1959.
A steel tanker barge with an eight cylinder Gardner engine built by Harkers in 1959. Measurements 137.95ft x 17.57ft x 8ft; gross tonnage 172.22; register 103.13.

Sold to T&S Rix Ltd., of Skirlaugh, Humberside on 17th February 1976, it was rebuilt at Hepworth Shipyard, Paull, in 1979 and re-registered number 2 on 31st January 1980. New measurements 163ft x 17.57ft x 8ft; gross tonnage 206.67; register 129.80.

As can be seen from the accompanying photographs, the vessel, launched at Knottingley on 1st September 1959, wasn't too keen on entering the water and it took some gentle persuasion with a heavy hammer on the launch mechanisms before the stern eventually followed the bow off the slipway.