You will find that most of the media's 'special shipping correspondents' do not know the sharp end from the blunt end, as with most alleged paranormal events there is a logical factual explanationQuote:
Originally Posted by AJCalhoun
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You will find that most of the media's 'special shipping correspondents' do not know the sharp end from the blunt end, as with most alleged paranormal events there is a logical factual explanationQuote:
Originally Posted by AJCalhoun
#10. Ivan during my11 years working in Oz I was called on about 6 times to bring ships down and take them back to Singapore to the lay up anchorage for obsolete ships which were taken on bare boat charter by various Australian based firms. I think it was only once I tried bringing down one of them through the Sunda Straits , all the time I had that feeling in my water I was being shadowed by various look a like fishing vessels which I kept a continuous radar watch at night and plotted their unbelivable speed at night and if they closed within a half mile of me used to train the search light on them. I only Came that way once and stuck with the Bali. Straights ever after . Premonitions are sometimes useful , only thing is you never know whether you were right or wrong , but I had no inclination to try and find out. Gut feeling. Is the only thing one has at times . Cheers. JS.
The anti piracy centre was in Singapore and we were still in short and m/f range and assume if they knew I was aware of their presence they would not attack us. That was my theory anyway . I didn’t want to put it to the test a second time. JS....
#13 Lewis I had an old 2 mate with me when I was mate on the ore carriers. And he told me he was on one of the Baltic running ships prior to 1939.They had Russian guards the usual story in port. However he had lost his watch out of his cabin ,so reported it to the guard on the gangway. All work was stopped and all the stevedores were lined up and searched. His watch was found and returned to him. The tea leaf was marched to the end of the Quay and shot dead and his body thrown into the water. The second mate said , if he had known they would kill him he would have kept his mouth shut about the watch. To be responsible for another’s death like Such must have haunted him for years after , JS
Hi John.
I suppose tough times made for tough decisions. I was on one ship unloading coal where they sprayed the coal with white lime when asked why, was told that if a lump was stolen it showed up, every piece of coal was precious.
Des
#16 The other half of the island wasn’t much better , the Dominican Republic , all work had to stop at 0900 for a 3 silence , not for remembrance of a death , but just to remember who was the boss and he was alive and well. The ego of these dictators was delusionary and had to be seen to be believed . JS
In 1971 is 3rd mate on the Beaverpine and we were on a KNSM charter, loading in northern Europe and discharging around the Carribbean, all general cargo.
Saint croix first, Ponce Puerto Rico, port au Prince, Santo Domingo, Nassau.
In port au Prince the pilot could only say "hard starboard, hard port, full astern", which he repeated over and over, so the captain had to berth the ship himself. The town was basically a shanty town with any solid buildings being in need of major repairs.
Whilst there we went to the national stadium to watch Haiti play football against a touring Brazilian club side that included a number of their famous players. We were sitting right on the touchline and as we were the only white faces in the crowd and most of us had cameras, the Brazilian players must have thought we were press and so came over to to have their photo taken with us, something the armed guards seemed to take offense to and started to converge on us but at a signal from the boss man, papa doc, they left us alone.
The stevedores were paid 1$ a day plus a free meal and a fair percentage of the cargo went over the offshore rail into the bum boats gathered alongside, though what use were Phillips radios, tape recorders etc were to them when electric supply was almost non existent. Everywhere we had to everything locked up securely as it would have disappeared in a moment, they may have been slow workers but boy could they not thieve anything in the blink of an eye.
In contrast Santo Domingo was the complete opposite, the stevedores were searched by armed guards every time they came on or off the ship and if they were found to be in possession of anything beyond their I.d then they were literally for the chop.
Going ashore at the dock gate was a manned army tank whose machine gun would track you as you approach, show your pass to the guards, no dropsy ever asked for, and once out on the street some great bars and restaurants with very friendly natives were all along the maindrag.
Last discharge port was Nassau where the gay saloon steward had booked up with an American gay who nightly used to pick him up in his pink Cadillac and take him to the casino on pleasure island complex, giving him money to gamble with.
The American was actually a decent guy who even took a couple of us along one night but it turned a bit sour towards the end, when discovering our next port was to be Baltimore to load grain for the U.K he offered us each 200$ to carry bags of marijuana to Baltimore and pass them on to his contact there.
Rgds
J.A.
Nice one John, reminds me of going to Cartagena in Colombia, we were warned about thefts, especially rope apparently was a big target, so a special watch was kept on the mooring ropes and rope locker. When we sailed the old man was chuffed we never lost any; till it was discovered all the lifeboat painters were gone.Quote:
Originally Posted by John Arton
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tony Taylor
like many of us we saw stuff stolen in many ports ......but i think i saw as much go adrift in shields when we were loading stores... as anything seemed to be fair game....cappy
One could go on and on about crime on ships , and was not all by the workers. The government depts. such as customs and immigration had their fair share. A special bond had to be carried to pay off government officials in Venezuela otherwise the ship got delayed. This usually consisted of 2 bottles plus 1 carton/cigs each for about 15 men. These were dry ships as well. The most honest people on ships were the seamen themselves and when found breaching cargo were punished , those outside of working the ship profited by their theft.Have already said that getting out of Iran was a nightmare after the deposing of the Shah as airport immigration wanted their dash before stamping your passport. Nearly everyone made a good living from shipping apart from the seamen .JS
Think I mentioned this somewhere or other on this site — My last stint at sea was on Container Ships and during the height of the Red Sea/Gulf of Aden pirate activity. Used to receive reams of teletype notices of every incident — also added the West African Coast and Malacca Straits at the end. While running down the the Gulf of Suez we rigged nets all around the main Deck accommodation, making sure it was loosely draped over the coaming so as to make it difficult for grapnels to hook on and climb high enough to grab the coaming or bottom rail. We set up a battery of fire hoses which we ran full blast all night all about the ship that were directed over board.
During daylight we only used the hoses if we saw a skiff approaching or passed through a fleet of fishing skiffs. We also powered up to maximum knots as even though the skiffs could easily catch us it was very difficult for them to lay alongside without getting sucked down. That is why they only attempted to board 22+ knot ships at the stern. We only had 20 persons, including the Old Man in the entire crew, so lots of OT doing Pirate Watch. Only had three definite approaches, and only in daylight over the course of eight runs, and they gave up. Our Citadel was way down below the focsle and all set up with food, bedding and all kinds of communication equipment to the outer world.
We practiced frequently but never had to use it for real. I always was concerned someone would drop grenades down a vent although we had the stowed mooring ropes coiled like birds nests as bunkers. Used to think it funny that the various International Navy vessels, even Chinese, that eventually were set up to patrol or escort slow 10 kt convoys for about a month would receive a service medal, and they had all kinds of guns while we had none. Major Container ships just made a solo fast run.. Was an interesting time. Keith A.