Aladdin's adventure onboard M/T Vestria during Christmas 1985

I wrote this drivel during the Asahna Bucha Day in July 2011

M/T Vestria

I took this picture when I signed off M/T Vestria in Hamburg 18th of January 1985

M/T Vestria was built 1965 in Sarpsborg, Norway.
Length: 105,4m
Beam: 15,3m
Depth: 8m
DW:4.895
BR:3.453
Speed: 14 Knots

• Built for RED AB BIFRSOT, Göteborg. M/S BOHUS
• Sold to PR H LÖFVENBERG, Slite. Renamed to M/T GRYNGE
• Rebuilt to a chemical tanker with stainless steel tanks 1975 at the shipyard in Falkenbergs.
• 1983 she was sold to VERNIA SH AB (THORE SHIPPING and JOEL BACKMAN), Helsingborg. Renamed to M/T VESTRIA
• 1985 ad Thore Shipping went bankrupt and JOEL BACKMAN & SÖNER take over the ship
• 1986 sold to SUNSPUR SH LTD, Malta. M/T STAINLES DUKE
• 1988 sold to ALLIANCE RICHFIELD, Singapore. M/T CEMICAL VENUS.(Li)
• 1988 till sold to CARRIERS LTD.,Liberia. M/T CHEMICAL VENUS.
• 1990 sold to CGE (Far east), Singapore. M/T CENTAUR PROSPERITY (Li)
• 1993 scrapped in Alang, India.

From www.kommandobryggan.se

PLEASE! Be lenient with the quality of my pictures. Back in 1985 I used a KODAK disc camera and the quality of the pictures leaves a lot to wish for. Not even Photoshop helps to improve these pictures.

But this is the quality we were used with back in 1985, unless we used a big system camera. Put if we wanted a small automatic camera to carry in our pockets, yes, then it was KODAK Disc.

And of course, 25 years in a photo album have done nothing to improve the quality of my pictures.

Kodak Disc
Disc film was a still-photography film format aimed at the consumer market, and introduced by Kodak in 1982.

The film was in the form of a flat disc, and was fully housed within a plastic cartridge. Each disc held fifteen 11 × 8 mm exposures, arranged around the outside of the disc, with the disc being rotated 24° between each image.

The system was primarily a consumer-oriented product, and most cameras were self-contained units with no expansion capability. The cameras were very simple to load and unload, and were generally completely automated. The cassette had a built-in dark slide to prevent stray light reaching the film when the disc was removed.

As the film was rotated on a disc instead of over a spool, the cassette was very thin, as were most of the cameras. The completely flat nature of the format also led to the (potential) advantage of greater sharpness over spool-based cassette formats (such as 110 and 126 film). Disc film has a very thick acetate base, comparable with 4×5" sheet film, which holds the film much flatter than the other formats.

Disc film did not prove hugely successful, mainly because the image on the negative was only 11 mm by 8 mm, leading to generally unacceptable grain and poor definition in the final prints. The film was intended to be printed with special 6-element lenses from Kodak, but many labs simply printed discs with standard 3-element lenses used for larger negative formats. The resulting prints often disappointed the consumer.

The film was officially discontinued by the last manufacturer, Kodak, on December 31, 1999, though the cameras had disappeared from the market long before then.

There were several different manufacturers of Disc film. Kodak produced films throughout the complete lifespan of the format, but 3M, Konica and Fuji also produced Disc film. While Kodak film was always eponymous, 3M and Konica made Disc film for many third parties, branded with the retailers logo. As with most photographic film, the country of manufacture is the best giveaway to the make.

Kodak's newest ideas with sharp fine-grained negative film were always tested in Disc format first, typically being one or two generations ahead of the equivalent 135 films.

From Wikipedia

This camera was actually so slim that it fitted perfect in my shirt pocket. So I lost many of them, and the pictures when driving the buss in different bathrooms at different pubs in Go:teborg when we were out having a good time.

Wednesday 11^th of December 1985 and I joined M/T Vestria in Köping. I was on Christmas leave from the Navigation School and I needed to work, well, I needed money. I had spent a lot of money while in school and I needed more even though I had salary while in school. A new city and plenty new bars to be banned from.

I took the train from Go:teborg to Köping and I arrived to Köping around 10 o'clock in the evening and I was onboard around 11 o'clock.

+++++++++++++++
Thursday 12^th of December 1985 and I started to work at midnight. I was on the 12 to 4 watch, my favourite watch. We left Köping at 16 thirty in the afternoon after having done tank cleaning. I was on the wheel when we left Köping and I had to steer Vestria out of the port and in to Lake Mälaren until I was relieved by the AB on the next watch.

Back in the days we always had hand steering when we arrived or departed from a port.

I remember leaving Köping. I was on the wheel and Captain is telling the Pilot that I was at navigation school.
- He knows everything about leading lights and stuff.
So it was no problem to tell me to stay in the leading lights. We were bound for Sarpsborg in Norway to load, most likely Sulphuric Acid.

+++++++++++++++
Sunday 15^th of December 1985 and we arrived to Sarpsborg around 9 thirty in the morning. It was snowing and blowing.

Sarpsborg is just at the Swedish border up the Glomma River. The Glomma or Glåma is the longest and largest river in Norway.

The 598km long river has a drainage basin that covers a full 13% of Norway's area, all in the southern part of Norway. Well, I think it was an hour or two from Oslo Fjorden Pilot station to Sarpsborg.

We were not loading full cargo in Sarpsborg. I don't know if it was due to draft restriction or something else.

But we had to go to Fredrikstad to load to full cargo. It was maybe 30 minutes or an hour between Sarpsborg and Fredrikstad. We left Sarpsborg in the evening and we loaded full cargo in Fredrikstad.

+++++++++++++++
Monday 16^th of December 1985 and we left Fredrikstad 3 o'clock in the morning.

I sent this postcard from Rotterdam

+++++++++++++++
Wednesday 18^th of December 1985 and we arrived to Rotterdam 2 o'clock in the morning. It was raining and we have had bad weather alll the way from Norway with heavy rolling.

We left Rotterdam 5 o'clock in the afternoon bound for Ruisbroek in Belgium.

I write home that I have a good time onboard and that it is a funny and good deck crew onboard. But the ship is old and scrappy. But I remember us having a good time onboard.

+++++++++++++++
Thursday 19^th of December 1985 and we dropped anchor in Antwerp around 4 o'clock in the morning. We had to wait for the high water before continue up the River Schedule to the lock in Ruisbroek.

I remembered that there were plenty radio stations with good music in Antwerp back then so waiting at the anchorage was quite OK.

We left the anchorage around 9 thirty and it took us about 1 hour to get to Ruisbroek.

We were loading SUPER phosphoric acid in Ruisbroek for Ventspils, today Latvia, back then it was Soviet Union. SUPER phosphoric acid and we needed heating on the cargo. So we had a steam generator on deck. We had it in a container and we heated the cargo by circulating it through a heat exchanger. That's the only difference I know between the ordinary phosphoric acid and the SUPER phosphoric acid.

Both cargoes leave a lot of sediment in the bottom of the tanks when we have discharged the cargo. I have spent much time in the tanks after discharging trying to remove the sediment with a pressurised fire hose.

I took one of our pushbikes after my watch and I crossed the bridge to BOOM, a town close to Ruisbroek. Well, as I wrote in my letter home: I bought 10 pair of underwear, a shirt and a white tie Well, who the hell wears a white tie? And I never mentioned the Black Sabbath records that I bought.

I was back onboard in the evening and we left for Ventspils when we had full cargo onboard.

+++++++++++++++
Tuesday 24^th of December 1985 and we came alongside 1 o'clock in the morning. But we had to wait at the anchorage before we could go alongside. I have no idea how long we had spent waiting at the anchorage.

We left Ventspils at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. Bound for Helsingborg where we will load SUPER phosphoric acid. I was only onboard for 4 weeks because my school started after the Christmas holiday in January 1986 and I had to be back. So I sent my last letter home from Helsingborg and I wrote:
“We will load SUPER phosphoric acid in Helsingborg for Ventspils and the we will go to Hamburg.”

But we had our Christmas dinner when we left Ventspils.

Our Motorman

Our Hero

Our Fitter and Engineer (3rd Engineer?)

Our Fitter, Captain and Engineer (3rd Engineer?)

AB, Cook and Chief Engineer

Fitter, Mess girl, Captain and Motorman (I think)

Our Fitter

Motorman, Our Hero and 2nd Officer

Motorman & AB

AB and 2nd Engineer?

Even though I was “ONLY” onboard for a few weeks I got several letters and post cards
Here a Christmas card from Skåne, today I never receive any letters and post cards. Only e-mails

+++++++++++++++
Sunday 29^th of December 1985 and we were back in Ventspils. At least according to the postcard I wrote. I only sent one letter, but I sent 2 more post cards after Helsingborg.

And obviously one of our pumps broke down so we had to stop at Slite on Gotland to send ashore the pump. I know this thanks' to my postcard that I wrote in Ventspils 29th of December 1985.

When we had discharged our cargo in Ventspils we left for Hamburg via the Kiel Canal. It was maybe 24 hours to Kiel and the lock in Holtenau.

I sent this postcard from Ventspils. Today Latvia, back then it was Soviet Union

But we can see that it is post stamped in Germany. Not a good idea to send something from the Soviet Union

I remember when we passed the lock. All ABs on deck and we were waiting for them to open the gates. One of the ABs started to moon and I took a quick picture. Yes, thanks to my slim KODAK disk camera I could have my camera handy in my pocket.

Coming back home and I went to develop my pictures. Coming back home from the photo shop with my newly developed pictures I was eager to check them out.

And I showed my grandparents the pictures and they caught sight of the picture. Yes, they got upset, for me it was a normal picture.
- Usch, kan du inte ta lite trevliga foto? Vilket slöseri med film!
- Ooh, can't you take some nice pictures? What a waste of film!

I sent this postcard from Hamburg

+++++++++++++++
Wednesday 1^st of January 1986 and we arrived to Hamburg to load Sulphuric Acid to Rotterdam. We were loading from small barges at dolphins. And we were not going to start any loading operations until the 2nd of January.

And of course, we went ashore. Speed boat service from the dolphins to Landungsbrücke, 5 minutes walk from Reeperbahn. It took about 30 minutes or something for the speed boat to get us to Landungsbrücke, enough time to drink a few beers. And it was nice to get off the ship and we were looking forward to get ashore to have a good time. Back in the days we never suffered from hangovers.

We were young and handsome with money in the pocket and the beer tasted good. There wasn't very much money in the pocket when it was time to sign off. But who cares? We had a good time at Reeperbahn and there was a speed boat that brought us back to the ship in the morning.
And of course, the spirit wasn't as high on the return trip even though we were young.

+++++++++++++++
Thursday 2^nd of January 1986 and we started to load the sulphuric acid. There are two barges and it takes some time to load because the barges have to go up the river Elbe to load the sulphuric acid. When we were ready we left for Rotterdam.

I don't have any dates, but if we got alongside at arrival to Rotterdam we must have been there on the 4th or 5th of January 1986.

I don't remember why, but they stopped our ship in Rotterdam and w were not allowed to leave the port. Yes, we were detained, maybe the company hadn't paid their bills in Rotterdam.

Or if there had been an inspection and the Inspectors had found some defects. Well, anyway, we had to stay there for a while waiting and our motorman had time to build a snow man on deck. It's not very often there is enough snow in Rotterdam so you can make a snow man.

+++++++++++++++
Friday 10^th of January 1986 and I signed off. I don't know where we went after Rotterdam, but I was most likely signing off in the port after Rotterdam. I had had a very good time onboard M/T Vestria during my Christmas leave from school. It was very nice crew and this shows that the crew is most important. An old rust bucket and hard work, never mind, I had a good time thanks to the crew. As someone tole me:
- The only thing missing was that everyone should carry a gun holster and then it would have been a real cowboy crew.

I was back to the navigation school on Kvarnberget in Go:teborg.


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OK, it has come to my knowledge that we have senior citizens visiting my web page. How hard can it be? So it's not very easy for them to see the blue coloured links to the next page.

Jiffy (also jiff)

noun [in SING.] informal a moment: we'll be back in a jiffy.

ORIGIN late 18th cent.: of unknown origin.

So as you understand, in a jiff pretty much depends on your internet.

So I put a “Next” button here and I hope that there isn't any problem to understand how to use that one. So just CLICK the “Next” button on your left hand side and you will be on the next page in a jiff!

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Faites vous parlez le français? Pour arriver à la page suivante faites s'il vous plaît un déclic le bouton “Next” ci-dessus!

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คุณพูดภาษาไทยได้ไหม ไม่มีปัญหา ถ้าคุณต้องการไปหน้าถัดไป ให้กดปุ่ม “Next” ข้างบนนี้

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E ni Svenskar och inte förstår Engelska så ska ni skämmas. J och Björn, med det menar jag inte att alla mina stavfel ska ältas varje gång vi träffas.

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