Death of Innocence.

[j.sabourn]

I was a bit older than that 33 ish , a couple of years after this though was on a couple of tankers the first tanker was ever on was a products carrier and first two cargoes out of Bangamashur was Naptha for Japan and would imagine they were destined for the Vietnam area as their final resting place. Was never a big exponent of tankers and whole experience was 12 months on two of John I Jacob’s the Hollywood and the Laurelwood. There always seemed to be a bit of nervousness in the air. The first tanker with the Naptha
Was a 4 mate vessel where I was first mate and the chief officer was the cargo man and dayworker. When arrived in Japan he paid off and she became a 3 mate ship and I became the ch, officer plus watch keeper, plus the right hand man the pump man paid off also. Back to Bangamashur for a repeat cargo with about 6 weeks experience of tankers.However the 3 mate and Cheng were old tanker men and very good , and soon learned how to stop and start pumps for the paraffin and kerosene pumps in the forward pump room , all the other 22 tanks were started in the engine room. So learned about sticking pigs through pipelines and what oils were compatible with each other courtesy of these two shipmates. Cheers JS.
PS one good thing about tankers one never had the stability problems and stowage of dry cargo and worry about metacentric height due to burnout and such. JS

[j.sabourn]

I was being groomed for a big 250,000 ddwt. Tanker which was laid up one of the Norwegian fiords I heard later , meantime these ships of JIJ were being sold off to pay for this big white elephant until finally JIJ went to the wall . I even had my mortgage loan transferred to them at 3% for a year from the building society of 8.5% .They did give me a year to redeem it when finally was made redundant. You could say those were the years of the rise and fall of the British Shipping Industry. JS
It was shortly after this that I had to go on a course for shipowners and their reps on inert gas systems , and found the suspect notebook in the motel, and shortly after this rats nest of IRA bombers were discovered in Southhampton. JS

[Tony Taylor]

#344

They were fun days, weren't they, John?!
I was 19 at the time, 3/0 and on the bus-stop run to Saigon with all sorts of 'orrible stuff
like naptha (napalm) toluene, cyclohexane, gasoline, gasoil, lube oils and acrylonitrile.... all loaded Bangkok and Singapore.
Into Saigon every 3 weeks ... did 14 months stright on that vessel, 7 of which were on the Saigon bus-stop run.
Always got priority - arrive at the anchorage, pilot waiting, straight into the river and up to Saigon to discharge.
Helicopter gunships flying low each side of the vessel, heavily armed patrol boats fore and aft - Jimmi Hendricks playing
at full blast off the forward patrol boat .. F16's screaming across our path every now and again as they napalm straffed
the vegetation about a mile or so either side of the river.

Things that didn't bother a 19 year old single guy - but sure as hell shook up the married officers ...
Happy days!

DA NANG VIET CONG PROTECTION.jpg

Gunships, choppers, F16s; you were lucky, this was all we got in early 74 in Da nang when the place being deserted by the Yanks.

[David E Hewson]

Did they kill any babies?
Just asking.

[Tony Taylor]

What vessels were you on, Tony - tankers?
As I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, the reason the Queen was so well protected was because if Charlie
had sunk us in the run up to Saigon, she would have lain in the bottom of the river ad infinitum, thus
starving the capital and the Yanks of various goodies, especially gasoline and diesel.
Also the vessel and crew were seconded to the USNavy - I guess that must have counted for something!

Hemisinus, Shell tanker, carrying mogas, gas oil, JP4, etc. Did about 3 months, Singapore, Da Nang, Na Trang, Miri, Singapore with odd trip to Penang. Eventually went to drydock in Sasebo where I paid off after couple weeks.

[Tony Taylor]

#352

Why?
Is that what is hoped for?

--------------------

#353

Tony,

Sound pretty hairy stuff mate ... especially with just the one gunboat for protection!

Did you chaps manage to get into town .. or, was it like like Saigon, deemed too dangerous?

no shore leave, apart from one time when an AB dived over the side and swam ashore.
Never really heard much in the way of gunfire etc. Even when it occurred on board; we had been full away for several hours and were well out of Vietnamese waters, 02.00hrs 2nd mate calls down to me in ER, can you hear gunfire, how the feck can I hear anything down here I said, well I can hear it and cant see anything so am getting the old man.
They subsequently go down aft to find two crew firing off a machine gun which they said they had bought, I dunno how they got it but its true.
Couple of days later theres a fire alarm, heavy smoke coming from galley boys cabin, BA team goes in to find iron melting the lino top of the drawers, apparently he was doing some ironing when he was called away and he left the iron on a plate which subsequently cracked and iron went through onto drawer top.
He said he bought it for a souvenir and was using it as a paperweight ffs.