| Description | Tape 1 Side A: VICTOR RUSSELL GIBSON FNI (Fellow of the Nautical Institute) Master Mariner, born 4 November 1942 in Sunderland, Co. Durham. Paternal grandfather had naval rank. Recalls parents' divorce and living with extended maternal family in Beverley, Yorkshire. Names of grandparents. Maternal grandmother born 1859, her husband a shipworker. Explains how family links to navy were inspiration to join. Grandfather had paternal role until mother's remarriage. Details re grandfather's employment in shipping yards, influence of this on own career. Mentions relationship with father, memories of first meeting with him when 15. Mentions stepfather, an army officer in the Somerset Light Infantry. Brief description of mother and her life. Father's background as a naval officer. Describes social stance of father's family. Great great grandfather was Lord Chancellor (Gibson - the 1st Lord Ashton) of Ireland in the 1860s and grandfather was the Honourable Victor Gibson who fought in the Boer War. Mother's response to her social position. Hierarchy amongst wives in the army. Mentions reputation of stepfather. Recalls relationship with mother and stepfather. Recalls school days. Went to Glenhow preparatory boarding school from the age of 8. Talks about life as an army child. Recalls details of life at Pangbourne Naval College from age of 13; daily regime, punishments, discipline. Influence of teacher Mr Stevens. Activities at school that prepared students for life at sea. Recalls expectation that students would go to sea. Details re decision to join merchant navy instead of Royal Navy, apprenticeship process. Joined first ship, Balart, February 1960. Recalls lessons from childhood.
Tape 1 Side B: Reflects on military childhood. Description of first ship, Balart, role, cargo carried. Recalls the atmosphere on the ship compared to school. Describes the place of the apprentice in the hierarchy, the various duties they had to perform. Recalls social activities available to apprentices, own particular interests. Describes in detail the difficulties of listening to music on a ship. Mentions developing interest in writing; particularly as editor of a ship's newspaper aboard ship Maloja. Mentions the position of P&O in the naval world. Recalls how own ambitions brought about decision not to stay with P&O. Recalls becoming an expert on ships' systems when on a P&O tanker, a turning point in life. Recalls last two jobs with P&O on passenger ships, one of which was Oriana. Mentions how brief the holidays were during apprenticeship. In 1963 became Second Mate on Tate and Lyle Sugar Line - brief description. Recalls move to Trinder Anderson. Details re experiences of bad seamanship and the Suez canal. Describes experience of China at the time of the cultural revolution. Explains dislike of being at sea and decision to join Baltic Corporation. Reasons for liking this job. Decision to come ashore in 1969 was partly result of marriage. Details re wife and meeting with her. Recalls job with British Transport Docks Board. Employed there as Stevedore Superintendent working mainly for Union Castle Cape Mail Operation. Details re dealings with the trade unions. Explains views on the trade unions and own political views.
Tape 2 Side A: Describes relative ignorance of the offshore industry when working as Stevedore Superintendent for British Transport Docks Board in Southampton 1969-1973. Moved to Barry, South Glamorgan in 1973 to become cargo superintendent for the Geest Line. Recalls the trials of the job. Recalls, in particular the effect of the job on family life. At the time had two young sons. Details re their names etc. Explains decision to change job, growing realisation of the significance of the North Sea oil industry. Notes the importance of the supply boat industry and changing working patterns. Took the gamble to start work as a mate working for Ocean Inscape Limited (OIL). Work involved well testing, anchor handling and PSVs (platform supply vessels). Describes in detail the job of an anchor handler, the problems and how they were dealt with. Describes relationship between rig workers and anchor handlers. Comments on consistency of crews aboard supply boats. Describes the characteristics of a supply boat and the skills needed to manoeuvre one. Explains background to being promoted to Master, reason for not getting promoted sooner. Comments on the inability of the supply companies to move cargo, compares with the skills of the merchant navy. Difficulties in the process of tying up to a rig. Compares with tying up to a jetty. Detailed description of the process of tying up and own development of a new technique.
Tape 2 Side B: Supply boat master (cont'd). Description of situation when tying up goes wrong. Talks about the use of intuition in seamanship. Comments on the lack of equipment. Effect of oil rigs on the weather conditions for supply boats. Discusses the origin of PSVs (platform supply vessels) and how they came to be used as supply boats. Discusses the technique of 'snatching' and how it has become common practice nowadays. Before these PSVs all the anchor handlers were multi-task vessels. Dreaded working with certain rigs crews. Explains. Opinions held about the Americans. Anecdote about an American company trying to discredit own crew. Recalls large number of British and Norwegian supply boat companies, inability of the Americans to get used to the North Sea conditions. Norwegians had the best boats. There was more competition between nations than between companies. Recalls long working hours, often being sent to Shetland to shelter from bad weather. Explains direct effect of oil price crash of 1986. Recalls company decision to return to old working practices and the ensuing strike. Explains reason for taking redundancy at this point. Mentions how supply boat men were treated by riggers. Reference to consultancy job onshore. Decision to come ashore was based on personal situation. Effect of work offshore on some marriages. Mentions family situation, job as mate on Isle of Mann crossing. Explains development of idea for supply vessel mud tank cleaning system. Details re how it works and process leading to marketing of product. Recalls period spent working on rig moving. Describes process.
Tape 3 Side A: Recalls helping Balmoral Company with work on the Calm Buoy. Describes the calm buoy's job, its origins and some of the associated problems. Details re the use of chains in the oil industry. Comments on the significance, for health and safety considerations, of having professional seamen on the boats. Compares with the situation on the platforms. Describes start of writing career, working for magazines and writing a book 'Supply Ship Operations'. Describes need for the book and how it sold. Piper Alpha disaster 6 July 1988: describes first hearing news of disaster. Recalls thoughts about the event at the time. Describes how, despite working with oil rigs and platforms on a daily basis, knew little about them or their dangers. Piper Alpha disaster did not affect the supply boat industry. Describes circumstances which led to writing 'Safety and Quality Assurance in an Offshore Fleet' with Captain Peter Maudsley. Recalls beginning, in 1994, work on safety case study for Transocean, what this entailed. Mentions requirement of safety cases as a result of the Cullen inquiry. Mentions amazement at there being no professional mariners on the rigs. Comments on question as to what should rigs be classified as.
Tape 3 Side B: Comments on confusion as to what rigs are, ship or factory. Question as to why the Seamens' Union did not take rigs under their wing at the beginning of the North Sea industry. Comments on absence of seamen at every level of North Sea oil production. Mentions follow-up regulations post-1995 to the safety case regulations: Prevention of Fire Explosion and Emergency Response Regulations (PFEERR) and Design and Construction Regulations (DCR). Explains requirements of these new regulations, work with companies assisting them to meet the requirements. Mentions own role in Transocean's Onshore Emergency Procedures. Discusses companies' response to the safety culture, especially those with different human rights records. Recalls Safety Case Conference of 27 November 2003 and the suggestion that people have tried to improve on human error but not on equipment. Discusses personal initiatives on safety. Compares situations of seamen and riggers. Comments on the realistic use of safety cases, the arrogance of operators. Details re family situation and plans for the future. Opinion that the oil industry has always had 'only ten years left' and even when it does end seamen will always have work. |