[BITList] boats

[CT's]

yo dave

I can well understand a better atmosphere onboard when the yanks were much diluted.
your boat captains were unlikely to have been missisippi river boat captains [were they tidewater?]  - AFIK, no river boat captains worked offshore.
conditions up n down the river and offshore gom, etc. completely different.

who were the crews on smit lloyde boats?

ct




From: fs 
Sent: Tuesday, January 12, 2010 6:40 PM
To: bitlist at lists.bcn.mythic-beasts.com 
Subject: Re: [BITList] more Drillship stuff


CT
one of the beauty's of working in Taiwan in the early 70's was that though it was an American company we worked for the state department wouldn't allow americans offshore in case the mainland Chinese took over the rig, we were at times drilling within coee distance of the mainlands coast which of course Taiwan claimed as theirs, so our crews were made up of every nationality under the sun and I have found since that the bigger the mix of nationality's on board the better the atmosphere on board I suppose everyone makes allowances for everyone else
the Mississippi river boat captains certainly knew how to handle their work boats when having to stand alongside the rig so that we could snatch loads in rough weather without tying up whereas we found that some of the Smit Lloyde boats spent more time trying to sink us
frank

On 1/13/2010 12:30 AM, CT's wrote: 
  yo dave,

  I spent some time in the gulf of mexico and other areas with towing and moving jack-up rigs and semis [no drill ships]. I fully endorse what you have to say about americans in the business. 
  with very few exceptions I found them to be completely ignorant of anything outside of the oil field business and drilling. 
  most came/come from small towns [some very small] or small holdings mainly in mississipi, louisiana and texas, which appeared to lack any sort of educational establishment. 
  their only passion appeared to be guns and huntin'. [women? no, not even women]
  we were involved with a jack-up tow one time, the "tow superintendent" [whose only expertise in the business was that he was a former US marine and a buddy of the rig manager!) insisted on securing the tow lines to mooring bitts. Of course he didn't know the name of these things; when I told him they were called mooring bitts, because they were used to moor the vessel - not TOW the vessel he wasn't thrilled.
   schmidt brackets out of the question until the mooring bits tore out of the deck.
  I was always surprised that the equally ignorant, but less serious skippers of the tow boats paid no attention to the towing arrangements on the rig - just, here's the tow line, let's go.
  now if it was a long international tow with a powerful tug/s from a well known company, their master and some times super, would ensure the towing arrangements were to their standards and ours.
  the reason for the difference [apart from the obvious] was political. local crews/tugs are 10 a penny, so they would not say a word about anything [note the crewing "arrangements' in dave's "yank supply ship"] and dare not complain if they wanted to keep their job.
  incidentally, there was a move afoot some time a go to get a seamen's union going down here - for better conditions, benefits and wages. OMG the national guard, police and sherriffs were summoned by the tug owners whenever a meeting was planned - feudalism is strong and healthy on the gulf coast.  

  these lines from dave's email sums up the way the oil field yanks work perfectly :-

   "There was a freezer container for rig cargo welded down on the deck just abaft the superstructure for this particular job. It broke down because the machinery was open to the weather. So the motor was moved to a small store locker but then there was insufficient air circulation and the motor overheated and broke down again. Nothing fazes these Yanks. Cut a hole into the cabin bulkhead and put the motor in the cabin, there's air conditioning (one punkah) in there as well. Noise and heat didn't allow much sleep, even in the senior bunk."

  a bull in a china shop springs to mind.............................................. 

  ct
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