Not so safe system

[happy daze john in oz]

Safe systems my a****.
We have the NBN here in Oz, lovingly known as 'No Bloody network'.

Tuesday get a pamphlet n the mail saying just how good the NBN is. with this in place you will be able to perform miracles.
Next morning truly a miracle, no net work across the town of some 42,000 residents.
Get a text from my phone company.

"The NBN is down due to a technical matter'
Was off for over 12 hours.
The magic of the technological age.

[Stan Carter]

Reminds me of a trip on the Greenwich, to New Orleans, crossing the Atlantic light ship in a storm with a mostly beam sea... One morning, being the peggy, picked up the tray of eggs and bacon for the mess. Half way up the deck to the mess a big green one hit us and the tray and me took flight and landed all over the deck. Felt like Oliver Twist going back to the galley asking for another round. Ah memories.......

[John Cassels]

There was only one time I was really worried about a ship , as knew I could do nothing about it , it was regarding the stability of the vessel and had no early control on it . Was mate and as mate responsible for the stowage of various general and bulk cargoes . She had been under various foreign flags and I suspected she had been sabotaged at various times as all liquid soundings on vessel never gave a true reading and this included the fuel tanks and in any loaded condition the vessel never seemed to have a positive GM , she was always at the angle of loll , alright on paper calculations but were not apparently true. I finished up walking off in Japan thinking it may have stopped the vessel , no such luck , I finally got home mentally agitated for a few weeks , never heard anymore and was sure the vessel must have gone down . It was not until joining this site just over 30 years later that I learned she had gone to the knackers yard about 3 months after I left. Sometimes the mental strain is as bad as the physical in seagoing , I never wanted to know what had happened after I left as didn’t want any thoughts of guilt whatsoever. Only by seeing a picture of the ship on this site and her short history after I left did it lift a load off my mind at various times. JS .

Similar thing happened to me back in the '70's. Was ch.mate on a bulk carrier with box sided holds and one of the regular runs was paper and wood products from BC Canada
through the Pandemonium Canal to Europe. Standard practice after loading the 9000+ mt.of packaged lumber deck cargo was to do a roll test for the GM and righting lever.
Me being a young and energetic mate thought I would augment the roll test by doing stabilty calculations after taking the ullage of each and every of the 100+ parcels of cargo.
My calculations came to a good bit less than the roll test but still well within legal and acceptable limits. So , off we trundled . First to Long Beach for bunkers , through the canal
and just as we cleared the Carribean we picked up the tail end of a depression that stayed with us all the way to Cardiff. Same speed and course. Being right down to her marks , we were
shipping seas the whole way and she was getting very sluggish indeed . I had my wife and son on board and to try and ease my concience I reworked the figures this time using
an extra 20% for deck cargo absorption . Went upstairs and told the old man and we agreed it was a " hope for the best " job. After more trials and tribulations we did eventually
berth at Cardiff and the first thing I did was check the draft. Way over ( nobody else seemed to notice ) and based on that calculated that arrival GM was in the region of 2 centimeters.
Not an experience for a repeat .

[James Curry]

Things must have changed in the 80's. I did 14 months on a product timber carrier loading out of BC for European ports. Timber was always loaded wet. Certainly was from Prince Rupert apart from the non stop rain there it was constantly kept wet by water sprays.

[John Cassels]

Things must have changed in the 80's. I did 14 months on a product timber carrier loading out of BC for European ports. Timber was always loaded wet. Certainly was from Prince Rupert apart from the non stop rain there it was constantly kept wet by water sprays.

That seems very strange to me . Your ship was then carrying perhaps a couple of thousand tons of water for free.
What did the charterers say about that ?

[Marian Gray]

#12, Reminds me of the old Joke Stan.... Youngster sent up to deliver the Skipper's dinner in a gale. Unfortunately along with the vile weather he had a stutter [no offence meant] which tossed him along the deck. Having reached the Skipper's cabin he knocked on door but couldn't speak. The Skipper annoyed and hungry yelled 'sing it laddie, sing it' whereby the young lad bellowed out 'yer mince & tatties is o'er the side o'er the side o'er the side....

[Marian Gray]

For most on a cruise all they want is the food, grog, entertainment and go ashore.
I have spoken with some who have not a bloody clue about how a ship works.
Try explaining how a Diesel engine produces enough power for all the electrics on a ship.

I can only speak for myself John. On my one and only cruise in August 1987 on the QE2, where it did get a bit choppy over the area where the Titanic sank [as informed by steward and yes a few items did slide] not once did it enter my head to ask to view the Engine Room!Not when the view on deck[s] offered so much more IMHO.Unless of course you are engineered minded.....which I'm not

Having travelled on numerous ferries over the years like most, either in Europe, US or Scotland especially in my case[from Stranaer to Larne over Christmas periods - those were always in dire weather.] These folk complaining on said Ship really should just stay put if they can't handle a wee bit of excitement surely.

[Johnny Kieran]

I've heard people talking about how rough it was in the night on cruises, but all it was, was there bed gently rising and falling. I hate being on a cruise with no movement, might as well go to Butlins. It's like when you have to look out the window to see if you're still at sea or along side.

[James Curry]

Well John, all I can say is if you stepped off the wing of the bridge all you would have needed would have been a very short ladder and you would have been able to walk the length of the ship. It was board product timber , Spruce /Cedar, the water would likley have been surface water as the resin in the wood would have stopped the water penetrating into the wood? We also carried Bailed pulp , Chipboard down the holds. No logs, all forest products. Thousands of tons of water really. It was loaded wet so the GM ? improved as the cargo dried out during the voyage. If it was loaded dry surely it becoming wet in transit due to rain and shipping seas could put the ship in a dangerous condition no?

I have loaded logs many many years ago down west Africa , Sapele and in Takoradi. It was always loaded wet.

I am sure there are several Masters , Mates on here that sailed on Timber carriers perhaps they can explain it a lot better than me. The ship formed part of a cosortium called Forest Products International. I think Buries Marks had several vessels on the same trade
Perhaps John Arton ??

[happy daze john in oz]

I've heard people talking about how rough it was in the night on cruises, but all it was, was there bed gently rising and falling. I hate being on a cruise with no movement, might as well go to Butlins. It's like when you have to look out the window to see if you're still at sea or along side.

Getting a bit of rough at nights can be fun.