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Built for the river Rhine, she should never ever been allowed to go to sea, and not just any old sea, one of the worst in world. She rolled like a pig, threw cargo all over the place and many passengers who used the St Rognvald priorly refused to sail on her.

I was master of " St Magnus " for five years and in that time can not remember missing a trip, whatever the weather. This included weekly trips to Stavanger and Hansholm ( Denmark). Not being stabilised, she could roll, but if nursed, there was no problem with cargo damage. I found her to be an excellent sea ship and I think that most of the crew felt the same way. Finally, she was not built for the River Rhine, but like her sister, for world wide trading.

Fred, you were captain long after I left this St Magnus and I believe a large water tank was fitted above the bridge to stop her coming out of a roll with such violence. I remenber many a night between Aberdeen and Lerwick with crew on cargo deck desperately re-chaining trailers. The skipper at the time who's name can't recall, he was from Shetland, was off sick for a couple of months when a chain holding a trailer snapped and wrapped round is leg causing serious damage. At that time she was a real pig.

You are correct Neal,when you say that the large water tank abaft the accommodation made a big improvement to her sea keeping qualities. The tank held 125 tons of sea water and certainly dampened the roll. The alternative was to load 6 or 8 heavy trailers on the weather deck. Without this, with a beam sea, she would roll from 30 degrees either side in 30 seconds and this was not desirable with heavy Ro Ro cargo. The tank was not available whils't you were there Neal, as the baffle plates were rusted through, but they were replaced in my time, hence the improvement. She had to be dog legged on many occasions, to keep the sea off the beam, but time was not an issue, as we had ample cargo working time in all the ports, with the exception of Stavanger and Hantsholm.
The Shetland Skipper would have been Drewy Georgenson.

Neal, the tank was there when you were in the ship, but could not be used. You can clearly see it aft of the funnels.

I should have said 11 seconds for a thirty degree roll either side