Orecrest crew

[Nick Blackburn]

Shot in the dark. Does anyone remember my father, Derek Blackburn. He sailed Orecrest for 11 years from 58 to 69. He was a radio officer.

[j.sabourn]

The ships name rings a bell.However the years you mention she was posslbly on a 15 year Bisco charter and they had their own radio schedules every day and used to keep in contact with each other. There are a few on site who were on the ore carriers , so best of luck. JS

[j.sabourn]

For those who don’t know Bisco = British Iron and Steel Corporation and like British Rail was the first attempt at trying to Nationalize these Industries. The ships were built with taxpayers help but put on 15 year bareboat charters for the shipowner to run. However apart from being a lucrative windfall for the Shipowner who made by all accounts large profits with little outlay as had no wages or overtime to go on the debit side of the profits and loss , large overtime was paid for very easy to run ships, where can one justify 6 hours a day overtime for maintaining a vessel with little or no running gear ? Some shipowners limited this to 3 hours a day and that was nearer the point , civil servants and politicians are not business men by any manner of means , if it was their own money being spent they might have had second thoughts. Every thing government has done in latter years has been to the detriment of those who sailed those ships , and every shipowner has walked away much better off financially , that’s my reasoning without going into it in more depth, JS

[j.sabourn]

#23/ Now if someone reads that as Disco then maybe it could represent Dirty Iron and Steel Corporation. JS