SS Lagos Palm

Lagos Palm - Robert G. Lloyd

The is the 1961 version of the Lagos Palm. It was the second ship of that name working for the Palm Line:

The Palm Line was a UK-owned shipping line that was engaged in the West African trade from 1949, primarily servicing the ports along 5,000 miles of coastline from Morocco in the north to Angola in the far south. It ceased trading in 1986.

Navigating the Niger Delta required certain accommodations:

It is notable that all Palm Line ships, with the exception of Kano Palm and Katsina Palm, built before 1970, had to be less than 500 feet long in order to navigate the creeks of Nigeria. Draught is another important feature. The coast of West Africa is extremely flat, and the slow-moving rivers and tidal currents have combined to build up long sand bars a mile or two off the coast. To enter most of the rivers, ships must pass over these bars; 27 feet being the maximum draught to serve all ports. Even so, to enter many rivers, - for example the Escravos River which leads to Sapele - ships cannot carry more than 4,000 tons since the maximum draught to successfully make it over the Escravos Bar is limited to 17 feet (5.2 m), so vessels would often cross over the bar at the entrance to the adjacent Forcados River, then take the connecting creek to the Escravos River. 

Here are some maps of the Niger Delta. I'm not real happy with any of them:

• the space shot doesn't have a scale, 
• the one labeled estuaries doesn't name any of the rivers,
• the admiralty chart is too zoomed in, so much so that I don't know what I am looking at,
• the last one is pretty good, it has a scale anyway, it has a bunch of names but leaves out the names of the big rivers.

Oh well, they're free, I should be happy with what I've got. It's not like I'm going on a voyage to Nigeria any time soon.

View of the Niger Delta from space (north/land at top).

Map showing Escravos and Qua Iboe Estuaries

ADMIRALTY Chart - 3321 Entrances to Escravos and Forcados Rivers

The Niger Delta with the Forcados (middle left)

Just for completeness, here's a link to Google Maps map of the Niger Delta.