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.

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.