[Saudisid]

Originally Posted by Tim Gibbs

Dave had said "On a positive note, my short time with BF gave me a first class engineering education and solid sea going experience with truly fine, capable and upstanding company: There was always "the wrong way, the right way and the Blue Funnel way"!!! Something all BFers are rightfully proud of (not to be confused with the ongoing myth that we were "aloof" or thought of ourselves as being above others! We were just competent and well trained)."

And that seemed so true as I saw them at a distance during my time at sea. However, later, around the late '70s, we were involved with building a second generation container ship in Germany and BF/ OT&T ordered an identical vessel from the the same yard.
We had a fantastic relationship with yard but there was constant bad blood between BF/ OT&T and the yard which resulting in the Project Manager saying to us one day, "We're going to give you the very best vessel we can but the others will get only the vessel they specified" And so it proved.
Over the years building many ships I believed that a ship building contract is a bit like a joint venture; the owner had the commercial vision and the cash and the shipyard had the technical ability to produce what the owner needed. There had to be respect and give and take from both parties to produce a good result . Some owners however, seemed to delight in conflict and trying to screw the yard at ever turn. I believed that once the contact was signed it should be put away and if it had to be taken out before delivery I considered it a failure . It only happened to me once in 15 newbuildings.

Would that be the City of Durban Tim

Alan