Very cold Hands!

[Doc Vernon]

Hi
Was just sitting and recalling the past and this came to me!
Not MN Related as far as my story goes,but more than likely will be with many others here!

Whilst I was working both on the Railways in Durban,and also later for a Construction Company in Cape Town,i recall the terrible cold in the Winter (more so in Cape Town) !

Whilst with the Railways I was employed as overhead Gantry Painter,and had to climb up these structures to be able to get them painted ,however in the Winters the Steel was so very cold and after getting to the top,and then having to sort of crawl into the Centre to start there and work back (another person was doing the other side) ones hands got so cold that at times we could,nt hold the Brushes,and felt at times like the Fingers were not there!
Capture Gantry.JPG (very similar to these)

Worse of course as said in Cape Town,when I was employed as an assistant Pipe Fitter on a very large and high rise Building (Thibauly Square),at that stage there were no actual walls yet put in place just the bare structure,thus letting the cold Cape Westers to blow through the Building!
The large Steel (Iron ) piping in the early mornings was absolutely freezing,and after handling these again the poor hands just went dead!
Really don't know how we managed but we did!
Capture After completion.JPG

On both jobs no gloves were of any good ,as with the overhead gantry's you couldn't handle anything with gloves on,and could fall from quite a height!
On the Building site similar as the Pipes just used to slip with Gloves on!

But that was that!

So now just wondering if at Sea with the Deck Crew I suppose ,what did you handle that may have also made your hands freeze! Chipping hammers ?? Piping?? or whatever!
Cheers

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Hi Vernon.
On a tanker up in a port called Hammerfest in Norway in the Arctic circle, we were tied stern to the wharf which was just as well as when we came to leave; the snow was three feet deep on the deck and the ropes were like iron bars, we just dragged them along the deck and left them there, I don't think they thawed out until we reached the gulf.
But I still say that the coldest place I was ever at was Westport in the South Island of NZ the wind from the Fox glazier cut right through any amount of clothes you could put on and still move. Hands never felt them for a week .
Cheers Des

redc.gif

[Doc Vernon]

Brrrr! That does sound awfully cold Des!
Its a wonder that you or anyone else there never got frostbite! Or were there some who did!?

Yes the Winds do make it feel so much colder,even hee now with the Wind chill at about -2 !
But its nice to rug up and take a brisk walk!
Cheers

[John Pruden]

harp beer was always cold? a winter on what they called pneumonia corner building seaforth dock ice would build up on you coats and hands would stick to handrails on machines?jp

[happy daze john in oz]

November in Lulea it was so cold standing on deck our shoes froze to it. But Dunedin in NZ must be one of the coldest places, the next stop is the South Pole. I get the same problem in the winter with my feet Vernon, I find working in the garden in bare feet can be testing at times.

[Doc Vernon]

Oh shame john
I will have to bring you a pair of Shoes to keep footsies warm ! LOL
Cheers

[vic mcclymont]

Vernon, ship fitting out in the depths of winter.
The ship is launched with a water tight hull the rest of it is open to the elements.
You spend three months freezing your nuts off, fingers blue with the cold, and slowly she takes shape.
Generators roar into life, and luxury, heating is tested, and she is getting near her trials. The majority of the workforce leave her transferred to the next ship, which is fitting out in summer, opposite of the last unbearable heat. She leaves and its back to winter.
Ah the good old days.

[Captain Kong]

When we were breaking ice for 800 miles down the St Lawrence in winter on the Empress of France with Ice Breakers and shoveling snow off the deck that was falling, nay being dumped, on us, we had No Gloves, No cold weather gear , all Schooner rigged, the outboard bulkheads of the cabins in the focsle coated with ice and the bathrooms and toilets frozen up, crap in a corn flake box and fling it on the ice,
Now that was rather Cool.
Cheers
Brian

[happy daze john in oz]

When we were breaking ice for 800 miles--Now that was rather Cool.
Cheers
Brian

What ever you do, do not eat the yellow snow no matter how inviting it may look!!!!!!!!

[Louis the Amigo]

HI SHIPMATES, I remember a cold run in the Cold grey sea somewhere up north the sea was a ice field we follow a icebreaker into port THE CARGO was BIG steel pipes for a oil company? some pipe line in the NORTH a bit cold the spray froze on me it was cold there for a few days, Come back to U.K. To get PAYED off was winter here. I wore a tee shirt no coat people were giving me funny looks After where I been our winter was very mild.