my time in cargo ships

[tedp]

I wonder if this counts as a general Jeanneau topic, but it concerns long distance sea travel. As I may have mentioned once or twice, I have sailed in cargo ships back in the 1970s. In those days I did some filming on 8mm film. This may not be high quality material but they are historic views nonetheless - they pre-date large scale container traffic. I have started publishing these on youtube. The first one shows a return trip from Europe to Indonesia in 1974, going round the Cape due to closure of the Suez Canal. Hope you like this.

[MalcolmP]

Well done Ted, I have only skimmed through it but some great shots and a great archive to keep

I liked the Trimaran proa - but your ship looked rather rusty though!

I will view it all when I have half an hour

Malcolm

[tedp]

Thanks, Malcolm - you will see several rusty ships like the Bulgarian 'Burgaz' and the Indonesian 'Karossa', but actually mine was in reasonable shape. It can be viewed at 17min 40 secs.

I'm planning to add more archive footage, of the Suez Canal, the Persian Gulf and a rough North Atlantic passage in winter.

[tedp]

Here is a new one, regrettably of rather coarse image quality due to a very grainy film and probably a camera problem. But it has some views of the Suez Canal just after being re-opened in 1975, the steam dredgers in the Shatt al Arab, and a sailing vessel that might have been skippered by Sinbad.

[tedp]

I just uploaded a new one of a very chequered 6 months in a tramp ship, which only saw 4 ports and a lot of bad weather. From January to July, 1976, I sailed in a bulk carrier that was used as a tramp ship, going empty from Gdansk in Poland, through the Pentland Firth above Scotland, over a stormy North Atlantic to Baltimore, Maryland. There we loaded prefabricated dwellings for the oil industry destined for Dammam, Saudi Arabia. We waited for three weeks before they could be discharged, then we continued to Newcastle, NSW, for a cargo of steel bar to be taken to Aqaba, Jordan. The steel sat on the tank top in the holds, and made life a misery due to the violent rolling motion. We ran into a force 10 in the Great Australian Bight, open to the Southern Ocean, and the ship took a severe beating. It looks rather pretty but it wasn't. When we wanted to run one of our three 16mm films, one of us had to hold down the projector. Or the projector held him down, I don't remember... the images speak for themselves.

[tedp]

And here is another one, a collection of short films including the arrival back at Hook of Holland of my first ship in 1973, loading a diesel locomotive on deck in 1975, some shots from a trip to South Africa in 1976 and finally a return trip to the Red Sea in 1977.

[tedp]

Here is the final 1970s sea passage film, showing the West Africa service of Nedlloyd lines in 1978. This wasn't a popular destination as the crews didn't like the relative lack of shore interest in that part of the world, but to me it was another tropical experience. At the end of the film is a visit to what I think was one of the most beautiful and unspoilt spots on earth: the Lobé waterfalls on the beach near Kribi, Cameroon.

[tedp]

Finally (and then I will stop bothering you with non-Jeanneau topics) not a film of my seagoing time in the 1970s, but a video of seagoing canoes being launched through the surf from a beach in Ghana, which I made last year. An extraordinary display of seamanship with traditional vessels.