Friday, February 13, 2004

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



Monday, February 03, 2003

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.

Tuesday, January 07, 2003

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).

Wednesday, February 16, 2000

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)

Friday, January 07, 2000

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 Ă–resund 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 Ă–lands 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...

Wednesday, September 22, 1999

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.

Monday, March 29, 1999

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.

Wednesday, March 10, 1999

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.

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 SkĂĄne 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 VĂĄlax, 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.