# The Last R/O before you was superman



## Gareth Jones (Jul 13, 2007)

Did anyone else ever join a ship, instantly to be told by the OM how wonderful the last R/O was ? 
The only thing he was unable to do was deliver traffic by hand from Mid Atlantic !
He could repair the Radar at 3am, in the dark, in storm force 10 conditions ! 
He could send the fastest morse in the world - never took more than 15 mins to clear traffic to Portishead!
Worse of all - he never complained about anything !
Wish I could have caught up with this bloody paragon of virtue - I'd have bloody throttled him !!


----------



## n. liddell (sparks) (Nov 21, 2008)

glad you didn't catch me then!


----------



## sparkie2182 (May 12, 2007)

I'm pleased you made this post Gareth........

I thought i was the only one who suffered from this syndrome.


----------



## Troppo (Feb 18, 2010)

Clearly the old man was talking about moi.


----------



## rknibbs (Mar 11, 2006)

The way to treat such OM was to tell them about the great OM on your last ship and how he was always so respectful, flexible and understanding to the R/O!


----------



## WilliamH (Jul 9, 2007)

I was sitting in the superintendents office prior to joining a chemical tanker as C/E. The super had been rabbiting on for 5 or 10 minutes on how brilliant the C/E that I was to relieve was, then in said "oh by the way there are some cargo pumps to survey and there is six months left of this survey cycle" "how may pumps I asked," "twelve," he said. " How many cargo pumps on the ship," I asked, "twelve" was the reply.


----------



## trotterdotpom (Apr 29, 2005)

I always felt like saying: "Well, those days are all over now," but, of course, I didn't.

John T.


----------



## mikeg (Aug 24, 2006)

The last R/0 brought better weather forecasts(Jester)


----------



## sparkie2182 (May 12, 2007)

.................. And did so from Coast Stations which did not actually Tx them.


----------



## MARINEJOCKY (Nov 25, 2007)

What was a R/O ?


----------



## hawkey01 (Mar 15, 2006)

Marinejocky,

trying to be contentious hey! there are a lot of us. We will find you!.

Hawkey01


----------



## MARINEJOCKY (Nov 25, 2007)

Sorry, I meant to write "What WAS a R/O". is there any left and what did they do


----------



## Shipbuilder (Jun 30, 2005)

There are no sailing ships any more.
No coal-fired steamers any more.
No giant battleships any more.

I can phone Australia on my little mobile with no trouble at all, but progress does not negate what has gone before when there was nothing better to do the job.

Long ago, I was amused by a statement made by an old captain when I was having trouble getting Portished on my 100 watt transmitter, he said something along the lines of "The sparks on the old SS.......... never had any trouble getting through at this distance and all he had was a 25Kw spark transmitter!

Bob


----------



## Naytikos (Oct 20, 2008)

Funny, my experience, at least on non-British ships, was usually the opposite: The last R/O was a lazy drunkard who never fixed anything, couldn't arrange link calls and, worst of all, wouldn't get the football results.


----------



## surfaceblow (Jan 16, 2008)

When I was on the Valley Forge after the dismissal of the last R/O I had to type my own messages using the SITOR. While I was typing my messages the C/M came by with a hand full of messages that the Captain had given him to send which he left in the Radio Room. When I finished with my messages I informed the Captain that the SITOR was free to send his messages. I was told by the Captain that the last R/O would have typed and sent his messages for him. I told the Captain yes that he did, but his replacement (the Captain) got an extra 2 hundred dollars a month to do the R/O functions and I did not. But the "new R/O" (Captain) would skip lines and transposed words and numbers on my messages so I had to resort to typing up my own messages.

Joe


----------



## Tai Pan (Mar 24, 2006)

Funny that, I always found it the opposite, I was the perfect one!!!!!!


----------



## mikeg (Aug 24, 2006)

No!! I'm spartacus(==D)


----------



## Tai Pan (Mar 24, 2006)

mikeg said:


> No!! I'm spartacus(==D)


sorry Mike, anyone who wears the new fangled straight stripes cant be the best. came in after my time, proud wearer of the Proper job "sparks" gold stripes.


----------



## mikeg (Aug 24, 2006)

Ah, that'll be you then (Jester)


----------



## Tai Pan (Mar 24, 2006)

mikeg said:


> Ah, that'll be you then (Jester)


Good aerial height. (Applause)


----------



## Mayday (May 26, 2009)

When I was on the Valley Forge...

Would that be Seatrain Valley Forge?
I was RO on ... now was it Strathconnon or Falmouth Bay, which was ex Seatrain Valley Forge. Thinking about it, it was most likely Strathconnon as that ship was equipped with Satcom.

John.


----------



## surfaceblow (Jan 16, 2008)

Mayday said:


> When I was on the Valley Forge...
> 
> Would that be Seatrain Valley Forge?
> I was RO on ... now was it Strathconnon or Falmouth Bay, which was ex Seatrain Valley Forge. Thinking about it, it was most likely Strathconnon as that ship was equipped with Satcom.
> ...


Sorry John

The ship was the Keystone Tanker "Valley Forge" which was under a Shell charter. It later became the Riverhead Spirit. 

We had a Satcom which the Captain forgot to turn back on after the monthly test of the Emergency Generator under load. Has a cost saving measure Keystone had all of the out going messages sent by SITOR but the office sent their messages using the Satcom. After a week of not getting replies to the out going messages it was discover that the power was still off on the Satcom. 

Joe


----------



## WillieG (Feb 7, 2006)

Mayday said:


> When I was on the Valley Forge...
> 
> Would that be Seatrain Valley Forge?
> I was RO on ... now was it Strathconnon or Falmouth Bay, which was ex Seatrain Valley Forge. Thinking about it, it was most likely Strathconnon as that ship was equipped with Satcom.
> ...


Hi John - Strathconon was the ex Seatrain Galley Range...... sorry, Seatrain Valley Forge(Jester)
I was RO on her mid '83 - my first trip with OCL, a great trip - and my introduction to satcom!


----------



## Mayday (May 26, 2009)

WillieG said:


> Hi John - Strathconon was the ex Seatrain Galley Range...... sorry, Seatrain Valley Forge(Jester)
> I was RO on her mid '83 - my first trip with OCL, a great trip - and my introduction to satcom!


Willie,
Yes, didn't I take over from you in 9VG, mid August, 1983.

John.


----------



## roythwa (Jul 15, 2009)

Its the last Superman before you was R/O !

I got better as the voyage wore on like everyone.


----------

