Page 3 of 10 FirstFirst 1 2 3 4 5 ... LastLast
Results 21 to 30 of 97

Thread: Vietnam war

  1. #21
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Location
    Central London
    Posts
    637
    Thanks (Given)
    308
    Thanks (Received)
    715
    Likes (Given)
    2634
    Likes (Received)
    2424

    Default Re: Vietnam war

    I am still patiently waiting for somebody to answer my original question as asked in #1 and #post 18.

  2. Thanks Doc Vernon thanked for this post
    Likes j.sabourn liked this post
  3. #22
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    W.A.
    Posts
    23,647
    Thanks (Given)
    12852
    Thanks (Received)
    13720
    Likes (Given)
    19102
    Likes (Received)
    76768

    Default Re: Vietnam war

    John the only input I can say was about 1970 trying to get in as a port of Refuge however it was not a British ship and only 3 Europeans on board . We were unsuccessful of getting in all the way. Not worth answering to your request as was just a fact of life . Went to Hong Kong instead cheers JS
    R575129

  4. #23
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    Torquay
    Posts
    11,467
    Thanks (Given)
    3440
    Thanks (Received)
    7758
    Likes (Given)
    11953
    Likes (Received)
    34924

    Default Re: Vietnam war

    Quote Originally Posted by john walker View Post
    I am still patiently waiting for somebody to answer my original question as asked in #1 and #post 18.
    It is the time of year when people's families may require their services for other purposes other than sitting at a computer browsing for something to do, It is only seven days since you posted your request, so give it time, especially at this time of year, it may require a little bit more of your patience, by sending #21 it is possible that patience may not be one of your virtues.

    Have a Happy New Year, be patient, it wont be long now

  5. #24
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Location
    Central London
    Posts
    637
    Thanks (Given)
    308
    Thanks (Received)
    715
    Likes (Given)
    2634
    Likes (Received)
    2424

    Default Re: Vietnam war

    Ivan you are right I am being impatient. Some posts saying something nearer to the question and not a general preamble on either visits to Vietnam in general or otherwise might help,

  6. Thanks Ivan Cloherty, Doc Vernon, Jimmy Hillman thanked for this post
    Likes Des Taff Jenkins, Jimmy Hillman liked this post
  7. #25
    Join Date
    Jul 2018
    Location
    JOHNSTONE
    Posts
    364
    Thanks (Given)
    11
    Thanks (Received)
    371
    Likes (Given)
    237
    Likes (Received)
    1432

    Default Re: Vietnam war

    John I worked in Vietnam a bit later 1994-96 I was chief engineer on a drilling rig working off Vung Tau this is a bit later than what you are asking about though. It was a great place to work we flew into Ho Ch Minh (Saigon) then a mini bus down to Vau Tau, a night there, and out to the rig, by chopper, for four weeks. Due to flight problems we overnighted a few times in Ho Chi Ming now there are a lot of good bars there. Lovely place to work and really nice people. At that time it was exremely cheap but I think the prices have gone up since then.
    Senior Member

    UK003715

  8. Thanks Doc Vernon, john walker thanked for this post
  9. #26
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Location
    Central London
    Posts
    637
    Thanks (Given)
    308
    Thanks (Received)
    715
    Likes (Given)
    2634
    Likes (Received)
    2424

    Default Re: Vietnam war

    Quote Originally Posted by J Gowers View Post
    John I worked in Vietnam a bit later 1994-96 I was chief engineer on a drilling rig working off Vung Tau this is a bit later than what you are asking about though. It was a great place to work we flew into Ho Ch Minh (Saigon) then a mini bus down to Vau Tau, a night there, and out to the rig, by chopper, for four weeks. Due to flight problems we overnighted a few times in Ho Chi Ming now there are a lot of good bars there. Lovely place to work and really nice people. At that time it was exremely cheap but I think the prices have gone up since then.
    Thank's for a relevant reply. Out of interest who was the drilling company involved and have you any idea if oil has been discovered in any large quantity??

  10. Likes Tony Taylor, Denis O'Shea liked this post
  11. #27
    Join Date
    Nov 2017
    Location
    CHESTER LE STREET
    Posts
    2,326
    Thanks (Given)
    699
    Thanks (Received)
    1255
    Likes (Given)
    12937
    Likes (Received)
    8310

    Default Re: Vietnam war

    Quote Originally Posted by john walker View Post
    Thank's for a relevant reply. Out of interest who was the drilling company involved and have you any idea if oil has been discovered in any large quantity??
    Oil and gas production in Vietnam has been ongoing for years. Between 2016 and 2020 they produced about 70 million tons of oil.
    There are at least 4 or 5 homegrown major companies involved in refining etc.

  12. Thanks john walker thanked for this post
    Likes Denis O'Shea, Des Taff Jenkins liked this post
  13. #28
    Join Date
    Jul 2018
    Location
    JOHNSTONE
    Posts
    364
    Thanks (Given)
    11
    Thanks (Received)
    371
    Likes (Given)
    237
    Likes (Received)
    1432

    Default Re: Vietnam war

    John, I was working for Wilrig at the time later they were taken over by Transocean, we were drilling for BHP and later Petronas. Wilrig was Norwegion, actually Wilhemsens who owned the Troll boats which Denholms managed. Some info on Oil in Vietnam here :-

    A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE OIL AND GAS IN VIETNAM - Energy Global News.

    I have been writing up sories of my life at sea and on rigs for my kids here is the story of Vietnam

    Treasure Seeker Vietnam 1993
    The treasure Seeker was on tow from the North Sea to Vietnam and I was onboard for the first part of the journey until I left the rig at Port Suez in Egypt. The rig carried on to Singapore with relief crew where I rejoined it on the 13th October 1993. We thought we would get a night in a hotel in Singapore before joining the rig but no luck as it was straight from the airport to the docks and out to the rig. We really should have slept on the plane instead of drinking the whole night as we were absolutely knackered and hungover when we got to the rig.
    It was anchored off Singapore for a few days while we carried out some modifications before heading to Vietnam. We went to the Dai Hung Oilfield which was about 20 miles off the coast. To crew change we would fly by chopper to Vung Tau and then get a mini bus to Ho Chi Ming City (Saigon). The bus trip took a couple of hours but we were in no rush as we got off the rig early and the plane out of Ho Ch Ming was in the early evening. We used to stop off at a few of the bars on the road. That was the first time I saw snake wine, it is a rice wine or grain alcohol with a dead snake in the bottle. The snake is generally a venomous one and the venom is mixed with the alcohol. It tastes horrible but not as bad as Buckfast.

    We called one of the bars the pig bar or paintings bar because they kept pigs and sold paintings. The paintings were done on silk and were very cheap, about $5, and I never found out how much the pigs were. The toilets were out the back and were built over a river so when you peed it went straight in the river. I heard that on a crew change a guy got so pissed he fell in the river and could not get washed till they reached the airport and the bus was stinking.

    Jet is a Far Eastern cigarette but in Vietnam you could buy Jet Specials these looked like the real thing and were in cellophane wrapped packets but they had Marijuana or something like that in them. You could buy them in packets off 20 or packs with 200 all wrapped in cellophane, guys used to buy the packs and take them home. One of the rig crew from Dundee, an AD called Skeletor, met a girl in Vung Tau and instead of going home he stayed with her during his leave. He used to come down to the heliport during crew changes and bring a case of cold beer and a packet of jet specials for the trip up the Ho Chi Ming. He told his wife at home in Dundee that the rig was stacked and if he did not stay in Vietnam he would lose his job.

    Among the souvenirs sold were Zippo lighters and dog tags from American soldiers killed in the War. We later found out they were all fake and were produced in local factories. The war had been over about 18 years by this time. In the years after the war ended in 1975 they did sell real Zippos and dog tags. Our office in Ho Chi Ming was in the old American embassy building, this was the last building occupied by the Americans at the end of the war, you could see marks of gun fire on the building. There was a floor in the building where the lift did not stop and we were told that this was where the spooks of the CIA used to have their offices.
    There was an embargo by the USA which said no American companies could have dealings in Vietnam as the rig at that time was owned by a Norwegian company so we had no problems. It was strange though as everyone wanted US dollars and you could use them anywhere. At the time and still today there is a big rivalry between Coke and Pepsi and I remember on one crew change when leaving the airport, after the US embargo was lifted, there was a big sign across the road saying ‘Pepsi Cola we are back’ but further down the road was another saying ‘Coca-Cola we got back first’.

    The bread in Vietnam is great, this is a throw back to when it was a French colony the cooks on the rig also made great bread but ashore in Vung Tau and Ho Chi Ming there were loads of vendors who would make up sandwiches with all sorts of fillings. In the UK if you pour out a pub late at night you would get Fish and Chips or a kebab but in Vietnam you get a ham and cheese roll.

    Treasure Seeker Vietnam 1995
    We had been drilling for an Australian company called BHP and now were going to drill for PETRONAS, yes the same company that sponsors Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton in the F1. PETRONAS is a Muslem company so we had to get everything cleaned in the galley and all the bacon pork etc. was sent ashore. It was an interesting process as we got bags of hajji sand sent out to the rig, I believe this comes from Mecca and it is mixed with water and everything in the galley and fridges were washed with a muddy red water. Once this is done the whole process takes place again using hot soapy water. We also converted one of the rooms to a prayer room. Having a prayer room is common depending on country and client where you are drilling and I have seen it on a few rigs.

    In Ho Chi Minh city there was a painter who would copy photographs as paintings so I left him a few photos and collected the paintings on my return. He did paintings of my son and daughter and then later a black and white one of my Dad who had passed away the year before. It was around $30 for each painting but the painting of my Dad was a bit more expensive at $60, this was because it was a black and white photo.


    On the rig the Port Forward anchor winch electric motor required swapping out but our crane could not reach it and it weighed about two tonnes. The anchor winch was close to the helideck, so I asked Les if he could send out a mobile crane and a driver which we could lift using the rig deck crane onto the helideck and then drive it closer to the anchor winch. So a few days later the mobile crane came out and we lifted it from the supply boat to the helideck as it landed and the weight came off the crane cables we realised that the brakes did not work on the mobile crane so we shoved some wood under the wheels to prevent it running off the helideck into the water. It did the job lifting the anchor winch motor but we had a hard time to get the driver he was always in the galley eating every bit of food he could.

    On Xmas day we had a bearing failure in our Elmagco brake on the drill floor. We did not have any spare bearings on board, so our manager ashore Les got his driver to take him to a warehouse where he knew they would have spares. He talked the security guard into opening up the warehouse and he went in found the bearings took them and left a note with the guard to say he would be back when they opened to pay for them. We got them on the rig in the afternoon and were back drilling the next day. Try doing that in Aberdeen!!

    Some of the locals who worked on the rig told us how their families had a hard time if their parents had worked for the Americans during the war, these guys never worked again as no one would employ them. So it was up to the sons and daughters to work to keep the family. Most of the local rig crew had never worked offshore but soon got used to the galley serving food every six hours. On their time off shift some of them would get their friends to wake them from their sleep so they could get up and have another meal. One roustabout asked us to take a Polaroid photo of him eating so that he could take it home to show his friends and family that he was ‘Working in Heaven’, his words.

    If you are working at height you must be hooked up to a fall arrestor, basically this is wire wound in a small drum hooked onto a strong point on the rig, you then hook this into a ring on the back your safety harness. If you fall it does not stop you falling but allows the wire to wind off the drum slowly. One of the local Vietnamese was wearing one of these and was working on top of the BOP which is about twenty five feet high. He shouted, ‘I am flying’ and stepped off the BOP and dropped slowly to the main deck. It looked like scene from a Chinese Kung Fu movie.

    To get to the rig we used to fly Glasgow to Amsterdam and then change planes and then on to Singapore and finally a flight to Ho Chi Minh City. On leaving Ho Chi Minh we would get a mini bus to Vung Tau on the coast a distance of about 40 miles. We stayed overnight in Vung Tau at the Kennedy Hotel which was very comfortable and left early in the morning to get the chopper to the rig. Returning home we always flew Ho Chi Minh to Hongkong changed flights and flew on to Paris, changed again and then a flight to Glasgow. I never found out why we flew home a different way to the way we flew out, probably cheaper to get the tickets that way. We always flew on seaman’s tickets as they were cheaper than normal tickets, sometimes the airport staff would ask to see our seaman’s discharge books just to make sure we were seamen.

    We would arrive in Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris about 05:00 and would then make our way to the departure gate to fly on to Glasgow. Near this gate was a small bar which opened at 06:00 we were always the first to buy a beer. In France they pour draught beer fast with a big head and then let it settle and then top it up so it takes a while to pour a pint. We would ask for six pints of beer and before the barman finished pouring the last beer the first guy was asking for six more. The barman hated us. When he came in to open the bar in the mornings if he saw us his face would drop and instead of cleaning up the bar before opening he would just start pouring pints.

    Pics below are of the mobile crane and Vung Tau airport, you can see the chain link material laid by the Americans during the war. I am wearing a short sleave boilersuit these are now banned offshore except inside the accommodation, also my boiler suit legs are tucked in the boots also a No-No on rigs as bits of junk can fall in the boot.

    img495.jpg

    img501.jpg
    Last edited by J Gowers; 30th December 2022 at 09:58 AM.
    Senior Member

    UK003715

  14. #29
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    Torquay
    Posts
    11,467
    Thanks (Given)
    3440
    Thanks (Received)
    7758
    Likes (Given)
    11953
    Likes (Received)
    34924

    Default Re: Vietnam war

    Quote Originally Posted by john walker View Post
    Ivan you are right I am being impatient. Some posts saying something nearer to the question and not a general preamble on either visits to Vietnam in general or otherwise might help,
    John, just a thought, contact Dennis Billaney (The Arctic Convoys thread) he lives in Saigon and may be able to glean some local knowledge that may help. Rgds

  15. Thanks john walker thanked for this post
  16. #30
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    W.A.
    Posts
    23,647
    Thanks (Given)
    12852
    Thanks (Received)
    13720
    Likes (Given)
    19102
    Likes (Received)
    76768

    Default Re: Vietnam war

    Ivan you are right .In my case one of the other Johns he has supplied information for another person I know who lives in or near Saigon and was and is trying to get a reentry visa. Seems their covid laws are a bit astern of others. Either that or they are trying to get rid of the round eyes . JS .
    R575129

Page 3 of 10 FirstFirst 1 2 3 4 5 ... LastLast

Tags for this Thread

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •