Drydock Memories
by Published on 9th July 2022 12:16 PM
1974 I flew out to the gulf to join the BP tanker British Scientist, a VLCC of just under 220,000 dwt,
She had been built in Japan and was now due her first survey. Having loaded a cargo of crude oil in Mina Al Ahmedi, we proceeded to Chiba in Tokyo Bay to offload before making our way round to the Kawasaki shipyard in Sakaidi on the southern island of Shikoku. Having manoeuvred into the drydock the sea water was soon being removed and the first interesting thing to see was a number of shore workers waiting with spears in their hands ready to catch any fish that appeared as the water drained out. Settled now on blocks the ship was soon inundated with shore staff as a lot of maintenance work needed to be carried out. Everything onboard shut down so all washing, toilet facilities etc were now on shore.
Memory fades but it was something in the order of three and a half weeks now of time off work. Each morning before commencing work the whole shipyard staff lined up on the dock, music was played and for ten minutes or so they did physical exercises. Kawasaki were very good to us, they arranged coach trips into the surrounding countryside, visiting Shinto Temples and into the town of Takamatsu for shopping sprees. We were also shown around various new builds in the yard, had saki parties arranged and a couple of football matches, our rag tag team not quite being up to their expertise although because the Japanese at the time liked to "save face", they never humiliated us by scoring too many goals!
Everyone was very friendly, a part of Japan where it seemed there were not too many Westerners, being tall I was everlasting having my photo taken with small, polite Japanese people.
In all it was a very interesting experience.