Container ships, a very personal memory

Not many people know that after leaving school, I trained with, and worked for, P&O Nedlloyd as a Navigational Officer on container ships. The picture above is from the BBC News website and features a ship just like the ones I used to navigate at sea. Having had an engine turbo charger explode on my first ever trip to sea on a container ship, leaving us drifting in the English channel a few miles from where this ship was stricken in high winds, this is all too very real a memory.

I shudder every time I see the photos. I can smell the engine, the heavy fuel oil, the salty brine, the rust stains, it is all so very real still even after a few years. Seeing the ship above on its side is a reminder that nature still rules, and the sea is still something to be feared!

I can see still very clear, the 40 and 20 foot containers, and the small metal lashings that hold them down to the deck, seeing the photos of the stricken ship brings back floods of memories from around the world, from around my head.

Thank God all the crew are safe, thank God I was not on this ship.