Captain Gwilym Owen, an ex Blue Funnel master, lent me these photographs. The “Priam” photograph from his collection shows her flying down the Malacca Straits to her first Far Eastern port of call, Singapore. She could manage 23knots on a good day, that’s some speed for a cargo ship built in the mid sixties. I sailed with him on the Priam in 1970, we left Birkenhead on the 10^th of November, and went non stop to Singapore, older Blue Funnel vessels had to stop for bunkers at either Cape Town or Durban, and we were still back in Liverpool within three months, on the 8^th of February 1971, having visited nine ports including three in Japan, and that’s including a two weeks stint on a buoy in the middle of Hong Kong harbour awaiting cargo. She was a fine ship, and at the time the “Super P’s” were the pride of the fleet, and quite understandable as well when you look at Priam’s fine lines in this photograph.

Capt Gwilym Owen Retired Blue Funnel, Master Mariner.