New Member - Tony Skilton

[Tony Skilton]

Hi again J.W.S. The Golden Bay Cement works was established in 1911 at the port of Tarakohe in Golden Bay, at the NW tip of the south island on NZ. It was closed by Fletcher Construction in 1989 after they purchased GBC. They then transferred the mv Golden Bay II to Auckland home port, and upgraded the Wilson's Cement Works near Whangarei to become the new Golden Bay Cement works.
Re the towing - I looked at the specs of the Teresea ships involved in the Shell Prelude tow - nothing older than 5 years. When towing (and I have done a fair bit) it would be C/E, 1st & 2nd. If the tows were long (7 days or more), I would run the engineering side 8hrs on/16 hours off - that way everyone got a good sleep. I would do 0800 to 1600, 1/E would do 1600 to MN, and 2/E would do MN to 0800. Every few hours, right through the trip, I would go up top, to 'freshen the nip' on the wire so it didn't get worn where it passed over the roller inside the Scotsman. Have towed 12,000 tonne barges of rock from Henderson to Barrow Island (for a total of around 270,000 tonnes), dumb barge pipe layers, 130 m long barges carrying gas field spool pipes, & other ships. Shark jaws are good when they work properly, but Chinese-built vessels always have jaws & pins that leak into the steering flat. It's almost like they make the sea water leaks a mandatory requirement!

Hi Fouro - sometimes the NZ coast was so short of engineers back in the early 1970s that senior apprentices would be 'borrowed' from a local marine workshop to act as relieving engineers (8-12 watch keeper, with a motorman). I had spent most of my apprenticeship time (and we had over 100 apprentices spread over Wm Cables) up to then working on steam ships, large two-strokes and lots of 4-stroke generators on the meat boats, ferries, US icebreakers, FG passenger ships, etc. I was also doing sea-time on navy HDML's out of Wellington on training runs every second weekend. I can still remember the delight of seeing the $$$ on my first pay slip - heaps more than apprentice pay. The 2/E on the 2nd relieving period I did (dev Ligar Bay) went to the same college as me, did his apprenticeship at the same work shops, and was also RNZNVR. He gave me so much overtime I was able to go off the ship and pay cash for my first car after only 5 weeks aboard! As long as the minimum safe manning scale was complied with, having a ticketed 4th didn't seem to be required back then. They were only small vessels, and I was flatting with the marine super's son at the time, so I was a known quantity (be it good or bad?).

Cheers,
Skilly

[Fouro]

After two interviews with the grading examiner at Edinburgh (Leith) I was issued with a Grade II (two) pre sea-grading certificate. The reason for having to see him twice was,- the typist in the mill office had made a trivial mistake with the dates referring to my apprenticeship. This highlights how hard it was to be accepted as an engineer in the British Merchant Navy, I'm speaking about the year 1955.
On the back of the certificate it states a Grade II applicant may be granted a remission of sea service not exceeding 3 months by virtue of his workshop service.
I would point out during my apprenticeship I was like the qualified engineers on call 24 hours a day as the mill was running 24 hours daily. I was called out on many occasions to assist and learn how to deal with machine breakdowns in the early hours of the morning. All breakdowns no matter what time of day it was had to be repaired as soon as possible.

FOURO.

[j.sabourn]

#12 We all say that a deck apprentice at sea had to have 4 years sea time. I doubt this as Sea time was put on the back of your indentures and corresponded to the usual terms of the articles of agreement. One complete voyaage was missing off the back of indentures in my case. This was the only proof of seatime as an apprentice got no discharges in his book. This was one of the differences between a cadet and an apprentice. Which leads me to believe that the required seatime was not 4 years but 3 years so many months and so many days. A reduction of 6 months seatime was granted if one did a complete 12 months at a reconized nautical school and I never completed 12 months and had no certificate to show. Cheers JWS.

[Tony Skilton]

Hi again Fouro, - 3 of the four cement ships I sailed on were built by Henry Robbs Shipyard of Leith - the original mv 'Golden Bay' (built 1953), the dev 'John Wilson' (built 1960), and the dev 'Ligar Bay' (built 1964). The second mv 'Golden Bay' (which I spent 12 years on from new, then another two years till this year) was built by Robb Caledon Shipbuilders in Dundee (1979). This latter ship, at the tender age of 38 years, has just been sold to a European company and will be trading from Norway to Iceland I believe. She has already carried 11 million tonnes of cement down this part of the world (Australia & NZ), and will continue working hard. They don't build 'em like this any more, mores the pity.
I have bought a number of Chinese-built offshore vessels down to the Aussie offshore and invariable couldn't wait to take them back to their owners after end of contract. Most were heaps of rubbish that would never be reliable, and the possibility of lasting for 10 years continuous service was almost impossible.
Cheers,
Skilly

[j.sabourn]

Tony when I left the North Sea in 1991 had worked on vessels of about 5000 horse power. If towing a rig for any distance used to have to tow in tandem with another similar sized ship. Then it went up to 10,000 HP and the oil company wouldn't look at anything less, then became 15000 BHP. In oz you worked with all the old tonnage discarded from the North Sea. I remember the Wimpey Seahorse appearing on the coast out here and was considered luxury here. Also remember her being built prior to 1982 and was one of the many ships that went with the fleet to the Falklands. She too was considered too light in HP for the North Sea, but due to different climes I suppose was considered ok for here. People elsewhere don't realize one does get occasional bad weather here also. What sort of horse power are the ships on the tow. Cheers JWS.

[j.sabourn]

Believe you mentioned the name miclyn in one of your posts. I was on a couple of their ships. In case you didn't know the name was derived from the owners of these ships Who were I beleive 2 singoreporeans first names Michael and Lyn. Probably a bit of useless knowledge but handy to know if you were in their company. Cheers JWS

[Tony Skilton]

Hi again JWS,
When I first worked for Samson Express Offshore, I believe it was the Australian-based offshoot of Miclyn Express Offshore. Once the downturn began, Samson took on the parent company's name of Miclyn Express Offshore. I believe they now only have one lady left in the Fremantle office, and the Fremantle manager, Kim Head, has now transferred to the MEO office in Singapore. Being an engineer, he was good to work with and totally realistic about the problems.
I did do a quick look-up on the Teresea boats for the Sth Korea tow - I think they were all around 16,000 to 20,000 hp. Most of the Chinese-built boats I sailed on were 5,000+ hp, some were 8,000+ hp (2 x GE 16V288s), some were 2 x 6,000 kW Bergens (Skandi Pacific & Emerald), and the 3 x Bourbon 200 series boats I was swinging across during the Domgas pipe lay contract (3 x Cummins QSK-60s, diesel electric, with silicone-controlled rectifier diesel electric drives to triple screws). These last boats were way to complex for working in the tropics - the moisture detectors in the SCR cabinets would trigger an SCR shutdown whenever it rained - bloody dangerous when you then dropped an anchor damn-near directly on top of the pipeline you were laying! The AC & fridge systems couldn't cope with the 40-45 degree air temps - they had air cooled condensors and we had to keep spraying the room fiddlies to stop the HP cut-outs. E.R. & accomm. lighting would trip during the day hours as the circuit temps got too high! Fortunately, it was only a 10-month contract.
Best job was a seismic research vessel - 106 m, 21,000 hp, down in the Australian Bight. But it was boring dragging all the gear at only 4.5 knots everywhere!
Skilly

[j.sabourn]

Pleased I"m clear of all that now. Did quite a bit of seismic work as well including shallow water stuff laying the cable on the bottom and sitting on the end of it. The deep water stuff though took some getting used to the controlled explosions every couple of minutes. Only respite on one ship was when whales were sighted and the whale watcher asserted his authority. Asked him what he did at night when he couldnt see the whales, he had no answer to that one. Should have told him you could usually smell them. Enjoy your retirement it seems to.go faster than what it did working. Cheers JWS.

[Tony Skilton]

Hi again JWS - yes - the whale watchers - we had 6 woman, managed by a 70+-year old gent. The watchers were paid $1750/day (I was in the wrong job!!!!), with one set doing watches on the bridge with binoculars during daylight hours, and the other three doing watches in the instrument room, wearing sonar head phones. Any whale spout or fart and it was all stop! We were towing 10 streamers, with the guns going off every 15 seconds, but usually about 6 km astern so we couldn't really hear them. The vessel was built in Vigo, Spain, and was beautifully appointed inside. TMS supplied the deck. E/R, and catering dept. - that was 19. The other 41 were truly international.
Got introduced to an ex-French navy member from the gun shack - when he asked me where I was from, I replied "Auckland - remember the Rainbow Warrior"! He never spoke to me again!

Cheers,
Skilly

[j.sabourn]

I might have known the skipper off the Rainbow Warrior as relieved an ex Greenpeace skipper in the Dover straits near enough. Just before emigrating got a phone call from a certain outfit in Aberdeen if would do them a favour and relieve this bloke who had to get off as was his wedding anniversary, and the set up was it was left in his hands to arrange. He had me on a sleeper Newcastle to Kings Cross, then another train down to Dover, where a thumping big ex British navy MTB was lying there all flashed up and ready to go. Must have cost a fortune to hire. Jumped on board and away we went. Got alongside this ex admiralty salvage vessel and passed this character with long hair and an earring like an old time pirate whilst getting over the rail going the opposite way. The handover was " she's ok mate everything running", after grasping the reins of power found he had only been there 6 days. The job was doing bottom soundings. And samples for Westminster dredging, found out he was a member of Green peace and had served in southern waters. However the fishing people were kicking up about disturbing the serenity of fish life in the southern reaches of the North Sea and he was a political objector also so was. Skinning out. So I've always remembered him as a possible for the Rainbow Warrior. However the cash in hand paid all our air fares for skinning out of the UK. Laid the ship up again in Lowestoft about 10 days later. Cheers JWS.