[joeneilb]

Db-15

DB-15 is still working for j. Ray in Mexico. DB-16 was sold and is known as Shawnee now. I worked on Shawnee in Mexico, DB-9 in Dubai, DB7,DB8, and Lay barge 26 in Egypt. All have been scrapped by J. Ray. I believe LB27 was scrapped also when they got Lay Barge 100. DLB 27 is in Dubai or was. joeneilb

 

[joeneilb]

Picture may be LB27 It is not the LB26 for sure. I believe I have pictures of her.

 

[5036]

JB4 had two large housings either side of an alley with the control tower standing forward. On her tow across the Atlantic, large waves ran around the tower and down the alley causing a lot of damage. The solution was to put the large deflectors forward around the tower which gave her her odd look. She always looked like she had a supply boat alongside. A really noisy sob when she was working.

I remember "Black Bergeron" and there were tug skippers who could handle anchors with the best of them but couldn't read or write. The aht's were tiny compared to today's monsters. Was there a tug skipper Cap'n Harvey? I remember them trying to stop him at the limits and less than half a layer of wire left on the drum.

I was on LB27 for the North Cormorant lines to Cormorant Alpha and the Shetland connector.

Fastnet Shore was used as a survey ship to get the as laid position of the pipe and to check for spans.

 

[Norman Trewren]

Harvey Hailey

 

[5036]

Yes Norman! "Stop her and drop her!" in a southern droll is forever ingrained in my mind.

I also recall a catamaran tug, the Jaramac66? which towed some barges on longer journeys, supposedly very efficient but costly to run because under American Bureau classification it had to have two crews of engineers because there were two engine rooms. I came across her later in Brunei in 1980 where she was only ever used for towing as she could not handle anchors. The crew lazed about the deck in the sunshine all day waiting for something to do.

 

[tboy]

hi reed
yes i had some very good memories of the mission, they allways made you very welcome. after doing a 12 hr shift we were allways ready for a few beers. also went to a small town nearby but cant remember the name of it, but had some good action there.
paj.

Could you possibly be thinking of Lillo?

 

[tboy]

JB4 had two large housings either side of an alley with the control tower standing forward. On her tow across the Atlantic, large waves ran around the tower and down the alley causing a lot of damage. The solution was to put the large deflectors forward around the tower which gave her her odd look. She always looked like she had a supply boat alongside. A really noisy sob when she was working.

I remember "Black Bergeron" and there were tug skippers who could handle anchors with the best of them but couldn't read or write. The aht's were tiny compared to today's monsters. Was there a tug skipper Cap'n Harvey? I remember them trying to stop him at the limits and less than half a layer of wire left on the drum.

I was on LB27 for the North Cormorant lines to Cormorant Alpha and the Shetland connector.

Fastnet Shore was used as a survey ship to get the as laid position of the pipe and to check for spans.

Maybe you are thinking of Harvey Haley? If so, that was my father-in law! I worked on the JB3 until 1977

 

[tboy]

Harvey Hailey

Harvey Haley. He was my father in law

 

[tboy]

Yes Norman! "Stop her and drop her!" in a southern droll is forever ingrained in my mind.

I also recall a catamaran tug, the Jaramac66? which towed some barges on longer journeys, supposedly very efficient but costly to run because under American Bureau classification it had to have two crews of engineers because there were two engine rooms. I came across her later in Brunei in 1980 where she was only ever used for towing as she could not handle anchors. The crew lazed about the deck in the sunshine all day waiting for something to do.

That was the L.E. Stewert. My father in law, Harvey Haley was capt. On her.

 

[tboy]

Hello - New member, ex Marine Engineer, and some time with the above outfit.
Anybody know of any links to photographs, particularly JB4
LB27, or DB15 while they were working offshore.
Thanks.

I have one of the JB4 taken from a helo while working in the Shetlands, I believe.

 

[joeneilb]

Db-15

I have one of the JB4 taken from a helo while working in the Shetlands, I believe.

She is in Mexico. Owned by Technip. Used to belong to Go\lobal ind.

 

[tboy]

Thanks for that. It's been so long and reading some of these posts sure take me back! I worked on the LB23 for a short period before transferring to the JB 3. We worked a lot further south than the JB4.

Thanks so much.

Jim

 

[joeneilb]

i worked on the LB23 too with Toby Thorpe as my ASup. In Egypt

 

[tboy]

Nookie Hebert and J.C Hebert were Supts. in the North Sea.

 

[Offshore Engineer]

I joined McD 1973 0n JB3 jetting the first North Sea line from Ekofisk to Middlesborough, worked on her until she transfered to the States and work in the GOM, joined DB 100 in Korea during construction phase, then back to North Sea on JB4, did a couple of stints on the LB 23 & 27. Antwerp was a dream of a place to be with many very interesting nights in Lillo-Fort with head-aches next morning, what a wild bunch of real offshore guys in the early days" No sea too rought-No M**f too tough". Tex Cargil, Charlie Mathews, Joe Huskins, Lee Oliver, Vinney Esponge, all deck crew guys, The late Tony Tucker and his Engineering crew, just to name a few, have boxes of photos at home, but for now am off-shore Mexico, will post photos at a later date.

 

[tboy]

I joined McD 1973 0n JB3 jetting the first North Sea line from Ekofisk to Middlesborough, worked on her until she transfered to the States and work in the GOM, joined DB 100 in Korea during construction phase, then back to North Sea on JB4, did a couple of stints on the LB 23 & 27. Antwerp was a dream of a place to be with many very interesting nights in Lillo-Fort with head-aches next morning, what a wild bunch of real offshore guys in the early days" No sea too rought-No M**f too tough"

I started working on the JB3 in the spring of '74 as barge Clerk. My name is Jim. I stayed working as clerk for 2 years and then transferred to tower operator. Charlie Matthews, Louie Sapia and Joe Sapia were barge capts. I left McD in 1977 and came back to the states ans worked on the gulf for Robin towing, Nolty Theriot, and Harvey Gulf International. Oh, how I remember Lillo! I often think of it and also the Barracuda Lounge in Antwerp!

 

[tboy]

I joined McD 1973 0n JB3 jetting the first North Sea line from Ekofisk to Middlesborough, worked on her until she transfered to the States and work in the GOM, joined DB 100 in Korea during construction phase, then back to North Sea on JB4, did a couple of stints on the LB 23 & 27. Antwerp was a dream of a place to be with many very interesting nights in Lillo-Fort with head-aches next morning, what a wild bunch of real offshore guys in the early days" No sea too rought-No M**f too tough". Tex Cargil, Charlie Mathews, Joe Huskins, Lee Oliver, Vinney Esponge, all deck crew guys, The late Tony Tucker and his Engineering crew, just to name a few, have boxes of photos at home, but for now am off-shore Mexico, will post photos at a later date.

Last year I found out that Ralph Pitre died.

 

[tboy]

I joined McD 1973 0n JB3 jetting the first North Sea line from Ekofisk to Middlesborough, worked on her until she transfered to the States and work in the GOM, joined DB 100 in Korea during construction phase, then back to North Sea on JB4, did a couple of stints on the LB 23 & 27. Antwerp was a dream of a place to be with many very interesting nights in Lillo-Fort with head-aches next morning, what a wild bunch of real offshore guys in the early days" No sea too rought-No M**f too tough". Tex Cargil, Charlie Mathews, Joe Huskins, Lee Oliver, Vinney Esponge, all deck crew guys, The late Tony Tucker and his Engineering crew, just to name a few, have boxes of photos at home, but for now am off-shore Mexico, will post photos at a later date.

Sorry to hear about Tony. I remember hiom well. A quiet and smart man. Also rmember Bill Ohlhausen and Gill Hull.

 

[Shannoner]

Hi all, I was on the LB27 in 1981, did two trips, one in June and one later in October both in the NW Hutton field. I was working for Decca Survey as a Field Engineer at the time. First trip we were laying pipe from the new NW Hutton platform and the trip in October we were attempting to finish that job, but the weather had other ideas! We went out by heli from Aberdeen and couldn't land as she was pitching too much, had to land on a production platform and wait 24 hrs and try again, we managed to land second time. Couldn't anchor due to the weather and we were then towed up and down for ten days until they decided to give up and tow us into Lerwick.
Here are some pics from the October '81 trip.
First one is a view from the tower looking to the heli deck, as we pitched into a wave.
The second is a relatively calm day when we manged to get some crew off by heli, I stayed on board till we got to Lerwick.
The third, leaving LB27 in Lerwick.

 

[Offshore Engineer]

I kept in touch with Tony for quite some time after I left McD's he married an English lady who lived in Belgium, brought a very large house and became very involved with the Seamans Mission in Antwerp, sadly McD's did not do him any favours and he died quite a broken man, as for Bill and Gill, have never had any feed back with regard those guys, as for Lillo-Fort, Ahmans bar and the Patent Place still have fond memories.