Foreign Flags

[j.sabourn]

When most of us on here first went to sea , we all went under similar conditions and under our own flag the Red Ensign. Over the years this drastically changed , and thinking off the top of my head I later had Occassion to sail under the U.S. flag. The Russian Flag, the Gibraltar Flag, the Panamanian Flag ,the Cayman Island Flag, the Bahamas Flag, the Liberian Flag, the Indonesian Flag, the Norwegian Flag, the Dutch Flag, and probably a few more I can’t remember. If I could speak all their languages I would of been after a job at the U.N. Some of these flags were from choice , but some were not. May well anyone say they saw the decline of British Seagoing Heritage.
JS..

[Richard Quartermaine]

John, I felt secure with the Red Duster and I reckon the "articles" of others were not stuck up for all to see if they wanted to. I did have a couple of passenger trips in 1961- when I took my wife, Margaret on The Johan Van Oldenbarnevelt from our then Suva, Fiji home to Pape'ete and then back on her from Sydney to Suva. Then, six years later from Singapore on the RIL Straat Chatham to Lautoka, Fiji (the skipper, Pieter Eikhorn, was a neighbour in Singapore) and from Sydney back to Singapore through the Sunda Straight on the Straat Cumberland. By this time with our two children, the first being the real reason for Margaret's 'seasickness' on the JVO voyage. I would imagine that you would know those Straat boats.
Richard

[Bill Morrison]

Foreign flags or flags of convenience. In 1976 was on charter to B.P. on the Seaforth Champion (1) based in Dundee. A job came up requiring to tow a new built semi-submerse-able rig from Mantyluoto in Finland to Stavanger in Norway. We were not involved initially as two other vessels were given the task but then a problem arose, one of the vessels Polar 901 aka the "Black Pig" was registered in Panama a flag of convenience. At this date Finland did not accept flags of convenience so we were sent in place. Our H.P. was less than the Polar 901 so a bit of a strain on the engines. Passing through the Kattegat and Skagerrak with a rig on tow was one of the most scary things I can remember with ferries passing ahead and astern of us between Denmark and Sweden. Reached Stavanger when one of our engines packed in!!

[j.sabourn]

Bill as was in same company as you am aware of the low Horse power of the ships. Believe today the oil company’s insist on at least 12000 bhp. I know as worked out here with a lot of the rejects from the North Sea , the latest one of Wimpeys forget its name but will come back, turned up here, I remember when she was considered the creme de la creme, she was well liked out here as one of the newer ones we had. Usually finished up in Seaforths having to use two tugs in tandem to get the horse power . Cheers JS. Just remembered the wimpey seahorse, Mickey Slack took her down to the Falklands and was towing the damaged vessels to South Georgia I believe. Did you ever see Irene Milne after you left Seaforth often wonder where she went. cheers JS.

[j.sabourn]

Richard now you mention it can’t remember seeing the ration book hanging on the bulkhead anywhere. The only thing that was supposed to hang up was a portrait of oneself imposed on a foolscap side certificate of yourself. As said in one post the only time I sailed with a full Philippine crew all hands had one. I did quite a few run jobs Singapore / Australia and vice-versa, but only once came via the Sunda Straits coming through the islands further north was shadowed by weird looking vessels , probably sizing us up, as a lot of piracy in the region . Used to batten the ship down at night and plot them on the Radar . Always went and came via the Bali Straits after that. When we first went to sea we all thought the British Merchant Navy was indestructible , it was during the war, it
took the peace to break its back. The only cert. not large enough to hang up as a portrait was the Panamanian they must have thought it not worthwhile, anyhow mine never reached me before we sailed so was probably given to someone else who probably just changed his name. Cheers JS

[Bill Morrison]

Bill as was in same company as you am aware of the low Horse power of the ships. Believe today the oil company’s insist on at least 12000 bhp. I know as worked out here with a lot of the rejects from the North Sea , the latest one of Wimpeys forget its name but will come back, turned up here, I remember when she was considered the creme de la creme, she was well liked out here as one of the newer ones we had. Usually finished up in Seaforths having to use two tugs in tandem to get the horse power . Cheers JS. Just remembered the wimpey seahorse, Mickey Slack took her down to the Falklands and was towing the damaged vessels to South Georgia I believe. Did you ever see Irene Milne after you left Seaforth often wonder where she went. cheers JS.

Hi John. The two Wimpy vessels in the 1970's were the SEAFOX and the SEATIGER with B&W Alpha engines 8480 BHP real power houses at that time. The CHAMPION had British Polars 6160 BHP I can't remember the bollard pull. I have mentioned this before , just a week before Christmas 1976 had to do a rig shift, three vessels involved the CHAMPION one IOS? and a STIRLING? halfway through both the other vessels suffered either winch or engine failures and we were left to tow and relay the anchors on our own. the job was completed on the 4th of January 1977 we also had our Christmas Dinner that day!! I did one more trip on the CHAMPION and then was moved to the SEAFORTH CONQUEROR. Irene Milne moved to STAD when SEAFORTH was taken over and retired from there, a few years since I last saw her. Bill

[j.sabourn]

Was on the seafox, also the seadog and seawolf much smaller. First offshore vessel was seadog a real backward step on the social ladder. It takes time to grasp different life styles , I was in the offshore for 24 years but life at sea in earlier times still had a hold on me, and during lay ups in the North Sea disappeared back deep sea. On Foreign flag ships and even today can’t remember two of their names. The initial call offshore was to be closer to home, but seemed to be away just the same in the long run. Remember joining one Wimpey ship round at the shell base, the mate who I was releiving was home grown, and said to me I am telling you nothing you are here to take my job off me. I said keep your job I don’t want it, walked around to Seaforth quay saw Irene Milne and signed up with them, went back to ship and told the skipper I wouldn’t be signing on , picked up bags and went.JS. PS think the first Seaforth ship was the Jarl. JS