28th October 1965 to 23rd August 1966 as a Deck Apprentice with a British Crew
I was given a direct transfer from one of the oldest and smallest RFA tankers, the “Brown Ranger”, to the latest and largest of a new breed of Fast Fleet Replenishment Tankers. She had just arrived at Portland after having completed acceptance trials from her builders on Tyneside. Her Master was the current Commodore of the RFA fleet and I was to be the senior of three deck apprentices.
After a brief ‘work-up’ period at Portland, we sailed to Torbay for a mini ‘Fleet Review’ and then on to Devonport, where we loaded a full cargo of fresh water. This was to be delivered to Gibraltar as soon as possible, where they were experiencing water collection and storage problems on the ‘Rock’ at that time. Because this new ship had not yet carried any oil she was ideal for this task, which also enabled the ship’s pipeline systems to be checked for leaks, blockages or malfunctions. After discharging the water at Gibraltar we were programmed to proceed to the Persian Gulf to load our variety of oil products which included furnace fuel oil (FFO), diesel and avcat (aviation fuel). However, things did not go according to plan. I think we were only a couple of days out of Gibraltar eastbound when one of the main steam turbines began to shear its blades and we had to limp back to the U.K. We returned to Wallsend Slipway & Eng.Co. on Tyneside, where the builders began what was to be a lengthy repair and modification to our steam turbines.
Unusually, we three deck apprentices were kept on board throughout this period of repairs, which must have lasted a couple of months. We were concerned about a doubt that it would still count as sea-time towards the requirement for all our 2nd Mates Certificates. Fortunately, after some enquiries through RFA Head Office it was approved by the Board of Trade. We settled down to a routine of general maintenance, with the occasional light relief. This consisted of football matches with local teams, trips into Newcastle to see ‘United’ play at home, a visit and sampling session at Newcastle Brewery, dancing at clubs in Whitley Bay and attending the impressive launch of the “British Argosy”, a large B.P. tanker built at the Swan Hunters yard. From where the “Oleander” was berthed, I recall that to get buses to Newcastle and civilisation, we had to take a footpath out of the main shipyard gate, past “Hood-Haggies Ropeworks” and then on to the main Wallsend Road bus stop, next to a rather dismal little pub called “The Dun Cow”.
The repairs were finally completed and after successfully undergoing speed trials off the Tyne we sailed again to Devonport. Here we loaded another full cargo of fresh water for Gibraltar. This time, on sailing from Gibraltar with all fingers crossed, all went well and we headed for Aden, via Suez and the Red Sea. After loading a part cargo at the Little Aden oil refinery, we set off for Mina al Ahmadi in the Persian Gulf to complete our loading and carry out trials of our air-conditioning systems. Fortunately all was well with the accommodation areas staying pleasantly cool. When we ran into a large sandstorm we had an opportunity to close up the accommodation areas again, this time to gently pressurise all these and internal working areas, to test our NBCD defences, whilst at the same time keeping the sand and filth outside.
Whilst in the Persian Gulf region we carried out our first RAS, which happened to be with a Tribal class frigate called HMS ”Eskimo”. Our captain sent her a signal; “You are our first customer. Thank you for breaking the ice!” The humour might have been wasted on her crew, who had to suffer the Gulf heat without the luxury of an air-conditioning system on that class of frigate! Leaving the Gulf we headed west and back through the Suez Canal to Malta.
As apprentices, or ‘cadets’ as we were now being called, some of our day-work duties involved maintaining the ship’s boats. In addition to the six lifeboats, we carried a 36 ft glass-fibre workboat, a 25 ft wooden motor cutter and a ‘Bosun’ class sailing dinghy. In the shelter of Grand Harbour, Malta, we were allowed to take these boats away and explore the harbour and its many creeks, thereby improving our boat handling skills. As the Chief Officer became more confident of our ability, he let us run the boats more often and we became employed as the Captain’s taxi crew. Occasionally we also ran additional liberty boats from our berth at Parlatorio Wharf, across the harbour to Customs House Steps, the landing place for the city of Valletta.
Sailing from Malta, we stopped briefly again at Gibraltar, before heading out into mid-Atlantic to rendezvous with the cruiser, HMS “Tiger”. To refuel her in a high ocean swell we at first tried the abeam method, increasing speed from the usual 12 knots to about 15 knots to try and match the sea conditions. The relative ship movements were quite spectacular, especially as we got close together. The risk of collision and damage was eventually assessed as just too great and we resorted to refuelling her by the slower and more laborious astern method.
Next followed a couple of routine trans-Atlantic freighting runs between an oil refinery at Trinidad and discharges to Devonport and Gibraltar.
We were then sent to Portsmouth for “Sea Days”. This was a two or three day display, involving “Oleander”, along with destroyers, frigates, a submarine and several naval aircraft. The show was put on mainly for visiting senior naval and military staff and civil servants, other V.I.P’s and invited guests. Relatives of the ship’s companies were also invited, with my Mother and Father attending for one of the days. I think that they were quite impressed. I recall going ashore one rather pleasant evening and watching the sun set across the Solent. As I walked along Southsea promenade I remember feeling rather proud of my smart looking ship as it lay at anchor just offshore, attractively floodlit like the rest of the warships involved in the display.
Our next voyage took us north for cold weather trials west of Norway. The temperature was reluctant to drop sufficiently and the trials were a bit of a flop, but we did get interesting visits to the cities of Oslo and Copenhagen. Following a pilotage up Oslo fjord we anchored in the harbour. Oslo itself was very pleasant and clean, dotted with many monuments and statues. On a run ashore I also visited the impressive ‘Viking’ and the ‘Fran’ museums. A small group of us were taken to see the large Olympic ski-jump on a nearby mountainside, looking rather out of place without the usual covering of ice and snow! At Copenhagen we berthed quite near the ‘Little Mermaid’ statue, with the destroyer HMS “Dainty” berthing outboard of us. I was able to visit the famous ‘Tivoli Gardens’ and join a visit to the “Cherry Heering” liqueur factory which was very pleasant.
As we were in northern waters, our U.K. port of call was Rosyth and I have memories of being allowed by the Chief Officer, along with the other cadets, to take the 36 ft workboat on picnic trips along the Firth of Forth. We went several miles and east of the bridges on a couple of occasions, visiting the remote island of Inchcolm. The Chief Officer must have had a lot of faith in our boat handling skills by that time. What he didn’t know was that we made the picnics more enjoyable by nipping in to a slipway at South Queensferry on the way to pick up our girlfriends!
Eventually we sailed back down south again, getting involved in several naval exercises, before calling in to Portsmouth where I paid off, having finally got enough sea-time to be able to sit for my 2nd Mate (Foreign Going) examination, the first real academic hurdle of my sea-going career.
Normally, a three month period of ‘paid study leave’ was granted by reputable shipping companies to their deck cadets, which became a period of intense cramming at one of the few colleges of maritime studies located around the U.K. At that time there were six written examination papers and an oral examination to pass in order to obtain a 2nd Mates (Foreign Going) ticket.
The written papers were on the following subjects: “General Ship Knowledge”, including questions on cargo work and ship construction, (3 hours. There was no minimum pass mark on this subject but marks counted towards overall average percentage), “Chart Work” (2 hours plus oral questions, min. 70% to pass), “Practical Navigation” (3 hours, min. 70% to pass), “Mathematics” (2 hours, min 50% to pass), “Principles of Navigation” (2 hours, min.50% to pass) and “English” (1.5 hours, min 50% to pass).
Each subject covered a broad spectrum of possible questions and any weakness detected in the written answers was pounced on later by the “Oral” examiner. Usually it was only those who had really put the work in who later attained the required pass-mark.