Outback Wallaby

The weather has been awful for the last week, rain, rain and more rain. Haven't seen raining men but it sure is close. Well, enuff of that stuff. Yesterday we went out cruising east on the intention of seeing wild kangaroos or skippies as they call 'em here down under.

And so we went, me driving, Captain Mats as co-pilot and our new 2nd Engineer Petrica and 2nd Mate Tapani in the back. Tapani was piloting me with the local map and we headed out towards Albany, some 350k's from Fremantle. When we had cleared all signs of inhabitation we entered a forested area and I switched on the cruise control (nice thing that 1, never had one before on any of my cars).

After I think abt 75k's on the road we stopped and turned into a dirt track that ran off the highway. We went along various dirt tracks and we soon lost ourselves in a maze of them when suddenly a rabbit ran across the road. Well, at least not a lost cause, one vabbit seen. On we went and as it was already getting dark we decided to turn back and then it happened.

A live kangaroo jumed out of the bushes on the road in front of us and then he/ she stopped and looked us. We also stopped and gazed at the live kangaroo or I think rather a wallaby. Small thing maybe 1m high he sat there staring at us, I managed to squeeze off one shot from my camera when he thought enuff is enuff and skipped off into the forest. Mission accomplished and we could head back home, I crisscrossed many dirt tracks and finally we ended back on the highway. So, total trip was around 150km's and a bonged a vabbit and a kangaroo. Now I can say that I have not only eaten skippy but also seen him.

Night out in Freo

Greetings from Australia once more. Have been down under in Oz for a couple weeks now. Last Saturday I volunteered to be the designated driver for my colleagues. Ah, need to back track some more. We live in a 3 bedroom (3-story) house that is near the center of Fremantle.

Very convenient spot, the center is like 5 blocks away and the cathouse only 3. Including me it is the Captain, a Swedish guy and the Hotel Manager, a Swiss guy, that lives in the house. It is almost like Big Brother but we don't have any chicks which makes it rather boring. We only work, work and work. Well, I been cooking dinners almost every night more or less. And so it goes.

Well, to come to the point of the story we went out on the Saturday night for dinner and beers to Northbridge, Perth where the meat vats are supposedly bigger and better. As I said I was driving and we headed for Perth and ended up in a restaurant called the Brass Monkey. Didn't see and monkeys though. We enter the restaurant and the waitress that comes to take our order has a name tag on her chest and I read a Finnish name, so I ask her do you come from Finland? The girl replies yes and continues in clear Finnish. As it happens she had just finished her studies and was backpacking around the world and had stopped to work some cash for her next leg of the voyage. It is just amazing how a nation of just 5mil people spread out. There you go walking into a restaurant practically on the opposite side of the world and you bump into a fellow country man. How weird is that?

Anyway, I had quesadillas for starters and a 300g kangaroo steak for main course. Man, I was stuffed, I couldn't have even forced myself to drink beer after this, so I was quite content to be the designated driver. After dinner we went around and looked into various venues but the area we were in was just too rough. Teenage guys in T-shirts and jeans, ratarsed and full of adrenalin, coppers everywhere ready to contain any arising situation. It was almost like being in Finland, just a bit warmer. So, we went back to the car and headed for Subiaco, another nightlife spot in Perth. Down in Subiaco bars were closing and nightclubs had queues of people lining up.

I haven't lined into a venue since I was in my twenties and I guess it was the same as with my colleagues. Then we bump into this Aussie guy who starts talking and it turns out he had been living a short while in Sweden and he wanted to guide us to another venue with no queues, so we hop into our car and drive on somewhere near Cottesloe which is almost Fremantle. We end up in a seedy disco with a clientele about 10-15yrs younger than us. Oh well... After a while looking at all the youngsters getting bombed out of their heads we decided it is time to head home for a good nights sleep. When we arrive home I chat on DC++ until 4.30am, so much for the nights sleep. At least I woke up without a hangover.

Fremantle, Australia

Been now almost a week in Oz and seen and experienced a lot.

I already had kangaroo on skewers (or skippy in Oz) the other night, it tasted a little bit like lamb. Meat was very dark and tasty. I can recommend it. :)

Last weekend we (the present ships crew) was invited to an outing on Saturday visiting some of Fremantles bars and discoes. Surprisingly there are a number of good ales in Oz, ranging from pale to black as Guinness. Even local breweries has sprung up here and there. So, for those who think Australian beer is only Fosters, it is not so. I also stand corrected and man, did I taste a lot of different beers.

On Sunday we visited the old Fremantle prison that ceased operations in 1991. It first housed convicts from UK and later on was turned into a prison. Pretty austere conditions they were living in as well as violent. Until closing the prison wasn't even fitted with plumbing so the inmates carried their droppings in metal buckets and sometimes they threw the contents around if they were displeased.

Other than that I've been working. The ship is not nearly as finished as I'd thought it would be. If this was the first time I saw a shipyard I would have been probably shocked by the late appearance in schedule but it is not so this is no surprise for me. But, eventually when she is finished she will be a state of the art yacht which will raise a not a few eye brows. So, my days goes on wrapping my brain around the ship and visualizing how the operation will be, what tools and materials do I need. Planning the trip to Europe and so forth. Millions of things to do and time is running out . . . fast. Hopefully we will make it to the Monaco yacht show.

Well, this is all for now, hopefully soon I will get some decent piccies to post. Until then, ta-ta..

Sign on m/y Titan

After having left CMA CGM Capella after completing my tour I was at home in Thailand. In a few days I was contacted by Captain Christos Ntaoutis asking if I would like to join m/y Titan as Chief Mate. 

Considering the offer and what the NSB was paying me I readily agreed to join and I subsequently sent my resignation to Germany.

I got a flight from Bangkok to Nice and soon enough I was off and after the long haul I arrived France 6th October. I was met by the Bosun in the crew car and whisked onboard to Monaco. Incidentally Bosun was also a Finnish chap.

Titan in La Seyne-sur-Mer

Titan was originally a British naval hydrographic vessel built by Brooke Marine in Lowestoft back in 1968 so she was as old as I was. The current crew complement was 20 and she was commercially registered as a small passenger vessel with a guest capacity of 24. 

As time went by I learned that she was almost single-handedly converted from navy vessel into a superyacht by the owning Captain, Mr Peter Bull. He designed the vessel with his wife and carried out all the DAD's with Lloyd's class into Cayman Island flag. Unfortunately he passed on from illness shortly after completion of the vessel so ownership had passed onto his family.

When I joined the summer season was just finished and a bit later we sailed for the winter season to La Seyne-sur-Mer, a small hamlet basically conjoined with Toulon for works. One of the main engines had a broken camshaft and would be later replaced after our drydocking in Marseille.

Footnote 2020: Eventually we fixed her up for the next summer and several charters lined up but the Owners had decided to sell her and move on with their life. The buyers were from Italy and senior crew including me were asked if we'd like to bring the vessel to Genoa and hand over to the new Italian officers and Indonesian ratings. As it meant a bit more money in the pocket for me I agreed although it was sad that the boat had sold and I would soon be on the street looking for a job.

Years passed by and from time to time I visited Genoa and could see her sitting there and once I collaborated with her on a common charter. Very little exterior changes had been made to her except renewal of her deck crane and change of hull color. 

In 2019 I came over the news that she had been sold and renamed Aqua Blu with new cruising grounds in Indonesia. Her Class had been changed to RINA (probably already back in 2006) and flag had been changed from Italian to Panamanian. 

CMA CGM Capella

Was home in Thailand looking for work everywhere and finally found out about a ship-management company in Buxtehude, Germany that had lately been looking and employing Finnish officers in their fleet. The company was called NSB Niederelbe Schiffahrtsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG. 

CMA CGM Capella (photo courtesy of Ivan Meshkov/ Shipspotting.com)

Shore based employment - Pandaw cruises

08.08.2005 - 20.12.2005

r/v Tonle Pandaw on Tonle Lake

r/v Tonle Pandaw, r/v Mekong Pandaw, r/v Pandaw 4, r/v Pandaw 2

Position: Marine Superintendent

GT: 553, 600, 550, 550

LOA: 55, 60, 55, 55

Class: River cruise vessel

Flag: Cambodian and Myanmarese

Sailed up and down Vietnam & Cambodia on Mekong river and Myanmar on the Irrawaddy river.

Was contracted to write ISM manual and completed task. Also required to take care of many other technical matters. Recommendation of safety improvements for existing ships and implementing planned maintenance which was hard to explain as crew was not used to preventative maintenance. They rather waited for things to break and then they dealt with matter at hand. 

In Cambodia sailed down to Ho Chi Minh City with stops in between depending on cruise. In Cambodia sailed once up to Kratie and Angkor Wat. Cruises took from 3 to 9 days.

In Burma joined a cruise from Bhamo down to Mandalay. Pretty awesome countryside that not many gets to see. The staff in Burma was very professional. We also visited the Katha village of George Orwell where he was stationed during the English colonial years. The area was totally dry now as the riverbed had moved quite far from the houses he writes about but the buildings still stood and were inhabited by locals.

Most memorable experience was when we had a weeks stop (a charter was cancelled) in Kampong Cham and one evening the Vietnamese Captain and Chief Engineer invited me ashore to come for dinner. They had found a Vietnamese lady who lived there and ran a restaurant. In fact there are plenty of Vietnamese refugees or immigrants in Cambodia, so they are not that hard to find. The highlight of the dinner was a 6kg python that was cooked to a curry. We ate snake and drank some kind of local liquor to wash it down. It was not that strong but we emptied several bottles in the course of the evening and were in a merry mood when coming back onboard.

Employed several qualified staff to the technical side, it was difficult to find personnel. 

Planned new building projects in Vietnam and Myanmar. Mostly gave insights of design matters at hand. 

Budgeting area of responsibility.

Owner/ Operator: Pandaw Cambodia Ltd.

Phnom Penh Center, Rm. no 229, St.Sihanouk 274 Blvd. Sothearos 3, Sangkat Tonle Bassac, Khan Chamkarmon, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.  

www.pandaw.com

Grounding of Margarita L

Back in 2003 I was in Greece working for SETE yachts converting Columbus Caravelle to mega yacht Turama and we were alongside in Lamda shipyards where I had a good view of the laid up vessels in the sheltered Elefsis Bay, one of the interesting vessels out there was Margarita L, her imposing silhouette brought into my mind a lot questions of what is this ship doing here, where has she come from and what is she doing here. Little did I know that she was the property of the Latsis family.

After some research I learned that she was originally launched as Windsor Castle and sailed for the Union Castle lines from UK to South Africa. She was the last cruise ship ever built by Cammell Laird shipyard. Eventually after the advent of air travel cruising was no longer popular and she changed hands and became property of Mr John Latsis who used her mostly in Saudi Arabia where he had business interests. After that she was laid up in Elefsina Bay.

Then one night in the middle of the winter in 2004, Feb 12th she broke her anchor chain during a winter storm.

Margarita L on Salamina

Apparently the night watchman on Margarita L had numerous times asked office for a tug to unwind her chain but it was ignored or forgotten for some reason and as such during the storm she broke loose and drifted onto the Salamina Island.

I was in Elefsina onboard Columbus Caravelle (now renamed Turama) and can indeed confirm it was quite the storm. We had new a new accommodation section welded on the quay and covered up with staging frames wrapped in heavy duty shrinkwrap for working the filler and I was afraid the staging was going to blow away. It was lifting from time to time as the gusts came through the bay.

Anyway, the storm and night passed and then Margarita L was in the morning on the Salamina Island and soon enough after office opening hours my phone started ringing asking how many hands I had onboard, I gave them the figure and was then told to leave only the minimum for safety and send the rest to board a tugboat arriving soon. In about an hour more men converged onto the yard jetty as they had been procured from SETE yachts different vessels around the Athens and a tug came and we were all told to get onboard.

After that we then motored to another laid up tug with coils and coils of old mooring ropes, some of them with a hefty 9in diameter. They were all laid on the tugs aft deck and we went for Margarita L. Obviously she was a dead ship and thats why all the able hands were needed, we climbed aboard and went to her foredeck and started pulling onboard lines, she was a big lady and I think the foredeck was abt 15m high so we were nearly 50 men pulling the ropes up with muscle power only. Once the ropes were on forward and aft deck the tug engaged and she was pulled up alongside the Lamda shipyard in Elefsis (where Columbus Caravelle was being converted).

During the time after the lines were on deck and she was towed to the jetty I had some time to roam around the vessel and visited onboard every nook and cranny that I could. It was for me very interesting to see her old DC wiring and Frankenstein switches and the enormous machinery meant to power her systems as well as her massive propulsion and what not.

I did take some pictures of the magnificent view from the bridge wing. Even then in her dilapidated state she was an impressive vessel, sadly they don't make cruise ships as they used to anymore. 

After she was brought alongside they spent a few days fixing up her anchor and towed her back to her usual anchoring spot.

Old radar

Her aft

Promenade deck

Captains fireplace

Captains office

Chart table

Bridge

View from bridge wing

Engine telegraph

DC switches

Margarita L under tow

Margarita L in Lamda

Margarita L leaving Lamda

Margarita L leaving Lamda

Margarita L Captains office

Fore deck

Margarita L alongside

Margarita L bridge

Margarita L engine room control

Saloon

Pool deck

Click for pics of Margarita L from the time of her incident by another enthusiast.

Click for her history on Wikipedia

Columbus Caravelle sold

30.01.2003 - 03.02.2003
M/v Columbus Caravelle

As I was looking for a new job I was contacted by the new Owner of CoCa (Columbus Caravelle), the Technical Manager Alan Lowry from CMM Ltd. asking if I would like to follow the new Owner's to Greece. He said my knowledge of the ship would be important for the project they were planning for her, she was going to be converted from cruise ship to mega yacht. As I knew the ship and the idea of being part of a conversion was exciting, I agreed. Not that I had anything else going at that time.

M/v Columbus Caravelle alongside Gaoyanglu wharf, Shanghai

(photo collage)

To begin with I flew to Hong Kong where CoCa sat at her usual buoy mooring and boarded her in a consulting capacity to Alan Lowry so as to know what was ships property and what was not. The people from Conning Shipping were a bit surprised how the tables had turned with me suddenly on the other side. Not that there were any surprises, Conning removed their stuff, mostly decorations and paperwork and such things. I also confirmed which crew was to follow us to Greece, the Ukrainians were a bit sad that they did not get to do the transit.

Columbus Caravelle

04.03.2000 - 31.05.2000 Chief Officer
01.06.2000 - 07.08.2000 Captain
02.10.2000 - 01.11.2000 Chief Officer
02.11.2000 - 04.02.2001 Captain
05.04.2001 - 04.06.2001 Chief Officer
05.06.2001 - 10.08.2001 Captain
09.10.2001 - 09.12.2001 Chief Officer
10.12.2001 - 26.04.2002 Captain
24.06.2002 - 07.01.2003 Captain
M/v Columbus Caravelle

M/v Columbus Caravelle in Jeju Is., S. Korea

As we did not have too many comers to CC or rather we weren't interested in Officers coming on for one contract and then moving on we decided we would rotate the position between 3 persons, C/O Perttu, me as C/O & Captain and Reijo as Captain. It worked well for awhile but was finished after Reijo got a position ashore and left seafaring life to be with his family.

By end of 2000 Conning Shipping acquired a bigger ship, Omar II, to cater for their growing clientele in Hong Kong and so we were chartered down to Singapore with a partnership where I think Conning Shipping also had a finger in the pie. The MO was casino cruises of course. The rumor went that someone had lost nearly 100mil USD in one night at the casino and that enabled for the fleet enlargement.

We made cruises up and down the Malacca Straits and even once we visited Bintan Island in Indonesia as a trial. I think the massive bribes to get a sailing permit there finished the idea. Usually we cruises up to Port Klang, then down to Melaka, from there to Singapore, then Pasir Gudang, again Singapore and Port Klang. It was a rather pleasant itinerary, some days we could go and explore Port Klang or Singapore.

The Indonesian shipping license, I was told the signatures cost a fortune

As I was going so often to Port Klang I applied and got pilot dispensation so we only needed a Harbor Pilot (he only came for the coffee anyways), but it sped up the arrival. Also the radio communication went entirely in Bahasa Melayu, the 1st Officer then, Jukka Kiuru, compiled a nautical phrase list that we rehearsed ourselves on before we started reporting in Malay.

Malaysian pilot exemption certificate

Furthermore, the requirements became more stringent on passenger ships and crew needed to have a Crowd Management course done. Reijo Granqvist had started this certification by making an onboard course and got it certified by Lloyd's Classification society, I continued his work after he left.

We also were required to start a maintenance program digitally, a program that would remind you if something was left undone. It took us about a year to put everything on database but we got it ready in time to our next external ISM audit. It was a really good tool after that.

Arrival ceremony in Shanghai, China (attended by R. Granqvist)

Then suddenly in June 2002 the charter ended in Singapore and Conning Shipping did not extend or renew the contract so they took away the ship and chartered us in traffic between Shanghai and Jeju Island, South Korea. I was on vacation when the transit happened and Reijo took the ship up north from Singapore.

The sailing was at times quite rough when it was typhoon season and the traffic in the river was chaotic. Nothing we had experienced in Hong Kong or Malacca Straits could have prepared us for the nightmarish traffic situation in Shanghai. The pilots were used to old ships, maybe even steamers as they had only telegraph orders for engines and at times were difficult to understand their pidgin english.

One 1st Officer, Heikki Kaukinen, once counted the traffic and got an average of 400 ships passing our berth in an hour. The berth we occupied at Gayonglu jetty was in the centre of the city so one could walk to the Bund and elsewhere. Unfortunately the Charter went bankrupt at end of 2002 and the ship was arrested and Conning Shipping took back the ship to Hong Kong.

I signed off in Shanghai and handed over to an Ukrainian Captain and left for vacation and to find new employment when the news reached me that the ship had been sold to a Greek buyer and Conning Shipping did not have a position to offer me (Omar II was 100% Ukrainian deck & engine crew and, of course, cheaper).

Oihonna

24.01.2000 - 16.02.2000
M/s Oihonna

Oihonna (unknown photographer)

LOA: 170, GT 20203, FG-Shipping

Shortly after arriving home I was called to do another stand in on Oihonna, naturally I went, another day another dollar as they say. Well, in my case another mark.

It was the same as before, the mind numbing liner traffic between Helsinki, Finland and Luebeck, Germany. All days melt together and some days you are not even sure at which end of the line you are unless you look out to confirm.

Oihonna (unknown photographer)

Winden

10.12.1999 - 07.01.2000
M/s Winden

M/s Winden

LOA: 70m, DWT: 4402, Rederi Engship AB (now discontinued)

Once again in Finland on vacation I was called from the job centre to join up on Winden as Chief Officer, as I could not sit around, I went. Winden was already familiar to me from the last time so it was easy to make myself at home.

I signed on in Raahe where we loaded steel for the continent to Rotterdam, Holland. I don't recall if we took any return cargo but I do remember that I celebrated the change of millennia by passing the Öresund and Copenhagen. It was very boring as none of the calamities happened what the doomsday sayers and Y2K forecasters promised. Not even our navigation equipment had hiccups. I think I drank a beer after sauna with our Engineer.

Then our next cargo down from Merikarvia was timber with part of it on deck. We were a bit perplexed that somebody wanted to take a cargo of timber in the middle of the winter as deck cargo, but the client is always right so we prepared the deck lashing equipment. I had loaded about half of the timber cargo in the hold when I signed off and the other C/O continued.

I heard later from one of the Deckhands that when they were enroute it was blowing a stiff NNE'ly and just when they rounded Ölands Södra Grund, and changed course to WSW the ship rolled once to port and once to starboard and the deck cargo went overboard in one fell swoop. The Baltic can be bad in winters if the cargo is not properly lashed down...

Columbus Caravelle

07.04.1999 - 22.09.1999
M/v Columbus Caravelle

LOA: 117m, GT 7560, Passengers: ~200

M/v Columbus Caravelle in Port Klang

After Oihonna I was in touch with Captain Reijo Granqvist and he asked me to join back to Columbus Caravelle (CoCa) as Chief Officer and as the boat was now under new Ownership, I agreed. There was nothing keeping me at home as my marriage was on the rocks in my own mind, I was stupidly divorcing Tiina-Maria.

The charter of CoCa had expired and there was a clause that after expiry the charterer have to buy the ship or forfeit the guarantee deposit of 2mil USD. As the Casino biz was booming they bought the ship as a natural evolution of things. So, now she was under Ownership of Conning Shipping and a proper shore Organisation was setup as per ISM standards. It was very nice to work together with Technical Manager/ DPA Mr. P.K.Yeung.

CoCa was still sailing out of Hong Kong on casino cruises so not much had changed, only the new development was that on Sundays we were doing a day cruise. We left around noon and was back around 10pm and after this the crew could relax until Monday evening.

Oihonna

11.03.1999 - 29.03.1999
M/s Oihonna

M/s Oihonna

After Railship I was called from FG-Shipping to do a stand in on M/s Oihonna as First Officer. I signed on in Helsinki and we sailed on liner traffic to Luebeck.

As usual cargo was the normal ro-ro stuff - trailers, mafi's and trucks.

The "Oihonna" name is hailing from the now defunct Effoa Shipping Company, she was still displaying the "eyes" on her bow. There was an embossed star in a circle on p/sb side of the bow. Old Effoa hands said one of the eyes were looking for cheap bunker, the other for cheap provisions.

Oihonna was built in 1984 by Rauma Yards in Finland. She has length overall 155m with DWT 12870 and lane length 2070m. Also a very well working tool.

Railship I

07.03.1999 - 10.03.1999
M/s Railship I

M/s Railship I (Photo by A. Sporri)

Having arrived home from my vacation in Burma and Thailand it was time to get back at the grinder and I was called from the job centre to urgently get to Turku port to fill in as First Officer on M/s Railship I for a round trip to Luebeck, Germany as the steady person had taken ill.

Railship I was originally built to take train wagons and it still could do that as the rails were still on the deck but nowadays she also took a lot of trailers and other ro-ro cargo. As it was only a round trip I did not have much time to get familiar with the ship, all I can say that she was built in Germany in a very ascetic style. Very well working tool. She was built in 1975 by Rickmers Werft in Bremerhaven, length overall 177m and DWT 8970 with rails 1307m.

She was scrapped in Alang, India by 2001.

Superstar Leo

22.09.1998 - 23.12.1998
M/v Superstar Leo

Superstar Leo (unknown photographer)

Having completed my contract I was at home when the phone rang and I was asked to join Superstar Leo that was a new building being built at the Meyer Werft in Papenburg, Germany. The 1st Officer there had wringed his ankle and had to go on sick leave so they called me to replace the 2nd Officer that was being promoted to 1st Officer. I accepted and was soon on my way to Germany.

Superstar Leo in Papenburg (unknown photographer)

In Germany there was full swing going on and the last preparations before the yard handover to the Owner. When the time came I was at the flag line hoisting the Panamanian flag up and the German flag down in front of all the big directors of both Companies. The ship was huge, it was a whopping 268m long and had 75338 gross tons. She had a crew of 1100 and could take on some 2000 passengers. In my 4mths onboard I did not even have the time to venture to the lowest decks of the ship, she has 13 decks. The propulsion is diesel electric that gave out some 30MW of power to the fixed twin screws making her go 27 knots max.

Superstar Leo (unknown photographer)

The bridge itself was bigger than a football field, the distance from the conning station to the chart table was so long that when the phone rang you would not be able to answer it in time by walking over. She had 20 lifeboats of which 4 was also used as tenders and 2 rescue boats. The bridge was equipped with the latest NACOS navigation system from Germany. The 1st Officer was Mika Appel and he taught a lot and was very frank on any issue and not afraid of lifting the cat on the table.

We sailed from Papenburg towards Mumbai, India for a PR event and the voyage took weeks for us, all the way down the English Channel, over the Bay of Biscay, a bit of Atlantic Ocean at the Portuguese coast, then entering the Mediterranean, through the Suez Canal and Mumbai. During these weeks there was a lot of rehearsals, drills, routines carved out etc. etc. to make the ship tick for its intended purpose. During the voyage we were not overtaken even once, the fast container ships were hanging on for awhile but they also eventually fell behind.

In Mumbai we stayed only a few hours and soon continued towards Port Klang. There we were met by a Horn band playing and the Directors of the Company including some of the Malay Royal family dignitaries from the state of Selangor. From here we staretd sailing on our new schedule: Singapore - Port Klang - Langkawi - Phuket on a weeks rotation. In Phuket we had a lot of tendering to do and I must say that the German made Fassmer tenders we had were nice and quiet to drive. Only thing I opined about was that you could never stand properly and maneuver and sitting was with your knees in your mouth, so not the most ergonomic working position if you drove the tenders 4hrs in a row.

Singapore Straits

As it was such a big ship there was also Officers by the dozen: Captain, Staff Captain, Safety Manager, Chief Officer, Security Officer, 1st Officer, 2nd Officer (2 guys), 2nd Officer jr, 3rd Officer (2 guys). Already 11 Officers and ratings there was some 30, they were divided in day and night crew so there were also 2 Boatswains. On the bridge there was always 2 Officers on duty and same in engine room. One Engineer sat in the Control room while another roamed the engine room. They were connected by walkie talkies and the guy in the control room was giving information of things to rectify (alarms that were coming up).

Here I also visited Thailand for the first time of my life and I was invited to go ashore for dinner with a Thai called Cindy. She was working as a masseuse onboard and I knew her from SSS already as she had been transferred from there, a nice outgoing girl that was there for the money (as we all were). Ashore we went for a seafood restaurant and I had the most wonderful dinner in my life. Unfortunately the oysters I had did not agree with me so the next day I came down with diarrhea and visited the Medical clinic onboard.

I got some pills from the nurse there that took away the loose stomach but did not remove the problem. As there was no bowel movement I got worse and worse during my off duty and I went back again to the First aid clinic, this time consulting the Swedish Doctor we had working there. She thought I was crazy having eaten oysters and I agreed with her. She put me on a trip and soon I lost consciousness. I woke up after 24 hrs staring at the Captain and wondered where I was. I remembered what had happened and the Doc informed me that I had passed the worst and had to take it easy. After another 24hrs I was on my feet again and back on duty. I have avoided oysters since then and my stomach felt odd several months afterwards.

M/v SuperStar Leo (photo by Jan G. Rautawaara)

But as it was the flagship of Star Cruises it also carried the worst kind of crew that specialized in elbowing and backstabbing when trying to prove themselves to the Management. The brotherly love between Finland and Sweden has never been good and it came out very clearly that the Swedes were on the top and Finn's were doing the dirty work (apart from a few exceptions). I think this animosity hailed from the times when the Swedish Slite shipping company was made to default by the banks due to some wheeling and dealing from their Finnish counterparts and then was overtaken by SF Line in Mariehamn, a lot of Swedish sailors lost their jobs that time. The Slite ships were eventually sold to Star Cruises that were just starting up operations on their Casino money earned in Genting highlands.

As I never been afraid of telling my honest opinion of anything I probably came over as overly negative or critical when reviewing several of the systems and routines that were carried out onboard. In this course I also probably made some toes very sore so in the end when my contract ended I was let known by Captain Svedung that I was not welcome in the Company anymore with the imaginary excuse of breaching some crew behavior regulation. There was not much to say so I signed off in Singapore and flew to Thailand for a holiday to pick up the pieces and find other things to do.

This incident made me grow out of the naivety of a Merchant ship sailor that all people are taken at face value and nobody wants anything bad for you. It taught me also to be more careful of what I let out of my mouth and to mind my own business...

Superstar Sagittarius

16.06.1998 - 16.09.1998
M/v Superstar Sagittarius

Superstar Sagittarius at Pulau Pangkor, Malaysia

As I had applied for a job in Star Cruises something like a year ago and I had been contacted by the HR department in Sweden and a bit before Roslagen I had been invited to visit their Offices. I went to Stockholm for an interview and to Skåne for a psychological evaluation. The psychological test was weird but aren't they all a bit odd in that profession. In the Navy we also had to do a psych test and it involved questions like "do you like flowers?", "do you sometimes feel that you have a band squeezing your head?" - makes sense doesn't it?

So, then I got the call that I was to fly to Port Klang, Malaysia and join Superstar Sagittarius (SSS) as 2nd Officer. Said and done I was on my way and joined up, a familiarization was conducted by the Officer I was relieving so I got the best introduction that one could have. SSS was a Finnish built ship back from 1972 originally built for Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines and launched as Sun Viking. She is 172m long with 18455 gross tons and carries abt 800 passengers with 350 crew.

Helsinki yard in 1972, Sun Viking on the right (unknown photographer)

Made in the Helsinki shipyard she was still a classic old lady with her long sleek bow and champagne glass stern and the RCCL signature crown lounge in the funnel. As old as she was the tank top was getting rotten, safety equipment needed a lot of service and machinery in general was worn out. Spares were difficult, if not impossible, to find, because of her age.

The crew on Star Cruises was really multi national, there were people from all over the world with Filipinos and Malays topping the list, then came all the SE Asian countries and after that Scandinavians with some odd Australian and Central European thrown in. We were cruising out from Port Klang to Lumut and sometimes just high seas gambling cruises. The Captain was an old Norwegian fellow named Kristiansen that I think must have followed the boat since the times of RCCL.

I recall one day in Port Klang when the Safety Manager wanted me to take down all the lifeboats and run the engines and train in rowing the boats. Well, said and done I took respective boats down with their assigned crews and drove down the river a bit and then we did some rowing for abt half an hour. Then we started back and as we were turning towards SSS one of the lifeboat engines died. No worries there, we took her on tow and continued but lo and behold we were going full ahead but looking at the shore we were not moving anywhere. The tide was rising so fast and we were going against the tide but the life boat did not make any headway because it was towing another one. One hour turned into another, the sun was scorching, the boats were of open model so there was no shade, luckily we wore caps. We had to drink the water from the tanks as we got more and more parched. Finally, the crew on the other lifeboat managed to get some life into the engine and we reached SSS and hoisted all boats into their davits. It was a very long lifeboat maneuver.

SSS as m/v Long Jie with Conning Shipping (unknown photographer)

As a footnote to SSS, she was soon sold to cruise between South and North Korea after that she was bought by Conning Shipping, incidentally the same Company that chartered and later owned Columbus Caravelle, small circles. She was engaged in same kind of gambling cruises as was customary in Hong Kong and Malaysia. Eventually she was scrapped early 2021 in Pakistan. Almost 50 years of service, very impressive.

Roslagen

20.05.1998 - 08.06.1998
M/s Roslagen

Roslagen (unknown photographer)

I had a job with Star Cruises and was preparing to go again to Far East, this time to a big time cruise ship but I was called from the job centre and they pleaded me to go and do a replacement job on Eckerö Lines M/s Roslagen as 1st Officer. I was first reluctant but the Eckerö Lines HR called me that there was nobody available and they needed an Officer acutely as the other had become sick.

Roslagen (unknown photographer)

So, I relented and went for it, after all it was just another job. M/s Roslagen built 1972 in Germany is 108m long and could load 1320 passengers and 210 cars. The route she was plying went from Eckerö, Finland to Grisslehamn, Sweden. During the day we did 5 round trips all in all. At times I was disoriented of where I really was, in Finland or Sweden.

Roslagen (unknown photographer)

The Captain's maneuvering the ship into Eckerö where experts in the maneuver, whatever the weather we had. The approach speed was around 10 kts and from there engines were crossed and the ship swung by it's forward momentum to reverse into the berth. The trust on the machinery was 100%, if anything would have given away there would have been dents to fix.

After finishing the contract I was still asked to stay for the remainder of the summer but I had other arrangements with Star Cruises so I thanked them for the offer but could not take them up on it which was a pity as everyone were nice.