I joined QE2 in Cherbourg in September 1984 as my first ship following on my apprenticeship with Shell Tankers. It was a bit different from the 1958 steam-powered oil tanker that I sailed on during 1982!
The trip from Bournemouth International Airport to Cherbourg was "interesting" since the runway was a bit too short for such heavily laded 'planes. But got there safe and sound, and upon joining, got dreadfully lost. I couldn't find the engine room to report for duty. Some might say that I suffered the same problem for the next four years.
To start, I worked on the day-shift, on repair and maintenance. Not one of my strong points since I was not great at splitting rusty nuts, and have the scars to this day (and a bit of Arthritis too). I then doubled-up with Jimmy Hayes, who knew the boiler room inside-out, and was a very good teacher, and a likeable man. Going solo started with flashing up the starboard boiler, which must have had the most gentle warm up in a decade, and I took a full watch to get it on-line. This didn't stay like it, and I learned quickly.
The ship was much more complex than anything I had seen or heard of, but the most fascinating thing was the ship environment effects on staff and passengers - for example, the ship was so fast that on transatlantics we had a clock change every night - bearing in mind that the tankers I had been on did about 12knots, this was a revelation!
Anyway, I have a stack of photos that I will try to recover and scan, including some of the engines and boiler room.
