|
Having spent the early years of my time in the M.N. "Deep Sea" I moved on to work on the Special Purpose vessels of the North Sea, based mainly in Aberdeen & Peterhead. I spent the next 17 years as A.B. & Bosun on Survey Ships, Anchor Handlers and Supply Boats. These hard working ships never seem to get much of a mention on any of the various web sites that I've found. Ex seamen seem to Wax Lyrical about their time on the posh Cruise Ships & cargo carrying Ocean Greyhounds but never anything about these ships that spend their time in the northern North Sea. They never stop, whatever the weather. I had far more narrow escapes & scary moments working on deck of Supply Boats than anywhere else. At one point I was working on what was one of the smallest Supply Boats based out of Aberdeen when we got the charter to become the dedicated ship for the Magnus Field, at that time the northern most field in the British Sector. We spent most of that first winter running out of Aberdeen with a deck full of Drill Pipe and Casing piled way above the safety barriers. The weather was always on the edge and slipping about on top of those loads trying to hook onto the platform's crane, often with snow under foot was sometimes nothing short of terrifying. As my 60th. birthday approached I decided I was getting too old to bang around decks in the North Sea and got out while I was still in one piece. It's a pity nobody has got around to writing the story of these amazing little ships and the hard working boys that crew them.
|