You would have had reservations about moving your family to Singapore because it would have been a strange country, with a different culture from what you/your wife are accustomed to?
Well, that make sense, but not being afraid of being mugged, since that is a rear thing in Singapore these days.
I remember in the 1970’s an American Barge Superintendent on a construction barge working in S.E.Asia who were living in Singapore with his wife and their daughter, were calling home, but got no reply. He just said; "Oh OK, they have probably just gone out to see a movie or something"
He had no worries, but he also said; “If they had been living in Houston I would have been worried”.
Well, if you were familiar with Singapore at the time and you think that, based on what was available of information on West Palm Beach, I should have exposed my young wife and three small children to an environment totally different to what she was used to, I think you are wrong.
I could not have left her along in a strange and unfamiliar place to sort things out for her self, while I travelled around the world, I also think that you would not do so, as you said.
I would not have had any problem to go there myself, since I was used to worse places and much greater risks, but I would not expose my wife and family to such a strain.
If I had done, I don’t think I would have had my wife and now grown sons around me for the reunion dinner this Chinese New Year, here in Norway. Not because they would have been killed or anything, but because it would have been too much stress for my wife to handle.
I travelled a lot in those days, but my wife and kids were in safe and familiar surroundings, with a family and safety net around them and very little risk of being mugged, or shot in school etc.
I could have a peace of mind as well, which was and is important to me.
The Seal Catcher Polar Star was the first of it’s kind to be built from steel, in Glasgow in 1948.
She had a long and at times dramatic life in the Arctic and Antarctic, incl. being badly damage from ice pressure and abandoned in the ice off Greenland (then under the name Jo-Petter), only to be found in a fjord on the East coast by some Eskimos a year later. They had ribbed her of valuables, before reporting their find.
She was towed back to Aalesund with one side totally stowed in, but still watertight. I remember being on the wharf when she arrived and climbed the mast together with a horde of other boys.
She was repaired and put back in service again, spending the spring season in the Gulf of St.Lawrence hunting young seals (Kvitung) for several more seasons.
She has been restored to her former glory and is now back at her home place of Brandal/Hareide, but intended to be trading again, now for more touristy use and for educational purposes:
Lots of interest for Polarstar: http://www.vikebladet.no/kultur/2018...A-16112630.ece
(Not sure this will translate well)
She finally left 04. March and is now off Den Helder with ETA Schiedam 0700 hrs. tomorrow:
I have no idea what she is doing there, or whether she is actually now being operated by Alucia Productions, but she does not appear on their list of “equipment”:
The picture of the Inagua Surf was taken as she is leaving Great Yarmouth. The picture was taken a long time ago and it looks like she has some sort of sub sea protection cover for a wellhead or similar. I can’t imagine how this vessel would have been used for North Sea work as in those days there were many Jackson Marine and Theriot vessels around.
One of the Captains that was on the Aramco job had been on one of the WIL ships in the North Sea in the 1960’s, carrying pipes for a Brown & Root laybarge of the good old type and manned by good ol’boys from the Bayous. He said they thought that since the North Sea was no bigger than the GoM, WTF was all this about rough weather??
When the first autumn storm hit it washed the deck clean, incl. the crawler crane, life rafts and carley floats they carried as LSA. That was an eye opener.
I also worked with a Drilling Superintendent that had been Roughneck on the first American jackup rig working off Great Yarmouth at abt. the same time, the “Mr. Cap” (LeTourneau bld.#3)
It got lifted off bottom because they were on the same airgap as used in the GoM.
PS> He was still on the same rig in 1975, now called “Chris Segar” and working off Brunei.
With all the talk about Coast Guard in another thread, I thought it timely to post some pictures of a Norwegian Inner Coast Guard vessel seen in Aalesund a few days ago. KV Nornen:
This one and her 4 sisters are owned by Remoy Shipping and manned by a mix of civilian and military personnel, some of whom are conscripts doing their National Service.
Oil picking up in Norway. John Sverdrup, Aasta Hansteen and Martin Linge is in the last stages of completion, should be interesting times when all is over.
Passed the Aasta Hansteen tow with 30 nm, so no pictures of it.
