Bridge-class OBO carrier

The Bridge class was a series of six ore-bulk-oil combination carriers, vessels able to carry iron ore, bulk cargo or oil, completed by Swan Hunter at its Haverton Hill yard on the River Tees between 1971 and 1976. Swan Hunter had taken over the former Furness Shipbuilding yard there in 1968 and designed the ships itself. They were ordered by four members of the Seabridge shipping consortium, Bibby Line, Furness Withy, Hunting and Son, and Thornhope Shipping controlled by the Norwegian Hilmar Reksten, for charter to Seabridge, which explains the Bridge names. The first, Furness Bridge, was launched in 1971, and Tyne Bridge, English Bridge, Sir John Hunter, Sir Alexander Glen and Liverpool Bridge followed at roughly yearly intervals. Only Furness Bridge was built to the original design, and all of the class suffered from cracks in the deck plating in front of the bridge after severe weather. Two were lost at sea: Liverpool Bridge, renamed Derbyshire, sank in Typhoon Orchid off Japan in 1980 with all 44 crew, and English Bridge, later Kowloon Bridge, broke her back off West Cork in 1986. The other four were scrapped between 1982 and 1997.