Collections Online

Starboard bow view of Gearbulk vessel M.V. ROBERT L.D. Tugs also in image.

A century ago, nobody would have dreamed that one day coal would be imported to Cardiff! But in 1972, the 12,705 gross ton bulk carrier Robert L. D. was pictured arriving it Cardiff with a cargo of American coal for the Central Electricity Generating Board, coal that would then be blended with south Wales steam coal for use in local power stations. This vessel was owned by the well-known Parisian shipping firm Louis Dreyfus & Cie. and was part of the Gearbulk pool of vessels in which British, French and Norwegian shipping firms participated. Note the gantry cranes and the discharging grabs on deck. (Source: Shipping at Cardiff: Photographs from the Hansen Collection 1920-1975 by David Jenkins, 1993.)

Bulk carrier ROBERT L.D. (2)(12,642gt). Built 1969 by Chantier. de l’Atlantique-Nantes, St Nazaire for Louis Dreyfus Armateurs, and fitted with integrated Kampnagel mobile cranes. She was one of the first to be managed by the “Gearbulk” consortium. 1979 – Sold to Ateliers de la Loire, St. Nazaire(?) and renamed DORIC CARRIER, registered at Piraeus. 2000 – Renamed FOUR M II. 2005 – Chartered renamed DONA 1. 2008 – She briefly returned as FOUR M II in the March of that year but was sold on to Mubark Alnaemi of Egypt in the April, and renamed DOHA 1, managed by Delta Group Shipping. 2008 – Renamed DORA and registered at Tuvalu.