Piper Alpha

[Des Taff Jenkins]

John.
I think everyone comes across at least one man in their lifetime like the one you are talking about. Mine was an AB who thought his preverbal didn't smell, the best ever, or so he thought, but time and time again he was proved wrong, ending up when he chain stoppered a derrick the wrong way as we were going up the river to Adelaide and the derrick came smashing down; and he ended up on the mast house. He later tried to knife the bosun but he lad him out, the AB got six months.
Des

[j.sabourn]

Put it this way Des if I had seen his face at Buckingham Palace two and a half years later, I would have walked out of the place other survivors were recognised and justly so. His recognition came from the media via himself. I even have the tape that was made of him walking into Occidentals head office in New York causing a disturbance and being booted out like a bum. I knew an ex matelot in the village here who worked offshore here , he died a month ago and his wife returned all the tapes he had borrowed from me a couple of days ago one of which is i believe the New York incident. He wanted to see Mr. P in action and to show his ex boss the man they hired to give a lecture to their staff. $ 10,000 dollars it cost them , I would have done it for a case of beer and told his Boss the same thing. The one who just died said I thought there was something peculiar about him, yeah I said $ 10.000 worth. Cheers JS

[Fouro]

Reading through these excellently written posts, especially the ones which refer to E P. John, your friend who has just died thought EP was a bit peculiar. I myself think E P was prone to suffering these regrettable. spasms which he hadn't much control of. They were happening far too often..I would be interested in finding out why he got slung out of that office in New York.

Fouro.

[j.sabourn]

He went there fully prepared with Documentary crew , cameras the lot . well prepared to Hassle the staff under the banner of Corporate Manslaughter his pet theme to capture the sympathy of the general public. He never got past the first floor where all the typists and stenographers were. whether they were sympathetic or not they all kept a neutral face whilst the buildings security officers removed the trespassers. It was shown on TV before I left the UK in 1991. The next time I saw his face was on the front page of the WA newspaper sitting on a bollard in Fremantle Harbour with tears in his eyes and the description of a poor survivor of the Piper Alpha . He was also on the Radio. I wrote to the reporter saying the last thing was , shouldn"t be poor due to the big pay outs they were supposed to have received after not getting their feet wet. Back came the reply I shouldnt be too hard on poor survivors even after telling them the opposite. However wasnt pestered anymore for a while. JS

[cappy]

#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

Well ballocks to that im joining the bleedin union.......but dont tell Louis the fly .....R683532

[j.sabourn]

Marian/Fouro As said in original recent attachments to this post as too late last month to get July 6 th. entered in time for that edition , said I would forward any further additives this month. However is still the same as previously said. So will just repeat here what was said. There is just a half section of fullscap containing a picture of the burning Piper Alpha and the Title
IN MEMORIUM
On July 6th. 1988 at approximately 2200 hours B.S.T. take 3 minutes either side of, an explosion occured at the Piper Alpha Oil and Gas Production Platform in the North Sea and in the next three hours 167 men lost their lives ,21 bodies were never recovered , at the time there were 229 breathing human beings on board, of those killed outright were 2 of the 15 hands on rescuers. I have managed over the years to get back once for the annual remembrance service which is held in an Aberdeen Park, it was the 30 th. This year up to now I have seen no reference to it in the British Papers. I dont think these men died to be forgotten , at least I hope not , they deserve better than that . Their partners and families their lives also changed and some of their hurt and loss may still be raw so will not dwell on how some died. Anyhow July 6 th. is a very special day for a lot of people . I hope if they are still able to look down on us mere mortals they realise that .
John Sabourn. M.B.E.


That should be another couple of hundred people a little more wiser hopefully. JS

[j.sabourn]

#35 Sign here please. Now would you like to go on the A or the B roster Cappy ? If on the A roster 4 % of your earnings will go to the Union. And you will receive a lump sum of money when you retire , usually in your case after about 25 years would be about $700,000. or would you rather be on the B roster and receive 26% above the ordinary union guaranteed salary. However no lump sum in this case. And you still pay 2% of earnings to the Union. Cheers JS

[j.sabourn]

#37 I am quoting 1991 conditions . A seaman on about $50,000 a year for a 6 months year. Ashore the average salary about 30,000 for a 5 day week. JS

[thomas michael]

hi john sabourn #30
good afternoon, Whilst i appreciate you sending my cv to head office together with your endorsement of my previous good character, added with my promotion to advance guard, does that mean i will loose my rating as ships cat,
as for cappy he has always been a union man and im sure the 3/9p will persuade him to take the position.
tom

[j.sabourn]

#39. Your Grand Order of THE CAT ( Of Nine Tails ) remains in force Thomas. with the stipulation that you attempt to cut back on siring too many kittens annually putting a strain on the ships feeding limits. JS