Retirement
After just over 44 years living out of either a Sea Bag or a Rig Bag it is time to clean the spanners one last time and lay them by.
It is hard to believe where the time has gone.
It only seems like yesterday That I completed serving my time as a Marine Engineer and set off to join the Merchant Navy, or the Ben Line to be exact.
Yesterday was actually the 10th. December 1970, that was the day I rolled up in a taxi to join the S.S. Benlomond at number 11 Royal Albert Dock in London. Little did I know at the time but this would be my home for the next two and a half years.
Standing at the bottom of the gangway I certainly did not feel like the Jack the Lad I had been when at home. Where do I go when I get to the top I asked myself, left or right?
I was soon to learn that the correct terminology was For'd or Aft.
I swear that if my Mother had stopped in a taxi and offered me a lift home I would have put my tail between my legs and taken the offered lift home..!!!
A new life was to begin, eight years of globe-trotting, working hard and partying even harder.
The best job I ever had.
This was followed by twelve years moving up a league in hard graft and getting a degree in it at the Seine Net fishing in the North Sea. At times this entailed a forty hour shift followed by two hours unconscious (you could hardly call it sleep) and then back up on a pitching rolling deck to do the same again. Yes, a forty hour shift, never mind a forty hour week.
I was not alone doing this, there were hundreds of other Fishermen doing the same.
By the time I was forty I decided to get a “real” job and go ashore.
This lasted for six months and it was back to sea again, on the Oil Rigs this time, working with a Drill-Crew. These guys are the grafters on any Oil Rig.
Started at the bottom as Motor-man and quickly worked my way up to Chief Mechanic which is what I have been for the last nineteen years.
Once again met some really great characters and got involved in the hard graft that Drilling entails.
Twenty four years later and the mind and body have slowed down more than a wee bit. With the down-turn in Drilling and the requirement to work three weeks on and three weeks off, it is time to hand over to the younger generation and let them get on with it.
So now it's time to chill out with the family and to thank all the shipmates and crew mates I have sailed with and worked with over the years, I have had a great time, thank you all.
Regards to all – Ali. Bain.
After just over 44 years living out of either a Sea Bag or a Rig Bag it is time to clean the spanners one last time and lay them by.
It is hard to believe where the time has gone.
It only seems like yesterday That I completed serving my time as a Marine Engineer and set off to join the Merchant Navy, or the Ben Line to be exact.
Yesterday was actually the 10th. December 1970, that was the day I rolled up in a taxi to join the S.S. Benlomond at number 11 Royal Albert Dock in London. Little did I know at the time but this would be my home for the next two and a half years.
Standing at the bottom of the gangway I certainly did not feel like the Jack the Lad I had been when at home. Where do I go when I get to the top I asked myself, left or right?
I was soon to learn that the correct terminology was For'd or Aft.
I swear that if my Mother had stopped in a taxi and offered me a lift home I would have put my tail between my legs and taken the offered lift home..!!!
A new life was to begin, eight years of globe-trotting, working hard and partying even harder.
The best job I ever had.
This was followed by twelve years moving up a league in hard graft and getting a degree in it at the Seine Net fishing in the North Sea. At times this entailed a forty hour shift followed by two hours unconscious (you could hardly call it sleep) and then back up on a pitching rolling deck to do the same again. Yes, a forty hour shift, never mind a forty hour week.
I was not alone doing this, there were hundreds of other Fishermen doing the same.
By the time I was forty I decided to get a “real” job and go ashore.
This lasted for six months and it was back to sea again, on the Oil Rigs this time, working with a Drill-Crew. These guys are the grafters on any Oil Rig.
Started at the bottom as Motor-man and quickly worked my way up to Chief Mechanic which is what I have been for the last nineteen years.
Once again met some really great characters and got involved in the hard graft that Drilling entails.
Twenty four years later and the mind and body have slowed down more than a wee bit. With the down-turn in Drilling and the requirement to work three weeks on and three weeks off, it is time to hand over to the younger generation and let them get on with it.
So now it's time to chill out with the family and to thank all the shipmates and crew mates I have sailed with and worked with over the years, I have had a great time, thank you all.
Regards to all – Ali. Bain.