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9th March 2020, 12:19 PM
#1
voyage of shell tanker , AURIS, gas Turbine to Curacao,
I joined the `Auris` in August 1958, at Cammell Lairds in Birkenhead with my old school mate Ted Cummings from Bolton, [Now deceased, ] .an experimental, the only Pure Gas Turbine tanker in the world. We sailed down to Southampton and spent two weeks there on exhibition to the Press, Television and many Engineering organisations. Every day was party day with all the Visitors and so we got lots of free bopze, What a fantastic job .
We did the occasional sail down the Solent and round the Isle of Wight and back not our berth in Southampton.
We eventually sailed for Curacao in the Dutch West Indies,It took us over six week to cross stopping every other day for the engines, We had Scientists on board instead of Engineers,
In Curacao we were to stay there for over six weeks with the work on the gas turbine,
I went ashore in Willemstadt and got legless as usual on the rum. On the next table to us was the crowd of Venezuelans off one of the market schooners that traded around the Caribbean and Venezuela. I got talking to them as I was fluent in Spanish in those days and ended up on their table drinking all the rum they could pour down me. then oblivion,
I awoke on a coil of mooring ropes with the sound of the sea and the creaking of sheets in the blocks and the crack of a sail, I thought it was a dream gone wrong.
I opened one eye and nearly wet my knickers, I was at sea on a sailing ship.
I leapt to my feet and nearly fell over the side, still dizzy with all the rum. The crowd that I was drinking with were on deck laughing at me . "Que Pasa hombre" they shouted.
I was outward bound for Caracas , Karapita and the Orinoco in Venezuela. Kinnel.! now “Que pasa nada.”
Any way I sorted myself out and joined in with the crowd as there was nothing I could do to get back to Curacao.
I learned to sail a topsail schooner and we did the little ports and rivers round the Venezuelan coast loading and discharging small parcels of cargo.
We went as far as Trinidad, Tobago and Barbados and then eventually we got a cargo for Curacao and after 32 days we arrived and I could see the `Auris` `still lying in the lagoon.
I bade farewell to my old shipmates and thanked them for a fantastic experience.
I made my way back to the `Auris` and old Capt. Brown went mad when he saw me.
They thought that I had gotten drowned crossing the lagoon on the launch and had told my parents that I was missing. I told him that I had been Shanghaied with a `mickey finn` and ended up on the sailing ship. he was amazed. He had started his seafaring career as a Midshipman under Sail on the `Monkbarns`, a famous square rigger. I told him the story and after he gave me a tot and let me off with out a logging. Telegrams were soon flying home to say that I was safe again.
We were in Curacao for a few more days.
One of the lads, Geordie, was so drunk one night that he had to be carried back on board. We dumped him in the Rope Locker, and when he woke up in the morning we told him to stay there as the Police were looking for him as he had killed a man in a fight, Geordie had no recollection of this and was terrified,.He stayed in there all day and the following night, He was a total nervous wreck, then the following day we got him out and told him he was in the clear. He was not amused, he didn’t see the Joke.
We sailed then with a cargo of Fuel oil and two weeks later we arrived back in the Mersey and paid off,
Brian
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10th March 2020, 04:52 AM
#2
Re: voyage of shell tanker , AURIS, gas Turbine to Curacao,
Well ahead of time with that .
Now the cruise ships and some containers are beginning to replace the Diesel turbines with gas.
Funny thing how it can take so long for some very good ideas of yesteryear to become the wonders of today.
Happy daze John in Oz.
Life is too short to blend in.
John Strange R737787
World Traveller
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18th March 2020, 12:17 PM
#3
Re: voyage of shell tanker , AURIS, gas Turbine to Curacao,
Originally Posted by
Captain Kong
I joined the `Auris` in August 1958
Brian
I was 3rd mate under contract with Shell at around that time and sailed light ship from Falmouth for Curaçao after spending 24hrs in dry dock for a bottom scrape and anti fouling coat of paint. The mate,second mate and I hired a taxi and managed to visit nearly every pub in Falmouth. Towards the end of the night,the mate was unable to climb out of the taxi !
After loading diesel oil in Curaçao we transited the Panama Canal sailed non stop to Ykohama.
James Domleo
Last edited by Doc Vernon; 1st April 2020 at 08:16 AM.
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18th March 2020, 04:12 PM
#4
Re: voyage of shell tanker , AURIS, gas Turbine to Curacao,
I sailed back from Curaçao to Thameshaven on the Auris after paying off the Hadra in Venezuela and spending a week in the Shell club waiting for a ship home. I sailed on the Techtarius which was going to Curaçao with a load of crude but after departure the mate who I had sailed with before told me it was going up the American coast and to get my working gear on. The other apprentices told the same story but I asked the sparkey who said no definitely Curaçao where we arrived next day and I transferred to the Auris. I was the only apprentice aboard and the mate had me scrapping and varnishing taff rails all the way home. Captain Brown was still the master. Many evening meals were interpreted by engine problems with the BTH engineers having to rush off to investigate. The ship also had an unusual arrangement of final drive and could go in astern very quickly which Captain Brown seemed to enjoy when it caught the pilot out at Thameshaven. It was a very old school ship with the saloon midships and nice quality fittings.
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18th March 2020, 06:07 PM
#5
Re: voyage of shell tanker , AURIS, gas Turbine to Curacao,
I enjoyed the trip on the AURIS, sh was different, Alarms were going off night and day,
I remember one of the scientists saying hen the alarm went off one day that the engine needed Turkey food,
that they had to feed into this new engine, She had a huge suction fan on the poop deck, sucking large amounts of air into the engines, seagulls had a hard job not to be sucked into it.
Captain Brown served his time under sail on the MONKBARNS, a Cape Horn Four M aster . so was an excellent Seaman
Cheers
Brian
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1st April 2020, 07:49 AM
#6
Re: voyage of shell tanker , AURIS, gas Turbine to Curacao,
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