Anecdote

A few trips onboard Bekulan..and a Refit.
Refit MHI Honmoku Sept 2003.

Bebatik MHI Refit at Honmoku, Yokohama Japan on Sept 2008.

In my 7 months on the Velutina we went aground in the St Lawrence River, had a collision with the lock wall in the Panama Canal, mid Atlantic a hole appeared in the ships side in the boiler room below the waterline and we had to call into the Azores to get a plate welded over it, polluted Lake Maracaibo, couldn't heave up the anchor off a U.S. port due to a lack of deck steam pressure. All in all it was a quiet trip.

Na een avond stappen,stapte weer aan boord zonder over hemd,was van zijde in de mode dus .
Was zo van mn lijf geplukt,door wie??????????? ik laat alle opties open,leuke tyd...

i was only on the vertagus for one year.my age was only obout 19
so i was a bit knave. the second steward did not like me, so he put in
a bad report on me
so when i got back to england i got the sack.
i would love to get in touch with him, but i dont no his name.
when i was on board we were sailing between durban south africa,
and the persian gulf.
well thats it for now steven seymour ex steward

Whilst serving aboard the Eburna in 1979-1980 we picked up two lots of Vietnamese refugees. I have pictures, which i think one of the engineers took, of the rescue of the first boat load we picked up in the South China sea. I believe everyone involved in that rescue were given a set of photos. The second boat load of refugees we picked up a couple of months later off the Thai coast. They were very lucky because two Thai fishing boats were steaming towards them at a great rate of knots and not all Thai fishermen were friendly! I believe my memory serves me right but if anyone who was on board at the time has a better recollection of events maybe they could update it.

The Eulota was, after 12 years, my last ship with Shell. I joined my first Shell tanker in 1974 and paid off my last tanker in 1986. I carried on sailing until May 2001 when i finally came ashore, i didn't want to miss my daughter growing up and anyway the passion for the sea had gone. We moved to New Zealand in 2004, to Wellington and now i'm thinking of taking up yachting as a hobby!!

Joined Ebalina in Chiba, Japan in May 1980 it was her first sailing from the builders yard. I was the first seaman on the 4-8 watch. I went to turn the lights on my first night aboard but nothing happened the Captain, Ch. mate, 2nd mate, Ch. eng. Bosun and myself (well a whole load people anyway) stood around the light switches wondering how to turn them on. Lucky we were still in port and lucky we had a Japanese engineer still aboard.

The Halia was, for me, the best ship in the Shell fleet. I always sailed with good crews on her.

This was my first F class ship, i spent almost a year on the Ficus between Aug 76 and July 77. This was one of my favourites.