[loylobby]

In Shell, as per lots of other shipping companies probably, you had to report Lost Time and Non-Lost Time Accidents.

I can't remember the criteria to win one, but "Safety Awards" were given to individuals - Miners Lamps etc depending on perfect Safety performance of ships.

Most old men were fairly realistic (and honest) and would report accidents so that maybe lessons could be learned. Not every scratch, bit of grit in the eye or hammer rash would be recorded but stuff requiring real medical attention would be recorded, investigated and reported to Shell. Such is life, ships are after all a "dangerous environment" to work in.

However, there was one Shell ship, a "G" boat (can't remember exactly which one) which had NO REPORTABLE ACCIDENTS for over 20 million, gazillion, trillion man hours and this record was forever being lauded and rammed down the throats of the rest of the fleet.

None of the rest of the fleet believed this statistic/record could be true, in fact it was ridiculed as an exercise in creative record keeping.

We could only surmise that maybe that some of old men took any accidents on their ship as a reflection of their management and were a little economical with the truth and were maybe turning a Nelson blind eye to minor accidents/incidents so the accident statistics looked good for the ship, personnel and their command. As time went on, this excellent "record" became noticed by the company and a benchmark.

Many of us also assumed that as time wore on and the NO ACCIDENTS period got longer and longer and longer, it would take a brave old man or Safety Officer to be the first one to report an accident and end this record and blot their copybook.

I was wondering if there is anyone out there who sailed on this particular "G" boat and can shed some light on this supposed accident free record (the veracity or otherwise) and does anyone one know when it ended.

[Billieboy]

I remember taking the port forward winch off the Norissa(sp) in Rotterdam one afternoon, it was simpler to lift it right off and do the survey and repair in the shop ashore, returning and fitting the winch sixty hours later. Then one of my shop charge-hands hit his thumb with a hammer! it was seen by the Chief Engineer and dealt with quickly in accordance with standing orders NLTA. This was the only personnel accident I ever had in twenty five years ship repairing.

The form filling was a bloody nightmare!