Peter Gill

[Peter Gill]

SHIPS NAME AND SERVICE RECORD

Full Name

Peter Gill

Discharge Book Number

R865950

Department

Deck

Your Rank/Rating

Apprentice through to Chief Officer

Which Ships were you on and When

Halia 1968-69
Plagiola 1969
Vertagus 1970
Axina 1970-71 Promoted to 3/O on board.
Zaphon 1972
Drupa 1973
Halia 1973
Mitra 1974
Latirus 1975 2/O
Lotorium 1975
Genota 1975-76
Liparus 1976
Lampas 1976-77
Naticina 1977
Labiosa 1978
Alinda 1978 -79 C/O
Pallium 1979
Alinda 1980

Notes:

Passed Extra Master's in 1980 and then came ashore.
Among other shore jobs,
3 years at OCIMF, an NGO at IMO,
Spent time as a Pilot in Brunei, 1983-88
Marine Supt in Durban, 1996-99
Guernsey Harbour Master 2005-14
Jurat of the Royal Court (Guernsey) 2017.

[Doc Vernon]

Hello Peter
Thanks for listing your Crew details nice to have new entries .
A nice long lineup of Ships there,and a good long Service to.
How did you enjoy your time in Durbs ! That is where we Immigrated from in 1980 to Aussie. Then it was still a great place to live ,but a bit too Hot and Humid .
Cheers

[Peter Gill]

Sorry for the delay in replying. I was sent to Durban as the SAPREF Marine Supt. in 1996 specifically to manage the replacement of the undersea piopeline to the Single buoy mooring off the Bluff where almost all SA's oil was delivered. This was a world first project, as the buoy had to stay in service, and crude oil supply maintained during the work. A new 48" dia. pipeline was built ashore and dragged out 24m at a time, along the seabed to a point 3km offshore underneath the buoy. The flexible hoses underneath the buoy were then transferred across to the new pipe. Hey Presto! On paper it was dead simple. It was a very hush-hush project, Instead of being 26mm thick, the pipe had corroded down to less than 3mm in places as a consequence of the years of apartheid. Had the pipeline failed, the whole country would have failed too. The country did not have the reserves of oil to cover any period awaiting any alternative supplies. I lived in Unhlanga Rocks in an non-airconditioned house! Sounds hot, but the house was very cleverly designed and somehow improved air circulation, I really enjoyed my time there . We went most weekends up to Hluhluwe game park.
The lads from Smit Pentow on the tugs were absolute stars for me, as was the night patrol crew under Trevor Nortje who were there to spot any leakage. I also visited the "John Ross" tug whilst she was in Durbs, and the Old Man took my son and I on a tour of the ship. This visit was responsible for my son also going to sea. He's now in command of a large LNG tanker for Chevron Texaco.

[John Arton]

Discharged at that SBM once on the Lord Strathcona, not very nice looking out to the beaches nearby and spotting all the bikini clad ladies on the beach through the binoculars. Fortunately we had to go alongside in Durban for major engine repair and pipeline sections in the pump Room to be replaced so spent a very happy week alongside visiting Durban's seafarers haunts, drinking ice cold castle lager, only problem was having days hung over whilst having your head battered by the chipping gangs chipping all the hull and decks of a Dutch cargo ship in dock just across from where we were moored. Actually got the chance to visit on of Smits ocean tugs, think it was the smit Rotterdam, very interesting as in wW2 my father was captain on rescue tugs and it was Smit guys who had escaped Holland before nazi occupation who taught him all about towage and salvage.
Rgds
J.A.

[Doc Vernon]

Hello Peter
Just to say that i lived on the Bluff for some time ,my Wife came from there, we bought our first House in Stableford Road that overlooked the Harbour Entrance so saw many a Ship.
Yes Durbs was a hot spot and unlike your House our little place was very hot ,recall sitting on the Front Veranda doing naught but sweating like a Pig. LOL

My Brother in Law lived in Umhlanga Rocks as well, he Played a lot of Golf there and worked on the then Furfel Plant that made Fuel from the Sugar Cane.

The John Ross was a very nice and large Tug powerful one at that time .
Cheers

[Peter Gill]

Sorry for taking so long to reply.
You mentioned the Smit/Pentow tugs. Some of their staff were absolutely first class, brave and skilful. Whilst I was in Durban, the children were safely at a Boarding school in the UK, courtesy of shell. One school holiday, I had to visit the ocean going tug John Ross and I took my son Brendan with me. He was 14 or 15 at the time. Whilst I was sorting out the business of delivering a load of old anchor chain, the Mate, Nick Sloan took my son for a comprehensive tour round the ship. They went absolutely everywhere. This fired up Brendan's imagination and directly resulted in him also going to sea and eventually getting command with Chevron Texaco on their fantastically modern LNG ships. Nick Sloan, on the other hand, only went on to take charge of the salvage of Costa Concordia!

[Bryan Portwig]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]35105[/ATTACHjohn ross.jpg]

john ross at sea

[J Gowers]

Sorry a bit of subject but:-

The picture below is the Wolraad Waltemade , sister ship to the John Ross it towed me on a semi sub drilling rig the Treasure Seeker from Singapore to Cape Town and then the John Ross took over and towed the rig to Norway.

We did a deal with the Waltemade and bought some beer which they transferred to us in mid Indian Ocean . The other pics is the beer supplies coming onboard it was 30 years ago so they cannot sack me for drinking on a rig now :-) so we had beer with our Barbie that day.

img448.jpg

img450.jpg

img462.jpg

[j.sabourn]

#8 Whats the small straight supply boat with the beer on board JG ?. JS

[happy daze john in oz]

I would suspect for some the most important ship of all.