# Seahorse Ship Management, London



## Teeare Scarrott (Nov 17, 2011)

Hi Lads
Sailed on Argosy, Amber, August, and Oceanic Crest. Would like info, pics, messages from old shipmates or anyone with knowledge of these ships and the Company.
Teeare


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## Teeare Scarrott (Nov 17, 2011)

Voyages on August and Amber out now in June issue Shipping Today and Yesterday. Voyages on Oceanic Crest and Argosy Pacific will appear in next issue.


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## Laurie Ridyard (Apr 16, 2014)

I was 2nd Mate on the " Amber Pacific " from May to December, 1976.

It was the worst ship I have ever sailed on. The 3 Masters were all nut cases.

The previous 2nd Mate had not corrected the charts for 6 months. The first Ol' Man told me to just correct the charts for the voyage from Gdynia to the US. At this time the charts were being changed from feet & fathoms to metric, and all the charts were in ft. & fathoms, so I could not apply the metric corrections. By the time I discovered this we sailed.

The Ol' Man told me to set a great circle from North Scotland to Key West. It went across the iceberg field, so I told the RO to let me have ice reports .He refused , and complained to Ol' Man when I insisted. The Ol' Man had to back me. I spent most of the morning watch plotting icebergs, then changed course to avoid them.He went dotty at first but had to admit I was right.

The Radar broke down - obviously water in the waveguide- but the RO was useless and didn't know how to fix it.

We went to Corpus Christi. When we got to the Approaches, it was foggy and the Ol' Man could not get a fix The 3/0 was quite useless a Hull Pilot Apprentice getting in sea time, and the Ol' man called me to the bridge. I did an RDF fix which put us within a few hundred yards of and on course for a 3 fathom wreck, so I shouts out " Hard aport !". As the wreck buoy went down our port side, the Ol' Man had a heart attack !!!

When we got in Corpus Christi, the Pilot reported the Ol' Man for not having proper charts and the US CG fined him !

We got back to Poland and he paid off.

More tomorrow.

Laurie Ridyard.


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## trotterdotpom (Apr 29, 2005)

#3. Can't understand why the RO would refuse to get ice reports, his neck was on the line too, maybe if you'd asked him instead of telling him? If the RO was so useless and there was "obviously water in the waveguide", why didn't you fix it yourself?

Sounds like a one man band that trip, I bet you had to knock out the kromeskies for the cook too.

John T


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## Laurie Ridyard (Apr 16, 2014)

trotterdotpom said:


> #3. Can't understand why the RO would refuse to get ice reports, his neck was on the line too, maybe if you'd asked him instead of telling him? If the RO was so useless and there was "obviously water in the waveguide", why didn't you fix it yourself?
> 
> Sounds like a one man band that trip, I bet you had to knock out the kromeskies for the cook too.
> 
> John T


The RO ( An Indian) refused to get the ice reports because he had never heard of them ! I also vaguely recall he thought USCG messages were only for US ships.

I do not expect to have to tell an RO to get ice warnings. I expect to see them on the chart table for the OOW to deal with - i.e. plot.

Neither Ol' Man nor the RO had seen or heard of water in the waveguide, and the OL'Man said it would have to be fixed by a shore wallah.

To continue from yesterday-

The CHOFF was from Whitby, a bloke called Jim Woods.When we were in the Baltic heading for Gdynia; I had plotted a course skirting round some shoals but he decided to cut across them and wrecked the Log which was underneath the keel.

The next trip the Ol'Man was a Captn. MacBeath. Several of the ginger beers had complained about conditions on the ship, and I had written to Seahorse about the charts. Consequently , they put this hugely fat ER Super on board.

I expected the charts to be put ashore per Admiralty Directions, but no. The 2/0 can sort them says this fat ER Super." No, the bloody 2/0 won't ! " thinks I.

We set off for Paranagua, Brazil. We had the old foot & fathom chart for Paranagua Approaches , and I noticed a new metric chart had been issued.

The old chart depicted the buoyed channel and pilot station to the southwest of the Ilha do Mel in the estuary, so I plotted the course for there. The Ol' Man duly sent the ETA to the pilot As we approached , there was no sign of the pilot boat or the buoyed channel on the radar. The pilot boat came on the VHS and wanted to know why we had sailed past him. Turns out the SW channel had been abandoned because of silting and a new channel had been dredged and buoyed to the northeast of Ilha do Mel!!!

More tomorrow ! ( It gets worse !!!)

Laurie Ridyard.


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