I haven’t seen father for ages.
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General cargo / heavy lift tramp ships for me. In the US this more often than not means sailing under government contracts.
Interesting cargo, long port stays in fun places anywhere on the globe (some of them being near impossible to access as a tourist); often not really knowing where you’re sailing next, sometimes even when we were already underway heading in a cardinal direction.
Fun as all hell in every possible way. And miraculously, most of the typical shipboard (or often shoreside instigated) bullshit just seemed rather insignificant, something to laugh about.
It’s spoiled me for life. I don’t know how people put up with boring assignments, near coastal stuff, liner runs and the like, other than the money. It must be just the money. And at that point, sailing becomes a really depressing career prospect to me.
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Nah, you got to make your fingers in a circle and make binoculars. 
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Definitely general cargo tramp ships. MV Noble Star; a double tween decker complete with stick and boom, Kingposts, and 3 electric cranes to boot.
I sailed her in 1997 as AB to Africa, Eastern Europe, and the states.
Pay was lousy but the experience and knowledge gained was priceless.
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I’ll be damned, that must be Sealift Inc. I’m truly sorry, man. 
Looks like they kept this old jalopy in service until 2014. I bet Sealift would have loved to keep it in service for another 40 years. Norwegian shipbuilding quality, eh? Bugge will get a kick out of it.
Feel the same way about my time with TECO/United Ocean Services. Great crew, some weird/interesting ports and experiences but man… was that ship in rough shape with some low pay.
You mean this one?:
Somewhat confusing stories of her names and ownership over the years on various sites.
Here is what I believe to be the true story:
https://skipshistorie.net/Haugesund/HAU201ChristianHaaland/Tekster/HAU20119770100000%20CONCORDIA%20STAR.htm
PS> The confusion may be because she had a sister ship built in 1979 that had much the same history until 1985:
https://skipshistorie.net/Haugesund/HAU201ChristianHaaland/Tekster/HAU20119790100000%20CONCORDIA%20SUN.htm
wildcat,
You know it!
I remember climbing a kingpost while underway swinging back and forth in a giant arc. One the way up one of the rusty old rungs came off in my hand.!
Ombugge,
That’s her
I’ll never forget this view.
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Write up more, if you don’t mind. What’s the ship?
Looks like Tom Cruise to me 
Really fantastic stuff for any autistic ship lover.
I do find it quite amusing, however, it being a write up of a voyage, that lists the crew, it funnily excludes any and all ratings throughout all pages. Amusing, because it truly harkens back to the good ol’ days on ships under the Union Jack. The aristocrats and then the filth… which shall not be mentioned. To call them peasants would effect much displeasure indeed, Mr Snodgrass.
And I guess, not much has changed in “foreign” shipping today.
All in good fun, thank you for a fascinating page. And what a beautiful ship.
40 odd crew I vaguely recall, mostly Indian with Goanese cooks and stewards.
Pretty sure at least one of them was called Singh.
Or Ali.
They all lived in the focsle.
5 hatch tweendecker, 5 and 10 ton (proper tons mind, none of this metric rubbish) derricks with a 25t ‘heavy’ lift capability.
Cargo clusters with wooden plugs.
No sign at all of health, never mind safety.
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Thanks for that blast from the past. For US readers the cooks and stewards were Goanese so we could enjoy or not, British grub such as bacon and pork.
And beef Madras!
The sister ship, the Sara Lupe, was famous although I have never seen the film.
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My favourite ship was the MV Slidre (ex Bomma) Built at Aker Shipyard in Oslo in 1938:
She was a ship with soul that survived WWII, numerous trips around the stormy North sea for 28 years, 14 months on the South Vietnam coast for US Aid and finally as an island tramper on the South and North Pacific Islands.
I had two spells on her. First; I joined her as Ch.Off. in Singapore in Jan.,1968, after her return from 14 months in Vietnam, We did a memorable trip trip from Lumut, Malaysia to Hungnam, North Korea. We heard about the capture of the USS Pueblo as we sail through Taiwan Strait but our WWII veteran Master decided that we should continue as we were “an innocent merchant ship on a lawful passage with lawful cargo” (raw rubber in bales)
We got “escorted” by US and South Korean navy vessels as soon as we entered Korea Strait and until we got into N.Korean waters at the 38th parallel, passing Wonsan where the USS Pueblo was held.
From Hungnam we went to Nakhodka in Russian FE Republic to load cement in bags. This being early Febr. we had icebreaker escort to get alongside the wharf.
Although the ship was built for the Baltic trade, all accommodation heating had been removed during her time in Vietnam,so this was a cold experience, especially for our Singapore Chinese crew.
They had been give S$ 50 each to buy warm clothing before departure from Singapore, but their understanding of what that entailed was rather limited, so some had bought extra shirts and no jackets, or shoes.
On the trip to Indonesia we met with rough seas in the Sea of Japan resulting in a pipe from the FP ot the AP running along the cargo hold bilges broke, causing the cement cargo in one of the holds solidifying. We went into Hong Kong to do repairs and remove the damaged cargo, before proceeding to Tg.Pinang in Indonesia to discharge the renaing cargo.
We then did a trip to Shimonoseki in Japan, where we got order to proceed to Lae in PNG in ballast, then on to Sydney to join the company’s “Karlander New Guinea Line”, serving East Coast of Australia to PNG and other islands in the South Pacific.
After 2 months on this run some of our Singapore crew got rebellious, so we had to changed to Kanaka crews, but kept the essential, (Bosun, Engine Drivers, Chief Steward and Cooks)
We were advised by the “old hands” at the Lae Club to mix the crews to avoid any tribal problems. The Master figured that if we got all from one tribe (one-talks)there shouldn’t be a tribal fight. (problem solved)
We got all from a tribe in Markhem area (near Lae) and off we went to Australia. Some minor problems were experienced, like the greasers oiling holes in the floor plates and the Sailors not understanding numbers on the compass. But they were very good at recognizing patterns, so we just had to make the course changes ourselves, then point at the course to steer. (Bosun became the Quartermaster during Pilotage)
When we returned to PGN and were heading from Samarai to Lea along China Passage where we had to anchor for the night, which happened to be close to the home villages for many of the crew. When we got ready to continue in the morning most of the Kanak crews had gone “walkabout” (Whether they had swam ashore or their one-talks had come out in canoes to fetch them we never found out)
Needless to say, our next crew were mixed, with no more than two from the same tribe.
I left the ship in early Aug 1968 to go back to school for my Master Mariner.
On finishing school in late June 1969 I joined the Slidre again, but only for one trip from East Coast of Australia to PNG and Solomon Islands v.v.
I transferred to “Slidre Timur” on the same run.
From 1970 the Slidre was under Philippine flag and traded from HK/Manila to North Pacific islands (with the same name).
She stranded in Guam during a Typhoon Pamela in iMay1976:
Lots more about this ship on Ship Nostalgia: Slidre (ex Bomma) | Ships Nostalgia
(Mostly my posts, looking for info re: her stranding)
Slidre: skipshistorie
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I worked on her shortly after she became the GSF Explorer. Unique ship with a great crew, ahead of her time. Thankfully went on to better designs.The passageway under deck was unique and said to be haunted by the dead Russian sailors. Never saw any but I was probably too tired to notice after hand cranking all the hydraulic doors to get from aft to forward.
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