Question

[Rodney Mills]

Ivan post #2 re. "Cement Cargo Bonanza in the 70s."

That Bonanza was started by the late Shah of Iran ( who incidentally was a major cause of the massive increase of oil prices in the 70s). He ordered a mega building spree in Iran and his minister in charge took him at his word and bought every available bag of cement, plus took all the future cement produced in advance, causing havoc all over the world.

He also bought thousands of the largest trucks and screwed that market up at the same time, unfortunately there where not enough heavy equipment drivers available so they looked to Pakistan for drivers.Except the roads leading to and from the major Iranian cargo ports of Banda Abbas and Bushier and up to central Iran couldn't take the heavy trucks loaded down with bags of cement.

Ships where anchored off these ports by the score, unable to get into the dock-side to off-load. It was dry season, summer, in the gulf. so the decision was made to off-load by barge to the shore and stack the cement in piles on the beaches. Which they did, cement stacks as far as you could see. Mother nature was not kind and it rained, drenching the cement followed by high humidity. For the almost four years I lived in Iran, and spending a lot of my time in Bushier and Banda Abbas and would laugh as I saw the solidified neat rows of cement.

Between Abadan and Ahvas were rows upon rows of Mack-Trucks parked in the desert. All resting on their rims as the sun had rotted the tires and all rubber components. thousands just wasting away.

It reminded me of the poem: For want of a nail the shoe was lost. For want of a shoe the horse was lost. For want of a horse the rider was lost. For want of a rider the battle was lost. For want of a battle the kingdom was lost. And all for the want of a horseshoe nail..... or for the want of bags of cement.

[Captain Kong]

Nigeria did the same, enough cement to bury the whole of Nigeria under six feet of concrete
Ships anchored for months and the cargo turning solid, ships had to be scrapped.

[Ivan Cloherty]

Lewis, from what I gather two mortgages running concurrently.
Vic

Having taken a lot of ships on Voyage and Time Charter whilst General manager/supt of Global Shipping in Dubai in the 70's you always checked on the registered owners, and vessels having a mortgage on them had to display that fact on the navigation bridge as to who were the registered owners and if the vessel was mortgaged had to show to whom the vessel was mortgaged, this requirement applied to Greek, Liberian, Panama and Singapore registered vessels and I never went on over one hundred vessels taken on charter in a four year period where it was not displayed. Now finding out who the actual owners were as opposed to the registered was a different matter and they usually fell under auspices of Greek managers. If a second mortgage was taken out it was normally with the same bank, and that second mortgage would only be granted if the vessel was on a long term time charter or normally a bareboat charter where the charterers in both cases became the disponent owners responsible for the vessel's trading pattern, bareboat charters also became responsible for all the insurances, crewing, victualling, surveys and Time Charterers did not, Time charterers were only obliged to supply bunkers and provide routes to safe ports where a vessel could safely stay afloat unless catered for in the sub clauses where-in a vessel could safely lay aground in nominated ports where such practice was normal.

[Ivan Cloherty]

Ivan post #2 re. "Cement Cargo Bonanza in the 70s."

Rodney I was closely involved in that cement bonanza in the 70's whilst in Dubai, we never had a ship wait the full term at anchorage and had numerous cargoes as our principals were a large UAE and Oman construction company regularily purchasing over 0.5 million tonnes per annum and carrying it in our voyage and time chartered ships. The reason for many of the excessive waiting times in the Gulf were lacksadaisical ships agents, who mostly had no sea experience or in case of the old established agencies to tired to get off their backsides or out of bed and attend the early morning port meetings sending just a clerk instead who geneflected to the port managers decisions without question. Thats why we started our own Agency (Global Shipping) later becoming shipowners in our own right. I toured Dubai and Sharjah ports with my foreman at 0500 hours every morning seven days a week. If I saw a situation where-in ships could be shifted up and down a quay or needed a tug to shift to another berth to make space for one of my vessels, then I brought it up at the port meeting offering to pay for the shifts and/r tugs if necessary, tugs were less than one day's time charter. We even bought tugs and barges from India and discharged at anchorage in Dubai and then discharged the barges at shallow draft berths in Sharjah, transport and labour were never a problem, it was nearly two years before other agencies cottoned on what was going on, by that time our agency had garnered the agency of ships of these lazy agencies and not one of our new clients waited the full official waiting time, and the port managers in both Dubai and Sharjah were very fair and strict you could only berth in accordance with your time of submitting notice upon arrival at the anchorage, unless you could show just cause why your vessel should be berthed earlier. There were 15 berths in Dubai at the time and the port authorities would only allocated 15 vessels in port at any one time unless you could prove that your additional vessel would not cause an obstruction, which you ensured it did not.

[j.sabourn]

Re mortgage... I was on a ship the Maratha Envoy for 13. Months, did the guarantee dry docking a year late so was 3 years old when I left. She was still under mortgage to Mitsubishi of Yokohama when I left and had this displayed in the chart room all the time I was there. JS.
Have also been on a ship which had a writ stuck on the mast to prevent sailing. We still sailed. Were not stopped elsewhere. Although do remember the Shipping Master in Hong Kong advising me to get off her. Which I did do not too long after. JWS.

[happy daze john in oz]

It is not uncommon to se full tankers sitting in the roads off Singapore harbor waiting for the right price before unloading.
Similar here in Port Melbourne, tankers sitting out in the bay for days, some times weeks waiting for the right price before unloading.

[Rodney Mills]

Ivan.

I had no dealings within the Emirates during the time under discussion. My experience during that period was strictly within the former Empire of Iran. I later did do business in Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi and Iraq in the late 70s - mid 80s.

Though frustrating to do business in the Emirates, the structure was competent and well run mainly because of a strong Brit influence and managerial supervision, and day-to-day operations by Indians.

Iraq like Iran, was also run by an autocrat but Iraq in the main was way more efficient. Saddam had just come into power at that time

Though Iraq and Iran were neighbors, doing business in Iraq was ten times easier than in neighboring Iran.

I see Iran today as a minor nuclear power, with a military force that is all over the middle east causing problems and I scratch my head in puzzlement.. Where was the brains that could put some of these programs together back in the 70s?

A simple example. I was responsible for the Hotel side of transferring the Michelangelo and the Raffaello from Genoa to Bandar Abbas and Bushier and converting them into, and operating them as hotels for the Imperial Navy. The Commander-in-Chief under orders from the Shah, gave me a hand written pass to any Naval base within Iran...big deal...The sentries at the gate couldn't read. And many times I was refused admittance. I finally resorted to getting Captain's bars on a white short sleeve shirt and an officers hat, where a merchant navy outfitter in London found a Merchant Navy hat badge from a company that had the same initial, within the wreath and below the crown, as the initials of the company I worked for—thus I couldn't be charged with impersonating an officer on a military base. I had a photo taken, stuck in my International Driver's License, now I could get in the docks or establishment and with a salute too. I still have that driving license.

Through business and pleasure I've been to roughly seventy countries. Iran was the worst for business, Yet funny enough I would love to go back to Iran to show my wife Isfahan, Shiraz and other truly lovely sights.

We went to the border of Turkey and Iran (near Mt. Ararat ) and she had her photo taken with a heavily armed Turkish soldier guarding the border with the hills of Iran in the background.

[Colin Wood]

Hi JWS, ours were usually 'Western Approaches'. When that chart came out some of the crew would start getting 'The Channels'.

[j.sabourn]

Do you remember being called up on the lamp from either Lands end or Gibraltar when passing. Always asked you if you wanted reporting in. Can’t remember if you had to pay for this or not. It would be a last resort to get port of discharge this way as would normally get by radio. Suppose it has happened in the past though. On the same chart when you crossed the 100 fathom line used to get the twitches myself. Cheers JS