You will have heard the phrase a "busman’s holiday", meaning to do the same thing outside of work as you do in your day job. Well, here is one that could go down as a "shipbroker's holiday".
Paul Willcox, the long-standing chairman of London shipbroker and Eggar Forrester Group subsidiary C W Kellock & Co, is currently bobbing around the south Atlantic on what is set to be the final return voyage of the RMS St Helena (built 1989).
The vessel has served as a lifeline between the isolated British island of St Helena and Cape Town for the past 27 years.
It has repeatedly been about to be pensioned off, but for the calamitous fate of the island’s new commercial runway that has been dubbed the “world’s most useless airport”.
Now, over eight years later than originally expected, the £285m airport has a regular flight, meaning the RMS St Helena’s days are near an end.
Kellock, as broker and valuer to the UK Admiralty Marshal, has the contract to sell the ship on behalf of the government.
So Willcox has taken the opportunity to get a close-up view of the vessel he has been tasked to sell, a ship which can carry 128 passengers alongside a wide range of cargo.
After setting sail on 24 January from Cape Town, under the control of Captain Adam Williams, Willcox sent the message: “She’s a delight to sail on, extremely comfortable for passengers as well as practical for the carriage of cargo.”
The RMS St Helena is expected to arrive at the island on 6 February and return four days later.
There is no word yet on the price, but potential prospects are being warmed up, we hear.
After the Aberdeen-built vessel’s final voyage, the island’s 4,500 inhabitants will be served by a weekly six-hour flight from Johannesburg and a cargoship for bulk goods.
