This Week - 19th December

[happy daze john in oz]

Watched a RAN vessel here in Port Melbourne cast off and sail. It required about 30 crew to do that yet a bloody great container ship 30 times the size can do it with four.

[Ivan Cloherty]

John, I was talking to a retired Admiral of the Fleet earlier this year and he was giving a light hearted talk to our club on 'How to drive an Aircraft Carrier' naturally I wore my MN Blazer and Veterans Badge to the event and sat on the front row. Later we managed to speak to each other because we had made eye contact during his talk and he could see my sometimes quizical look (of amusement/cynical) at some of the things he said. He said his appointment as Commander was nearly purely political as the biggest thing he'd been in charge of before was a destroyer. He commented I have always admired you MN chaps the way you brought a slow unwieldy ship alongside or sailed with just four men for'd and four men aft and never scraped the quay and with so few obvious commands from the bridge; we'd have about fifteen at each end with constant commands from the bridge tannoy and still manage to scrape the bloody quay. I said it was our job, each man knew what he had to do and rarely needed telling that we had to get a heaving line ashore at the soonest possible moment, we didn't have to impress any watchers or superiors on the quay


corrected spelling

[j.sabourn]

I towed a flaming big barge over to Sweden from the Moray Firth one time very early in my North Sea experiences. Never really towed before. The Barge was unmanned but had sidelights which were activated by the lack of light. On the second day out these ceased to work so just put the searchlight beam facing aft, the barge being too far to see by the light but just hoped any other vessel would not try and pass too close astern. I was told the usual lies about harbour tugs and pilot picking us up in Gothenburg etc. This was before they got around to GPS and only had one of these yacht things which were supposed to give you a fix every 6 hours or something. Never saw one of those work properly either. Was nearly fog all the way across. Oh! forgot put out a Securitay message every half an hour about us and warning all ships to give wide berth hoping there weren't any clowns around. Arrived off Gothenberg pilot comes onboard and I ask him when the tugs are going to take over, oh he says you have to do it, he says to me he had no experience on towing, but would show me where the barge had to be berthed, which was right up bow to a closed drydock gate. Had to do some rapid thinking about any similar jobs had done, and remembered bringing in a broken down stand by boat. So with a bit of manouvering came alongside the tow and tied up to him in the conventional manner and drove both hulls as was manouvering the one vessel. Was a bit different than the stand by boat though as the barge was about twice the length of the ship. Also had to put the mate on the barge as he had to jump ashore to take all the mooring lines as these men were not supplied either. You don't get many men when it comes to out of the way work when it comes to the MN. Nearly always have to consider doing jobs in an unconventional manner. Makes seamen different from others I suppose. Saw a US aircraft carrier come alongside in Moji once, he had most of his propeller driven aircraft lined up on deck, they all started their props going and he used them as a thruster and brought the ship alongside sideways. Very impressive, probably an easy way out of a quandary as well maybe. Cheers JS

[John Arton]

The crew of the Beaverpine caused a near riot in St. Croix watching a U.S. Naval ship tie up opposite us on a finger pier.
They manoeuvred the destroyer to within 5 metres off and parallel to the berth and stopped her in the water. Heaving lines were chucked ashore followed by mooring wires fore and aft. All the matelots were lined up smartly along the length of its deck and at a shouted command they as one stepped forward, picked up the wires and proceeded to heave the ship alongside purely under man power despite there being mooring capstans fitted fore and aft. The comments shouted across from our London crew were winding up the American sailors something terrible to such an extent that as soon as its gangway went down a guard of Marines dashed down it and formed a chain down the center of the pier to prevent the American sailors and our crew engaging in a mass brawl on the pier. Going ashore that afternoon after finishing my cargo watch, met up with a few of them but when asked said I was off the QE2 which was anchored off in the bay. Met up with a bunch of female croupiers off the QE2 and after getting smothered in sun tan oil by a bikini clad one, wangled an invite back to the QE2 for a quick visit, very interesting.
rgds
JA

[j.sabourn]

#14.. That's what I call going to sea. Good job Cappy wasnt there he would have probably named some ship that wasn't there. I would have said Pardon Monsieur vous ne comprendez pas Francais ?, Je ne comprendez pas Anglaise. And pretended to be drunk. Saw some terrible battles down the Gut in Malta in 1956 about the time Ivan was getting his flags up in the Suez crisis. The American 6th fleet and the British meditteranean Fleet think under Mountbatten were in Valetta at same time, only happened the one night as they were given shore leave on alternate days thereafter. Cheers JS

[Captain Kong]

On this day in 1925: The Fleetwood trawler TEESMOUTH BL6 was crushed by ice in Mudiuga area, White Sea.
S.T. Teesmouth BL6 : The Bosun's Watch

S.T. Teesmouth BL6 : The Bosun's Watch
The Bosun's Watch

Official Number: 117731 Yard Number: 171 Completed: 1906 Gross Tonnage: 191 Net Tonnage: 54 Length: ...
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On this day in 1904: The Fleetwood sailing trawler YOUNG WALKER FD47 was abandoned leaking 10m N of Great Orme’s Head and subsequently foundered. Crew of four Hoylake men picked up by Cork registered steamer INNISFALLEN (1405grt/1896) and landed at Liverpool.
24.6.1905: Fleetwood registry closed.