Koper - unloading bananas, loading cars

Thursday 9th October 1975

We were introduced to the 3rd mate and various other crew members before hitting the sack, having been informed that one of us had to be up at 06.00 hours in working gear! Woken up by the sounds of the hatches being opened I got up and managed to locate the 3rd mate. I then found out that we were unloading bananas from Ecuador and spent the morning watching. The 3rd mate showed me how to measure the draught for and aft and then how to break a flag out. (Namely the Yugoslavian flag). I spent the rest of the day looking round the ship before turning in for an early night.

Friday 10th October 1975

I was up again at 06.00 and helped the crew remove the Macgregor hatches. (Extremely dangerous things if one does not have ones wits about you.) We also opened some of the tween deck MacGregors. We found the Fire Station and examined all the equipment and I was grateful for the fire fighting course which instructed us in the operation of everything. At 21.00 we had to shift ship about 60 foot astern to allow another ship to berth. I was stationed aft and helped the crew handle the warps. The Bosun’s Mate showed me how to operate a rope stopper. The operations took a little longer than it would usually as no one on the dock spoke English. (A constant problem in Koper.)

Saturday 11th October 1975

By noon all the bananas had been unloaded. (Thank God for that. I never want to see another!) At 10.30 there was a practice lifeboat stations for all new crew members. I didn’t hear the alarm but saw the others so joined in. I am stationed in the starboard lifeboat (No. 1) and soon was on the spot fastening my lifejacket. Once all was seen to be satisfactory we were dismissed.

At 12.40 a chap arrived to supply us with fresh water. I assisted the Bosun’s Mate to haul the pipe on board, lock it to the rail ( to prevent the weight of water in it pulling it over the wall), check it was pure and feed it into the tanks. The Wild Fulmar has two fresh water tanks, both aft holding about 87 tonnes each. He also showed me how and where to check the water levels at the consul in the engine room.

Mid afternoon we started loading cars bound for Santo Domingo (Haiti). There were two types, both Fiats, the 750 and the new 1100.

That night I accompanied the 2nd electrician and the 4th engineer (both called Steve and confusing at times with it) into Koper where we walked round and sampled the local ale.

Sunday 12th October 1975

Up at 06.00 to remove hatch covers and then keep an eye on the cars coming in. As each one was lowered into the hold I had to inspect it for damage, noting it down on one of the chits. 

It amazed me how the dockers revved the brand new engines furiously and spun the wheels to drive them off the sling and then they would park them before lashing them down with Spanish windlasses.

We sailed at 14.00 assisted by two tugs, next stop being Augusta on Sicily for bunkers. Billy and I were then put on watches, him the 12 – 4 and me the 4 – 8 with the 1st mate. My first watch was spent on lookout duty and the AB (Dick) showed me how to report ships etc. in points.