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)

Oihonna

11.03.1999 - 29.03.1999
M/s Oihonna

M/s Oihonna

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

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

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

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

Railship I

07.03.1999 - 10.03.1999
M/s Railship I

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

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

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

She was scrapped in Alang, India by 2001.

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.

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...