Events you incurred while in another country

[j.sabourn]

Spent 3 months on the Kiwi coast as mate running petrol from Whangerai as far south as Bluff and all ports in between . We used to just load each cargo on top of the previous one no tank cleaning in between. There were 3 ships employed doing this in those days about 1972/3 1kiwi, 1 Greek, and 1 British us the Laurelwood .foreign vessels were only allowed 3 months trading. Then went up to Newcastle NSW, for tank cleaning . The discharging of such in Kiwi went to different garages didn’t matter what brand so the different charges at the petrol bowser , the petrol was all the same. JS

[Tony Taylor]

Always had to wash the tanks down while travelling empty before collecting another load of crude oil .

i remember lowering the hose with what they called butterflys on end that spun with pressure of the water .
believe it was hot water from boiler room .

Worst job was going down into the tank after with shovel and bucket on a rope to shovel up bits of rust and other material .
[ did they give you a tot of rum after ]

Anthony Martin [ tony ]

Butterworth machines Tony, eventually superceded by fixed installations, then hot washing dropped after several explosions on crude oil tankers and then crude washing introduced when it was discovered that it was the best way to shift oil sludge and customers realised that the tank sludge contained a lot of oil having previously not been interested in sludge.

[Noel Kelly]

We were docked in Itajai, Brazil, it was early morning, I was fast asleep in my bunk after being on watch all night. I was awakened and told to be on deck NOW!, Captains orders. Didn't know what going on, had my pajamas on so just put my uniform jacket on and went on deck. Looked like the entire crew were assembled there along with a bunch of Gestapo looking police.
Apparently one of the crew had been with a dusky lady of the night and stole from her and she went to the police. The police brought her down to the ship, asked the Captain to assemble the crew so she could identify the perpetrator. She didn't pick anyone out but who's to say that everyone was on deck that morning. If the Captain hadn't been obliging it could have been more of a nightmare.

[Johnny Kieran]

I had a similar event.
Me and my mate were ashore in BA. We were told the ship was being moved to another dock, but we didn't need to go to stations and were OK to go ashore. We got a taxi back, and he said we were asking for the wrong dock. We explained the ship had moved, but he drove us everywhere but to where we wanted to go. We finally got back, and the taxi bill was horrendous.
I told my mate to go aboard and I'd sort it, I told the driver he was going to get the money. After a while I said I'll have to go and find my mate, he reluctantly agreed. Up the ladder I went and told the bosun what had happened. He told us to get into our bunks with no clothes on at all if he get's word of the cops coming.
Sure enough, the cops came aboard with the driver. Suddenly the cabin door opened and I heard the bosun tell them to leave us alone as we had been working all night, then worked on shifting the ship. I heard the cop say OK and they buggered off.
The bosun told us that if they had pulled the covers off us, the driver wouldn't recognise us.
That taxi driver was ripping us off without a doubt.

[Noel Kelly]

I had a similar event.
Me and my mate were ashore in BA. We were told the ship was being moved to another dock, but we didn't need to go to stations and were OK to go ashore. We got a taxi back, and he said we were asking for the wrong dock. We explained the ship had moved, but he drove us everywhere but to where we wanted to go. We finally got back, and the taxi bill was horrendous.
I told my mate to go aboard and I'd sort it, I told the driver he was going to get the money. After a while I said I'll have to go and find my mate, he reluctantly agreed. Up the ladder I went and told the bosun what had happened. He told us to get into our bunks with no clothes on at all if he get's word of the cops coming.
Sure enough, the cops came aboard with the driver. Suddenly the cabin door opened and I heard the bosun tell them to leave us alone as we had been working all night, then worked on shifting the ship. I heard the cop say OK and they buggered off.
The bosun told us that if they had pulled the covers off us, the driver wouldn't recognise us.
That taxi driver was ripping us off without a doubt.

Funny you should mention a taxi bill. Didn't happen to me but in San Francisco do Sul, Brazil the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th went ashore together and ended locked-up. Seems like they took a taxi ride and didn't agree with the high bill, refused to pay it, police got involved, they got put in the clink, and the company's agent had to negotiate their release with a backhander to the policia and payoff to the taxi driver.

[Johnny Kieran]

Funny that Noel Kelly, you've just reminded me of a place in Brazil, I think it was called Rio Grande do sul, or sol. I have totally forgotten about the place, but the place was like a cowboy town, big hats, fancy guns in holsters, just like out of a film. I may have the wrong place though, it's such a long time.
Strange thing is, every time I met someone I sailed with, they would recount an event that I couldn't remember, then after a while it would all come back. It used to happen the other way too, when I told them of our adventures.

[j.sabourn]

My only memory of violence in taxis was in Santiago de Cuba when 4 of us were coming back to the ship .i was sitting in the back next to the chippy who was an Estonian . Stopped at the gate for one of Castro’s guards and ordered to open the back windows . Chippy said something which he obviously thought was funny in Spanish , can’t remember what it was , but this caricature of Castro himself complete with beard , gave him the privilege of meeting his rifle butt with his head through the open window. JS .

[J Gowers]

#47
Could it have been Tuberao/Vitoria.

Here is an extract from my adventures in Brazil.

The day we arrived I had a run up the road with a few guys off the ship. The taxis were VW beetles and five of us squeezed in. The town was great with bars on every corner, I even saw two guys riding horses through the streets and they were wearing revolvers in gun belts it looked like something out of the Clint Eastwood movies. The bars were full of girls of all colours but we were warned that some of them were not actually girls.

I left the ship, 13^th March 1978 with the First Mate and the ships agent took us to Vitoria, the nearest town, and put us up in a hotel room for the day as the flight to Rio was later in the evening. The mate had been working all night wanted the get his head down, but I went for a walkabout. I had a couple of drinks with the mate and then went to explore unfortunately I had a few more drinks and got completely lost, also I did not know the hotel name or address so could not find the hotel. I was eventually passing a bank with a bureau de change and went in and explained my predicament. The guy was great he knew of a ships agent whom he phoned and eventually got me the address of the hotel and made me a map with directions. I got back to the hotel and the mate was still sleeping. Later that evening we went for a meal and got the flight to Rio, then to Zurich, another flight to London and then on to Glasgow.

[James Curry]

Crude oil washing replaced Butterworth washing of cargo tanks while the intention was to load another crude oil cargo think it was the mid 70's In the 80's IG systems were fitted at first for use in tankers 100,000 dwt, later ammended to tankers 20,000dwt
This was a developement prompted by the explosions on a couple of Shell tankers in the 70's
Only time Butterworth machines were used was when the cargo tank was inert and then purged with fresh air to enabled tank entry for maintence and inspection.

[j.sabourn]

#49 Vitoria another well known iron ore port so assume that was what you were there for ? Unless of course it was offshore work. ? JS