SHELLS BOUGHT FOR TANKERS

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27642, 26 April 1955, Page 10

SHELLS BOUGHT FOR TANKERS

WHOLE COLLECTION PURCHASED

With the assistance of a 76-year-old retired engineer, Mr A. E. Salisbury, of Buckinghamshire, England, whose varied interests include an expert knowledge of shells, a collection containing some thousands of specimens from sea and land was recently purchased by Shell Tankers, Ltd., for its fleet of ships. Auris, Helicina, Velutina—in fact all the tankers of the fleet which is one of the world’s largest—are named after types of sea or land shells.

On display in the saloon or captain's day cabin in each vessel is a sample of the particular specimen from which it takes its name. It is also traditional at each new launching to present a mounted specimen to the person who performs the ceremony. Anxious to build up as large a range as possible of varying types of shells, the company sought Mr Salisbury’s assistance in investigating the possiof a collection offered for sale ? a Devonshire firm of auctioneers. Mr Salisbury was able to identify many of the shells as being the same types as those after which ships had already been named or as types which would shortly be used for naming new vessels under construction.

Mr Salisbury said that many of the shells were good specimens and the company decided to purchase the whole collection. Mr Salisbury is now engaged in the task of identification of all the collection. Although his main hobby is conchology Mr Salisbury’s versatility is* expressed in many other directions. Another of his hobbies is organ building and his home contains an example of his work. His interests cover most branches of science and he was concerned with early experiments in wireless telegraphy. With two colleagues he once submitted a device for making practical use of wireless waves only to find that a young inventor named Marconi had submitted the same idea in Italy three days earlier.