It could only happen at sea

[David Fox]

Reading some posts from Ship Nostalgia about various faux pas, then a couple of the lads sent me their experiences I thought It might be a good topic to start and you can tell everybody yours, read these and you will get the gist.

From Dave Payze
BSL, Engineer flew into Melbourne from the UK for the MV Wellington Star.
Could not find the ship in port so went to the local BSL office.
Said ship was mid Pacific Ocean northbound so hotel booking for  overnight  made and "see you in the morning".
Overnight fax to Leadenhall St London  resulted in a plane ticket  to Wellington to join the  MV Melbourne Star which was on the Kiwi coast.


Sounds like a touch of the Fitzy's there after a liquid lunch.

On departure East London South Africa for  Durban it was noticed that a steam locomotive for South Africa Railways sitting on #3 hatch immediately in front of the bridge which the mates had been looking at for 3 weeks had been overcarried..
Red faces all around as this was to be delivered to East London so a smart about turn, a call for the departing pilot boat to return with the pilot, and day lost on the voyage.
I do not know if a ( traditional) engine breakdown was blamed for the return to port in the ship's paperwork as  the said ship had 2 main engines.  
Both stories regaled in a ship's bar at sea, so probably true , certainly possible , and believable. 

Good one's Dave.
Get the idea chaps. Lets have a few entries, there must be many similar stories knocking about, just give the grey matter a bit of a stir up. A bit of embelishing won't harm a good story.

Couple here from Keith Gladman.
My second ship we got tickets from travel for St John's Newfoundland. Trouble was ship went to St John New Brunswick.
I rang our travel to point it out .

Another time they said don't book your luggage all the way to Columbo. Collect it and check it in again.
Of course our flight was delayed and we missed the connection due to collection of luggage.

[David Fox]

Some from SN.

Then there was the containership "TNT Express" manoeuvering at the same time as the containership "TFL Express" in the port of Gulfport, Mississippi - did that cause some VHF problems in late 1984!
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Anchored off Spurn a few years ago and a ship requested a pilot for Goole. Nobody seemed to know anything about him and after enquires by the shore people it turned out he should have been at Poole. I bet there was a few red faces aboard there.
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When I worked on the Denholm managed Alcan vessels, a 2nd Eng was scheduled to join the ship in Port Rhodes, Jamaica. The Glasgow travel department sent him to Rhodes, Greece. What was even funnier was that the ship had been trading to and from Port Rhodes for several years, with the same 2nd on board, and he never thought to question his flight details.
Well you wouldn't would you. If the office says go there and send you the ticket you wouldn''t question them.
Many years ago a ship named the Argus (owned and operated by a well known and much disparaged non-commercial shipping 'company') was alongside in Portsmouth Naval Base, requiring work to be done on a massive military radar scanner at the very top of the mast the largest mobile crane available (so large it required a police escort as legend has it) was ordered and subsequently dispatched.

I would have enjoyed seeing the confusion on the faces of the staff at Portsmouth's Argos store upon the arrival outside on the now gridlocked streets of a massive crane they hadn't ordered.
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If a ship misses a port its very seldom the fault of the port!

[David Fox]

Come on chaps, don't be shy. I am sure there are a few stories out there.
Contact Jim Blake through the website on the sound powered phone, think of a password and he will do the rest.

I see 450 + have looked at it since early June.

[David Fox]

Hobart Star - from Ship Nostalgia 4/2/2007 from Bob Randle

I was first trip cadet in the Hobart star in 1963 when she went aground in Port Melbourne.The ship was bethed on East Princes pier and we were working cargo at night (very unusual for Aus.). A freak storm blew up in the early hours and blew the ship off the wharf, before anything could be done the after mooring lines parted and the ship swung round with the head lines still in tact and grounded on the foreshore between the two piers.

If I remember rightly we got afloat about 5 days later after discharging 2,000 tons of lead we'd loaded in Risdon in Tassie. Masters name was H. G. Moon.
With the aid of five tugs and our main engine.

The tugs certainly were pulling for all they were worth. we had both ends of our "insurance wire" (the strongest wire rope in the ship) out to two of the tugs, and after we were refloated the wire was almost flattened where they went through the panama fairleads aft.Health and safety would love that risk now.
No Damage.

This was at the time of the John Profumo Christine Keeler scandal, the Aussie wharfies renamed the ship the "Keeler Star", with the explanation "They found her lying between two piers.