Warsailors Forums

My father-in-law was a a sailor aboard the merchant ship "Lord Byron" during the British nuclear tests at Christmas Island in the South Pacific in 1958.

He is now entitled to a medal if he can prove he was present.

Among other things, he has to prove that the ship was present at at least one of the blasts. However, apart from a 2002 on-line anecdote from a sailor on another vessel who happened to be aboard her, he has no hard evidence of this. A private letter home from January 1958 in which he states he was destined for service on Lord Byron is not considered evidence by the powers that be.

Can anyone help with proving the presence of the "Lord Byron" at Christmas Island in 1958, or at least give a bit of her history, such as her ownership? Unfortunately, as she was not a naval vessel, this is proving quite difficult.

She seems to have been built in 1957 and a photograph on line shows her in harbour in New Zealand sometime before 1964. So she might have been New Zealand-registered.

Many thanks for any assistance.

Mark Axworthy.

His Seaman's Book has emerged, showing that he joined "Lord Byron" at Vancouver in January and she passed through Hawaii. However, still no confirmation she was at Christmas Island during the blasts. Nevertheless, the timings and direction of travel are right for the second explosion on 28 April 1958.

Sid

Hello Sid

Your best bet would be to visit the London Guildhall Museum Library and obtain the reports- taken from Lloyds Shipping Indices of the voyages Lord Byron undertook in 1958. This will probably give you the answers you seek.

I am a little sceptical of your father in laws claim as Christmas Island in the SW Pacific is a remote location infrequently visited. It is not to be confused with the Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean which, as a major phosphate port, was frequently visited by ships like the Lord Byron. Given there was an exclusion zone routinely in place for all Atomic testing I'd be surprised if the ship was in the area unless it was acting as a supply ship specifically for the tests.

There is no mystery about the ship itself:
LORD BYRON BR 1M (14)
9,364 Norships Ocean Carriers, Ltd. (Ships Finance & Management Co., Ltd.), London 501' 3 x 62' 9
C Scotts' SB. & Eng. Co., Ltd., Greenock (9/57) #674 187652
69 - Norships Freighters, Inc., Monrovia [George Nicolaou, Ltd.] LI 3361
73 - s/o, Piraeus GR 4558
75 - MAROUKO Almanon Shipping, Inc., Piraeus [Mycali Maritime Corp.]
83 - S. B. I. Enterprises, Ltd. (Intertrans Shipping, Ltd.), Valletta MT 0903
Broken up at Gadani Beach 1984 by M. R. & Co., arr. 6.1.84
Above taken from Starke Schell index for 1957.