End of an era

[Dyflin]

After decades of historic service there will no longer be any Norwegians on the Newcastle to Bergen ferry route. 248 officers and crew have lost their jobs on the Fjord Norway which has been bought over by the Danish company DFDS. I personally have many fond memories of the ferries used on this route from the mid seventies onwards and have to admit, it won't be the same having a Danish company running this most Norwegian of routes. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

http://www.bt.no/multimedia/archive/00238/Fjord_Norway_238562c.jpg

[landaftaf]

mmmm - at least the ship is being staffed by eu nationals, not like the cork/swansea ferry route when it was taken over a few years ago.

[Dyflin]

They sacked the Norwegians because EU nationals were cheaper...

[landaftaf]

it is getting increasingly more difficult to get wooden tops to sea these days, quite a few noggie ships are being flagged out, and there are apparently more NIS ships/tickets available.

sign of the times - and have you seen the noggie seafarers social packages - WOW

[Dyflin]

Funny thing is they are screaming for them in the North Sea...

[landaftaf]

who ? noggies ???? too expensive /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

nah, there are a dearth of noggies to man the oil support ships - thats why they are coming over to brit/foc flags /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

[Dyflin]

No really, there building more and more ships and just don't have enough men to crew them. The brits are being sent to all the [--word removed--] places. When I was in Aberdeen a couple of years ago all the Maersk boats had Danish crew onboard and the Brit manned Maersk boats were dodging bullets in the third world oil fields. The company I worked for sold out to Norwegians and most of the lads were replaced by locals.

[tome]

What a pity. I've been travelling on them since a kid - when they were the Bergen line and had ships such as the Leda, Venus and Jupiter. My father worked for them for many years in Bergen

Here's a young tome on the Leda, nostalgia!
http://home.btconnect.com/Amaya/Tom_5yrs.jpg

[Dyflin]

Nostalgic indeed!

My fondest memories are of the old Fred Olsen Venus and Jupiter ships
http://www.simplonpc.co.uk/FredOlsen/BlackPrince-Venus01-FO.jpg

I remember one trip (in June!) being up on deck just behind the bridge wing and my father had to stop filming as she was shipping seas overs the starboard shoulder!

Then they took them off the route and did something scarey to them
http://www.simplonpc.co.uk/FredOlsen/BlackPrince02.jpg

[ValleyForge]

Thats a shame, we went on the Fjord Norway this summer to Bergen, nice ship, really nice crew. Only way to travel, never want to fly again. Suppose they'll be Romanians or summat next year. (you know, experienced seafarers, like the Swiss...).

[Mirelle]

Thirty years ago I climbed aboard a Swiss flagged SD14 in a floating dock in Hamburg, and was met by a steward in whites (on an SD14, in dry dock, I kid you not!) After a four course lunch (on an SD14, in dry dock!) I asked the Old Man, who had just salvaged a dismasted Swan 65 and towed her into Madeira, if he was by any chance a yachtsman, as towing a boat like that with a tweendecker could not have been easy.

He replied, "No, but when I was in the Hitlerjugend we all did a lot of sailing..."

[Dyflin]

I used to work on this ship;
http://larneferryweb.com/archive/past_notes/oct03/pastnotes_oct03_e_navigator_sb.jpg

and she was built in Austria!!

[ValleyForge]

I jest of course Mirelle but thats a good one !
(& the Theakston's Best was just sublime ...)

[Mirelle]

Lucky you; I only got Youngs! /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

[mbay]

the Leda wow, i remember her, just. my grandfather had a oil painting of her entering the Tyne it now takes pride of place in my ermmm garage. (its not a very good oil painting but very nostalgic none the less)

[spannerman]

She docks 100 yrds across the water from my office in Stavanger several times a week, I sailed in her in summer back to visit my folks, great boat, very smooth, feels more akin to a cruise ship than a ferry. Not like the old Jupiter which I sailed on for over 20 trips, she had terrible prop vibration which they never cured, they would run in phase for about 30 seconds then out of phase for several seconds, and shake the whole vessel, kept me awake most trips. Plus you knew when she was in the harbour the sun would disappear in a diesel smoke overcast!

[tome]

Did you ever sail on this old lady?

http://home.btconnect.com/Amaya/Venus%20(Small).jpg

[spannerman]

She was before my time I think, was she Jupiters predecessor?

[tome]

I only travelled on Leda and Venus, as pictured here. Venus was the larger twin funnel ship and rather luxurious with stabilisers which sometimes worked!

I vaguely remember Jupiter, but she may have only been in service during the peak season? Not sure

Leda was my favourite for reasons which escape me. I recall she used to roll!

[davidbfc]

Yes, I did sail on this old lady --- the Venus. September 1952, Plymouth to Funchal (Madeira) at the age of 7. I recall she rolled madly and the Bay of Biscay was not a happy experience for many of the passengers.

Somewhere (I wish I knew where) I have Menu Cards and other ephemera, and some 16mm cine film taken on board.