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18th September 2011, 10:55 PM
#71
re photos
[quote=simon harris;66791]here are a couple of photos
great photos Simon, would like to see more, best wishes, tony wilding.
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5th October 2011, 10:21 PM
#72
Ocean bridge
Hi COLIN WICKES
I was on the Ocean Bridge with you when she exploded, as you can see from previous posts I returned
to help with the salvage.
I took this photo of the bridge when she was still down by the stern and the engine room was stil full of water,as you can see you were very lucky to get out of there.
regards
colin
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1st November 2011, 12:24 PM
#73
I've only just stumbled on this fantastic site and from what I've read so far I'm beginning to think I may well be one of the younger Bibby Line "Vets".
My three and a half year career in the Merch between 1980 - 1983 was spent solely with Bibbys and I sailed on the Lincolnshire (three times), Hampshire, Wiltshire and Staffordshire.
I've already recognised a couple of names on here and I think I've probably cleaned their cabins on more than the odd occasion, delivered cases of beer up numerous flights of stairs in all sorts of weather conditions to their ba at great personal risk to myself, cleared down the night pantry following post piss up munchie attacks more times than I'd like to remember and given them a beating in the Officer v Crew darts contests.
Those were the days!!!
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1st November 2011, 02:26 PM
#74
Gary "Joe" McCarthy...
Welcome Aboard Joe to this ship of dreams, and especially the Bibby Line sub-forum.
I served my time as a Deck Cadet with the great company- a good 10 years before you-and I can assure you no steward ever cleaned my cabin !
You are probably right when you say you must be one of the youngest aboard,and probably unique in that they were all gas-tankers.You probably didn't have a choice in your ships-give me the cargo-ships though any day,but it's great to know though that you enjoyed your time on them,a ship is a ship after all,with that sense of breaking away from the land and going places....
When I was with them,there was just one gas tanker- the Wiltshire- and no cadet was allowed anywhere near her !
I see you went from Bibby Shipping to Bibby Distribution then !..
As you say-Happy Days indeed.
All the Best
Gulliver
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6th November 2011, 01:09 PM
#75
I,m John Inman Alias BIG BAD BEN, Reg Peat was the first Ch Eng I sailed under on the Old Herefordshire in 1968 We sailed from Liverpool to Ceylon on to Rangoon and back to Tillberry and paid off. it was my very first voyage and was 8th Eng Tiny Turner was the 2nd Eng and Jock Mathie the 3rd. Dave Creamer was the 3rd Mate. I asked Reg "Chief why do I always sail as 8th?" he answered "Cause we don't carry nine son cause we don't carry nine"
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8th December 2011, 02:27 PM
#76
Thai refugees
Wow, that's a strong memory, big flashback!
I was on the Stafford as Cadet/Junior, and also have some awful photos of the event - a bit better than those ones though!
How do we upload to this site?
I must have sailed with you then Gasman, but I don't recall who the cargo engineer was, and I doubt you would remember a snotty cadet!
Oh, hang on - are you 'J.E.' ?? I think you knew my dad....
Neil.
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13th December 2011, 08:32 PM
#77
refugees
Here's a shot of the boat full of refugees - just before Gasman went to have a look-see, and then and sink it after we had collected them.
Why can't I remember Simon Harris?? Oh well - middle age! edit- Not sure why that looks so small, but if you click on the image it loads larger!
Attachment 6642
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13th December 2011, 08:36 PM
#78
More refugees
Here they are being marshalled on deck. Sorry it's blurred! I did the headcount as they came aft.
Attachment 6643
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4th January 2015, 09:21 PM
#79
Re: Bibby Line ---Message
High Dave,
I sailed as an engineer on the trip sheldrake passed on,myself and another engineer called wally had just finished or night watch.yes and on that trip we changed a cylinder ,the cooling pipes had wrecked the gantry in the engine.
And it had a cracked bed.
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3rd March 2017, 07:01 PM
#80
Re: Old Derbyshire
Hi Roy,
I am new to this site and just saw your post. I joined the Derbyshire in Gibraltar as a first trip cadet, just after the collision with Rarau. I was there for the 6 weeks on the detached mole - although i was close to getting fired after two weeks for accidentally missing the last boat back on a regular basis! Spend many a night catching a few hours shut eye in the containers, crane cabins and even a roundabout outside the port gates before catching the morning boat back. In my defence I was lead astray by Messrs Eddie Best and Mark Bullen who took me under their wing but conceed i must have been an absolute nightmare for the mate & OM (C/O was Dave R? and Capts Gowsell & Clayton) and apologise. We were 4 cadets on board and spent most of the time in Gib digging the contaminated grain out of the hold amidst a fermenting atmosphere high in H2S. The morning headaches weren't always attributable to the Tennants Girls as we spent 6 hour shifts moving grain from hold to deck. For entertainment four of us used to dive into the harbour off the ship side for a swim and it wasn't til we left for Barcelona that two of our group blossomed with hepatitis thereby triggering two weeks at Barcelona quarantine anchorage. I think one patient was 5/E felix corcoran but i can't remember the other - i believe they were isolated in a Barcelona hospital run by Our Lady of the Two Wombs, further compounded by the fact that, away from swimming, they weren't the best of buddies. On the way to Barcelona, crew and cadets shovelled stinking grain overboard - i have 500 tonnes in mind but not sure. In Naples we were double berthed outside a Russian ship and did our bit to thaw cold war relations. The Russians were invited over for film night and beers and they reciprocated with invites to a cabin for corned dog served out of a label-less tin with a spoon and homemade vodka first used to fuel the Soyuz space programme. After Naples drydock repairs we went to the very recently re-opened Suez Canal (closed since the six day war in '67 i think). We were moored on buoys in the inner harbour of Port Said waiting transit whilst the Egyptian navy busied themselves patrolling the area looking for Israeli divers. One of said Gypos thought it a good idea to attach a sonic depth charge to the Derbyshire hull, just below the water, to flush out the underwater spies. I was on gangway watch when it detonated and i can say with some honesty divers wasn't the only thing it flushed out! Meanwhile in the engine room, the sonic boom had fractured main sea water piping and started flooding. Flood stemmed with cement boxes, we were called for Suez transit. We had the Egyptian Army on one bank and Israelis on the other with a landscape of barbed wire fences, crumbling ruins and burnt out military hardware - even for Egypt it looked on the shabby side. For some reason the Geordie 3/O (McCluskey?) thought a loud rendition of onward christian soldiers from the bridge wing was called for? I ended my first 4 month voyage of discovery somewhere up the Gulf. All told with Gib repairs, Barcelona quarantine, Naples drydock and Suez delays i had clocked up about 2 weeks at sea. Fortunately not all my subsequent trips were this exciting. Anyway, i thought that might jog some more memories and would appreciate hearing from you or any other Bibby men.
Dave Bousfield
Last edited by Davebo; 3rd March 2017 at 07:08 PM.
Reason: Add name
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