Ian Pemberton

[Ian Pemberton]

Hi Ivan, yes agree and surveys in particular. The particular greek shipping company I had the good fortune (?) to sail with seem to use every trick in the book to avoid having a survey done in Northern Europe. I joined an old tub in Birkenhead and we sailed for Venezuela. I discovered the radio safety cert was out of date and the captain said don't worry we'll get it done in south america. After sailing which occurred a few hours after joining wh en I was doing checks I found the MF emergency transmitter died half a minute after firing up. I went in search of the battery locker and saw a bank of NIFE cells which powered it. Some of the cells were bone dry and some had an Specific Gravity way above what it should have been.. From memory the SG of a NIFE cell doesn't change on charge or discharge (unlike lead acid cells). I went off to see the chief engineer, who came to look and said 'No problem Marconi I top them up'. I was aghast as he topped them up with dilute sulphuric acid. He thought they were lead acid cells. I told him, then the captain the batteries were knackered and needed renewing for the survey.
I was met with nods and at the survey the radio surveyor came on board, brought to the radio room by the captain then ushered away to his office. An hour later the captain brought me the new radio survey certificate. THe ship was going to Rotterdam after Venezuela and that's where I decided to leave, even if it meant forking out my own fare. The next problem was the emergency lifeboat transmitter - I decided to test it and took it on deck. It wouldn't tune up and after some looking and messing about with it, I found the telescopic bakelite aerial tube had no wire inside it. It had been removed or fallen out. Lekkie gave me some to make a botch up job so it would work. I asked about the previous r/o - ah yes good Indian r/o very good man - never ordered anything. The main tx wouldn't work on 22Mhz, coils burnt out. I left in Rotterdam, but before getting my flight back, I rang the REOU whom I had got the job through their freelance register and told him of my concerns about the radio room. I heard later that they had contacted the port authority and another spot radio survey was done and the ship held until the emergency equipment was sorted. At least if it sank (not a remote possibility !) they would have emergency comms.
I have to compare that with another greek ship which I went on and the radio room was fantastic, the latest synthesized transmitters receivers etc. A joy to work with . It's quite amazing what comes back to the mind after prompts with reading other horror stories !! I think my biggest worry for the future is one of these huge cruise ships coming to grief with their multinational crews and flags of convenience. Costa Concordia comes to mind. Cheers for now - Ian

[Ivan Cloherty]

All sounds so familiar Ian, it was amazing what those Greek masters and Chief engineers would sail in and no safety equipment to speak of on board, self preservation or consideration for the safety of their shipmates was never a concern for them. As a Mar Supt working for a company that shall remain nameless (for fear of being sued) I have stopped that company's ships from sailing on a few occasions, lifeboats with no oars, motor lifeboat with no propeller, all liferafts deflated, all fire extinquishers empty, not enough fire hose to reach foc'le or poopdeck, vent closures to ER missing, the list goes on and on and on. What on earth possessed these men to take the ship to sea in the condition that was dangerous defeated me. As a charterer in later life I even checked the safety gear on some vessels because any (and the many) infringements contravened the Charter Party (to my mind) as the owners were not supplying a safe vessel to transport my company's goods in a safe condition and I refused to pay the hire charges, after much blustering on their part they usually accepted to correct the faults. I surveyed nearly all the vessels we took on time charter and even voyage charter and although an LSA was not within the remit, I usually carried one out, because if anything was amiss I considered that the vessel was not being presented in a seaworthy condition to carry our goods. Life was interesting and challenging at times.

[j.sabourn]

Seen the same thing also on British ships Ivan, as a junior mate a lot of them thought it was a game trying to get one over the BOT surveyor for what they considered the good of the company. If they only knew it at the time the Surveyor was there to look after their best interests. Company Loyalty went over the edge lots of times. JS

[j.sabourn]

Ian if you are reading these posts perhaps you could clarify something for me. The only time I was on a stationary working rig was in the Tasman straits when myself and another master were employed continuously keeping a radar watch and warning shipping to keep out of the restricted zone, the traffic was quite heavy and had to call the guard ship in numerous times to monitor the shipping in the area. When working Rigs from the shipping side they quite often went into Radio Silence and sometimes had to take their traffic and let them know when they came out of this silence period. When this happened with rigs I always assumed they were dealing with explosives down the well or something, and wrote this off as the reason. However thinking back the same used to occassionally happen when working with a Production Platform, as is highly unlikely they would of been using explosives, what would or could of been any other reason for going into radio silence. Cheers John S.

[j.sabourn]

For those not aquainted with offshore work, during exploration explosives were frequently used. One instant that occurred to me was when working off the South Australian coast near Kangaroo Island, the rig asked me if I would take explosives on the after deck for storage, I said there would be no problem I would take them back into port for him. No he said I want you to hold them on your vessel as a means of storage, I said for how long, they said for as long as it takes which could of been 6 weeks. I said no. There was a great hoo ha, if that had occured in the North Sea I would of been sacked. However I stated that the ship at that time was employed as a Safety Vessel and would not demean the character and stated purpose of the vessel unless under written instructions from the oil company, this of course they would not do. As I said to disobey instructions from the Rig was like committing suicide charter wise, however they were always wary of the MUA, to me the MUA did more for safety than the oil companys ever did, they would back up the master or crew if a genuine reason for their actions. This was and if their is still seamens unions in the UK, they would never have done. The offshore work in Australia regardless of what one reads in the scandal sheets, was much better run safety wise than the Uk, this overwhelming desire by the oil companys for no stoppage in drilling took second place to safety, in the uk it never did. JS

[Laurie Ridyard]

Hi! Ian!

Are you any relation to Mike Pemberton ? I think he came from Leeds. He went to HMS" Conway", and was a deck Apprentice with me on MV "Treglisson" November 1959-January 1960.

Laurie Ridyard.

[Red Lead Ted]

Hi Ian looking through your ships list it looks as if we both got our jobs through Mann Island pool, Both with more or less the same sea time and I also had a mixed bag of outfits apart from my 3 yr holiday with Harrisons L,Pool tramping around the Windies and Mexican gulf also the U S A Eastern seaboard, I got around quite a lot mate steered just about every point of the compass Bombay included. While you were in R F A Do you remember a Timmy Gallagher A.B. Regards Mate terry.