"The Maggie" can be watched on iPlayer for the next 6 days, if the BBC doesn't think you are foreign.

I eventually found it online, see it here: http://www.bpvideolibrary.com/record/268

Well done Jim! I looked on their site and couldn't find it. :applause::applause: :)

Just watched it. Just as pertinent today I'm sure.

It's been quite a few years since I've seen that film but when I watched it again tonight it made me feel uneasy. I'm not altogether sure why. It seemed a bit simplistic.

In my time at sea I was involved in two ship borne fires. One on the boiler front in the engine room, which I certainly wasn't directly involved with as I was the Sparks, we were at sea and my station was sat in the Radio Room awaiting developments. I was wary because my time as a fireman when I first went to sea told me there was a lot of danger in a boiler front fire, there are high pressure fuel lines feeding the burners all over the show. I'm happy to say the engineering crew rapidly bought it under control and all ended up good. But the damage I saw when I went down for a look afterward certainly gave me a lot of pause for thought.

The second believe it or not was an electrical fire on the bridge ! I was directly involved with that. It was more smoke than fire admitted, but smoke is pretty terrifying stuff because it hides horrors and incapacitates. Fortunately that too was stopped before it got to the flame stage, but the general fire alarm was sounded and the training kicked in and it was resolved. I wont go into details, but it was caused purely and simply by a failure in a transformer.

What makes me uneasy about this film is all the problems seemed to have been caused by the ship's crew, from cause right down to end result. It seems a bit 'company' orientated to me, but, if it's based on a true incident I'm surely not going to berate it.

Suffice to say the final comments are very relevant, fire is a true anathema on a ship. That's why we trained and trained and trained for it, certainly when I was at sea. And I did most of my sea time on tankers of one kind or another.

I agree with you Bob It does seem a bit simplistic, but I suppose it's all there in a nutshell. The causes, actions taken, and the result of those actions. It was made by a ship owner (BP) For the Shipping Federation, the federation of ship owners. The master barely got a mention, and of course the Master is a company rep, and not a member of the crew.
The only potentially serious case of fire I was involved in was when the 2nd Cook & Baker left some bread to dry out on top of an oven. Oven was left on, and the burning bread set the deckhead smouldering. Fortunately it was fire retardant and all that happened was a great deal of smoke throughout the accommodation at 03.00ish. My Emergency Station was on the wheel, which I thought was a pretty good place to be at that time.

When I was on the Bamenda Palm in 1964 we were homeward bound fully loaded . In no.4 hold we had sacks of palm kernals which can self combust if if they get too hot, so the corners of each hold were kept open to let in air, but at night the hold was battened down. One morning when the hold was opened you could feel heat coming from below and smoke was billowing out. Myself and another AB were told to put on BA and look for the source, to say it was scary is an understatement but luckily the two sacks that had caught fire were near the top so we soon got them out. The rest of the journey was uneventful.

Watching a re-run of 'Waterworld' the other night I couldn't help but give another wry smile as the ancient crumbling supertanker that contained all the bad guys (a gang led by Dennis Hopper) finally took a dive to Davy Jones and we got a quick glimpse of her name as she slid out of sight: Exxon Valdez.

Ok it was a good joke, but since a half or more of my sea time was done on tankers of one kind or another I've always thought those particular ships get a bad press in media, movies and TV. After all, the entire modern world we know relies mightily on tankers, whether you like it or not.

What are the most famous tankers ?

Well apart from the one in this movie, the list probably includes the Torrey Canyon and the Amoco Cadiz. That is, tankers that got into catastrophic trouble. And that is something of a mis-representation given the thousands of tankers that ply the oceans and support the life we all take for granted.

Don't get me wrong, these were diabolical disasters, with consequences that even now we might not be aware of, but tankers have been the lifeblood of our world for quite some time now, and we shouldn't forget that.

Having spent my entire career at sea on tankers (company man - Athel) I could not agree more, Bob.
They are the life blood of the whole planet, regardless of the taboo they carry (hydrocarbons etc) - wherever transport is found (propulsion/tyres/seats), beauty products, containers/bags for consumables, fresh water, soap products, palm products... you name it, the waterborne tanker provides it.

It is sad that perhaps a mere half dozen, like the Valdez, give the tanker fleet a bad name.
And all because of the stupidity of the men in charge, certainly in each case involving the Cadiz, the Valdez and the Torrey Canyon..

Fires
 

When Second Mate in the City of Ottawa [ ex Glasgow ] 71. We had a first trip J/E who managed to set fire to his Bunk in PE.
We arrived in Cape Town a couple of day before. Two letters came on boatd. One to the Master to say that J/E......... was in debt to the company to the tune of £ ...... Until theCompany hadrevoverd the debt he could have 2 beers a day 100 cigs a week and NO cash advances. Second letter to said J/E from his bank tosay they had closed his account as he was a bad risk. Well next port PE some one took him ashore. I was woken at abt 0530 by the other J/E hammering on my door shouting Fire Fire down below. Got up went up to Bridge rang the alarms and called PR Port control to reqiest Fire Service. Meanwhile said J/E came out of his cabin via the port onto the main alleyway. Second Stwd meets him as he came into the accomodation stark naked and asked him what was up. " There is a Fire " he say. Second Stwd say where. " Its in my cabin ". Seems he was that p..d that he could not get into his bunk so fell asleep on the Day Bed. Thats how he didnt get burned

On the positive side to balance up the negative history of tankers, don't ever forget San Demetrio and Ohio. (Both manned by Eagle Oil crews.)

posted by BobClay
What are the most famous tankers ?

To me: Mactra; Marpessa; Kong Haakon 7


They had more effect upon subsequent tanker construction and operation than any one grounding.

What about Bidwell. The stimulus for Sun Oil to apply IG above crude cargoes?

We shouldn't forget the BRITISH CROWN either - her loss certainly set BP on the path towards fleetwide fitment of Inert Gas even before VLCCs started blowing up all over the shop during tank cleaning.

But I suspect the General Public are unaware of any of these ships, but much more likely to have heard of those involved in pollution disasters.

Talking of disasters one ship movie that really was a disaster was 'Raise the Titanic.' Admitted it was made before the wreck was found, but talk about awful. On a par with 'Plan 9 from Outer Space' (which I actually paid to see when I was a kid) except the ship in Plan 9 looked better (it was actually just a curtain behind the pilot.) :jester:

They showed one of the Sean Connery 007 pictures, Thunderball on the tv tonight and I'd forgotten about the fancy Spectre yacht the 'Disco Volante' which was equipped with some rather fancy gizmos, very useful for carting stolen thermonuclear weapons about. :sweat:

I got to thinking of what ever happened to it, after all, it was 52 years ago ... :eek:
(Yeah, that shocked me too....)

I found this link:

https://www.bmt216a.dk/Vehicles/BMT2...e.php?vpage=75

Used to see those hydrofoils running back and forth across the Straits of Messina in the 60s; they had absolutely no regard for the Rules of the Road.

I watched a film on Sky last night called 'The Finest Hours' about a US Coast Guard lifeboat rescuing the crew from the stern section of a tanker, SS Pendleton, that had broken in two in a violent storm during 1952.

It all seemed a bit over-dramatized but wasn't bad for all that although I have to say I looked up the event after the film and sure enough, this was a pretty epic rescue by the look of it.

I'd actually never heard of this event before. Quite a remarkable effort !!

1999 SiFi film "Virus" about the Russian research ship Vladislav Nikolayevich Volkov.
The Vladislav Nikolayevich Volkov was actually the USNS General Hoyt S Vandenberg (TAGM10) which was apparently only painted on her port side as the Russian ship, the starboard side was still in US colours.

The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea, starring Kris Kristofferson and Sarah Miles.


Do I recall a film where these two actors were in a bedroom scene and Kris was eating something that definitely wasn't on the wardroom menu!! Definitely was these two actors! But was it this film?


Skilly

It couldn't have been, they don't have a wardroom on Blueies:sweat:

I would expect to see many things on ship's menus. Inventive and wide-ranging.

This one >

And it was in fact, the Blue Funnel Bellerophon, minimally disguised with a coat of yellowish paint to the chimney pot and a coat of black to the last 6 letters of her name.
:smoking:

I watched a film tonight called 'LIFE.' It's set aboard the International Space Station, which I suppose is a sort of ship. They encounter what can only be described is an unpleasant alien lifeform.

Very unpleasant. :eek: