Steve Hodges
23rd April 2008, 16:36
Reading recent postings brought back old memories, and prompted me to ask this question of engineers serving with BP after 1978.
My last trip was on a Border boat in 1977, sailing as 3/E with a chief's steam ticket. At one port we took on vast quantities of piping, flanges and insulation. I was told that we were going to renew the entire deck steam and condensate lines - it had been down for the ship's last drydock, but "someone" had decided that it would be done by the ship's engineers in normal service.
A start was made by the daywork 2/E and the Indian P.O. fitters, and we watchkeeping engineers were told that we were expected to turn to and work field days on the job as well. There was a lot of ill-feeling about this,and I refused to do it. I said I would work whatever hours were necessary in an emergency or a breakdown, but was not prepared to work unpaid overtime on what should have been a shipyard job. Perhaps it was bloody-mindedness, but I felt quite strongly about the principle and even wrote to the MNAOA about it. I don't recall any offical censure.
Perhaps I was in a different position to the others on board, as I had decided that I would soon be leaving the company and the sea - the fleet was shrinking rapidly at the time, and I was aware that many senior ranks were quite worried about their future careers, and thus more amenable to pressure from above.
I would be interested to know if this was just an isolated incident, or if more and more such work was piled on the sea-going staff as the fleet shrank. Just how bad did it get?
My last trip was on a Border boat in 1977, sailing as 3/E with a chief's steam ticket. At one port we took on vast quantities of piping, flanges and insulation. I was told that we were going to renew the entire deck steam and condensate lines - it had been down for the ship's last drydock, but "someone" had decided that it would be done by the ship's engineers in normal service.
A start was made by the daywork 2/E and the Indian P.O. fitters, and we watchkeeping engineers were told that we were expected to turn to and work field days on the job as well. There was a lot of ill-feeling about this,and I refused to do it. I said I would work whatever hours were necessary in an emergency or a breakdown, but was not prepared to work unpaid overtime on what should have been a shipyard job. Perhaps it was bloody-mindedness, but I felt quite strongly about the principle and even wrote to the MNAOA about it. I don't recall any offical censure.
Perhaps I was in a different position to the others on board, as I had decided that I would soon be leaving the company and the sea - the fleet was shrinking rapidly at the time, and I was aware that many senior ranks were quite worried about their future careers, and thus more amenable to pressure from above.
I would be interested to know if this was just an isolated incident, or if more and more such work was piled on the sea-going staff as the fleet shrank. Just how bad did it get?