Dangerous Bulk Carriers.

[cappy]

##on the risely in 1961 inthe big typhoon off osaka we took a hammering ..she was a smaller tramp but all accom aft 6400 ton.....after the typhoon there was a crack partilly across the front of the accom on the deck you could put your finger down in one place .....she was built at swans .......sorted in osaka ......cappy

[j.sabourn]

Cappy you should have taken shelter in your favourite Japanese hotel and had a turko until the storm had shot through. JS

[cappy]

i belive that poor welding was one of the major causes but was never made the scapegoat ......but then who can ever if been in a typhoon deny anything could happen with the power of wind and water ....frightening.....cappy

[Jim Dixon]

Bulk carriers in general have always been the 'workhorses' of the sea and in general seem to change hands and class at an alarming rate. This gives rise to poor maintenance by owners who enter the business for 'asset play' ( buying at the bottom of the market and selling at the top.....BDI related). To play this little game correctly Planned Maintenance is a four letter word and a ship in the hands of this type of owner can deteriorate very quickly.

[Ivan Cloherty]

Woe is me! Having set up a shipping company for UAE nationals in the 70's it was apparent that once they knew the sharp end from the blunt end they thought they knew everything else there was to know about ships. Charter Party details were completely alien to them, especially Time Charter Party when they had to pay 30 days hire in advance plus bunkers involving hundreds of thousands of dollars before they got anything...............happy days

[j.sabourn]

I don't think I met any of the newly qualified people I latterly sailed with Ivan who would have been able to sail competently in shipping as we knew it. Today they don't need to know to get from A to B. That was the easy part of our job in day's gone by, ships business of old would be a complete blank to most, and the old saying would be there " Not my job". You just can't compare the seamen of yesteryear and today. There is no comparison.JWS

[j.sabourn]

The ship I walked off was one of miss silvers never went back there again. She was complaining to me that I was costing her too much money in phone calls to various company's as I told her what was acceptable and what wasn't. This would have been before your time as was. 1969. Anyhow I made the wrong choice sight unseen. I asked her what she got out of the deal for the supply of bodies, she said the equivilant of a months wages of whatever. You were on. This was the same or similar to the Hong Kong crewing where the Chinese crewing agency received the same, unfortunately the chimese crew poor baskets had to pay that themselves so their first months wages was non existent. JWS.

[j.sabourn]

A mate of mine ( now dead ) was Chief Engineer with an Iranian Company, think he was the only British subject on the ship. The crew all Iranian, when in Rotterdam used to do all the things that seamen usually do, however back up the Gulf were all Holier than though. Would threaten to report him to the Iranian authoritys for drinking and what they said was against the K####. When I asked him about any action against the exocets and such like fired by Saddam at them he said they used to put the fire hoses on the funnel to try and cool it down as the flying bombs made the heat their target source. When I pointed out the gulf water temperatures were pretty warm he just shrugged his shoulders. One gets used to most situations. Forget what year it was but a supply boat hit a mine up there, and the constructional design of supply boats where everything is right forward for accomodation didnt leave much in its wake. JWS