Now this story takes me back to the year 1981.
I was a year out of my apprenticeship and was a ****y little bugger :-)
I was sent to Greenock to commission a suite of cold rooms. There was only one little problem. The suite was located on the Oil discovery vessel “Ben Ocean Lance” This was a huge bloody ship with a great big hole in the middle and a sodden great oilrig right above it.
And, they never told me that part of the job was to test the cold rooms under normal operating conditions. This involved a 17-day jaunt into the North Sea to try out the jet stabilisers on this movable rig.
Well after standing on the deck next to that great big hole watching this calm patch of North Sea while the rest of the North Sea tried to invade this patch by jumping over the ship (and me), let me tell you, no more ****y little bugger. Hello E U R O P E.
Yep, the first 3 days, I was that kid hanging over the side, with the empty stomach and raw stomach lining.
Still, I did get my sea legs and managed a full commission of the rooms. And the Ben Ocean Lance went on to discover lots of oil before it sunk in the Artic.
Bet the cold rooms were still working though ;-)
