N. Sea Collision

[Des Jenkins]

Hi John & Ivan
Th helmsman, surely could not be held responsible for the ship hitting the rocks, there had to be an officer there giving him orders, unless he realized it was a waste of time and took off, but there again up in the wheelhouse he would have been safe enough, so there must have been a reason for the court to jail him.
De

[j.sabourn]

Maybe an illegal immigrant ? Or maybe some other demeanour . JS

[happy daze john in oz]

Close in to the coast was there as pilot on board maybe?
But you can be arrested for so many things these days and no explanation given at times.
Who made the arrest, was it local or was it some international one?

[James Curry]

Seems to have gone quiet on who lifted him, suspect it will have been the UK as the collision took place in UK waters. But also the fact that the Stena immaculate was carrying Avation fuel for the US Air force a phone call may have been made by someone in the US defence department, maybe check social media apps, if it was from the US Gov it will be on what's app or X formily know as twitter.

[Ivan Cloherty]

Hi John & Ivan
Th helmsman, surely could not be held responsible for the ship hitting the rocks, there had to be an officer there giving him orders, unless he realized it was a waste of time and took off, but there again up in the wheelhouse he would have been safe enough, so there must have been a reason for the court to jail him.
De

Trouble is Des, no one ashore really has any idea of who does what on a ship, some think the Captain steers the ship, some think the QM is in control because he is at the wheel, some think the ship stops every night, the oddities are countless, so just best arrest everyone who was in the vicinity, hold them in custody without trial or a given reason, take away their documents and do anything else to them which may make you look efficient

[j.sabourn]

On offshore vessels they are almost correct Ivan on most the master is the one who does mostly the steering apart from Iron Mike. All ship handling the master is responsible for and going alongside rigs and snatching heavy lifts in a rolling vessel is no piece of cake. In the earlier years of the North Sea it was usual to tie up stern first to a onshore facility with a stern line from each quarter and an anchor laid about 4/5 cables at least ahead of vessel , so had to put the vessel in that position. This however was not a 100% safe condition to be in due mainly to shifting tides a sea and wind conditions . With the arrival of more modern and higher powered vessels the oil companys insisted that due to sea bottom wells etc. it was impractible to lay anchors on the sea bottom at least that was the excuse , and more practicle to snatch at the rig by holding the ship in position on thrusters and propellers alone, someone must have forgotten to inform the British shipowner about this , as usually one was expected to perform miracles at times and hold a vessel alongside for hours at a time on old vessels with a fixed tunnel bow thruster and two fixed propellers and two rudders. A master of a supply vessel only got the job on his ability to handle a vessel in close quarter situations , the theoretical other jobs of a master came a long way back in the queue. He was first at all times the driver of the vessel to put it in landsman vernacular. JS

[Des Jenkins]

I just realized that I have been at cross purposes, when John In Aus said about hitting the rocks I thought it was about the Concordia, Is that the wheel man who as jailed? or am I at cross purposes and t was the wheel man on the collision off Newcastle?
Des
Des

[Ivan Cloherty]

I just realized that I have been at cross purposes, when John In Aus said about hitting the rocks I thought it was about the Concordia, Is that the wheel man who as jailed? or am I at cross purposes and t was the wheel man on the collision off Newcastle?
Des
Des

The unfortunate QM of the C Concordia was jailed Des

[Johnny Kieran]

I'm not sure what the QMs job is these days. In my days it was only on passenger ships that had QMs, and on the two passenger/cargo boats I did sail on, they were usually just on the bridge standing by. Steering was done by whoever was on watch or iron mike. QMs also wore the tiddly uniform. I never heard of a QM on a cargo boat.

[Johnny Kieran]

I often go on cruises, all due to bragging about my days at sea to the Mrs. Once I asked a deck hand that was dipping a bottle into the oggin from the bridge whilst in port, what he was doing. He said he was the QM, and was taking samples for testing. I have no idea why they would do that, but I suppose it's an environmental thing. Had a chat about other jobs he done, but none of it was like the old days.