The Ship Enthusiast thread

[ColinJ]

A friend of mine got bored of living in houses so he bought himself a lightship!

By Copyright ©1988-2009 K.Krallis SV1XV (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

 

[Globalti]

15 May for a week I'm crewing my buddy's Swallow boat from Glasgow to Oban stopping off at Islay to sample some local malts. Can't wait!

 

[Joey Shabadoo]

My bonny ship

 

[rich p]

In 1981 I went on the schools ship SS Uganda round the Baltic Sea, in 1982 it was converted to a hospital ship for the Falklands War - in her pomp:

View attachment 115349

Blimey I did an 'educational' cruise around the Med, on the Uganda in 1970. What fun.

 

[steveindenmark]

I have worked for Elvstøm Sails in Denmark for the past 13 years where me make yacht Sails as small as an Optimist to Superyacht sails.

This clip is of some Sails we built for a boat called Carbon3, skippered by my collegue Jesper Bank. Jesper is an Olympic gold medalist and World champion. He has also been an Americas cup captain. The Carbon3 project was all about records, of which it now has many.

Carbon3 was sailing on a flat sea with little wind. But at about 1.06 you can see how she performed. Not the prettiest Sails I have made but they certainly did the job.


View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=M1ziWgUqjeY

 

[Brandane]

My first job after leaving school in 1978 was as a Deck Cadet (apprentice navigating officer) with P&O; owners of @Fubar and @Spinney 's "Uganda".
My first trip was 6 months on this, at the time it was only a few months old and very high tech....

Stratheden.....

Joined her in Khorromshahr, Iran (on the Shatt-Al-Arab river between Iran and Iraq) and did 2 round trips between the Gulf and Japan, visiting such exotic places as Karachi , Bombay , Phuket , Penang , Singapore , Hong Kong , several ports in Japan , then back to the Gulf (Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha, Bahrain, Kuwait, Muscat, Damman, Basrah)... Flew home from Kuwait March 1979.
Absolutely brilliant time for a 16 year old boy, and I thought ALL jobs would be like that. What a naive nobber .....

I did another 3 trips at sea (ship names Wild Marlin; Taupo; and Ardmore) plus a spell at Glasgow Nautical College. All were good in their own ways, but none like the Stratheden. In 1981 the British Merchant Navy was in a bad way and P&O were selling all their cargo ships. There were no jobs for anyone who was recently qualified, so like most others at that time, we bailed out and went in search of pastures new.

Wild Marlin ..... (UK, South Africa, Europe).

Taupo..... (Dubai, Singapore, New Zealand, Pitcairn!!, Panama Canal, UK).

Ardmore.... (6 months on contract to Pemex of Mexico; running up and down Pacific coast of Mexico!).

Yours truly on the left in the brown! Crossing the equator for the first time ceremony on the Wild Marlin.. Aged 16; seems like yesterday (it was May 1979 ).

 

[Mireystock]

Brilliant Brandane !

We were afloat in the North Sea over the New Year (thanks P and O) and I loved watching all the ships and boats criss crossing in front of each other. Also, I was amazed by all the oil and gas rigs I saw, I always thought they were more northerly than where we cruised.

 

[Arrowfoot]

Hey @Brandane

Is there anything that you haven't done? Looks like I squandered my way thru life in comparison.

 

[Brandane]

Hey @Brandane

Is there anything that you haven't done? Looks like I squandered my way thru life in comparison.

My CV makes interesting reading, I suppose. Except that nowadays it smacks of someone who gets itchy feet, which is true!

 

[Brandane]

[QUOTE 4097366, member: 9609"]I am very envious, I always wanted to go to sea but never got to do it - in fact I don't think I have ever been on a ship [/QUOTE]
I can safely say that my time at sea is the only job from my slightly varied past that I look back on with some regret that it didn't last longer.
Surprised to hear that you've never been on a ship, with all the water we have surrounding us. You should take your bike on the ferry from Newcastle or Hull over to Holland for a wee trip (not THAT kind!). Having said that, I recently checked prices to do just that and it was stupid money, compared to just a couple of years ago when I last went.

 

[Arrowfoot]

[QUOTE 4097366, member: 9609"]I am very envious, I always wanted to go to sea but never got to do it - in fact I don't think I have ever been on a ship [/QUOTE]
The same here. Have been on docked ships when they have an open house but nothing else. To think that we were a major maritime nation once.

 

[PeteXXX]

When I were a lad, mum used to take my sister and I on the Woolwich Ferry to meet my dad for lunch in Island Gardens, near his workplace. In the late 50's to early 60's I was allowed to go into the engine room and look at all the copper brass and steam and inhale the smell of it all. All this without a hi-viz jacket in sight!!

My stepfather in law was a truck driver until he put himself through the courses to be a ships captain (Masters Certificate?) He then worked in the merchant navy until his retirement.

My nautical school trip was C1966 ish from Liverpool to Norway, Sweden and Denmark via the Scottish Isles, and back to dock in Tilbury. The ship was a single funnelled old thing called either Caledonia or Caledonian buI can't find any info on it. Maybe someone here could dig some out?

 

[Arrowfoot]

[QUOTE 4097452, member: 9609"]I'm about to head down into northumberland, considering the way it is raining, the melting snow in the hills and the existing flooding - I think some sort of boat could be a better idea than me van.


And as a child I lived not too far from the mouth of the Tyne, I used to watch the ships all the time and think - that is what I want to do, go and see the world. Always wanted to travel, ended up driving a truck round and round in circles in a large (open cast) hole in the ground. I could be britains least travelled person.[/QUOTE]

I know an elderly colleague who came from a family that worked in the shipyards up North and he married into family of ship builders. He qualified as a ship engineer and sailed all around the World. He then went to work for a gas utility company before moving to other jobs. He too loved the sea but was pretty much forced by the family to find a land based job. Loved to hear his sea faring stories such as the bars of Hong Kong etc.

 

[Brandane]

My stepfather in law was a truck driver until he put himself through the courses to be a ships captain (Masters Certificate?)

Not doubting you, but it must have been a different type of "masters" certificate; perhaps for British coastal waters? To get a full blown Masters certificate was a long process, and you weren't eligible to even sit the exams without substantial periods of time spent at sea. For example, I was going for my second mates ticket (two steps below Masters) and that was a full time, 4 year course. During that 4 years you had to accumulate about 20 months sea time to be eligible to sit the exams.

Once that was out of the way, you had to do a few more years at sea before sitting your First Mate's certificate, then another few years before it was time for Masters.

 

[ufkacbln]

I will let you know...

I have worked on a couple of ships for short periods of time:

However in true naval Medical Branch tradition, most of my "sea time" was on the Gosport Ferry in its various forms:

Next month I am doing a ferry trip in Norway - Fjord hopping on the Hurtigruten line simply a chance to chill out, play with the cameras and do as litte as possible