Hello
Following the quizz with the French Navy chartered
Albacore...
http://modeltugforum.com/index.php?topic=1513.210 In France after the
Amoco Cadiz 1978 with 233 000 tons of crude oil on the brittany coast, the French governement adopt a regulation to avoid any discussions prior taking a towing line.
The
Amoco Cadiz disater was the result of 2 days of discussions between the tanker owner and the German salvage tug
Pacific Since then ships are henceforth obliged to take the towline that gives them the French government chartered tug.
Thoses French navy chartered salvage tug where at that time the
Abeille Normandie and
Abeille Provence for Brest and Cherbourg.
Later replaced with
Abeille Flandre and
Abeille Languedoc +
Abeille Normandie at Toulon -
This situation was the beginning of the ETV concept (Emergency Towing Vessel) now "copy and paste" by many other nations. Some time later they start to chartered supplies for pollution recovery, the Albacore was one of those ships
In 2004 all those ships received the "AEM" stripes, the coast guard lines on the hull
Actually for polution recovery there is
Ailette +
Carangue at Toulon (mediteranean sea) and
Alcyon +
Argonaute at Brest (Brittany - Atlantic side) )




The ETV are the
Abeille Liberté (Cherbourg),
Abeille Bourbon (Brest),
Abeille Languedoc (La Rochelle) and
Abeille Flandre (Toulon).

The Abeille Liberté here in dry dock at Concarneau



Actually, all are from the Bourbon compagny (Bourbon off-shore for supplies and Les Abeilles for salvage tugs) but for long time it was Surf (
Alcyon-
Ailette) Les Abeilles International (
Abeilles Flandre,
Abeille Languedoc,
Abeille Provence,
Abeille Normandie) and Feronia International Shipping (FISH) for
Mérou,
Girelle,
Albacore,
Carangue)
During chartered time the FISH ships where renamed after french name of fish (it's not a translation from the english name to french name)
Mérou is the former
King Fish,
Girelle former
Moon Fish,
Albacore former
Beryl Fish,
Carangue former
Pilot Fish For the past,
the
Abeille Normandie (IMO 7518965) was renammed
SALVOR GENERAL (Progemar). then
MAGDELAN SEA (1990 Secunda Marine Services Ltd). She's now
ZOUROS HELLAS Panama flag (Maritime Consortium of Thessaloniki).

Picture from Marine-Marchande.net
The
Abeille Provence is now the Canadian
Ryan Leet http://www.shipspotting.com/modules/myalbum/photo.php?lid=851711The
Mérou former
King Fish was repalced at Toulon with the
Abeille Flandre . Then the
Mérou stay for a long time at Lowestoft and is now in India under
Merou name and Indian flag.

The
Girelle, former
Moon Fish was later replaced by
Carangue, then she was again
Moon Fish and later
Bahara in the Persian Gulf
http://www.shipphotos.co.uk/pages/girelle.htmThe last one is the
Albacore, former
Beryl Fish then
Beryl Fish again. Some one said that she's on the Capian Sea and something like Azerbaïdjan flag ... (?)

All pics are mine except for
Abeille Normandie,
Ryan Leet,
Girelle and
Albacore (I have only slides and paper pics - no digital for thoses ships ...)
A+ Xtian