The Union Jack

thank you brian for your info about the sampson posts. don't remember any on the two athel tankers i was on.we bunkered in the azores and they just hung the pipe over the rail.

There was a discussion on radoi today about the Australian flag with the 'Union Jack' in the corner. I managed to get an e-mail to the program, almost impossible to get through on the phone, explaining the fact it is the 'Union Flag' and the jack is the jack staff from which it is flown. I got a reply,

'I never knew that how long has it been so'?

There is so much unknown information out there.

thank you brian for your info about the sampson posts. don't remember any on the two athel tankers i was on.we bunkered in the azores and they just hung the pipe over the rail. ALF
.
. Hi Alf,
the tankers today load and discharge in many varied places, we would load and or discharge from SBMs from an undersea pipe,
The weight of these `pipes` or hoses are far too heavy just to hang over the rails. they are up to three feet in diameter and weigh tons. So a derrick is needed to haul it inboard to connect to the manifold and then support the weight.
An SBM is a Single Bouy Mooring, it is in a fixed position with a pipe from ashore along the sea bed and then up to the Bouy, from there the pipe line is floating in a guge bight waiting to be connected.
The tanker is moored from the bow to the SBM and then connect amidships to the pipe.
This is a photo of the Esso Dalriada 280,000 tons discharging off shore through a SBM, at Ain Sukhna in the Gulf of Suez, it is then pumped across the SUMED LINE to a place near Alexandria in the Med, it saves a two month voyage from the Gulf round the Cape to europe.


You will have to ZOOM in on the photo, dont know why it is a small one. you can see the floating pipe and the derrick supporting it. It was about two miles off shore.
Cheers Discharge rate was 5,000 tons an hour on one hose.
Brian.

Always used derricks with Gulf oil , I am pretty sure we hauled the pipes with our own gear most places , but we normally were hooked onto a SBM or a spider berth with eight buoys around to moor to

**** just told me that he wished the guy next door would go back to where he came from. is that you Captn.,:p

Hi Shipmates,

Please forgive this slight digression from the theme of the thread, but having had a few beers and at the risk of offending some of our number, I feel it must be said. As an old 'Port Liner' and 'short-sea trader', I always regarded tankers as something to be avoided at all costs and in those days I viewed 'tankermen' with suspicion (still do:)).

To know that some tankers had Sampson posts is, for me, a comfort. At least, apart from the ship's wheel and one or two other things, there would have been something I could relate to, if little else. You could have my share of tank-cleaning, thank you very much. Certainly, I'd heard that some tankers were good feeders with good accommodation, but I never let any silver-tongued Svengali at Prescot Street, or any other 'pool', break my resolve. What about the long, long weeks spent at sea, interspersed by, all too brief, periods of mad drunkenness and debauchery (if you were lucky)? Even this was denied to those who, with monotonous regularity, found themselves returning once again to the delights of the Persian Gulf and similar non-existent fleshpots of the world. Frankly, I thought that tankers took all the joy out of a sea-going career. Bl--dy party-poopers is what they were, no fit place for a red-blooded sailorman to ply his trade, thought I. They were simply a foretaste of what was to come. The interference of that 'damn yankee' who devised containerisation (clever b----r that he was) coupled with the inherent greed of shipping company shareholders the world over, would, with other factors, combine to signal the end of one of the few, truly wonderful, career choices left to a young man. A chance to experience the wonderment and joy of a world travelled and seen at a more leisurely pace, something that can rarely be fully appreciated from the window of a modern, high-flying, airliner. It was a world that, with unseemly haste, would wither on the vine of progress. However, many on this site can still remember. It wasn't always easy, sometimes it was bl--dy dangerous, but most of us who went to sea in those days knew the worth of being with and working amongst men(and women) of stout heart. We had some wonderful times, didn't we, or am I dreaming again ?

.................Roger

Might just be the beer, Roger. Enjoy it, you earned it.

Now Roger, I do not wish to burst your bubble but I beg to differ, though in all honesty I only sailed on one, maiden voyage of the British Hawthorn. The food was very good, but being on there in catering it would be, though the steamed sausages and bacon were not to my liking. However I did get to see part of Sweden as the sea was freezing over, some amazing sights there. Through the Kiel canal and a night ashore in the 'Window' road. Some wonderous sights there to behold for a young red blooded man. In Sweden I experienced 'near beer' as at that time the country was almost dry, and two cans per day at sea did little to improve the situation. Then returning to the Ise of Grain to oad for the next voyage made me realise there would be better opportunities if I stayed with the liners.
But in more recent times seeing tankers roaming the oceans makes me wonder what they are like today?