I know my tanker time was a long time ago and was almost all in crude oil cargos. We had a C/M , 2nd mate and 3rd mate. All went well because hours of work were never monitored, the mate was watch on stop on, and we worked 6 on 6 off. Then came crude oil washing, inert gas systems and cargo control rooms. The control heads ( driven by a turbine in the wash lines) needed constant attention, as did the tank gauge system and other valves. Regulations required the cargo control room and the deck to be under the control of a licensed officer but there was only three of us. In the GOM we had one experience of having to get underway to provide a Lee for off take tankers had master and 2nd mate on the bridge ( I think the old man went for a shower a couple of times in 48 hours.) Mate and third mate everything else. We were supposed to store up sleep like a camel storing up water on the ocean passage.8
While some are sniffing, peeking , poking, searching and digging into the mystery behind the total silence about the time frame prior collision , the others are glorifying and sugar coating brave & heroic actions of the officers and crew after the brutal ramming.
As far as I am concerned all crews manning such ships are heroes as I had never even remotely contemplated working on such ticking bombs . The immage of KFC in my immagination scared me enough. And because of that I have no problem with labelling them as heroes. None at all.
THis feeling of admiration is augmented and boosted by the incessant propaganda campaign, which surely will not allow me and other seafarers to forget the heroic actions for many years to come. I am sure huge gold medals will follow suit and may be a dinner with the POTUS himself. I am really looking forward to it .
I am also stunned by the presence of mind of the STOS, who heroicaly grabbed the most important document on board -the log book in the heat of the hottest and explosive moment in his short carrer.
That He forgot to grabb the GMDSS log and checklist records may be easily excused as seeing the heroic master both hands occupied with SART and EPIRB , donning the life jacket or may be immersion suits while trying to send on satcomc , DSC VHF and ch 16 mayday call and summon crew on public adress system to abbandon ship , collecting GMDSS VHFs from the radio room with his hend held vhf hanging on his neck, could be a frightening and terrifying experience. So my kudos to this young cool son of a gun. A leadership qualities and forces must be strong in & with him. .
And yet I am worried if white wigged eggheads sitting on the case will be convinced or coerced enough by these stories of post collision bravery not to ask some penetrating questions. We will see and each time I log in here my curiosity is arosed more and more.
It is really a hard work on these ships. Even with 4 nautical officers on monday morning at 0947 Lt and none , absolutely none is resting or sleeping . Busy bees.
Stena Immaculate Crew Recounts Fiery Collision at Anchor
added: 030325 1332 Z
Have completely forgotten to add one very important item while describing hectic bridge activity above. Pressing of the red bottom on the VDR extd. unit that woud prevent precious data to be overwritten. Chalk it up to my seniority moment.
Sure , sure. But sometimes , some Crowley tankers abandon their strict standards, when their ships are bound to carry " table wine " instead of jet fuel .
I am sniffing , I am digging
asking questions 'cross the sea
I am doubting, through stormy waters
and only truth will set me free.
Matthew 7:7
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ”
But it is in human nature to seek the truth.
Oh Lordy that nerds line got me 
My experience was initially that US tankers carried 2 Thirds, but that went away in the early 80s (we lost watchstanding OSs at the same time, and gained the STOS I noted above). But the “extra Third” came back when work/rest hours became regulated.
The article says 2 officers were trapped forward. It does not specify deck or engine. Nor does it say they were sniffing.
I think the important thing to note here, is the lenses though which we are hearing the narrative. First, the story being from the union rag, only interviewing SIU memebers, and while I wouldn’t want to speak poorly of our brothers and sisters in the SIU - We couldn’t do our job without them - they are usually a group of people where one could say the Cosmic Baker took them out of the oven a little too early. Perhaps they were not sharpened all the way when God put them in the drawer. There are a few floors where the elevator does not reach.
All this to say, I know everyone is clambering for information, but I do not think this will be the recounting of events trusted in court.
Regardless if there was an AMO Union meeting on the bow, an STOS in the stairwell, and a cadet left on the bridge, it’s still an allision where we can’t be sure anything could have been done on the part of the anchored vessel anyway.
Good Buffett reference!
Ah yes, a picture! With only a Capt, CM, 2M, and 3M present! Concrete proof only one 3M was aboard at the time! Something is afoot! There is no possible way another mate was sleeping and they didn’t want to wake them up for a simple picture or another mate was standing watch on the bridge or they were sailing “short” due to the manpower shortage! We have them red-handed! This must be the exact crew at the time of the incident!
Is it?
This stiff upper lip Brits are stubborn lot. Are they not?
Who is we ?
Because WE , meaning me and A very respected personality here whom i refer to as BOSS , WE and some others @Ladder for example have a different opinion.
You had a good chance to present your position in my experiment " what would you do??" .You declined with some vague arguments indicating clearly You have some inhibitions regarding calling the master, being ridiculed by crew, harangued by the Cheng & engineers.
Well my Dear . You better get rid of them and soon . You are very assertive here on this forum which is good ,meaning there is a huge potential in You. Just try.
If only once the master, cheng or others will object to your rightful, lawful actions stay assured there will be others who will mop the floor with such assholes.
According to all available sources, Stena Immaculate was loaded and waiting to enter port for discharge, not loading. Of course, it’s possible that some cargo tanks were empty and required crew entry, which is why I asked for clarification on the ‘sniffing’ procedure.
I’m not sure if the models you mentioned are the best choice for checking tank atmosphere during preparations for issuing work permits. Personally, I prefer Dräger gas meters, for instance Xam 8000 or even 7000, but that wasn’t the point of my question.
That said, we can certainly discuss the “expensive gadget that is a pain in the ass to calibrate” or rather, the numerous incidents confirming how often crew members lack the necessary skills to use them properly.
Everyone has their own experiences, but to me, KFC means nothing more than Kentucky Fried Garbage. As for working on tankers, I don’t associate it with heroism at all. In fact, it is often much safer than working on other types of vessels where the safety culture can be significantly lower.
If I were a lawyer representing the owners of the SI I would try to find out which ships were anchored near the SI, particularly which vessels would have been in line to be struck by the Solong had she not struck the SI. And my question to the officers on those other vessels would be, “Did you notify the captain and/or tell the engine room to fire up the main engine?”
I would try to find any recordings of monitored VHF traffic that night.
If the answer to all of that was negative–that every anchor watch did precisely what SI did–then I would submit to the court that the officers of SI did what was simply customary for mariners at anchor in that situation, and absent any rule otherwise, it was perfectly reasonable and proper for the SI officers to conduct their watch as they did.
You are absolutely right. But i had some inhibitions in the past 
, stories, gossip, which were verified later with a simple example.
Take accidents , deaths stats from enclosed space entries . Wet vessels had fantastic record in comparison with dry ships. The answer to this is as far as I am concerned simple: better precedures, beter training , smarter crews, HIGHER STANDARDS , high safety culture. .Period
When i saw the recovery of Stena from this collision I said : fuck it!!! it is not so bad and I am now suffering from acute depression that I have wasted 44 years earning a couple of THou usd per month less on the stupid container vessels . Accumulated I have lost a fortune because of " inhibition" which Stena proved as a complete nonsense.
5 posts were merged into an existing topic: Solong - Stena Immaculate Interim Report
If I’d known an interim report was coming out this soon I wouldn’t have started this thread. I closed this one to keep the discussion from being split into two threads.