2008 May archive at Tims Times

Archive for May, 2008

Sir Tristram

Published May 21, 2008 in Warships, ship spotting, England and Grey Funnel. 0 Comments

Black & White photo of the LSL Sir Tristram which is permanently moored in Portland Harbour, and used for training purposes for the Royal Navy and other branches of the UK military apparatus. The name is painted out these days but it can be clearly seen on the bow and stern.

Front end view and below a rib passes ahead with 3 of the aforementioned military types on board.

Wikipedia has plenty more, about the Falklands and the Gulf and other stuff. I think if you asked the veterans of the Falklands about the Anglo/French carrier proposals, they wouldn’t be very positive after being on the receiving end of French military hardware, even if it wasn’t the French that they were fighting.

New carriers, old enemies.

Published May 20, 2008 in naval heroes, Warships, Americans, English, French, Grey Funnel, Admirals and pinch of salt required. 1 Comment

Carrier

Or you play with a toy one?

According to leaks and reports here and there, the French and British Admiralties are in discussion about the possibility of sharing an aircraft carrier, more like the impossibility, French and British crew together on the same warship? It could be propelled by Nelsons revolving coffin , his own quote“You must hate a Frenchman as you do the devil”
However it certainly is an example of thinking outside the box, even if they appear to be completely out of their boxes, a few too many glasses of sherry perhaps? You could go further and forget about this sharing business altogether and build the carriers in China, everyone else is building their ships there why not warships too? Then they can have 2 or 3 for the price of one, they could even crew them from China too, just disband( or downsize) the military apparatus in Europe and outsource it.

Another alternative would be to buy a few from the cash strapped Yanks, it wouldn’t be too far away from buying from China seeing as how much China is owed from the US, but anyway the dollar at it’s current weak state must make an offer from the Brits of the Frogs for a few ships feasible, unless someone starts shouting about Freedom Fries again.

Or a completely different tack would be to think environment (and not build any at all !) and think recycling, and get out the spy satellite pictures of the ports around Murmansk or Google Earth there are a few disused ships lying around idle waiting for better weather that could be had for a gas pipeline deal or other, I’m sure they could be persuaded to help their old friends France and Britain.

At the end of the day when 2 old enemies start talking about sharing military equipment anything can happen.

17th May

Published May 17, 2008 in Rum, Norway and On the ship. 4 Comments

Today is Norway’s national day. As the skipper on a Norwegian ship I am expecting a phone call any minute from the King in Oslo ( Ah jaysus is it yourself Tim? It is begob and the blessings of God on you now and regards to herself and the family on the day thats in it,….or something like that) to tell us all to keep up the good work, I hope he speaks English I doubt he can speak Tagalog, the Filipino crew won’t be too disappointed though as long as he orders us to “Splice the mainbrace” or whatever they do up in the castle in Oslo.

More waiting

Published May 16, 2008 in Airports and On the ship. 3 Comments

More waiting.

You get used to it when you work at sea, waiting for the pilot, waiting for orders, waiting for a free berth, waiting for the agent, waiting for provisions. In fact the whole job is waiting until the relevant object being waited for turns up, then its a helter skelter mad panic the world is ending tomorrow freak out for a short time until you get back to waiting again.

My first portion of waiting was at the airport at Schipol, Amsterdam, I sailed through the arrivals expecting one of those people holding a sign with my name or the ships name or something that will make me understand that they are waiting for me. Nothing. No sign. Not for me anyway, plenty other signs and people waiting for other people. So I sat on my suitcase and decided to give them 10 minutes before I rang the agents number.

Still nothing. So I phoned, ah yes are you at the airport we are sending your taxi right away…..

Little did I know that there was a public transport strike in the Netherlands today, so sending the taxi right away meant a long wait.

I got asked a lot of questions at my wait at the meeting point,

Are you Mr. J Brown?,
Are you from CBS?
Are you from San Francisco?
Are you from the Order of St. John?
Are you from Riga?
Are you from Unilever?
Are you from Vestas?

I must have looked like an American/Latvian TV producing windmill salesman with a hint of religious order thrown in, I did have black jeans on and a bit of a suspect “father Dougal” V-neck sweater in wine colour on.

Others didn’t ask they just stared, hoping to find some clue in my face, looking for the name tatooed across my forehead in invisible ink.

An hour later I called again, are you still waiting, oh I’ll give the taxi driver your number…

As if that was going to evaporate the traffic jam stretching from Rotterdam to Amsterdam.

I will have to get somebody that I can call on the phone and talk loudly in English to with a Scottish accent about football and say words like “pish” and “shite”, there seemed to be a few of them around today, and all the other lost souls that gather at airports , the bewildered, bored, screaming children, tired parents, lost, confused, determined, condesending air hostesses, tanned and gold wearing 50+ year old men, and everybody else…
Finally the taxi driver arrived, a slightly balding man in his late 40’s to early 60’s with a paunch slightly sweating and middle eastern origin. It’s never a mid 20’s blonde, but then it’s just as well I know how to talk to the former about cars, the price of petrol and football and other kinds of bullshit to fill up a taxi journey like GW Bush and Barack Hussein Obama.

Now I’m on my ship, time for bed. More later.

Normal Service

Published May 11, 2008 in blog. 2 Comments

Normal service has been interrupted by a heavy dose of studying for my Norwegian endorsement, I will be working on Norwegian ships for the next couple of years all going well (agw as they say in ship speak). Now the studying is over, applications are sent and I possess a piece of paper that allows me to sail as skipper in Norway or at least NIS. Probably not the first Wexford man to sail on Norwegian ships and there will be more about all this in the next few posts.
Cheers Tim.

Remember 17th May, Norway’s National Day.