Piper Alpha

[thomas michael]

hi cappy #20
good morning, surely that never cured your monkey pox did it.
tom

[j.sabourn]

He’s been looking for the monkey who passed it on to him ever since Thomas, swearing he was going to give her it back , but hasn’t found yet. A few marmasets here and there but says she was a baboon . Cheers how many ships were you in collision with in your recent voyages of discovery.? Cheers JS

[thomas michael]

hi john sabourn #22
good afternoon glad to hear you are well and see you are as eloquent in your missives as ever, as for cappy and his renowned cure for monkey pox for which i believe he has opened a clinic on the west coast of africa to help those whom are infected, and i hear having great success in hiding the sausage with the said volunteers, as he injects them,
i believe though they hung his monkey in hartlepool after he brought it ashore and all the monkey would tell them is cappy is responsible for everything, as for me i have not done as much as i wanted to do, the weather has been unbelievable gale after gale and a couple of weeks sunshine and the lunatics have the world coming to a end,its actually pissssssssssssssssssssing down here and about twelve deg and its been like that for days, Did here of one john howard ex premier of australia tell somebody that australia is one of the luckiest places on earth, that the british colonised it , its nice when you relate that statement to the haters of this world.
tom

[j.sabourn]

I know you helped to make up the Rule of the road and concocted that little poem ,” when two lights you see ahead starboard your helm and show your red, But did you make allowances when you came off the biggies and was reduced to a tiller which I assume your boat has, that you found out in time you went the other way. ? What’s a gale here or there , blows the cob webs away , if it hadn’t been the British it would have been the Dutch or the Indonesians , the French would of got lost before they got halfway and that was in clear weather. If in fog all you would hear coming out of the fog bank would be Sacre Bleue . That’s French for where are we ? The haters of the world don’t know how lucky they are having the likes of Cappy and you being such a formidable defence Force round our shores sticking your tongues out at the enemy just like the Maoris . John Howard apart from trying to be a politician was a scoundrel he scrounged half my money off me via taxes and wouldn’t give me a tax file number for a number of years . Cheers JS

[Fouro]

I remember reading about a diver coming off the Silver Pit and going into a spasm by dancing to show his joy at being back on the mainland. I don't think JS had much time for this chap.

Fouro.
..

[j.sabourn]

#25. Edward Punchard Fouro , believe I may have mentioned him in not too kindly a light as consider him a poseur .I have one side of a foolscap sheet regarding my remarks about him . If it’s already in Aftermath let it stay rather than reprint it right out once again . He’s the one who wrote the book A Survivors Story , did well out of the Piper as to me was a pest and caused more problems than enough , The biggest risk he was at at the Piper Alpha was the time he spent on the Silver Pit , he spent more time out here doing paid talks on the disaster . When I told the crew of the Silver Pit he was out here the kindest remark about him was , if he shows his face in Aberdeen he’ll finish up in the Harbour.. His story for example about being dragged through the water by me going Full ahead , you can take the real story from me and others that are still alive. After one particular explosion he shouted to all within hearing distance “ every man for himself , grabbed a line attached attached to the ship and jumped overboard”. Incidentally the speed of the Silver Pit at the time flat out was 4 knots half the speed of my Gopher , and as said in my statement which should be on here if had known at the time of his action would have gone down and cut the line and he could of carried on swimming , an arrogant make believe diver his title diving superintendent his job to see that the proper divers were dressed and equipped properly . Think it was a 12 week course arranged through the dole office . He did well out here in the Press and lectures at University’s until I wrote to his scribe in the press he finished up looking for dinasaurs in Queensland and later driving an underwater vehicle in the Fremantle area for tourists . The very last I heard of him was he was back in the UK and standing in politics for the seat of Tynemouth so I immediately wrote to some of my friends who lived in that area which was the same I came from putting them in the picture , I hope he lost his deposit . He was from Cornwall I believe. His second or third wife who was a Fremantle girl I seem to recollect it didn’t last too long. He has never tried to make contact with me thank goodness as must know the reception he would get. Never take what you read in the media as true. He admitted in one interview of destroying the tape of him dancing a sailors jig at Aberdeen airport even he must have seen through himself and wasn’t fooling anyone of consequence. He should of been arrested for stealing and destroying others property . JS

[Marian Gray]

I remember reading about a diver coming off the Silver Pit and going into a spasm by dancing to show his joy at being back on the mainland. I don't think JS had much time for this chap.

Fouro.
..

Hi Fouro, And rightly so I believe.
He later 'stole' that photograph from the Newspaper Archives! In an interview with the Daily Record he said he eventually returned it. Not before he had promoted himself, his film, his book and the part he apparently played in rescuing others!!

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/s...-years-2037410

[thomas michael]

hi john sabourn #24
good evening, When i swallowed the anchor it was fifteen years until i stepped on a yacht, i signed on in liverpool destination greece and i jumped in oporto portugal,
believe me i knew nothing about sailing but what i do know now is neither did the people whom owned the yacht, they where idiots and i was a bigger idiot for signing on.
ships and yachts have no right to meet in any conditions at sea, no matter whom is on the helm, little yachts stay away from big ships, As for gales i learned very early when i was fifteen and on a thirty foot scallop boat fishing out of the isle of man, never never put to sea in anything rising above six to seven, only ever sail in decreasing winds, and a small yacht against wind and tide in rising gale force winds is not the place to play out in, unless in a racing yacht where for a six man crew you need at least twenty five to thirty knots to hit the target.
sorry to hear that john howard abused you financially with your taxes paid to the australian goverment, But sadly only honest hard working people own up and pay their full dues and the rest of the time the ones that are making real money pay little, I dont know about cappy and myself acting rear guard more like private joe walker the spiv selling all the black market gear in dads army,
tom

[j.sabourn]

#27 Ref. Marians ref. to Marians Newspaper report re. E.P. His book was published before the Enquiry had barely started so more misguided information , I was back at sea shortly after and can remember the Aberdeen pilot quoting passages from it to me and both of us laughing , the piiot louder than me, I did see his attempt at doing a sailors jig at Dyce airport on the BBC but that was only seen the once I believe, and thought that was the one he stole. His book I have never read myself. The only way I could describe him was as a man with a 6 year olds brain. He appeared to me later thinking back there are many kids like that , but today they get treatment. I used him initially as was there and available as a bridge messenger , but not too long after listening to his talk in the background about writing a book about what was actually happening there and then , and complaints from the Mate and others about his attempted interference I told him to keep off the Bridge. His medical problems I would say existed a long time before the disaster. The statement I gave to Occidental in their Aberdeen office his name cropped up and the impression I got was he was considered a loose wire and a trouble maker to them. They didnt even want to talk about him , which I also learnt through experience at a later date. A screw missing perhaps ? He did at one time try and put shows on if he had an audience , there were 4 survivors next to one of the legs and above their heads a hanging deck ready to drop , EP was screaming at the bridge which was me, to come closer , i was about 20 feet away , it was 4 lives against 30 + on the vessel , so I called the frc in and they retrieved, in the meantiime idiot head jumped in the sea splashed around for a few minutes before being dragged back. He achieved nothing and at the same time put others lives at risk as couldnt use the engines with him there floundering round like moby dick . JS

[j.sabourn]

#28 Morning Thomas , have sent your C.V. to Head Office and are very impressed , and have decided that both you and Cappy are forthwith promoted from rear Guard to advance forward Guard. They hope this meets with your approval. They also say please note there will be no difference in Salary. This may put Cappy off being the strong Union man he is, however I got the office boy to see if the Boss if he would give Cappy a one off bonus of 3/9d. Cheers JS