Tankers do spend time in port

[John Arton]

Most people think that tankers are in and out of port in a day or so, but you can get lucky like I did on a couple of occasions and spend some extended time in port loading discharging that can give you some great runs ashore.
I was 2nd mate on a 30,000 ton product tanker when we loaded a full cargo of fuel oilin the Isle of Grain for discharge to Lorenco Marques power station.
When we arrived there the country was in the process of being handed over from Portugese hands to self rule. The quay was covered in all sorts of goods and furniture as nearly all the Portugese natives were leaving and taking everything with them. We were tied up on a general cargo quay with a single pipe connection to the line leading to the power station some miles away. As this pipeline was in poor nick we could only pump very slowly and to cap it all the surface of the river was covered in some sort of fruit that kept getting sucked into the cooling water intakes, causing the boilers to constantly trip out and shut down (steam driven cargo pumps). This meant that we were there for 10 days which gave me plenty of time ashore to explore the delights of Lorenco Marques, and what delights they were. You could see that the city had at one time been very beatifull but years of neglect etc. was turning it into a very shabby place. The exchange rate was daft with the Portugese pulling you out, even the local banks were offering at least three times the official exchange rate for dollars into the local currency, so it was probably the cheapest run ashore I ever had. Beer and ladies were also of the highest order.We eventually completed discharge and blow me if the next cargo was not fuel oil from Lorenco Marques and Durban for.. wait for it.. Kingsnorth Power station on the Medway in sight of the Isle of Grain where we had set off from full of fuel oil some months earlier.
A number of years later when I was Chief Officer one of The other ports we regularly spent time in port was in Mexico. We were on charter to PEMEX running petrol and diesel fuel up and down the Pacific coast, best run ever for a tanker.
One of our ports was Mazatlan where we used to discharge petrol. The storage tank was some 17km. away and the line to it had suffered a break in it at some previous time. The break had quite literally being repaired using a bit of canvas hose!!! so when we were discharging, again it was with on pump on minimum r.p.m. The mexicans used to have a guy standing by where the break was, some 5km away from the terminal. He was equipped with an old fashioned walkie-talkie (one of those with a huge long aerial like you saw in WW" war movies), a mootor scooter and one peso.
His job was to sit by the repaired section and should it fail again (it did regularly) he was to radio the information to the terminal and they would then get us to shut down. The scooter and peso were for if he could not get through on the walkie talkie he was to get to the nearest public telephone and phone the information in and if that failed he was to jump on his motor scooter and hot foot it to the terminal to get us to shut down. All this depended on the guy also staying awake at all times and as we calculated that to discharge a full cargo would have taken 15 days and they only employed one guy, he obviously was not awake at all times. God knows how much petrol got spilt during discharge as we suffered any number of stoppages due to the "tempory" repair.
Mazatlan was a great run ashore. We used to inhabit the"Bucket of Shrimps" on the beach where you literally got a bucket of huge shrimps and beer for around 5 bucks. God they were tasty and the beer made the girl watching most pleasant (married by this time so no naughty playing away).
So despite having spent time in one of the best countries in the world (should have emigrated there when I had the chance), Canada, both east and west coast's where we had legendary runs ashore and parties on both General Cargo and Forest Product carriers, some of my most memorable runs ashore happened whilst I was serving on tankers.
rgds
Capt. John Arton (ret'd)

[Stuart Henderson]

One tanker company that gave longer times in ports was Athel line.I sailed on two real oldies namely athelcrest and Athelviscount who were on the molasses run Cuba,USA etc, and sometimes the colder weather on eastern US ports caused delays especially in winter months,Albany NY way up the Hudson. So some good runs ashore compared to other tanker companies I sailed on Esso/BTC/Shell/CP in the fifties. Sounds a lot of companies but one trip/one ship was my motto back then went sent to tankers by the pool
Stuart

[Jim Brady]

I was on the Hamilton and we were never in port less than four days.Willemstad was our base so we were inand out of there doing ports around the West Indies.We also did Montreal,Three Rivers and across to West Africa Accra and Apapa.I know tankers get a bad name and not many liked sailing on them but I think I would put that as one of my best trips to sea.Every port a good run ashore.
Regards.
Jim.b.

[John Albert Evans]

I sailed on Tankers from 1957 to 1962, firstly Eagle Oil then Shell when they took Eagle Oil over, started as galley boy then ass/std., 2nd std. then 2nd cook/baker.
I went all over the world on those ships, to me they were the tramp steamers of the world, as you never knew where you were going next.
We never stayed in port very long usually no more than 48 hours, that was enough for me though cannt remember the names of the bars I visited though I can remember most of the ports. The one bar i do remember was Tanker Joes in BA, anyone else remember it, happy days. The longest I stayed in port was when working bye, once in Camel Lairds Birkemhead and once in Swan Hunters Wallsend on Tyne. After Tankers I sailed on ore carriers, sugar boats, paper boats and fruit boats but Tankers were my favorites.
I'm 71 years old now and I do think that for a young lad of 16 to travel the world it was a fantastic opportunity and its a pity that youngsters of nowadays dont have the same chances that we had, its only later in life when you look back you realize how fornuate we were. It was also a structured life on board the ships as everyone had a job to do and you got on with it.
When my 2 sons were growing up places would be on the TV New York, Australia, South America, Canada, Africa. I would casually say "Ive been there" and they used to look at me as if you say "oh yeah" sometimes they would say is there anywhere you haven't been dad and you had to think hard to reply. Sorry but I've strayed a bit from the original theme but I'm sure you all feel the same.

John Albert Evans

[len mazza]

Hi John,
Like yourself was an Eagle Oil/Shell man in the late 50s/60s,visited Tanker Joes in BA,remember it was the time of the Cuban Crisis,we were all guessing were we would go after the nukes had gone off,most went for SA. or Aussie.
We had five nights in Yokohama one time,a super tanker of the time was blocking the exit from the berth, sothere we were happy as the pigs in the proverbial,the OM. was gent,organised another sub for us all,oh happy days!!!.

Len Mazza R621945.

[John Albert Evans]

When the Cuba Crisis was going on I was second cook and baker on the Shell Tanker 'Plaitidia' we were doing the yankee coast run Curacao to American Ports, we were passing Cuba in the October 1962 when it was all hitting off, we heard a lot about it on the radio but never saw another ship or plane, good thing I suppose that we never got bombed, unlike the San Flaviano in Balik Pappan bombed and sunk by an american mercenary.

John

[Capt Bill Davies]

'Tankers do spend time in port'. The time spent in most of the ports I loaded and discharged in was too long.

Bill

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Hi John.
I envy you as all the tankers I was on never stayed long in port not that it worried me at the time I was quite happy sailing the world. My last tanker the British Builder I joined on 8 th Nov 55 and payed off 20 Sept 56 and in that time we only had eleven days ashore, running from the gulf to NZ and Aus.
Cheers Des

[happy daze john in oz]

Only served on one tanker with BP, up to Sweden but recall spending four days in Lullea, last ship in before the sea froze over for winter.

[Gordon Turnbull]

22 years on BP ships and 3 years seconded to STASCO there were many many times we had extended stqys in ports. Three tris in a row dry docked in Singapore. Three week dockers strike in Wellington.
I can however sympathise with the comment above regarding most tanker ports :-) some of them were brutal.