AncientMariner

A few months ago, I attended an event at which the after-dinner speaker was a rear admiral who has since left the RN. In his talk he made an interesting comparison between two ships. Firstly, HMS “Queen Elizabeth”, in which he stated that the vessel had, at that time, an availability for service of about 50 percent. He then made a comparison with the Cunard cruise liner of the same name, with an availability of 98 percent. Very different ships, of course, built for very different purposes, and technologically very different. However, the speaker felt that there were lessons to be learnt from this comparison. John H

An internal feature of car carriers which an observer may not appreciate. The typical height of many car decks to the overhead beams is about 1.6 metres. Mind your head! John H

My discharge book was issued more than 50 years ago, and I have to admit that I get a nostalgic kick out of fingering through the pages once in a while. Also, I’m old enough and lucky enough to have been able to retain my original hardback class one certificate. As JJB says, it has a gravitas that cannot be found in the flimsy booklet that I needed to use in my final seafaring years. This fortysomething year-old document is framed and hangs on a wall in my model railway room. John H

Jim That maxim certainly brings back old memories! The practice I was used to was to alternate the anchors where possible, which wasn’t always. The general idea was to try and even out the wear and tear. If you are on a ship with forward accommodation, then you’re always going to hear the racket, whichever side you’re on. John H.

An historical point. I can’t guarantee how much truth there is in this though! Also I expect some old hands may already know this. Starboard is a corruption of steerboard,. This goes back quite a few centuries, and was traditionally the side on which the vessel’s steering board was located. To prevent damage to the steering board, it was the convention to put the vessel alongside on the other side for cargo operations, and became known as the lade board side. Over the years this term became corrupted to larboard. Anyone involved in marine operations will quickly realise that the terms starboard and larboard could easily become confused if and when shouted over a howling gale. Hence larboard was replaced by port, because that was the side that was traditionally alongside when berthed. Bearing that in mind, in subsequent years, power driven ships were fitted with right-handed propellors, (i.e. – turning clockwise when looking forward from aft), because, when running in reverse, the vessel would tend to swing to starboard, which was usually a useful feature when berthing without tugs. Ships with controllable pitch propellors, which turn continually during berthing operations are normally left-handed, to maintain the same effect when the blade pitch is reversed. Car carriers, which are invariably designed to work starboard side alongside, have indeed bucked this trend. However, tugs and bow thrusters - not commonplace in pre-medieval times - are used to overcome the propellor’s effect when docking. John H.

A couple of days ago I had a call from an accented voice claiming to be from Microsoft. I've lost count of the number of calls I've had telling me I have a serious virus on my computer! I can't believe that this scam is still doing the rounds after, I believe, about 15 years! John H

An experience I had with Concorde: In the late ‘70s, I was serving as a deck officer on bridge watch aboard an LPG tanker in the English Channel. I just happened to look up at the sky, and spotted a fast-moving aircraft, and recognised the distinct outline of Concorde. A few seconds later I heard the sonic boom, which was like hearing two rifle shots in rapid succession, and boy, it was loud. It shocked the lookout, who hadn’t spotted it. Hearing the boom subsequently in later years – which was quite a few times – I at least knew exactly what it was. However, it often raised some anxiety from crewmembers who were unfamiliar and unprepared for the noise, and were left wondering if something catastrophic had happened with the ship! John H.

I like to think that I have a fair knowledge of Norway, enough to notice that Norwegians have differentiated the Kristiansand/sunds by using an "N" or "S" suffix. I served on a Norwegian flagged survey vessel in the 80's as part of the seismic crew. When I asked the Norwegian master to sign my discharge book, he entered Kristiansand S as my port of disembarkation. Apart from a few upgrades to business class, my flying experiences have been in steerage class, and they have been very variable - even within the same airline. I feel that how an airline deals with a problem, e.g. a delay resulting in a missed connection, or lost luggage (which has happened to me quite often). This, for me, speaks volumes about the airline. John H

I’ve just been through my bookshelves, and located “Supership” by Noel Mostert. The ship involved was “Ardshiel”, and I served as 2nd Mate on her a year or so after the book came out. Noel Mostert did the round trip from Europe to the Gulf via the Cape of Good Hope and back, so he would have been on board for around two months. Some of the crew members mentioned in the book are former shipmates. However, I never sailed with the master, who had a bit of a reputation. He was very much old school, had seen service during WW2, and I seem to recall that at least once he had to take to the boats. Many years later, working as a pilot on board an American-flagged vessel, the Texan Mate mentioned the book to me in conversation, and asked if I knew about it. That livened up our conversation! John

In the 1960’s, as a deck cadet, I was appointed to a Japanese-built OBO. She was a fairly new ship at the time. Semi-automated, but not UMS. I recall that she had a system of recorded messages in the engine control room intended to bring the attention of engineer officers to potential problems. One that stood out, delivered in a Japanese accented female voice, would typically announce: “No. 2 Genelatol in Tlubble”. These were in the relatively early days of automation. Cargo and ballast control valves were hydraulic with pneumatics used to indicate tank levels. Attending to leakages was a fairly routine and time-consuming process for the crew. The system called itself H&P - standing for Hydraulics and Pneumatics, and I recall that there was a large plaque with H&P written on the cargo panel to remind us of this. But as far as the ship’s staff were concerned, and given the number of leakages we had to deal with, hiss and p*** was considered a more appropriate description. John H

As a retired deck officer/master/pilot, I can name three former deck officers, besides myself, who are into model railways. I don’t have any Airfix ships, many of which seem to be warships. However, I did get started with Airfix as a teenager in the 60’s with the plastic wagon kits that set me back two shillings apiece. John

W.M. Collectables have a supply of unopened Ian Kirk kits. I've bought a couple of useful additions to my layout from this guy. John

I know this bit of road quite well. If you approach from the bridge from south, as this lorry did, you approach on a slightly rising gradient. This gradient then changes sharply to a very steep rise under the bridge. It goes that if you are driving a long vehicle, then the clearance could be significantly less than the signage indicates. If you have turned off the main road (Alexandra Road), then the bridge is immediately in front of you, I estimate about 30 yards from the junction. A few years back I saw an artic make this turn. The driver, realising that he couldn’t get under the bridge, then had the problem of reversing his rig back onto a fairly busy main road! John

Another example of a heavy load going wrong! My apologies to any who have seen this before. John https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=DROPPED+LOCO+OFF+SHIP&view=detail&mid=3FF32D7A78DA7D337C063FF32D7A78DA7D337C06&FORM=VIRE

In January 2020, demurrage for a container could easily exceed USD $100 per container per day. With a current shortage of containers, I’ve little doubt that this figure has been escalated. Source: https://container-xchange.com/blog/demurrage-detention/ John

The These photos were taken at Sutton harbour Marina, Plymouth. I wish I could have taken a better shot, but parked cars were in the way. A short piece of dual gauge track is evident. I recall reading somewhere that this is the only remaining section of Brunel’s broad gauge track still in situ. However, I stand to be corrected on that. John

I distinctly remember that, in the early sixties, Ambridge had its own railway station, however it fell victim to Dr. Beeching’s axe! I also recall that local landowner Charles Grenville tried to raise a petition to try and prevent the closure. Walter Gabriel had visions of resurrecting it into what would now be referred to as a heritage line. A plan of the station can be found in Cyril Freezer’s booklet “Plans for Smaller Layouts!” John

Some info here of 60700’s workings which may be of interest: https://www.kmsrailtech.co.uk/4mm-oo-gauge/3412-lner-rebuilt-class-w1-4-6-4-10000-era-3.html The loco sometimes ran on services to Cambridge in the early days of nationalisation, as well as lodging turns to Newcastle, as well as to Leeds. Two thing I never realised until now: In its original LNER form it was to be named “British Enterprise”. And that as BR No. 60700 it was to be named “Pegasus”. The nameplates were cast but never fitted.

This report includes a dashcam clip of a car crossing an unbroken white line to overtake. https://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/news/road-cops-amazed-dangerous-overtaking-4530816 The car being overtaken and recording the incident was an unmarked police vehicle! John

With the current low bunker prices, according to this article, it is actually now more cost effective to route a large box boat via the Cape of Good Hope rather than pay the Suez Canal tolls. https://gcaptain.com/cma-cgm-containership-reroutes-around-cape-of-good-hope-bypassing-suez-canal/ John

Kharg Island, oh boy. I signed off a VLCC there in the early 1970’s as second mate and had to spend a night in the Kharg Hilton. All guests were accommodated in a single room which looked similar to a scene in a wartime stalag prisoner-of-war movie with its walls lined with two tiers of bunks. The next night was spent in Abadan, which was much more civilised, before finally flying home the next day. John

I would venture to suggest that the latest date would be the Hawthorn Leslie 0-4-0ST which I mentioned a couple of days ago. I'll re-post the link, which states that the loco was in use until August 1986. https://preservedbritishsteamlocomotives.com/hawthorn-leslie-works-no-3597-falmouth-docks-engineering-company-no-3-0-4-0st/ Admittedly, I'm going purely on my memory here, but I recall an article in the local press about the loco in the mid 80's. which stated that it was usually operated 5 days a week. AFAIK, it was the only steam loco they had at Falmouth. I was a volunteer worker with the Plym Valley Railway when it was acquired from Falmouth Docks. John

Falmouth Docks ran an industrial steam loco until August 1986. https://preservedbritishsteamlocomotives.com/hawthorn-leslie-works-no-3597-falmouth-docks-engineering-company-no-3-0-4-0st/ John

When I was serving on P&O gas ships many moons ago, 2 of their vessels had one of their 4 tanks adapted to carry propylene oxide. This is a liquid at normal temperatures, with a boiling point of about 35C, it was carried under a nitrogen blanket, and N2 tanks had to be retrofitted to maintain a slight positive tank pressure. Preparing the tank for carrying PO, and having discharged it, then having the task of preparing the tanks and associated pipework back to LPG was not a task that was looked forward to. Other LPG ships carried sometimes carried pentane, similar boiling point, and it was a real pain to get rid of residuals which wouldn’t boil off when preparing for a more conventional LPG cargo. In later years, now working for another company, but also many years ago, I served on a smaller semi-pressure LPG carrier which had many pages of chemicals mentioned its Certificate of Fitness, and during my time with her (two years) she never carried any of them. Almost the only cargo it ever carried during my time there was vinyl chloride monomer, another cargo I don’t miss!

Someone had their comeuppance today. The A38 between Plymouth and Exeter is a dual carriageway, also known as the Devon Expressway. On the Exeter bound carriageway there is a Shell fuel station, which is immediately followed by an exit slip road. The exit from the service station leads onto the exit slip road. Anyone attempting to get back onto the A38 from the station has to cross the exit slip road and get onto the A38 in a relatively short distance. This is an accident black spot, and at least one accident that I know of has resulted in a fatality. This morning, someone tried to get from the fuel station and back onto the A38 at a very busy moment with a lot of traffic in both lanes. Rather than wait a few seconds for a gap in the traffic, the driver chose to force his or her way into a very busy lane of traffic, which in turn forced a car to brake sharply. Had the miscreant looked into the mirror, he or she may have noticed that the car forced to brake was clearly a police car! The next thing the driver knew was blues and twos a few yards from his or her rear bumper, and presumably some strong words of advice at the next lay-by!