Southampton port plug in

[thomas michael]

hi john sabourn#18
like you im amazed, just in one instance my neice a mother to three kids has two degrees, and rates her job as chartered accountant, How ?
tom

[Lewis McColl]

Let's be fair here with the education given out at schools and colleges today standards are and have slipped , perhaps ?? If they have who is that down to? it is not the student. Various governments of all colours have fannied about with the education system. Also I will say this the young of today have not had the advantage of going to the University of life which we know as the Merchant navy.

But also parenting today especially those who may be white is sadly lacking. You look at those people in Asian countries Korea, China, India they seem to have a better work ethic and a want and need to get on in life. We in the west seem to be growing fat and lazy, sorry but it is a fact.

[Tony Taylor]

in the mid nineties i was looking for a second driver for uk deliveries .....along came a young man looking for the job .......on interview he stated he had a degree in mechanical engineering ......asked why he wanted to do long hours driving a vehicle to all parts of the country when he had ....which was to me such a majestic door opener as a degree....he stated he was no good at interviews which he did get tongue tied at etc ....to me he had learned parrot fashion ....but could not project himself whatsoever ....ny other driver could hardly write his name was a west indian ......who was constantly spotted coming out the betting shop but given a full days deliveries never failed ....any way the degree guy got the job but was never as good as the other driver....this is just a comparison of two different persons....cappy

everyone is good at something, whether it is useful or productive is another matter. A lad I was at school with left school virtually illiterate but got a job at a brickworks labouring and never missed a day. On reaching 18 he joined the local club (his father was a regular) where it was discovered he could reckon up dart scores and advise what numbers were the best combination for the next shot, faster than anyone else.

[thomas michael]

hi tony #23
good evening, that lad would have been identical to everybody in my class at school, and i know quite a few whom have made more than their fair share of the rewards of life,
tom.

[Tony Taylor]

hi tony #23
good evening, that lad would have been identical to everybody in my class at school, and i know quite a few whom have made more than their fair share of the rewards of life,
tom.

Tom, I think that today he could have been identified as dyslexic and may have had a totally different outcome, in the last year at junior school myself and two girls were asked to coach him in reading as we were very good readers, our teacher at the time was excellent but pupil numbers were big, about 30 odd in my class, so had his work cut out.

[thomas michael]

hi tony #25
i guess some of kids could have been dyslexic, but you hit the nail on the head, ie class size, there was i think about forty seven kids in that class, and not everyone was interested, and ruined it for others,
tom

[J Gowers]

Every ship and rig I have been on since 1974 all had a shore connection, only ever saw it used in drydock, but I suppose with the amount of exhaust produced while alongside it seems a logical thing to do in big ports.

I never heard the expression cold ironing, just shows you are never to old to learn.

Mind you some of the shore supplies in Korea, Ulsan Drydock, were pretty poor and keep tripping, in the 70s. So maybe cold ironing meant there was not enough power for you iron your shirts :-)

[Lewis McColl]

If the breaker trips in dry dock that is usually down to ship consumption not dry dock supply.
If you think Korea was bad for dry dock.
The worst experience I ever had was Chaguaramas dry dock Trinidad I was on a ship called Trinidad & Tobago a Methanol carrier. The dock was a floating dock, well sometimes. All did not start well. We entered the dock and when they lifted us it became obvious that the dock lay out plan was wrong. The blocks had not been placed incorrectly, certainly around the aft end/engine room space. They had the blocks placed in between every engine room frame. That was a problem but as it was a Friday and being Trinidad Friday is POETS day. It was requested we flood the dock again and anchor until they can sort out the plan. No way man we will sort it on Monday, Um!!! how about just flooding the dock again so we at least float. Don't worry man the dock will sink again over the weekend as it leaks. Well they were not joking. Problem was it sank at the aft end only. Tried getting in touch with the shore side folks and requested someone from the company attend. No response. It ended up myself and the 3rd engineer went into the dock pump room worked out how to level the dock up by pumping out the aft section. Come the Monday they thought the plan was okay so that was it.
The end result was damage to the hull plating a twisted Main engine bed plate and 10 weeks to complete repairs.
It was no skin of my nose as I was not picking up the tab. The ship was owned by the T&T government, it was in there yard. I befriended a couple from Finland who were sailing around the Caribbean islands. They were having problems with the engine on their yacht. It was a Lister diesel. As they were alongside the dock we removed the engine and completely overhauled it , Um!! the life boat engines had the same engines, just a matter of ordering more spares.

As a thank you I was invited to join them sailing around the Islands with them. They agreed to call back to Trini in a week. I was due off so flew my wife out and we had a dream holiday for 3 weeks enjoying Island hoping. They headed off across the Atlantic and back home to Finland. I was up for the trip but my wife is not a great sailor so we left her in Jamaica.

[j.sabourn]

Have been on some ships that have stayed on ships power even in dry dock. Though it means keeping ships engineers on duty 24 hours , and only having the capability of a Fresh water tank for circulating the water for the generator. Which was usually the after peak. JS

[Lewis McColl]

Have done that , but also used the the fire main with a pipe modification for cooling. There was no need for manning the engine room just a duty engineer remaining and rotating daily.