Bob & Pat,
She was pretty awful to sail in. Reason was that we spent six months lightering at Galveston Bar. Taking 55,000 tons of crude a time from VLCCs and taking it up to Houston, then back out for more. We heard the name roughly translated meant "Eye of the Evil One!" Only got ashore for two or three hours once in the whole six months and that was because a boiler explosion in Houston put us in a backwater for ten days for repair. Eventually, after I left, she had a serious fire, with two fatalities. Repaired and had a number of names, final one being Titan Mercury. Scrapped in 2004. Company asked me if I wanted to go back to Laird's for the next one,
Alvega, but I declined and asked for brand new general cargo ship
Silveravon, just coming out of building yard in Hiroshima. Spent a year in her, but we got renamed
Bandama shortly after I joined. Mediterranean ports to Abidjan, West Africa. Out with general cargo, to load logs and bagged coffee beans in Abidjan and San Pedro then back to Med for discharge of logs at various ports before loading general in Marseilles. Hardly ever at sea
About two weeks discharging and loading in Med, then 5 weeks in Abidjan, followed by a couple of weeks in San Pedro. Quite liked it, but left when I was offered employment in RMS St. Helena, where I remained for 13 years!
Bob