# Obs - Never got a mention !



## Steven Lamb (Apr 18, 2009)

Sent thousands of these during my time at sea and never got a bloody mention! Disheartening seeing Barographs (mainly "Old Men"
collected these) & books being dished-out.
What did one have to do ?


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## sparkie2182 (May 12, 2007)

I always tried to get mine off to the U.S.C.G........Steve.

I remember the "come back" through his tape was always..........

AA 00

No messin' with preambles.




P.S. I recall you from FNC days.......We were in the same intake...........remember the Dorchester ???


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## Chris Isaac (Jul 29, 2006)

What you have to do is to go out in all weathers and collect the data.
Sometimes it was absolute hell having to work your way through bikini clad bodies to get to the Stephenson's Screen.
All you had to do was key in a few numbers !


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## sparkie2182 (May 12, 2007)

Careful Chris,

Your beginning to sound like another numpty on here.

For God's sake don't go down that road.


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## Troppo (Feb 18, 2010)

The 2nd mate on one ship used to flog the OBS numbers.

Bastard.

The 3rd mate caught him at it. Him and I had a 'chat' to the 2nd mate. I was seriously pissed off at sending crap info, and the 3rd was annoyed that the 2nd was a slack ****.

Ahhh, halcyon days....


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## John Briggs (Feb 12, 2006)

I only ever got one and that was from India!


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## Baulkham Hills (Jul 11, 2008)

I received a leather bound certificate from the Hong Kong met office for my efforts on sending OBS to them in early 1980's. I still have it somewhere. I don't remember sending all that many, it was not really a priority for me.


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## Troppo (Feb 18, 2010)

Ha ha....I just remembered trying to send OBS to Indian coast stations....

Oh dear.....

(MAD)


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## Nick Balls (Apr 5, 2008)

Great Thread...what a laugh! I did these things off and on for well over 30 years and never ever heard directly from the met office ! However we did used to occasionally get the local chap down to calibrate equipment and replenish stocks of Barograph sheets etc etc............Years ago of course we also got regular copies of the 'Marine Observer' ........... Some say..........that the overall standard of the observations was very high and I can well believe it!


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## Gareth Jones (Jul 13, 2007)

I did a full year on an H24 ship doing the 12 - 4 watch and so every single OBS message was sent by me!
When we got back to the UK the ship received 2 very nice atlas's by way of gratitude from the (presumably) Met Office. 
The OM kept one and the senior R/O kept the other - never even got to see it !


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## slick (Mar 31, 2006)

All,
I heard tell of a 'Liner' company ship in NZ sending Obs in port, and they weren't rumbled either and subsequently got the goodies.
However I often wonder if my meticulous observations have contributed to the knowledge and start up of the Global Warming industry.

Yours aye,

slick


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## Chris Isaac (Jul 29, 2006)

sparkie2182 said:


> Careful Chris,
> 
> Your beginning to sound like another numpty on here.
> 
> For God's sake don't go down that road.


Oh no, not the old sense of humour bypass again!


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## Pat McCardle (Jun 12, 2005)

I done the reporting for only 6 years & in that time I received 3 excellence awards & my phenomenon reports were given print in the now long lost Marine Observer. I did, at one, time omit to put in one of the Masters names in the completed book & to replace it with a Masters name who had left the ship earlier but who had more 'enthusiasm' for the reporting & knew how to fill in the boxes correctly. The other Master was good at getting his 2nd Mate to break the thermometers by leaving them in the rubber bucket & then taking a sample of sea water, he knew best?


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## Nick Balls (Apr 5, 2008)

These days the Met Ob is simply sent as an E Mail


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## IMRCoSparks (Aug 22, 2008)

Still have my atlas and I do refer to it every now and then. The flags have really changed, though!


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## callpor (Jan 31, 2007)

IMRCoSparks said:


> Still have my atlas and I do refer to it every now and then. The flags have really changed, though!


I've got one of those for the Port Macquarie also in 1968! Hasn't seen the light of day recently.


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## Pat McCardle (Jun 12, 2005)

My 3 awards.
1995 The Times Atlas of the World.
1996 SEALIFE (A complete guide to the marine environment)
1998 Savage Seas (Tied to the major ITV series)(K)

Obviousy 1997 was when all the false readings were taken i.e.
Ice forming from spray...........In July on the hottest day of the year.

I now await my Brass Barograph?


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## Shipbuilder (Jun 30, 2005)

I am very surprised by the above. My first OBS ship was in 1962 (Collier), but I didn't get any award until 1964 (an atlas). Then a few years passed when nobody on any of the ships I was on got anything (Union-Castle). Got my 2nd one in Good Hope Castle in 1975. Then a few more years trickled by, but in about '79, I started to get a book every year. Most of that time, neither the POO nor the captain got anything. This continued until late 1992 when I left the sea and I still have a big pile of them. Same with my opposite number on my last ship (we shared the same ship for 13 years) he always got one as well. I always assumed that after a certain number of years at sea, it was an automatic thing for R/Os 
Bob


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## jimthehat (Aug 5, 2006)

Shipbuilder said:


> I am very surprised by the above. My first OBS ship was in 1962 (Collier), but I didn't get any award until 1964 (an atlas). Then a few years passed when nobody on any of the ships I was on got anything (Union-Castle). Got my 2nd one in Good Hope Castle in 1975. Then a few more years trickled by, but in about '79, I started to get a book every year. Most of that time, neither the POO nor the captain got anything. This continued until late 1992 when I left the sea and I still have a big pile of them. Same with my opposite number on my last ship (we shared the same ship for 13 years) he always got one as well. I always assumed that after a certain number of years at sea, it was an automatic thing for R/Os
> Bob


Why was the R/o so important,he only sent th info.i was 2/0 for 4.5 years and i suspect that on every sea day I filled out a form every night and got nothing,soul destroying.

jim


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## Shipbuilder (Jun 30, 2005)

Jim,
I never said that the R/O was so important. In fact in the end, (late 1990s) the position was of so little imprtance that it was dispensed with completely!

I was simply stating that in latter years, I got a book automatically every year and just took it to be an automatic thing as far as R/Os were concerned as other long-service R/Os that I knew got them every year as well. It never bothered me that captains got their barometers when they didn't contribute, because they had been junior officers earlier in their careers and had done their bit.

In the last two years, the Met Office fitted a dedicated satelite terminal on the bridge and the OBS were required every watch. The OOW did the observations and also sent the OBS themselves on the bridge OBS terminal. I played no further part in the compiling or sending of them, but cotinued to get the awards! That is the way it was and that is all I was saying.

I was quite interested though and for years after I left the sea, I kept my own daily weather observations, but discontinued them a couple of years ago. Now, I only keep weekly rainfall OBS. 

Bob


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## NoMoss (Mar 14, 2007)

As an RO I always tried to send OBS - never got anything for it. I found the gathering of the data interesting and often did it instead of any of the mates. I loved going aft and throwing the bucket to get the sea water temperature and also discussing the amount of cloud etc which I enjoyed.
In the 'old days' when there was a streamed log I happily went aft to read the speed to help with dead-reckoning positions etc.
When I was on Cross-Channel ferries late in my sea-going career sending OBS was a way of 'keeping my hand in'. I used to write them up myself mostly but throwing the bucket was not feasible so someone suggested flushing the Bridge toilet and then taking that temperature, which seemed to work.


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## sparkie2182 (May 12, 2007)

The R/O seemed to have had some importance in the first half of the 1940's....... and on other occasions.


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## commander (Oct 13, 2010)

I did obs as a deck officer on and off for 42 years. In that time they were sent via the R/O ("Shipbuilder" of this thread included), by myself by voice to Portishead, and latterly by e-mail. I do not recall getting any awards, but over the years had several reports published in The Marine Observer. 

Re Shipbuilder's post above, I do not recall ever being refered to as a POO before!!!!!


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## Shipbuilder (Jun 30, 2005)

Sparkie,
That is true enough, and during all my time with British crew (1961 to my last British crew ship in 1976, I found that a large proportion of them had not forgotten how useful the service had become. But in later years, it became so easy that anyone could do it by just poking buttons. But that in intself brought about other problems. The attitude in the office seemed to be why use ten words when several thousand would do just as well! And we were generally bombarded with e-mails, faxes & telexes all day long from about 0700 to 2000, - sometimes beyond that.

Commander, 
But you had progressed beyond P.O.O. (Principal Observing Officer) by then. Was it you or Paddy after a hot afternoon at Ascension with a "white hot" satellite that had been overworked all day, who asked when I took down yet another load of messages "Why don't you get a wheelbarrow?" When I asked why - "To bring all these messages down in!" was the answer!(*))

Coming back to the subject though. I can see how it was soul-destroying taking the OBS, but as many an R/O would tell you, sending them could often be just as bad if you got a QRY15 from Portishead ten minutes before going off watch.

Anyway - I am not complaining - I did quite enjoy the OBS and reading their little blue books where we could keep track of old shipmates and read all the various reports of strange phenomena at sea.

My wife, when travelling, sent a bottle message over the side every day or so with the ship's position and a promise of a "souvenir of the ship" for replies. (That was before it became illegal to throw anything over). We got numerous replies and one had the impression of a fish on it (in blood) where the South American fisherman had weighted it down until he had time to read it. We got another reply from West Africa asking for a new pair of shoes. We sent him a few dollars so he could buy his own. 

All these reports were passed to the Met Office and were very much apprciated in regard to ocean currents. We had one picked up on Grand Turk after a voyage of two years (the bottle that is) by someone who knew our purserette.

Bob


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## commander (Oct 13, 2010)

Shipbuilder.
Bob,I do not remember the wheelbarrow incident so it was most likely dear old Daddy Podkins. However it may have been me. My memory of those days is very muck lacking. I think it may be the gin (which, probably for the best, I cannot now afford) 
Chris.


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## Troppo (Feb 18, 2010)

Shipbuilder said:


> Jim,
> 
> 
> I played no further part in the compiling or sending of them, but cotinued to get the awards!


Classic!


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## Steven Lamb (Apr 18, 2009)

sparkie2182 said:


> I always tried to get mine off to the U.S.C.G........Steve.
> 
> I remember the "come back" through his tape was always..........
> 
> ...


Sparkie
Yep I remember the Dorchester & "the goings on" !
That was the wigwam that housed future "Deck Ornaments" 
You've got me thinking ? better send me an e-mail and enlighten me
of your true identity !
Happy days @ FNC as you'll agree - beer, women & the odd bit of studying ! (Pint)B\)(Hippy)
Cheers for now
Rgds / 73's
Steve


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## 5TT (May 3, 2008)

> AA 00


It was 99nnn in my day ...

= Adrian +


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## Naytikos (Oct 20, 2008)

My only experience of OBS messages was 7 months 20 days on a Bank boat. The 2nd mate was quite enthusiastic about taking the observations, but not so the mate and 3rd, so I used to do a lot of them. Amongst the paperwork supplied, presumably by the UK Met. Office were blank charts for plotting coded weather reports and it was fun decoding them and compiling isobaric charts. There were not enough blanks, though so the project soon died a natural death.

Running from Honiara to Noumea we got caught in a Cyclone and I sent hourly reports to FJP for about two days; my own idea! Once there, the Capt. received a nice letter, (in french), from the local meteorological office thanking HIM for the reports. I translated the letter but he wouldn't get a copy of the original made for me. Last time I volunteered for anything on that ship.


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## sparks69 (Dec 18, 2005)

The 2/O & myself had a serious chat with the visiting met man whilst in Angle Bay. The threat of going on an "OBS strike" got us both an award that year. [Very unprofessional I know] I've still got the "Brewsters Dictionary of Phrase & Fable" Complete with nice words on the first page !


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## Steven Lamb (Apr 18, 2009)

Chris Isaac said:


> What you have to do is to go out in all weathers and collect the data.
> Sometimes it was absolute hell having to work your way through bikini clad bodies to get to the Stephenson's Screen.
> All you had to do was key in a few numbers !


Chris you poor thing ! You mean you actually had to get your ....
out of the Pilot's chair !

Rgds
Steve


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## Dave Woods (Apr 9, 2006)

In the last five years of being an R/O I got

A dictionary,
A World Atlas of Coral Reefs,
And from the met office in Hong Kong a Parker pen and pencil set.


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## andysk (Jun 16, 2005)

In my seven years with B & C, I got a Cassells English Dictionary, which still in use, that was for North Sea and North Atlantic on Elbe Ore, than SA fruit runs on Clan Ramsay in 1975, so I must have done something right !


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## Larry Bennett (Aug 28, 2005)

I wonder how many ships used their OBS messages as a ruse to get to the front of the QRY when calling GKA? We had to give QRY1 (to ensure timely delivery via the private wire to the UK Weather Centre at Bracknell) to ships who had OBS messages and were supposed to put them to the back of the queue once the OBS had been received. 

In fact it was too much of a hassle to do this most of the time so we took QTCs and SLTs after QSLing the OBS...unless the GKA R/O was in a particularly belligerent mood (and there were one or two R/Os like this - and I must confess I did it a couple of times).

Not the most taxing of messages to receive though.....

Larry +


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## 5TT (May 3, 2008)

> I wonder how many ships used their OBS messages as a ruse to get to the front of the QRY when calling GKA?


By the time the 'Zulus' were up on the traffic list half the world was in the queue before me so I certainly tried it and it sometimes worked, but if it didn't (and it became less and less likely as the GKA chaps caught on) then the qry you got was often worse than if you'd joined the queue in the first place. Latterly I'd get a turn sometime before the traffic list started if I was expecting traffic, but not specify OBS in the call, then if nothing turned up I'd just send the OBS anyway ..

= Adrian +


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## woodend (Nov 23, 2009)

Filled in the reports religiously but never heard a thing from the Met. Office. AMVERS meanwhile always sent a parchment to the ship.


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## Treborvfr (Feb 22, 2010)

jimthehat said:


> Why was the R/o so important,he only sent th info.i was 2/0 for 4.5 years and i suspect that on every sea day I filled out a form every night and got nothing,soul destroying.
> 
> jim


Perhaps the R/O was aware that you felt that his contribution to the team effort of providing OBS messages was not particularly important so he/she didn't bother sending your messages (Jester)

Bob


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## Troppo (Feb 18, 2010)

Treborvfr said:


> Perhaps the R/O was aware that you felt that his contribution to the team effort of providing OBS messages was not particularly important so he/she didn't bother sending your messages (Jester)
> 
> Bob



Ha ha ha!

(Thumb)


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## andysk (Jun 16, 2005)

Larry Bennett said:


> I wonder how many ships used their OBS messages as a ruse to get to the front of the QRY when calling GKA? ......


Rarely used GKA, I always tried locally on MF and succeeded most of the time. Best in West Africa were Abidjan (TUA) and Dakar (6VA); of the others Conakry (3??) was usually awake, but Lagos (???) and Freetown (9LL ?) were usually very quiet and difficult to raise. It became easier going south when within range of Walvis Bay (ZS?)
Andy


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## Mayday (May 26, 2009)

andysk said:


> Rarely used GKA, I always tried locally on MF and succeeded most of the time. Best in West Africa were Abidjan (TUA) and Dakar (6VA); of the others Conakry (3??) was usually awake, but Lagos (???) and Freetown (9LL ?) were usually very quiet and difficult to raise. It became easier going south when within range of Walvis Bay (ZS?)
> Andy


Conakry 3XC, Lagos 5OW(Reported unreliable, June, 1982) ALRS 1982.

What was the most unusual OBS station you used, I remember trying to raise some of the Antarctic station whilst in the Southern Ocean, no luck.
I did manage to send an obs to Petropavlovsk (UBE) Kamchatka whilst on Falmouth Bay(GCFA) on passage from Seattle to Busan.

The Ruskies where a bit wary, but accepted it after about half an hour questioning and consultation. I always thought that was quite a feather in my cap.

Got three awards in my time at sea.

John.


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## Ken Lake (Oct 25, 2008)

Like Steve I sent many OBS reports during my time at sea and never received an acknowledgement except a very nice letter from the Indian Met Office after I sent them an accurate position of the eye of a cyclone off Kakinada. We had been anchored there loading "hooves and hides" and left prematurely like other vessels when the cyclone was forecast only to return later when the storm had abated. The met office had no real idea of the centre of the storm but we went right through it and reported the position. I remember that the storm was so intense that the bridge wing doors blew off. Strangely they blew outwards!


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## Vital Sparks (Sep 19, 2007)

Also on those rare occasions when you've failed to take GKA's list, and QTC? just isn't an option (did anyone ever try I wonder), a quick call to the bridge for an OBS and you're back in the game.


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## Larry Bennett (Aug 28, 2005)

_QTC? just isn't an option (did anyone ever try I wonder)_

Oh yes - some tried and nearly all failed dismally. Raised eyebrows and a curt reply from GKB along the lines of 'QSX next tfc list' was the usual response. However, in the latter days the GKB R/O was a little more benevolent and QTC? or QRU? requests were dealt with pretty quickly.

Bearing in mind that pre-1983 the message handling system at GKA was 100% manual and it would take a good few minutes to contact the control room to check for traffic (either by intercom or a wander down the operating wing). After the introduction of the BMHS (Burnham Message Handling System) it would only take a few seconds to electronically interrogate the traffic store and such requests were much easier to accommodate.

Larry +


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## Vic Heaney (Nov 2, 2009)

My first trip was on the Manchester Spinner, Manchester to Halifax and St John New Brunswick and back. I was 2nd R/O.

The Obs were sent several times a day as a matter of routine. As somebody pointed out, it was the deck officers who did the work, I just had to transmit the reports. 

This was the only time I was ever involved in this type of thing, but the Director General of the Met Office kindly sent me a History of Science, which I still have.

I suspect that Mr Reid, the 1st R/O, knew the ropes and kindly arranged this for the young lad.


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## Treborvfr (Feb 22, 2010)

Steven Lamb said:


> Sent thousands of these during my time at sea and never got a bloody mention! Disheartening seeing Barographs (mainly "Old Men"
> collected these) & books being dished-out.
> What did one have to do ?


Not wishing to rub salt in the wound Steve, but in 12 years I received 2 dictionaries and a World atlas.

Bob


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## Ron Stringer (Mar 15, 2005)

Was on Observing ships for over 4 years, sending 3 or 4 OBS messages every day we were at sea (a good percentage outside normal watchkeeping hours - watches ended at 1800Z). Had several visits in port from the Met Office guy when in the UK; he was always very complimentary about the reporting but I never heard or received anything more. 

Maybe it was my Morse that did it. (Jester)


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## Naytikos (Oct 20, 2008)

In re. Vital Sparks' post 42 and Larry's post 43:

If I was expecting traffic from GKA and had missed the list, all I did was make up a short inocuous msg to the company, call GKA and send that; if there was QRU: fine; if QTC, also fine. On most ships I used to write all the msgs anyway.


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## Steven Lamb (Apr 18, 2009)

Treborvfr said:


> Not wishing to rub salt in the wound Steve, but in 12 years I received 2 dictionaries and a World atlas.
> 
> Bob


I'm "flabbergasted" Bob ! - if you've got a spare dictionary you don't want ??(Jester)(H)(Hippy)


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## NoR (Mar 24, 2008)

i didn't mind doing the obs, it helped pass the time. Great fun casting the insulated "bucket" over the side. I liked the old gimbal mounted mercury barometers with the Gold Slide unfortunately they were replaced with tacky looking aneroid devices with a 'magic eye' thing. 
Remember in 1964ish on the Cape Sable we inadvertently ran into a TRS that nobody knew about and the OBS rate went to one an hour.


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## Treborvfr (Feb 22, 2010)

Steven Lamb said:


> I'm "flabbergasted" Bob ! - if you've got a spare dictionary you don't want ??(Jester)(H)(Hippy)


I'm not sure where they are, but I don't think you'd want one, they are out of date, they have the word "Aerodrome" in them amongst other obsolete words (Jester)

Bob


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## Steven Lamb (Apr 18, 2009)

Treborvfr said:


> I'm not sure where they are, but I don't think you'd want one, they are out of date, they have the word "Aerodrome" in them amongst other obsolete words (Jester)
> 
> Bob


In that case I shall make do with my "bog-standard - off the shelf"
WH Smith's job ! Will give you a bell next weekend hopefully.
Rgds / 73's Steve(Hippy)


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## Criffh (Feb 27, 2006)

Received a dictionary and atlas when I was on the Sugar Refiner/GOYK. The c/o's superb sketches of alcohol-induced visions of sea monsters in the log book undoubtedly played a large part in us receiving the awards.


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