My first trip was in the Stanvac Horizon, the flagship of the Standard Vacuum Transportation Company, transporting oil around the Middle and Far East. It was an eighteen month trip.
The commodore chief engineer was James Robertson Kidd, a Scot who was as hard as nails and was known by all in the fleet as "Jimmy the Kidd" (although never, ever, to his face). It was rumoured that he had once fought in the boxing booths in Glasgow in his youth, and none of his engineers doubted that for a moment. He was one tough cookie!
Every day, at unannounced times, he would visit the engine room, and God help any watch keeping engineer who was not on top of his game. Jimmy had an obsession with tank tops and bilges, and the tank tops were painted with boot topping. If he found any water on those pristine tank tops then the watch keeper would be looking at field days. Even worse, the chequer plates of the control flat had to be immaculate -- a simple matchstick on the plates by the log desk would invite purgatory.
Jimmy had an obsession with Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, and in the smoke room he would insist on playing them over and over again the two or three that were his favourites, to which we were all expected to sing although we tended to add our own lyrics much to his disgust!
From memory I sailed under Jimmy for around two and a half years when I was a very green junior, and he taught me how to be a ships engineer. Learn the job, know where every pipeline and cable goes and what it does. Know the purpose of every valve even if it seems to be hidden in some place below the floor plates. Spend every watch in the quiet times questioning oneself "What would I do if....?"
Jimmy the Kidd was a superb engineer, and he gave me the grounding that has served me well in my engineering career since leaving the sea. His simple rule: know the job, and if you don't know it, learn it fast!
Jimmy, I believe from communications with his son some years ago on this site, is long gone now. So RIP Jimmy the Kidd and thanks. You turned me from a callow shipyard apprentice into an engineer.