Tanker (not so) Familiarisation
After the fun of our short courses life got quite normal as with regular lessons comes regular routines. So when “Tanker Familiarisation” appeared on the timetable it was something different. Turns out it would make EDH seem like a relaxing holiday. Mercifully with Tanker Fam. there’s nothing to do in the evenings but being that you’re in a coma it wouldn’t really matter if there were things that needed to be done. I don’t think I’ve ever had that much information come at me with such force in my entire life. I like to think I have a decent knowledge of chemistry and physics and for a while I could just about hang on in there and follow proceedings… For about the first morning, maybe only until the mid morning break, then I was “gone.” By day two we were promising ourselves a McDonalds lunch in order to give ourselves something to live for.
The enduring theme of Tanker Fam. aside from hydro-carbons and the like is probably ways to die. There’s lots and I have to be honest, some of the ways to die are quite comical. Probably not so funny for those involved and it’s easy to be the voice of sense and reason when you’re looking at a situation from afar after the event. Anyway. That said if I hear the story about 10 thousand million zillion people all going into an enclosed space one after the other and dying I may just explode. Good story, good cautionary tale, the FIRST time you hear it. Loses it’s effect on the 10th go. Sometimes I think of myself aged 80 telling that story to my Grandchildren for the 100th time as they yawn and wish they were somewhere else. ”Grandma’s talking about COSWP Ch. 17 aaaaaaaaaaaaaaagain.”
(If you don’t know the story I’m alluding to then if you get an offer from a shipping company an A4 sheet of paper outlining the full tale will probably be stapled to the back of your contract.)
I’m not sponsored by a company that has tankers and the majority of people doing tanker familiarisation aren’t. Unsurprisingly this does result in some moaning about why are we doing it and I have to say, mainly from people sponsored by cruise companies. Whilst there may be some truth in this for some people I’m more of the opinions that not only can you not predict the future but all knowledge is potentially useful. As much as I felt bombarded by information at the time I have since processed some of the information and have more than a couple of times referred back to the text book we were given.
I would say though that perhaps my notes won’t be that useful:
This drawing is the tip of the proverbial ice berg (see what I did there??) Doodles got a lot darker as the hours went on. And yes that is a Titanic/ Costa Concordia hybrid drawing at the top the picture. Like I said, all the talk of death made things quite dark.
Never had to do tanker fam (thank gods) but those doodles look much like my notes from ship construction in phase 3!