Wednesday, December 23, 1998

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...

Wednesday, September 16, 1998

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.

Sunday, June 07, 1998

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.

Friday, April 17, 1998

Columbus Caravelle

09.01.1998 - 17.04.1998
m/v Columbus Caravelle

M/s Columbus Caravelle at WTC in Singapore

After Finnmaid I was again back on Columbus Caravelle (CoCa) under the management of BMC. This turn was proving to be very taxing in terms of harmony onboard between the Scandinavians and I did not want to come back to CoCa after this. I was so disappointed in the management decisions taken by BMC.

See the mooring buoy during typhoon


Our neighboring ship, M/s Walrus at her buoy

I came to relieve C/O Hans Söderholm as Chief Officer myself and there was quite a bit of turmoil as Söderholm was going to stay onboard to make the now mandatory ISM manual. Apparently Captain Henning Törnqvist and him had made a deal with the Management behind our backs to make the manual and just use the existing routines that were setup by Captain Ralf Jacobsen while enjoying double salaries. Chief Engineer Eric Seffer was furious, everybody was put off and the paranoia that set in due to this action made the atmosphere quite toxic. In the end I was elected to go and throw Söderholm offboard so I went and asked him to leave the ship and he went (to a hotel) to continue his manual making.

Bullseye by typhoon York, plots from 2 different met stations

At same time I recall there was a big incident with our Filipino 2nd Officer Lucio who went and signed an Engineering work done report without the consent of the Chief Engineer. I had to give him a severe dressing down that did not go down to him as constructive criticism. He somehow managed to get booze from ashore and got himself dead drunk and was in the middle of the night knocking on my door asking for his salary and behaved quite threatening in general. I managed to get him to see reason and to back off. Next morning he was not able to take his watch so he was turned in and when the high had gone he submitted his resignation and that was accepted by the Captain the same afternoon.

Monday, December 15, 1997

Finnmaid

07.10.1997 - 15.12.1997
M/s Finnmaid

m/s Finnmaid (Pic by Dirk Jankowsky)

Having signed off Columbus Caravelle I was at home but was called from the job centre whether I would take on a short replacement job on FG-Shipping's M/s Finnmaid as 1st Officer, to which I agreed.

Finnmaid is one of the experimental ships from the era when the development of the Ro-Ro (roll-on/ roll off) concept was being tried out. It was originally built for a system developed by Finnlines but never took on, a bit like Sony's Betamax. So, she was converted to accept trailers and trucks. She was built in 1972 by the Wärtsilä shipyard in Turku, Finland. Length is 130m and she could load 5400 DWT.

Finnmaid (unknown photographer)

The propulsion was also somekind of experiment of the time, she had twin screws but only a single rudder, this made her steering sluggish at slow speeds. No bowthruster but an air blower that could be used as one, the main idea for the blower was that the air would be blown under the ice so it would break easier during winters (see the 1st pic with all the froth at the bow).

Now she was plying between Naantali, Finland and Kapellskär, Sweden, all trailers on below deck and trucks on tween deck. The trucks had drivers with them and many of them were on their way to Central Europe for 6mths of trucking. Quite often the Swedish police would set up shop at the end of the ramp and test all drivers for alcohol content.

The ship was old but worked well, crew also was very nice and I was doing 2 weeks on, 2 weeks off. The navigation was most of the time in the archipelago with the Liner Pilot navigating. One of the pilots happened to my old Captain from Columbus Caravelle, Ralf Jacobsen. The OOW's duty was to follow up on navigation, logbooks and alarms. Furthermore, I got the working hours log that was sent to office on a daily basis. It was a demanding job as there was 3 different union contracts in force, one for ratings, one for Engineers and one for Officers and I had to send this report every morning after my 12-4 dogwatch duty.

Monday, July 07, 1997

Columbus Caravelle

02.06.1996 - 10.09.1996 Chief Officer
10.09.1996 - 04.11.1996 1st Officer (Safety)
03.12.1996 - 07.07.1997 Chief Officer
M/v Columbus Caravelle

M/v Columbus Caravelle

I had finished my Captain's Class and had been in contact with Crossline whether I would like to go there to start as Chief Officer on m/s Atlanta Forest. I had tentatively agreed on this but, was suddenly called up from BMC and offered a steady Chief Officer's vacancy on m/v Columbus Caravelle, the younger sister ship of m/s Delfin Star that I had worked on last summer.

I did not take long to decide where to go as the salary was excellent, I knew the job and the ship was also "fresher". So, I called up Crossline and cancelled our agreement to the Managers dismay and I was once again on my way to the Far East.

Columbus Caravelle in original paint scheme (unknown photographer)

As told earlier m/v Columbus Caravelle was sistership to Delfin Star and both remains of the defunct Delfin Cruises now under Finnish Government Ownership (through offshore connections) and being managed by Baltic Marine Consulting (BMC). Columbus Caravelle (CoCa) had earlier been chartered in Singapore and Indonesia for similar casino cruises as gambling is forbidden so the ever inventive Chinese chartered these ships to go out on International waters to play cards. It is also perhaps ironic that in the collapse of Delfin Cruises the Finnish Gov't became indirectly involved in dubious Far East gambling activities by their Charterers.

Now Delfin Star had been sold and there was need for more Casino ships in the administrative region. My Boatswain Jimmy from Delfin Star was Bosun on CoCa as there had been some crew changes on CoCa's way up from Singapore. I had as Captain Ralf Jacobsen who was interchanging with Captain Bo Rosenqvist. As permanent Chief Officer was Karl "Kalle" Karlsson. Ralf and Karl resigned later as they wanted to take on liner pilot positions in Finnlines, (which they eventually got and pensioned themselves from there). As new replacement came Captain Reijo Granqvist.

The safety culture on CoCa was better than on Delfin Star as Captain Ralf had implemented a rigorous safety program from his years on Caribbean cruise liners. We still had the same problem with the Chinese crew but with this charter we had them on our side and we could discipline the crew to get better. Also the Hotel Manager, Danny Chong, was an energetic Malaysian that never seemed to run out of steam and ways to solve any issues. Also as time went by the mainland Chinese became better and better and once when the crewing agency visited us onboard they said many crew had positive things to say about me and other Sr Officers. I was positively surprised that the word had gone this far.

Hong Kong itself does not offer great sights but as I stayed there I came to visit all places worth seeing and probably not worth seeing as well. It is a bustling city where the never relenting pace pulls the weaker person down. It is not a place to grow up but to make money in. It is like the song New York, it never sleeps and keeps changing constantly, wherever you look you can see building development going on.

As a highlight of these stints I can mention that we were there when Hong Kong was officially handed over to China from British rule, eventually HK remained as a special administrative region for next 50 years and basically nothing much changed for the ordinary citizens. I think the biggest changes were on the political level as well as the gloomy reporting of Chinese military rolling in to the region. The festivities however were huge, the royal yacht Britannia attended for Prince Charles and the fireworks lasted for ages, it was a pity that it was raining cats and dogs that evening. Could have enjoyed the display more if the weather had been better, after all we had the best viewing spot from Victoria Harbor at our mooring buoy. 

Royal yacht Britannia (courtesy of Barbara Jones)

Eventually this was for Britannia her last function and after this she headed for the Philippines. Then it was onwards back to UK where she was laid up in Leith and where she is now on display for the public. I read a special report in the South China Morning Post how everything was still in original condition and nothing had been upgraded since her launch. Boy did they seem to have a lot of brass to polish. 

Tuesday, August 08, 1995

Delfin Star

04.04.1995 - 08.08.1995
M/s Delfin Star


m/s Delfin Star at Ocean Terminal

When the summer holidays were approaching our Class was asked if somebody would be interested in going to Hong Kong to replace the Chief Officer on m/s Delfin Star. As I had no commitments for the summer I thought I could do it, moreover I had never been working in the Far East so it sounded exciting. I got a call from the Manager and the deal was done, I was on my way to Hong Kong, 4 days after I had wedded Tiina-Maria.

Delfin Star was the first ship in a series of two for Delfin Cruises in Finland. They had thought it a good business model to build a new cruise ship every year and sell the old one on the 2nd hand market. The idea was good but the timing was bad. Customers were in plenty but in the end the Company collapsed due to lack of cashflow and the fact that the old ship would not sell for a good price. 

Delfin Star as new with her original name and colors

Delfin Cruises also had some loans guaranteed by the Finnish Government so the Ownership fell to them after the bankruptcy. After this the Government appointed Baltic Marine Consultng (BMC) to manage the ships and so they were chartered overseas to Far East. The charter contract specified a clause where the senior management had to be Scandinavian appointed crew (to look after Owner's interests), which is where we came in the picture. Delfin Star had Finnish crew that was Captain, Chief Officer, 1st Officer, Chief Engineer, 1st Engineer, Electrician and Repairman, the rest was Burmese, Malay & mainland Chinese and a few Filipino crew.

Delfin Star was built in 1989 in Rauma, Finland and had a LOA of 105 m with a gross tonnage of 5709. The crew was around 100 persons while guests were about 200. The ship was engaged in Casino cruises out of Hong Kong waters. The deck and engine crew was all Burmese and they were good guys, the Boatswain U Thein Win a.k.a. Jimmy, became my good friend and I visited him later on several occasions in Burma.

As I was first time on a cruise ship there was a bit to learn about the safety culture onboard, it is not same as on cargo ships where to this day boat drills were occasions where we put the lifeboat down in the water on a weekend, threw in a few cases of beer and pottered away for a day of fun. There is also the added element of crowd control and evacuation that is not required on cargo ships (unless someone is missing of course).

Anyway, Captain Ture Sundqvist was a great teacher and I had his lifetime experience on passenger ships to draw from. In the end he would also let me maneuver the ship. It was an awesome feeling having a big ship move at the touch of your fingers. The cruises we did were not spectacular at all, passengers came onboard in the evening and we departed for International waters, then the Casino was opened and the guests gambled all night long. In the morning we headed back and tied up at the Ocean terminal.

Maintenance was hard as the Chinese charter was stingy with buying stores or perhaps did not always understand what we needed it for. I started writing memo's explaining my needs and after that I got a bit more stock. Also the Burmese crew was a new feature to me as I had only sailed with a Chilean OS before so the cultural impact was remarkable. Apart from some minor squabbles over crew food the Burmese behaved well and was respectful to me as a leader. 

The Chinese people was a different ballgame, they spoke very little English, if any, and as they all think they will be the world rulers one day they did not give a toss of what we said. The interior was filthy and disgusting, the galley a catastrophe. I'm surprised I never got any stomach ailments from there. Captain Ture and me tried with meetings with the charter and Hotel Manager, they were always all smiles and positive attitude but in the end nothing happened. Warning letters were just paper for them, dismissal did not come in question. 

Most of the mainland Chinese crew were female and apparently chosen by the charter boss, depending on their willingness of doing whatever was being told they got better job positions or, if not, they were relegated in cleaning crew toilets. The four months went very fast and by the time it was time to sign off we were drydocking for annual inspections and the regular Chief Officer came and relieved me.

As a footnote to this ship is that she was soon afterwards old to Samsung in Korea who chopped her up and wanted to make her a training ship for their staff but I think this never realized itself. Then it was bought by another party and she was refitted and renamed World Discoverer II and did expedition cruises to Antarctica and elsewhere. Now she is Owned by Silversea Cruises and renamed Prince Albert II. I heard that she had had her bridge smashed in by a rogue wave so I think they must have a new one by now.

2023 update, now she's known as Silver Explorer


Wednesday, January 18, 1995

Winden

12.12.1994 - 18.01.1995
M/s Winden


After the last contract with Atlanta Forest I went back to school to do my Captain's ticket and to make ends meet I took a job for Christmas holidays on m/s Winden as 1st Officer. 

She is a 105m long general cargo ship built in Germany at the renowned Sietas yard. Winden has boxed in holds to fit 20-foot containers and can load 4402 DWT. She also has special tween decks that can be put in place with the hatches but when I was there, they were stored ashore. 

The ship is built in the time when other shipping Companies had bad times and the business for small coasters were booming and if I recall correctly Engship also managed to secure some cheap loans from the Finnish Government in order to build this series of ships. 

I can't recall where we sailed with her, but we took containers up and down between Finland and Central Europe, the weather was horrible with wind, snow, rain and sleet. Sailing the Baltic and North Sea is never pleasant in wintertime. Pretty hectic in port as we were shifting back and forth in Hamburg area discharging one container here and another there. Lot of sleep deprivation was gained.

Sunday, September 04, 1994

Atlanta Forest

03.03.1994 - 04.09.1994
M/s Atlanta Forest

As m/s Kent Forest

Then I was off to sail the Oceans again and was glad to get rid of the shore hopping in the Baltic Sea. I joined on Atlanta Forest for my 2nd contract.

Thursday, February 17, 1994

Finnsailor

01.02.1994 - 17.02.1994
m/s Finnsailor

m/s Finnsailor

After Norden I got offered a job to m/s Finnsailor as 2nd Officer. I was thrilled to be working in the "No 1" shipping Company in Finland, finally I was going to see what the hype was all about. I had seen their old ships and they were good tools but now I was going to see a newer tool.

M/s Finnsailor is a Polish built in 1987, ro-ro vessel, that is 158m long and had none of the cargo lifts but ramps only. This saved a lot of time in cargo handling. She could load 7620 DWT or 1790m lane length. My job was to correct charts and then to assist the Chief Officer in loading/ unloading. This consisted mainly of tallying dangerous goods and register plates of trucks/ containers.

The ship itself was very spacious, even my cabin was so big that I got agora phobia in it. Moreover I hated to clean it up when I was leaving the ship, all that dust wiping (although we got extra paid for it). We were on a liner traffic between Helsinki and Luebeck, Germany. It took barely 48hrs at sea between the ports as we did 20kts. All in all a very comfy ship to sail but all was routine, nothing ever happened. The messroom was like a restaurant, I almost felt like out of place there. If something happened it was bound to be bad news.

Time passed quite quickly and my temp contract was up and home I went...

Monday, December 20, 1993

Norden

08.11.1993 -20.12.1993
m/s Norden

After some rest at home I got offered a job on m/s Norden as 1st Officer, again in charge of the Medical chest. She was owned by Rederi Engship Ltd. (now ceased operation as they were bought up by Bore Line). Norden was a 120m long bulk carrier built in the early 70's and had originally been built and owned by Finnlines. At one time when the going was bad for all shipping Companies, Engship was buying up all surplus tonnage, somehow they managed to get charter for all of them and made a bundle.

Norden (unknown photographer)

Norden could load about 10000 DWT and she was on a regular charter from Finland to Norway. We were freighting pyrite from Yxpila to Sarpsborg. The sulphur was literally melting the ship structure, everything was sticky from it, plus we had the rotten egg smell always with us. One could fart freely anywhere without anyone noticing. Once we had discharged in Norway we usually went back empty but once we loaded coal from Gdansk to Rauma.

The crew was nice although I can't recall the Captain getting high points on diplomacy and objectiveness. He enjoyed shouting like a banshee from the bridge unintelligible orders when things did not happen as fast as he'd like. Naturally things happened even slower when people tried second-guessing each other "what does he want now?"

I also recall the Chief Officer was a nice man but unfortunately he had a bad relapse and was a bit overly thirsty. I had to inform the Captain as for a week I watched him coming on duty with rubber knees and saying "I can't understand it, I'm not sobering up" and so he was told off by the Captain and he tried hard for several days until he got the top on. After that he was being so sick he came to me and we had a drug in the medical chest called Esucos that could take the edge off withdrawals and it worked wonders on the poor mans self-induced condition and eventually returned to normal.

In Gdansk I remember people were going out en masse to buy cheap vodka to sell in Finland. This was a pastime for every sailor visiting Scandinavia, you could buy in Central Europe or in the ex Soviet satellite states a liter of vodka for a few dollars and sell it for 20, the return was better than on the stock market.

It was many times a cat and dog game between the crew and the Customs to hide the undeclared stuff and they would come onboard trying to find it. Sometime in other ships crew would make an easy find and get the OS or Apprentice take the fine and the Customs gang would walk away happy thinking they'd nailed the vessel. Once out of sight the big stash was broken open and big bucks were made. I've read in newspapers some stories of how the whole ship crew was involved in big operations where also the shipchandler was in cahoots. The Custom Office was smart, they gathered evidence for a year and then gave the death knell and hit everyone with the book.

Eventually this small time smuggling was eradicated by changing the rules. If you got caught the fine did not come to you personally, it came to the Owner. One can only imagine if an Owner would like the crew use his ship for smuggling purposes, let alone pay the fines of his employees. Overnight memo's came onboard in all messrooms warning crew that whomever was caught would be sacked. Nobody wanted to loose his job so the smuggling stopped almost then and there. Also the European Union with prices coming down as per the directives it also was not anymore that profitable when you could get almost same priced booze at the bottle shop or just jump in a ferry on a virtually free ticket and buy your Euro ration that is so big that you need a truck to haul it.

I'm digressing, so the Repairman and Motorman had decided to get some stuff ashore and so they went and bought a icehockey gear bag full of booze. Little did they know that the port did not allow alcohol to be taken onboard ships so the guard at the gate stopped them and would not let them in. The guys thought that they'll hide the bag and come back after dark as the port area was poorly lit and had big holes in their fences. Around 11pm they came back from their trip swearing and cursing the gate guard, somebody had beat them to the goal and the bag had disappeared from it's hidey hole. It was a bitter evening for the engine crew. Other crew had for a small fee used the waterman's truck to take in their stuff so they made it through the gate and got their stash onboard....

Thursday, October 21, 1993

Anne

17.09.1993 -22.10/1993
m/s Anne

Anne (courtesy from shipspotting.com)

As I was home on leave from m/s Atlanta Forest I could not sit on my laurels to wait 6 mths for the next contract to come so I went looking for some replacement jobs and when I told the employment center I was subsequently contacted by the Owner of Lotte Shipping that had one boat, m/s Anne.

He interviewed me in a local lunch bar and all seemed go fine although at the end he made some odd comments about the work I did understand but would come very clear to me later.

So, then I signed on Anne in Turku as Chief Officer, and departed for Hamina partially loaded with granite stone slabs to load more of the same stuff. As the ship was so small we did not need any pilot and we did our own piloting through the archipelago. Me and the Captain split the watches 6 by 6 hrs, in addition the crew consisted of a Chief Engineer, two AB's & a Cook.

M/s Anne was a German built general cargo coaster, 52m long, and could load around 1197 tons. She had one big hold and 2 hatches. This was my first job as Chief Officer and it was a new challenge as I was in charge of loading.

Eventually in Hamina I had to leave a few slabs ashore as we were fully loaded and the loadline was at water level. We would have had the space but rules are the rules. Once the hatches were closed and we were making ready for sea a port state inspector came by and inspected the landside loadline mark and asked if I could discharge some water to get the plimsoll out of the water (it was maybe 1-2cm under). I quickly pointed out that we had a slight list and if would have been even keel the mark would be out of the water. The inspector was satisfied and left.

Eventually we left for sea and headed for UK. The trip felt like an Ocean crossing as she made only 9-10kts. Once having discharged in UK we picked up a return cargo in Norway and came up to Raahe to discharge and load steel for Denmark and Norway. Here the Owner came onboard and signed on as Chief Engineer. We loaded on deck huge steel pipe segments about 10m in diameter, they almost covered the bridge windows and made us look like a gas carrier.

During this trip we had our payday and the Captain handed me the payslip. I was a bit confused as it was missing most of my overtime. When I asked the Captain about it he replied "talk to the Owner". Well, said and done I went and asked him what this was all about and he said that I had agreed to "overlook" some of my overtime, then he just waved his hand and said lets talk about it later. Now all his vague insinuations, in the lunch bar where he had interviewed me, came crystal clear to me. I got a lot of overtime doing 6/6 watches so it amounted to a fair bit of money.

I had never come across such incidents earlier so I called up the union rep and asked him what I should do. He told me to keep my cool and ask for what is mine. Some time later the Owner emerged on the bridge and wanted to negotiate about my hours and I told him straight out what was the case. He got angry but had no ground to put his arguments so he went away, at same time I think I've made himself my enemy for life.

Anyway, when we got back to Finland there was another Chief Officer waiting on the jetty to be suckered and so I signed off.

Some time later my best friend Jari was there working as an AB and the Captain had told him that it was the only time he had slept soundly while I was on duty. I think that is the best reference I have ever gotten...

Casandra (ex Anne) (courtesy from shipspotting.com)

Monday, August 02, 1993

Atlanta Forest

08.01.1993 -02.08.1993 Atlanta Forest


I had signed off Bona Fe and was (in my opinion) in for a great adventure as a Seaman. I was signing on m/s Atlanta Forest in Birkenhead, UK as 1st Officer (Medical & Safety Officer) on a 6 mths contract. It is located opposite of Liverpool, on the other side of the river Mersey. As usual the port was ancient and behind a lock. We were discharging pulp from Canada and after that going to Ventspils to load lead ingots and aluminium slabs for the Canadian eastern seaboard. 


Here still under Finnlines as m/s Atlanta


Atlanta Forest was a Spanish built general cargo ship originally built for the once Finnish state run Shipping Company, Finnlines (now privatized), to freight forestry products. Now she was Owned by Navicon that was (maybe still is) an offshore Company owned by a wealthy family in Finland, the Ehrnrooth's, and she was managed by a Company called Crossline (now ceased operation) that was owned by a single chap in Vålax, while the ship was chartered by a Canadian paper Company called Kent Line.

Here afterwards as m/s Kent Forest


She was built in 1978 and had 3 huge hatches and 4 hydraulic cranes able to lift 16t each. She was 150m long and could load 15.000 DWT. The ship had excellent crew quarters with 2 saunas and a swimming pool in between, a Carpentry shop, a Bosun's shop, Engine work shop, dayroom & messroom for Crew & Officers, gym & library. Cabins were plentiful as she was operating on a fraction of the crew she was planned for originally as the crew downsizing had taken place in late 80's. The crew was good, we all were happy and had great things going on ashore in ports when we had the opportunity.

Atlanta Forest in Kiel Canal

A trip over the pond took us abt 3 weeks and by the time we had discharged and loaded up in some other port we had spent some 5 weeks before we were on the way back. Interesting in this time was that we many times took aluminium alloy to UK and Holland while we loaded back aluminium slabs and steel back to Canada. In all those ports in Europe I could see them being virtually swamped with aluminium everywhere. Maybe it was a world wide hoarding going on by some big investors.

Once we took aluminium from Russia and the ship was stopped in Canada for 4-5 weeks at Charlottetown by protesters that did not want foreign metals imported. It was in the middle of winter -20˚C or more, everything was freezing over. The Captain Risto Laakso later told me that the crew had advanced salaries abt 50000 USD and next time we visited Charlottetown the local bar had renewed their furniture.


Once in St Petersburg, Russia, I was on duty and supervising loading when our Repairman arrived very upset. He told me he had gone ashore for some shopping and sightseeing and was robbed by the taxi driver. The driver had taken him to the port gates and pulled a pistol out of the glove compartment and told him to hand over his cash. Not much else to do when staring down a gun barrel.

In Ventspils, Latvia, the foreman of the port warned us of going out late at night as a few weeks before a Filipino sailor had been found naked and killed in a nearby forest. The town had no street lights in those days but out we went to the local Seamens Club. It was the best Club I ever been to in my life. I remember that night Brazil won football championships and there was one Brazilian ship in port and they bought champagne by the bottle for everybody.

We visited most of the ports at the Lawrence seaway (P.E.I, Pictou, Sept Isles, Charlottetown,  but most often we went to Saint John in New Brunswick. They have one of the world's highest tidal water range there with something around 12-15m. A local highlight is a place called reversing falls where due to the high tidal range the river actually changes direction. Another phenomenom I've experienced here is that the waters never freeze over due to the Gulf stream, we were once tying up in -10˚C with waters +4˚C or more. The seasmoke that came up froze immediately so railings and ropes looked like hedgehogs and one can imagine the moisture that came through any fabric and froze on the skin was so excruciatingly painful, maybe it can be compared to arthritis, but gosh it hurt. When the sun came up the seasmoke dissipated and we were back to normal.

Once we went up to the Great Lakes and visited Oswego on the US side. The transit was most interesting and the locks going up the lake were an experience. That is one requirement for ships that they hve no protrusions outside of the hull as they will be shaved off when going up and down the lock. You are also required to use steel mooring wires and the winch operator has to be on the ball all the time especially when the ship is going down as it is so going so fast and you dont pay attention they will snap off like that. Sparks were usually flying out of the fairleads when giving slack. 

Wednesday, August 19, 1992

Bona Fe

As I had finished and graduated from my Officer's Class in 1991 it was again to go all out to shipping Companies to try for a job. Bore Line could not offer me a position as they had sold a couple of their ships and had more people on their lists than they cared to have. 

Bona Fe (photographer unknown)

So I turned to the trusted Seaman's Service (MEPA) calendar (now discontinued as every union started printing their own calendar) and opened up the pages of all Shipping Companies in Finland and heir contact numbers. As it was still lean times in Finnish shipping I had again some trouble finding a job as the HR guys wanted young guys with 30yrs experience. 

At last I got a job from an outfit in Helsinki called Pipping & Co. as 1st Officer. They had once been the pioneers in "small tonnage" coasters in Finland but had been sidelined by Rederi Engship & Hans Langh. This I understand as a result of internal squabbling as I heard later from the grapevine.

Anyway, the ships name was m/s Bona Fe and it was a 1972 Dutch built general cargo ship that could load 2815 DWT. She was 70m long and had 2 hatches but no deck machinery in way of cranes or booms. The Company had also another ship called Marika and it gained dubious reputation of once passing by a pilot station with no one on the bridge.

Bona Fe (photographer unknown)

I signed on in Raahe (Brahestad), thats way up north in Finland, a major port exporting steel, in maritime circles called "the arse of Finland", I agree but there is another strong contender that is Koverhar down south, they also export steel and that can be the "hole" of Finland. Both ports are depressing grey factories with smelters and all the related jazz. We generally loaded steel for Goole, UK.

Steel cargoes were easy to load and unload, especially steelcoils, but during winters they were hard to secure and even more dangerous if they got loose in heavy weather. usually the securing were done by us, the crew, as we had no allowance for stevedores, usually we used 2x4in, 6x6in & 4x4in timbers and nails as well as chains to secure the cargo. At least there was no chance it would jump up.

The ship rolled in bad weather with intervals of 12s to abt 35deg lists so anything that was loose would fly. Sleeping was another issue, it took a few days to get accustomed to the bad weather. Also toilet was a bit tricky, the backflow flaps were worn out so when the ship would roll it elicited a nice backwash in case you were still sitting on the porcelain.

Bona Fe, Chowder Ness, Barton-Upon-Humber, River Humber
photographer: simonwp

Otherwise she was a very strong workhorse albeit a bit worn out as I recall one drydocking in Marstal, Denmark, we replaced nearly 50sq.m. of bottom plating around 10 cement chests in the ballast tanks.

<10s 30-="" 30deg="" a="" anything="" during="" fly="" from="" intervals="" list="" loose="" nbsp="" north="" not="" p="" place="" pleasant="" port="" sea="" so="" starboard="" the="" was="" wintermonths.="" would="">
With Bona Fe I became familiar with many small and big ports in Europe, we went for many Danish ports (Copenhagen, Vejle, Fredericia), Norway (Aaheim, Sauda), Belgium (Antwerp), Spain (Bilbao) Portugal (Aveiro), UK (Goole, Grimsby, Immingham, Fowey), Ireland (Cork, Greenore), Holland (Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Vlissingen), Sweden (Kappelshamn), Germany (Bremen, Hamburg, Kiel), Poland (Gdansk, Gdynia), Russia (Vyborg) and most coastal ports in Finland. 

In summertime we sometimes had to wait for cargoes as the business slowed down and if we were somewhere nice our crew from Porvoo used to put out nets and in the evenings smoke flounders in a barrel on deck. Most delicious seafood one could think of.

After doing 1.5 years on/off on 6 weeks relieving turns I left Bona Fe in 1992 to join a bigger ship with a bigger salary to go further away so I joined up on m/s Atlanta Forest.

Thursday, January 03, 1991

Mariella

Christmas and New Year
m/s Mariella

m/s Mariella (photographer unknown)

In between the semesters when I was studying for my Deck Officer's ticket, I managed to get a job for Christmas and New Year on m/s Mariella, she is a passenger/ car ferry between Sweden and Finland and in those days she was sailing between Helsinki and Stockholm. Mariella is owned by Viking Line that is based on Aaland Island and is the competition to Silja Line that is the remnants of the once mighty FÅA (later EFFOA) Company. Mariella is 176 m long, built in 1985, carries 2774 passengers and 3000DWT cargo and has a gross tonnage of 37799.

I was as OS onboard and was doing 6h on/ 6h off watch duty. It was heavy going as there was a lot of temptations in the gardens of sin but I resisted and did my duty. By this time I had broken up my engagement to Tiina-Maria and we both had gone our separate ways. Unlike my relief he was always a pain to get up from bed as he was doing his duty 6hrs and then after duty he ran another few hrs after skirt.

Compared to todays familiarisation routines my only familiarisation was when I came onboard that I was taken by a senior AB through the fire patrol route and at one corridor he cautioned me that "don't pass out here, unless you prefer boys..." Words of wisdom. In addition to our fire patrol there was security patrols also and at times they asked us to come and help if there was a severe passenger disturbance somewhere.

For the Christmas Eve and Day the ship stopped in Helsinki and a crew party was arranged. I was still doing fire rounds and gangway duty so it was not much fun but I managed a few beers with the guys. This was my last time I was working as a rating as by summer I would receive my Officer's license...

Wednesday, July 04, 1990

Bore Britannica

Bore Britannica

18.05.1989 - 05.06.1989 OS
19.06.1989 - 13.07.1989 OS
18.12.1989 - 04.01.1990 OS
09.04.1990 - 20.04.1990 OS
24.05.1990 - 25.06.1990 OS
26.06.1990 - 05.07.1990 AB

After my military service I got employed back by Bore Line to Bore Britannica and I guess things were looking a bit up by now in Finnish shipping as they had bought a new vessel to the fleet albeit 2nd hand. I was also given a permanent contract this time. 

Britannica was ex APL ship that had been running over the Oceans and she had been modified a few times and had been manned by Brits. To . The covered weather deck was in such a thick rust that one could kick up sheets of it when walking to the forward mooring station. I guess because of the weather deck covering they had fitted the sponsors on the side to improve her stability.

Bore Britannica

She had as propulsion two V-engine Pielsticks made in Japan that I remember well after I helped out in the engine room doing a haul out of 2 pistons during a stopover in port. By then it became more common to have hired riding crews coming into port and overhaul any due machinery before departure so it was start to finish in one go, be it 24 or 48hrs. In todays STCW resting hours regime this would not fly anymore.

The vessel itself was pretty comfy and worked well, she was just very run down and crew was working hard to bring her up to minimum standard. Company also started saving as she was never painted the signature Bore yellow. The yellow was actually a custom color shade developed for Bore by Hempel and one could hardly see any other yellow ships on the seas as the old conventional style was black or any darkish color to hide the rust streaks.

In 1990 I resigned to join Aboa Mare school and continue my studies to become an OOW (Officer of the watch) as I thought I had gained enough experience as well as my fiancee at that time also pushed for it.

Friday, August 18, 1989

Pasila

21.07.1989 - 19.08.1989
Ordinary seaman

The bad times in Finnish shipping were still going on in late 80's and jobs were always temporary. Nobody employed crew on a permanent contract due to no vacancies as ships were sold en masse. 

This time I had been called up from the job centre to report to Pasila as ordinary seaman. I signed on at west coast in some port with a power plant as ESL shipping's vessels supplies coal to all of them in Finland. As soon as we were empty we sailed for Poland or another port on the Baltic south coast to load more coal and bring it back to the hungry power plants.

Pasila being towed (unknown photographer)

The boat was already then pretty old and worn out. I remember one night I woke up to a loud clanking and suddenly blackout. Apparently something had gone wrong with the main engine (obviously if it sounds like a church bell on speed) but could not have been too major as we continued our trip some hours later. Also the 3 cranes we had onboard were hydraulic grabs that frequently broke down and had our Electrician busy for long periods of time. The crew was pretty insular and I never got on friendly terms with them, don't know why.

Later as Neva Trader (courtesy of shipspotting)

The Baltic states were still under Soviet rule (USSR went defunct in 1991) and the state of these countries were pretty grim and depressing. In Poland the longshore men peddled work boots, gloves and "crystal" ware. All was Soviet quality which was not much to write home about. The boots soles cracked pretty soon and were cold AF in winter but the gloves were pretty strong. The crystal was merely shaped out glass. I reckon the better stuff could possibly be found in town if you would be arsed to go ashore. Obviously no one was going having been on this run for years on end so they knew there was nothing decent to be found. 

Once in Estonia I recall the foreman asking the Chief Officer for his "loading bottle" and he was so thirsty that he started emptying it straight away in our messroom and it did not take him long to be carried off the boat by his colleagues.

Another time we had to do ship to ship transfer from the flagship of ESL in those days, the m/s Arkadia, was too large to enter Helsinki port so she had to be lightered in order to be able to come alongside to the power plant jetty. The discharge of Arkadia was done by her crew and the grabs swung so fast it was not possible (or even allowed) to traverse between the ships at that time as coal was falling off the grabs in big chunks.

The boat had after all the years off freighting coal been permeated by the coal dust in every nook and cranny that every time I got up from bed my feet soles turned black from coal dust that had settled on the floor during my resting hours. I usually wiped the floor every day. The time passed pretty quickly as we were on the way all the time and soon enough I signed off in Lovisa. I was not impressed by ESL so never asked for another job with them either but then again I maybe got the bad luck of meeting the worst crew ever.

Surprisingly enough Pasila is still trading as Nordon somewhere int he world so it seems someone gave her TLC and makes money out of her.

Monday, May 08, 1989

Military service

In 1988 I was drafted to do my military service and I managed to get into the Navy. In Finland this could be tricky as the draft officers could be difficult and just assign you far up north to Lappland if you wanted to be in the Navy. Furthermore, I was a serving merchant navy seaman so it was bound to attract some questions if I would not like to go inland and serve my country. Fortunately the Draft Officer was in a good mood and after some discussion he assigned me to Helsinki to do my basic training. 
Photo by Kari Martiala

So, in the summer of 1988 I signed off Bore Britannica and reported myself to the Navy compound in good time for the II/88 contingent. I was given my gear, assigned my bed & showed how to do my locker. Sleeping was not difficult as I was used to different environments on cargo ships. Some smartass stragglers had decided to report a minute before midnight and some missed it just a few minutes or came in so drunk that the legs would barely carry. They spent the first night in the Navy brig and learned their first lesson in discipline. 

Photo by Kari Martiala

The first week went very easily with most of the time doing lessons and learning routines. When our medical was done the real stuff started and we mostly ran from place to place. We were assigned assault rifles and camouflage gear and we started running around in the forest shouting and generally playing war. I am grateful I was still 19 yrs old and had some play still left in my mind as it was really hard for some guys that were in their late 20's and had done their studies first and postponed the military service. I can only imagine what was going through their minds wielding an AK-62 and shouting "bang-bang-bang-prrrtttt" and then be interrupted by a drill sergeant screaming his head off "who is wasting ammo?" and "who gave permission to go on serial-fire?"

Tuima class (courtesy Wikipedia)

That time I was going out with Harriet but unfortunately this relationship did not hold the strain of the Navy and she broke up with me one evening on the phone. We were told in the beginning that some of you will break up and you can count yourself lucky because if the relationship can't take one short Navy service, then how can it take a life time commitment? I guess they were right on that.

The summer of 1988 is what we call an Indian-summer in Finland, it was so hot that we started sweating early morning 7-ish after breakfast. It also did not help we were given 3 pairs of socks that we got to change every week after the Friday sauna. Mornings were made so tight that you had to choose between one of the three S's to do, i.e. sh*t, shave or shower.

Just joined

After 2 months of grunt training we had passed all tests, some of us had been sent home with the milk train to grow up and come back later to complete their service, some were transferred to easier duties (B-men). It was time to take the oath and be promoted to Able Bodied seamen. It was a festive day and the whole Company was assembled at the parade grounds and made recite the oath to defend the country.

After this people were divvied up to the different ships in the Navy. I was assigned as Motorman to the Soviet made missile vessels called the Tuima-class but internationally known as the OSA-II class. They were small ships, abt 40m long, with 12 drafted personnel and 12 regular petty Officers and 2-3 Officers onboard as the full complement. The Navy had 4 of the same Class so we were pretty loosely scattered on all of the boats when they were in port. Old timers always referred to them as when they were on patrol one would first hear the noise, then see the smoke before the vessel would appear. I think this can be verified from the pictures.

The vessels had 4 pcs of projectiles that weighed 1 ton each, there was also a double barrelled cannon fore and aft. When fired it shot 2 rounds/ second. It was always a big job for the weapons guys to load the ammunition belts, usually tracers would be put at regular intervals to see how the shots went. When we tested the engines we clocked abt 40kts but it would not last even 24h on that speed as the engines were really thirsty. The commissioned guys said that after firing a missile the reply would come within 10 minutes so one has to be in a hurry to make oneself scarce or face the incoming music.

As motorman I had some interesting times learning and tinkering with the star engines that had 56 cylinders in 7 blocks. The ships had in total 3 engines (168 cylinders) that generated 10500kW propulsion power. When we were sailing it was my duty to stay in the engine room and monitor the engines and in the mornings start up the generators and disconnect shore power. During my course of service I was promoted to Engine Corporal.

Last month in Navy

I completed my service in 11 months and was honorably discharged and I left the Navy to join the Merchant Navy again for the summer after which I went back to school to study myself to Deck Officer. All thanks to the influence of my then girlfriend Tiina-Maria that wanted an Officer beside her.