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.

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. 

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