Bowbelle, Wreck of Souls.

[Chris Allman]

Not at all, the Master does not have a watch.

K.

The Master does have a watch actually - traditionally the 8 to 12 of the three watch system is the Masters watch, however in practice this watch was carried out by the Third Officer ( the most Junior ). The Master would attend the bridge during the watch at night to write his ' night orders ' and check everything was alright and attend in the morning to take his sight or sights which were often left to the Third Officer to work out, happened to me, as well as his own.

[robpage]

A deck officer assigned with the duties of watch keeping and navigation on a ship's bridge is known as the officer on watch. K

Thanks for that , I didn't know.
Cheers Brian

Still some of the Masters that I have sailed with in the 1960s and 70s would definitely be a bit shifty . Still laughing over that one

[Keith at Tregenna]

Well after 22 years at sea , I learned today the sskipper is a shift worker , lol

Call it what you will at some point he started work, I believe in zero tolerance to alcohol, when driving, working etc, any situation where the person is responsible for the lives of others, drinking is a no go. Even if it is weak London Ale ?

K.

[robpage]

The ships master was breathalysed by the police and found to be under the limit for driving a car that's good enough for me the police say he wasn't under the influence I'll accept it . Two or three pints in the afternoon would have gone out of his system well before he set off . Also going down the river and you would need somebody like Brian or Ivan to confirm this because I'm not familiar with the upper reaches of the Thames there would be at least 2 officers on the bridge and probably a lookout as well .

I would think to be involved in that would be heartbreaking enough without people pointing the finger and blaming your alcohol consumption on a ship crashing into you

[Fouro]

I bring to your notice that during the Marchioness Inquiries, Captain Henderson of the "Bowbelle" admitted, that during the 1980's he had forged a signature on watch-keeping certificates and his discharge book in order to gain his master's certificate.
Captain Henderson did not volunteer this information to the marine investigation branch in 1989.

Fouro.

[robpage]

I am not to familiar with deck officer certification but the engineer officer certification system ended up with an Oral examination where the examiner determine your competency so one signature here or there you're still examined and if you pass that and certainly not everybody did then I would say you are competent or more important the examiner would say you are competent

[Keith at Tregenna]

I would imagine there is some concrete evidence that The ships master was breathalysed by the police ?

Five pints a few - hours kip, I would hope not to be any kind of accepted norm, when lives could be at risk.

K.

[Keith at Tregenna]

I would imagine there is some concrete evidence that The ships master was breathalysed by the police ?

Five pints a few - hours kip, I would hope not to be any kind of accepted norm, when lives could be at risk.

K.

The captain admitted drinking six pints on a pub crawl on his own. However, he insisted he had not been affected by the drink.
The inquiry heard that the ship's cook was so drunk that he had gone to sleep and was not available to help in the emergency.

Eleven years after he captained the dredger Bowbelle when it collided with the pleasure boat Marchioness, Douglas Henderson sat before survivors and relatives of the 51 dead yesterday and declined to express remorse.

The captain, now 42 and still a serving seaman, admitted misleading police about the number of people on lookout duty that night. He admitted drinking six pints and then sleeping for a little under three hours before the Bowbelle's night-time journey. He also declared that rescuing the drowning passengers of the Marchioness "was not one of my top priorities".

?

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2000/.../jeevanvasagar

[Captain Kong]

After 28 years it is difficult and now there is no point in speculating. The Police were satisfied so that is it, end of.
Doug Henderson could be dead by now, so no need to go over it with a fine tooth comb.
let sleeping dogs lie.
But in my opinion, that was an accident waiting to happen with those Disco boats, They do not listen to the River traffic Broadcasts, they just wander round around with no planned lines of navigation, they do not keep a lookout. On the BOWBELLE, two ABs were on the foclse head, one was to relieve the other, he told me he had gone up 15 minutes early, and was talking to his mate while watching the Marchioness. The Bowbelle had broadcast his intention of taking centre arch and this was repeated by Woolwich Radio,

when the Marchioness was recovered the radio was turned off.
So that must be a contribution to the accident.
Brian

[Keith at Tregenna]

Whatever, fine by me but, the false inputs seem to suggest your back up / support for this kind of thing.

Doubt the families would agree.

K.