MV Otaio

[Gary Jones (2)]

Hi Terry.
I know it’s been a while since this chain of posts was last added-to, but my question is, do you still offer a copy of the Otaio DVD for a donation to a blind charity? I was a deck cadet on the Otaio for two voyages in 1969/70 and have very fond memories of it.😀
Kind regards
Gary (Jones)

[Ronnie Grant]

Hi from Havelock North. My drinking mate was Andy Hopkins from Ayrshire and one time engineer on Otaio. Our pub was the Occidental in Vulcan lane Auckland.
Andy crossed the bar some years ago suffering from a brain tumour. Regards.

[John Bulkeley]

Shona, could the young cadet have been Graham Stuart-Jones? My father John (Tim) Bulkeley was a cadet on that voyage. Very sad.

[Tony Williams]

Shona, could the young cadet have been Graham Stuart-Jones? My father John (Tim) Bulkeley was a cadet on that voyage. Very sad.

Only just found this. Might be getting my wires crossed with a much earlier incident. A cadet, John Donner, was tragically killed when a gantline parted whilst working aloft on a derrick. This was in ‘72 - he was part of the same intake as myself. Can’t remember the other names mentioned at all so think the original posts might be about the earlier incident.

[Allan Duncan]

Shona, could the young cadet have been Graham Stuart-Jones? My father John (Tim) Bulkeley was a cadet on that voyage. Very sad.

Hi Shona - I was on the OTAIO on the same voyage (i think it was Voyage 3 of the OTAIO) you are talking about and remember that the cadet's name was indeed Graham Stewart Jones (always known as "Hyphen"). He was sadly killed when he fell off the bridge front one afternoon when he was sent to clean the bridge front windows. At that time we did not have any suitable safety equipment and so it was quite a hazardous operation. He was very unlucky as he had used the bottle screw on the awning wires as a handhold (as most of us did at that time) and he was just unlucky in that he ended up withe the last turn on the bottle screw thread and it came apart as he swung out over the bridge dodger.
We has a full ceremonial burial for him the next day, and the ship was then fitted with a special safety basket for cleaning windows after that sad event.
I remember Tim Bulkeley as he was a senor cadet when I joined in 1958 and he was always a good example to younger cadets a nice guy.

[John Bulkeley]

Hi Allan,

Thank you for your update in July - sorry for the slow response. Your information on the incident with Graham Stewart Jones was interesting. Dad, Tim Bulkeley, spoke often about the challenging times at sea but spoke very fondly about his time on Otaio. Thank you for conveying your memory of him as he passed away last year, it really made my day. I hope you get this message. And if you ahve any other memories of your time on Otaio I would love to hear them. Dad was on voyages 1-4.

Best wishes,
Anna Bulkeley