# Tankeritis



## sidsal (Nov 13, 2007)

In my days at sea it was common to be aflicted by "the Channels" when nearing home. Crews would become excessively cheerful with uncontrolled laughter and back slapping. The opposite to this was the odd behaviour of crews who had been away from home for ages and would be homesick and depressed.
When I was in Esso I sailed with an ex-BPman who had been over 2 years on an old tanker (pre WW2) trading from the Persian Gulf to the Red Sea and other such exciting places. He said that at one time the crew pretended they had arrived at the UK. The accommodation aft had cabins with their teak doors opening out onto the deck. They all got dressed up in their going home clothes, dragged out their suitcases and milled about the poop. One had a bit of green bunting and a whistle and pretended to be the guard. Various bods would ask him - "Is this the train for Crewe ?" - or Newcastle or wherever. He would tell them all "Yes" and they would enter the cabins. Steam was put on the after windlass and the "guard" would blow his whistle and slam the doors shut and wave his flag. The windlass would chunk away and the chaps would lean out of the portholes waving.
This is what I always took "tankeritis" to be !!


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## spongebob (Dec 11, 2007)

Sidsal, that sounds like merchant ship channels on steroids, great stuff.

Bob


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## price (Feb 2, 2006)

I seem to remember, we called this erratic behaviour, the Abadan Blues.
Bruce.


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## GWB (Jul 11, 2007)

I always remember guys with the "the Channels" mainly older guy's who had been well behaved in foreign ports, walking around with tents in overalls waiting to dock and get the first train home. Reading the last mail received in last port of call.

GWB


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## B.Nicholson (Jun 15, 2008)

Sidsal
I had the channels many times when I was young and single. The getting dressed up bit and running to the gangway, we geordies used to call it a 'Dummy Run' usually held about 3 days from home. Was always a laugh and broke the monotomy.
Bob


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## Frank Holleran (Nov 11, 2005)

price said:


> I seem to remember, we called this erratic behaviour, the Abadan Blues.
> Bruce.


The Abadan Blues with a capital A [=P]


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## Hugh Ferguson (Sep 4, 2006)

I never sailed in tankers but I well remember a remedy for the condition that I once observed in a 20year old tanker I was once piloting up to Shellhaven at the time of the oil crisis.
I boarded about 0600 and noted that the captain was Italian and the mate was Spanish-the crowd also Spanish. Come 8 o'clock I notice that no relief for the mate had appeared. T'was about then I took an opportunity to visit the bathroom only to find the door locked! On returning to the bridge it was not long before discovered the reason why, for come 8.30 I swore I got a whiff of Chanel No.5 (or thereabouts) and into the wheelhouse arrived the 3rd mate-he, sorry, she, was a girl. She was from Trieste and by the time the next three hours had gone by there was not much about what went on in that ship I did not know. The captain had a girl friend in the very shapely form of the 3rd mate and that was the reason he wore such a contented expression on his not so youthful face.
I felt very sorry for the mate: his authority had been totally undermined. 
The ship had been 40 days from the Persian Gulf, around the Cape, enough to cause a severe attack of tankeritis in the normal course of events.


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## sidsal (Nov 13, 2007)

Hugh: What a situation !!
The cruder remarks about getting home were -
What have you bought me aks the wife.
Answer - A dirty big pile of washing and a hard- on !

Then - what do you do when you get home -
I knock on the front door and rush round the back and try and catch him !


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## Pat Kennedy (Apr 14, 2007)

sidsal said:


> Hugh: What a situation !!
> The cruder remarks about getting home were -
> What have you bought me aks the wife.
> Answer - A dirty big pile of washing and a hard- on !
> ...


Sid, 
A good friend of mine paid off in Birkenhead after six months away, came home and found his key wouldnt fit the front door lock, so he knocked. 
A couple of minutes later the door opened, and a big bloke, wearing my mate's dressing gown, told him to 'p*ss off, that his wife didnt want to know him anymore and neither did his kids!
I put him up for a few weeks, where he spent most of his time getting drunk and swearing revenge, then he shipped out again and I've never seen or heard from him since. 
I did hear that his faithless wife died and his children ended up in care a couple of years down the line.

Its a funny old world.
Pat


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## sidsal (Nov 13, 2007)

Pat
How tragic. I expect it happened more times than one cared to think.


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## Bill Davies (Sep 5, 2007)

I enjoyed my time in tankers and on reflection must have been somewhat of a pain to the various Ch.Mates as I always took too much interest into the loading and would scrutinise the calcs always looking for that extra couple of hundred tonnes. There is also a 'flip side' as I had many interesting experiences on the way (Oil mist spraying out of the vents off South Africa).

Bill


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## Hugh Ferguson (Sep 4, 2006)

You've sure been around, Uncle Bill, and some!


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## sidsal (Nov 13, 2007)

I wish I had never gone into tankers. I should have gone into NZS or Port Line where they went to great places and had time ashore. I was once on a tanker - the F J WOLFE for 12 months and apart from walking on the dock to read the draft, never went ashore. Must have been mad.
In the 80's when sailing from the Med to Gran Canaria prior to crossing to Antigua we conatced an enourmous BP tanker which we thought was wallowing but in fact theu were slow steaming (2 knots) - they had been 2 months from Persian Gulf. Wot a bore !!


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## Pat Kennedy (Apr 14, 2007)

Sid, 
I heard about this slow steaming business and could never understand the rationale behind it.
Why was it found necessary to do this?
Pat
PS I was only in two tankers, one was Shell's Pallium, and the other was a coastal job, Vacuum Pioneer. Not impressed with either.


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## Bill Davies (Sep 5, 2007)

Sid,
I can understand your feelings. I was fortunate in that for the first 9 years of my career I was in General Cargo and therefore experienced the 'good runs'.
Therafter I was somewhat 'driven' and spent the rest of my time in Tankers/OO/OBOs/Bulkers. Life is what you make it. I worked for owners who paid for results. Sometimes you did things, cut corners etc, in the name of profit for the owner and of course the end of service bonus.


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## Monket (Mar 8, 2007)

In the days of yore when jobs were two a penny I used to do a couple of trips on dry cargo and then a few months on a tanker to restore my bank balance.


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## Bill Davies (Sep 5, 2007)

Pat Kennedy said:


> Sid,
> I heard about this slow steaming business and could never understand the rationale behind it.
> *Why was it found necessary to do this*?
> Pat


Timing and *Money*!


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## sidsal (Nov 13, 2007)

Bill. It was when there was a glut of oil and they ddin't want any more at that time. As you know also the cargo could well be sold sveral times en route and it was to do with wanting a better price. 
One big yacht I was on belonged to a chap who made millions and millions dealing in oil cargoes. He had a Lear jet and 2 pilots who followed the yacht. For instance when it went to the Caribeean the Lear jet would bring him and his family over and then he would go daily to various islands to play golf and return in the evening. In the meantime his family would be using the yacht as a swimming platform and have the crew entertain them.
It was such a hard life for them.
The thing that struck me about these owners was that they didn't want to do any ocean passages. This was great as far as the crew was concerned as they had the yacht all to themselves for weeks on end.
If I had my time over again that's how I'd go to sea - living in the shade of these people - without feeling guilty at the obscene wealth.


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## borderreiver (Oct 11, 2008)

Had a third engineer who after 9 months picked up a spare tank lid dog 
put some cord on it and walked round the accommodation. used to tie it to the rails with a note beware of the dog


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## sidsal (Nov 13, 2007)

Sorry - last message should have included , Pat !
Sid
Borderreiver: Years and years ago I was on a tanker - F J WOLFE which spent a lot of time broken down. It was the Olympics somwhere or other and one of the engineers had made a metal Olympic Torch and it was run up and down the cat walk and handed to anyone who was about. It was in***bent on whoever took it had to run around and give it to someone else. I 2 weeks in Port Said it caused some hilarity among ships passing by !


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## Bill Davies (Sep 5, 2007)

sidsal said:


> Bill. One big yacht I was on belonged to a chap who made millions and millions dealing in oil cargoes. He had a Lear jet and 2 pilots who followed the yacht. For instance when it went to the Caribeean the Lear jet would bring him and his family over and then he would go daily to various islands to play golf and return in the evening. In the meantime his family would be using the yacht as a swimming platform and have the crew entertain them.
> It was such a hard life for them.


Sid,

You cannot of course tar them all with the same brush.
I worked for many years for Daniel K. Ludwig who was the acknowledged (Universally..pardon the pun) as being the 'richest man on earth' and by me as the greatest shipowner of the 20th century. Ludwig, however, lived a very austere lifestyle and his austerity is well do***ented.

Brgds

Bill


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## Bill Davies (Sep 5, 2007)

Pat Kennedy said:


> Sid,
> I heard about this slow steaming business and could never understand the rationale behind it.
> Why was it found necessary to do this?
> Pat
> PS I was only in two tankers, one was Shell's Pallium, and the other was a coastal job, Vacuum Pioneer. Not impressed with either.


Pat,

I think it was around December 73 when I loaded in the Gulf (ULCC) for Pointe a Pierre (Trinidad). On route there was an Oil crisis.We were about 3/4 days away from disport when we were told to stop and drift, which we did for several weeks. Before long, there was dialogue going on between the dozens of ships we detected on our radar and therefore consider how many were on the extreme range of ships on our max range. Pat, its all down to Money!
The owners of the oil made huge profits on oil loaded and purchased before the crisis. It was in their interest to drive the stocks down.
I did not complain.

Brgds

Bill


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## Pat Kennedy (Apr 14, 2007)

Bill,
Thanks for that explanation. It all sounds a bit underhand to me.
Pat


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## Bill Davies (Sep 5, 2007)

Pat,

Underhand? That's life.

Bill


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## Bill Davies (Sep 5, 2007)

Hose Bar or Bolster bar? Which one do you recognise.


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## jmcg (Apr 20, 2008)

They are still at it today. The corporate oil barons have their tankers plying the oceans under orders to delay as long as possible so that they can capitialise on the increasing oil prices that we are now seeing at the p/s.

I was listening to a Middle Eastern chap on the radio earlier this week who confirmed that there was a healthy production and supply of MEC. If that is correct and I have no reason to believe it incorrect, why are paying over £1. a litre?

BW

J


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## Pat Kennedy (Apr 14, 2007)

John, 
But these same shipowners begrudge every damned penny spent on crew and scream unmercifully when made to comply with SOLAS regs, and howl when the ship is delayed by cir***stances they cant control.
An unsavoury bunch, as bad as our MPs.
Pat


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## Bill Davies (Sep 5, 2007)

Pat,
Again I have to say you cannot make such a sweeping statement. The only shipowners that matched the type you describe above, and I actually sailed for, were very much 'British'.
When, I first went FOC in late 68 I was told all the horror stories imaginable. I quickly found out that it there was no substance to it. Sure, there are 'rogues' everywhere and FOC will have their share, but I never sailed for any 'rogues'.

Bill


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## Pat Kennedy (Apr 14, 2007)

Bill, 
I never sailed FOC, only for British owners, and my comments are directed at (some of) them. Sorry,I should have realised the drifting tanker you described was not British
Yes, it was a sweeping statement, perhaps old resentments coming to the surface, and I know some were good employers, but others were worse than any shoreside employers.
Regards, 
Pat


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## THEDOC (Jan 8, 2009)

Pat Kennedy said:


> Sid,
> I heard about this slow steaming business and could never understand the rationale behind it.
> Why was it found necessary to do this?
> Pat
> PS I was only in two tankers, one was Shell's Pallium, and the other was a coastal job, Vacuum Pioneer. Not impressed with either.


how unfortunate intoduced to tankers on the Pallium tar boiler which everyone tried to avoid (i did two trips on Partula sister ship)


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## THEDOC (Jan 8, 2009)

*Dilemma?*



Pat Kennedy said:


> Sid,
> A good friend of mine paid off in Birkenhead after six months away, came home and found his key wouldnt fit the front door lock, so he knocked.
> A couple of minutes later the door opened, and a big bloke, wearing my mate's dressing gown, told him to 'p*ss off, that his wife didnt want to know him anymore and neither did his kids!
> I put him up for a few weeks, where he spent most of his time getting drunk and swearing revenge, then he shipped out again and I've never seen or heard from him since.
> ...



Ayoung AB asked my advice, whats the problem? Ive got a dose, bloody hell you only been on board 5 minutes, at least youve got plenty time to get it cleared up before you go home, thats the problem he says "I caught off my wife"


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## fahrwud (Sep 28, 2009)

Does anyone remember a fireman who would take a 4-inch brush on regular occasions and paint his face silver? Can I remember his name? Not a chance, but I think he was a regular Ben Line guy.
"Whatcha doin'?"
"Paintin' my face."

Dave the Donkeyman


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## david freeman (Jan 26, 2006)

tankeritist How about Lefo after loading in the gulf?


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