Salt water and tall stories

Dear Bloggers,

Not to tall for many sailors, but just the daily life of sailors, who sometimes seek a change or being in for a joke. For people from the shore ... Ah just leave it. There are good ones, too, and they can't blame us for that ... As an old sailor, I get into conversation with people and we talk about the good old days.

Likewise with this old sailor who earned his living on the wild seas in the early years after the Second World War he started sailing. Of course knowing something about the seamans life I am interested in his stories. Now he is an old man with a bag full of memories. And yes his past is all that remains for him and his seaman's story is infused with sea salt and the smell of ship's mooring rope. So Iwill tell you one of his adventures.

De kapitein wikt en de reder beschikt, dat is geloof ik een goed Oud Nederlans gezegde.

I will give it a try to translate this.

The captain thinks about how to and the shipowner has the last word and decides, I believe this is a good old Dutch saying.

Anyway, the shipowner came to the conclusion that in Europe not enough money could be made anymore with a ship of this class, but ha ha in West Indies and Caribbean were the well-paid charters for this type of ship just to be picked up and we could get plenty of work. But first of course some small problems had to be solved.

With Panamanian flag and ABS classification, (American Bureau of Shipping) if the gates were welded below decks, we could also carry more cargo, which immediately seemed to look like a gold mine when the captain, helmsman (mate) and engineer slept on the topdeck and the rest of the crew ( foreigners) sleeping below decks did not count as a problem.

So the word was out and things were done, A friend of the owner has a shipyard they could solve that, a few hatches for the intermediate deck were ordered, because that was not complete and we had to see if there was a sextant and a stopwatch to find onboard, crew (4 nationalities) mustered and then we were done an ready to go. Oh yes we still had to find some cargo to get there, but well the shipowner will take care of it and solve it.

And indeed, they found a drill table and parts for the Circle bar drilling company, which had been used in Borkum, and had to go back to New Orleans, nice and heavy (200 tons) to start, so that could be on the midship. And then we needed a stroke of luck, a charter for a shipping company based in Fenchurchstreet in London, good cargo from Shoreham to the West Indian islands and next to Barbados, Saint Lucia and Dominica.

First I had to go to Datema in Amsterdam the bookstore to be, when it comes to sea charts in the present time you just order them in the webshop because Datema is still there (https://datema-amsterdam.nl/zeekaarten), see if we can find some sea maps and pilots from that neighborhood. 

Well i found the most of the maps, only the map of Dominica, was a kind of printed drawing from the Napoleonic era, and this probably left something to be desired, I had seen something like that at the maritime museum in Greenwich, but well there was still no port and we had to lay at the outer harbor and that would solve the problem, so that will succeed.

The loading in Shoreham went well, all the cargo underdecks was loaded and lashed, a few cars were loaded on the front deck, the women on board had to leave, paperwork was ready and then we could go. There was only one issue left that we still had some deck space and free board left, so there was a bit of searching for freight the chances were good and there would be something to move.

And indeed, they found two port tenders that had to go from Cherbourg to Saffi, which could be nice on the back panel and there would be no problems with the free board.

The loading in Cherbourg would take a while, but when the first tender was lifted by the crane, all the alarms went off, the tender was too heavy. They had forgotten to add the weight of the cradles to the weight of the boats, a small overview problem with a real French touch.

There was enough freeboard left and stability was good so there was no problem on our part. the problem with the crane was solved and we could therefore load, lash and leave. The trip to Saffi without any special events. Unloaded and left harbour with destination Las Palmas to bunker. On arrival there it was raining cats and dogs, which did not happen that often, anyway the pilot and the shedcrew would not come out until it was dry. luckily they do better in England, otherwise they would never have had any shipping, but well this was Spain. After bunkering we departured with destination Barbados, after azimuths, sun and stars shooting and with an average speed of 9.5 miles (x 1,852 = 17,59 kilometers per hour.) not much else to do and I decided that the construction and pipe on the boat deck were for the captain to paint, Something which the other crewmembers did not like as, they had never had seen a captain who got his hands dirty, apparently they had no coastal sailingexperience.

Eventually we got to (I can not remember how long) Barbados the island is in sight, which is high standard navigating , because Columbus and his following sailors have missed the island for many years. Okay they did not have a good clock either.

We started with unloading, the cars on the foredeck were nicely dented by the taken over water (waves that roll over the deck), but that was solved by kicking the roof from the inside, and they were as good as new again. In the evening we had to quench our thirst, and it was a pretty big thirst, but no problem there was enough beer in barbados. In the hotel bar where we drank, "the Merry Men" performed with their hits "money is a yankee dollar bill" and "a piece of bamboo" that later became world famous. So very nice this are great memories.

The next day we were almost empty as almost everything was unloaded and we left for Saint Lucia, on arrival telexes from the shipowner and the West of England owners protecion club, not to unload because the shipowner was not yet paid for the new cargo to Barbados and the charterer had disappeared from his office in Fenchurchstreet. After telephone contact with both above and in consultation with the local agent it was decided to "lean on the cargo" via the court in Castries (capital Saint Lucia). Became amazingly interesting because the court in Saint Lucia sometimes works according to English law, sometimes according to code Napoleon and sometimes according to laws that they have made themselves and then of course the international maritime law, Can you still figure it out?

After a few days of talking back and forward, the court ruled that if the owners of the cargo in Saint Lucia had paid the charterer in London and had "sigth of the cargo" to "lean on the cargo" was not legal. So just go and unload. A good start to make all that money, or is this who wants everything loses everything any time.

By the way, Saint Lucia is a beautiful island and I can really recommend it for a vacation.

After unloading cargo, at Dominica, that was pretty tame after all events in Saint Lucia. The load for Dominica had to be eliminated, otherwise we could not unload the drilling table for New Orleans and the value was not enough to start another case. Sigh.....

Being close to the coast (deep) at anchor lying down in Domenica was fun, the local ladies came to do the laundry in a stream with little clothes, this was 1977, when we had already topless ladies on the Dutch and Spanish beaches, or only on the nudist beaches?

Released the drillingtable in New Orleans, the man was glad he had his drill back, and than he asked me how many "wheels" the ship had, and yes, that confused me a bit. Later I thought that the paddle wheels that where still sailing around there had wheels.

Loading wood in Puerto Isabel (Columbia) for Jamaica. Puerto Isabel is a pier in the sea, the electricity goes off at 10 o'clock in the evening (hot beer is the problem) the sea chart of Puerto Isabel just as that of Dominica somehow chartmakers just made duplicats and years later when Nasa renewed the world map it turned out to be somewhere else, but if we could have sailed 40 knots we could have made gold here, but that is another story.

A pessimist is an optimist with a lot of experience.

 

The Old Sailor,