Sunset stirred my memory

[Ivan Cloherty]

Enough on this sniping Lads
LOL

Vernon, whist I respect your position as an administrator, I find it inconceivable that you should consider comments on safe navigation practices and consideration for those you are protecting whilst they are sleep or off watch as sniping; but you have your standards, I have mine.

[Dennis McGuckin]

Never on my watch Dennis, when you have anything from 20 to 100 lives in your hands (depending on vessel) when in charge of a watch, crew mates in all departments off-watch and sleeping trust you to have their safety in your mind and hands at all times, irrespective of size of vessel. So bad choices were never made and navigation is not a plaything for someones amusement and being irresponsible in coastal waters is even more indefensible. You may scan the horizon and everything is clear, but messing about you may fail to see that half submerged object, or may be on the wrong heading (towards land) when your engine fails, and you never want to be on the wrong heading or have an engine, or steering failure in the vicinity of Lands End. That's all from me.

What you did ashore was a different matter

True Ivan, I was in the galley. Worst I could do was kill the whole crew with my tab nabs.

[Jim Brady]

So Jim, it's alright for you to tell someone he should have got ten years for filling fire extinquishers with cigarettes (and I totally agree with you) but its not okay for me to comment on safe navigation (or the lack there-of) that probably happened more recently, Hmmmm! Never mind eh!

Ivan I believe that Lewis has exaggerated the scenario a little for a laugh and it is something which possibly lasted a couple of minutes an empty fire extinguisher lasts a lot longer and could've resulted in loss of life.I should imagine from previous posts by you that you never did a wrong thing in your life.
Regards.
Jim.B.

[Doc Vernon]

Vernon, whist I respect your position as an administrator, I find it inconceivable that you should consider comments on safe navigation practices and consideration for those you are protecting whilst they are sleep or off watch as sniping; but you have your standards, I have mine.

See your post #37 Ivan I gave a like for it did I not
I was only making a general remark about all that has been going on lately and want to see all this come to an end ,it was not pointed at any particular post!
I too have standards of Respect and Admiration.
Shall we just leave it there please! Thank You

[j.sabourn]

#36... thanks John, am not that keen to find out , as have no need of anymore, but is just as important to show lack of knowledge as it is just as important as someone who thinks they know it all. That person has yet to be born. My days like most of us of magnetic compasses and such are well over, but is nice to know they are still fashionable on ships. I don’t go on Wikipedia looking for info. It either comes in book form or I don’t bother. In fact the only things I do on computer is keep on touch with family and friends, and this site up until now. I was at a lecture last night as belong to a society whose title name is Allenby named after the famous one of world war 1. Someone was giving a lecture on his past accomplishments and given all the awards he received. They had got all their information from Wikipedia. The lecturer gave all the orders of the monarchy from the order of Bath etc. etc. at the end of which I said one you didn’t get from Wikipedia was the most sought Order which is the Order of merit. Which there are only 24 At any given time, past recipients being Grace Darling, Florence nightingale, Winston Churchill and a few more well known personages. So Wikipedia is not all knowing. I have found discrepancies in other walks of life with info from such, however I suppose 95 per cent must be accepted as gospel.
Am pleased the magnetic compass is still in vogue and is always there to fall back on if needed, that is if they still teach people how to use. Thanks for the info. Though. Regards JWS.

[Lewis McColl]

The coastal trade certainly was an eye opener, yes certainly had there fair share of cowboys. But when it came to rock dodging most I sailed with where excellent seamen.
We got a relief skipper for what was supposed to be 2 months. What an obnoxious little man he was. He joined in Gunness on the river Trent. Gunness is a drying out berth and when you are on the bottom it is very difficult to board as in those days early 80's only thing we had was a ladder laid against the Quay so it was a case of do I need to board or do I need to go ashore.
This guy was from Scunthorpe and I think when he joined our little mini bulker and sailed down the Ouse we certainly took the C out of S----horpe. He got off to a great start. He crept down the ladder like an oldman (no pun intended) cast his eye over his new command. Arrives in the mess room and tells one an all I am the new Captain. We were a 6 man crew 3 Cape Verde lads the mate and myself. Turns to mate and says my bags are on the jetty get some one to fetch them. This was done, they arrived with a thump from 30 feet up and stayed there until he had to pick them up himself. He had the hand over with our regular guy who was paying off due to a family bereavement.
So come sailing time he arrives on the bridge dressed in full blues and steaming bonnet, scrambled egg an all. Well this explained a lot ex P&O judging by the cap badge. The normal procedure for standby was I would start the main engine 30 minutes or so before we let go just to warm her up and check her over for leaks etc!. She was a fixed prop but through a twin disc reduction gear box so although the engine was running the prop was barely spinning if at all. I said to him I will run her up and have a check round make sure she is okay. So checked she was not in drive mode and fired her up. Made sure the locking bracket was in place so as to avoid inadvertently putting her into drive. I asked him if he was okay with the controls regarding manoeuvring the engine, well he just looked at me as if I was something he had stepped in.
He was vertically challenged shall we say and certainly suffered from little man syndrome, definitely a twisted dwarf.
We sailed for Rochester to load Paper for France. Saint Etienne which is a suburb of Paris. As we were a low air draft boat it took about 30 minutes to make her into a flat iron dropping the masts etc and lowering the wheel house, This was necessary so as to get under the bridges at Rouen. We got a night alongside Rouen as it was going dark by the time we arrived there, better to do river work when possible in the daylight hours. We had river radar but still an all. As we got alongside the mate asked the crew to drop the masts and make her ready for the rest of the river passage so we could set off first light. The twisted dwarf had been riding the mate from day one. Gerry was a decent sort and worked the lads well. Anyway this wee shi-e decides to have a go at the mate in front of the crew. The mate walked off and the crew followed him. Me I just ignored the guy and did my own thing. The agent came onboard early and asked me to phone the office. We stayed there for two days and a new crowd arrived along with the old mate and a new skipper. The last time I saw the big hat with the scrambled egg on the peak it was floating down the river Seine. There were no shortage of offers to give Captain Bird a hand with his baggage ashore. To be fair his ship handling skills were very good considering he had never been with this type of ship before, but at 60 metres it was never rocket science, even I could park her without hitting anything. His man management skills left a lot to be desired.

[happy daze john in oz]

###sleep well vernon ....you wont.have cappy waking you he is treading on eggshells ......and so lightly they are not even cracking

Cappy, I am glad to hear you have such delicate feet.

[happy daze john in oz]

At some time in our lives we all have made mistakes, not deliberately but none the less we made them.
Ones at sea such as falling asleep at the wheel should not happen but did, lives in danger maybe.

No different ashore when driving, we all take risks and for the most time we are OK, but life is full of risks, some avoidable others not.

Whilst I can see both sides of this discussion there is in my mind no defined right or wrong, just different opinions.

[Ivan Cloherty]

I from previous posts by you that you never did a wrong thing in your life.
Regards.
Jim.B.

Oh yes I have Jim, but I ain't going to tell you about them!

[j.sabourn]

There are mistakes and there is incompetency. And there are cases where they are one and the same thing. If after taking your course off the chart and have to convert it to your magnetic compass course for the helmsman, and you apply the correction for deviation and variation the wrong way and put the vessel aground , then that is a mistake but it is also incompetency. In fact that person should not be in charge of anything afloat. I would put anyone fooling around with the safe navigation of a ship as to not being competent, the same as the master on the Italian ship who is now languishing in gaol. JWS.