My great-grandfather served on tankers between 1919-1924. He worked on ESSO's SS Suwanee, BTC's British Earl & British Sovereign, and Eagle Oil Co's Santa Aurora & San Gregorio. He passed away long before I was born, but I would have loved to hear his stories of his voyages to Texas and the Gulf of Mexico, exotic for a young Englishman at that time!
I joined my first British Tanker,the British Isles in Jan 1951 as apprentice. A pig of a captain but we literally sailed round the world across the pacific and Indian oceans. I grew up fast.
Man, I have been in love with ships and maritime history in general for the last 34 years of my life, and I have had MANY jobs in my lifetime, but I have always wanted to serve on a big beautiful ship. Reading the stories of those who have served is really good to read. Thank you for posting this video for the world to see what life was like onboard these merchant vessels!
It’s never too late mate. I joined the merchant navy here in Greece at 43 yrs old. It was my childhood dream but I never managed to fulfill it. This year though I took this great decision
At approximately 11:30 mins, the captain of training schools speech, ( you are the ambassador's of Britton ) .... LoL, I recall an almost Carbon copy from our sea school captain in 1973 / 74... The prince of Wales... Dover, I left February 1974, went to sea with B.P.. on the British Trust, one of the bird boats as they were termed... Cool well made video... Thanks... Thom in Scotland.
Sailed twenty years on tankers in the national maritime union out of Boston, QMED, FIREMAN, PUMPMAN ,DMAC best job I ever did, I love Curacao, been all over the world
Was expecting to see Jack Hargreaves from "Old Country" at 51:05. I remember the "H" class Shell Tankers in Australia in the late 1960's when I was a lad, HEMIGLYPTA was one I remember and SOLEN, then came CELLANA in 1968, a products tanker built in Australia for Shell. Others were ESSO GIPPSLAND, MOBIL AUSTRALIS, BP ENTERPRISE, AMANDA MILLER, R. W. MILLER, NANCY HEATH, EXPRESS and JOHN HUNTER, all Australian owned and crewed, all gone now. All fuel products in Australia imported from Malaysia and Singapore now, no Australian flagged tankers either, utter disgrace.
British Navigator... Then called the SS Sivand was my 2nd ship.. Blinkin hated the thing!.. I was also on the British Loyalty, British Test and the British Security which were much better..
My first tanker was the mv Bedford of the Blandford shipping co the skipper was a complete idiot best skipper i ever new the next i was on was the shell boat Hemmimactra the first mate had us painting the decks in snow in Sweden and painting the centre castle in a sand storm in the red sea how daft can you get.
@@patagualianmostly7437 Re> "Are you for real?" - No, I'm a figment of my own imagination. (Note: Don't think too much on that as it's a brain-fryer, but what else might I be if there could be any point to your question?). Or are you saying that I'm a god? Gas tankers existed well before the 1950s.
@@paulodonovan6104 My father sailed on that one, The British Adventure I sailed on was brand new(1995) she had just come out of being enpounded in Singapore(Jurong Shipyard) after 6 lads were killed after a hydraulic leak on the stearing gear a welder struke up & the 6 lads were vaporised lets juat say the qualitily of work building her was terrible I was on the running crew(3 of us) that finished her & fixed all the faults heating coils in all the tanks & 3 deck houses main cargo pipework in pump room etc etc was on her 8 months solid.
