Blue_mischief
Active member
YouTube video interesting for its section on Tilman and the trip to Heard Island:
The rest is interesting as well ?
The rest is interesting as well ?
The Patanela
- Thread starter Blue_mischief
- Start date
Kukri
Well-known member
I watched that.
1. We don’t know how much fuel the Patanela had on board at the start of the trip, but we know that the professional skipper asked the owner to remit funds to buy fuel, which suggests that he wanted more fuel.
Her fuel tank capacity is described as three tons but Tilman writes of her having a 160hp diesel and tankage for one ton of fuel with space for more fuel in drums in the hold. This may have been changed of course, and the engine may have been replaced. One ton is not a lot for 160hp (and people seldom replace an engine with a smaller one).
2. If the skipper’s message to Sydney about being possibly out of fuel meant that she had no use of the engine he would presumably have been concerned to save the batteries and in that case he probably would not have turned the radar or the transponder (? - if that is what is meant, here) on.
3. It makes perfect sense to choose to enter Sydney in daylight in a boat with no working engine.
4. I have known a container ship to hit and sink a 39 metre fish carrier, a much more substantial steel vessel than the Patanela, without anyone on board the ship being aware of the collision, which took place at night, in fine weather. The fish carrier sank immediately and her crew of 11 were lost.
5. The weather was fine and close to calm.
6. I think the Patanela was probably run down by a merchant ship, whose crew were and remained unaware of her.
1. We don’t know how much fuel the Patanela had on board at the start of the trip, but we know that the professional skipper asked the owner to remit funds to buy fuel, which suggests that he wanted more fuel.
Her fuel tank capacity is described as three tons but Tilman writes of her having a 160hp diesel and tankage for one ton of fuel with space for more fuel in drums in the hold. This may have been changed of course, and the engine may have been replaced. One ton is not a lot for 160hp (and people seldom replace an engine with a smaller one).
2. If the skipper’s message to Sydney about being possibly out of fuel meant that she had no use of the engine he would presumably have been concerned to save the batteries and in that case he probably would not have turned the radar or the transponder (? - if that is what is meant, here) on.
3. It makes perfect sense to choose to enter Sydney in daylight in a boat with no working engine.
4. I have known a container ship to hit and sink a 39 metre fish carrier, a much more substantial steel vessel than the Patanela, without anyone on board the ship being aware of the collision, which took place at night, in fine weather. The fish carrier sank immediately and her crew of 11 were lost.
5. The weather was fine and close to calm.
6. I think the Patanela was probably run down by a merchant ship, whose crew were and remained unaware of her.
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