1975 and an Unlucky Ship

[Bob Clay]

Seafarers tend to be superstitious by nature, I think it's the 'foxhole' mentality (only in this case the foxhole is that big hole in the Earth's surface filled with water that we call an ocean.) 

 

Now I'm not superstitious, but I can't deny some ships seem to be unlucky.  My second super-tanker was the Mobil Pegasus which got off to a bad start when she was built because a shipyard worker was killed in her full length double bottom tanks, a new feature for these ships at the time.

 

In 1973 she suffered a huge gas explosion during tank cleaning (a regular occurrence on these giant tankers  at the time) which peeled back 500 feet of her foredeck.  I joined her in Marseille in 1975 as she completed repairs following a major engine failure, and on our trip around the Cape of Good Hope (Suez was still closed) we took a big greenie over the bow and one anchor and all of its cable ran out through the hawse pipe, taking a considerable amount of steelwork and winch bits with it as it went, to say nothing of a serious pot of money.

 

I left her at the LOOP (Louisiana Offshore Oil Port) in 1976 when the USA was celebrating the 200th anniversary of giving up the chance to be good at cricket, and although as I've said I'm not superstitious, I was kind of glad to get off.

http://www.aukevisser.nl/mobil/id394.htm

[Bob Clay]

You should put this whole story down in one lump because I would find it very interesting.

[Harry]

Hahaha, the last line about giving up the chance to be good at cricket cracked me up. The rest while IU was reading it made me think I'd read a book of the stories of your adventures.  Very nice!

[Bob Clay]

Wow Steve.

[Dude A Bydes]

Man! Keep this shit rollin'. You have a powerful narrative voice, Man of Clay. Powerful!