SAILING ACROSS THE PACIFIC III TOWARDS DISTANT HORIZONS - PART I
We invite you to read a series of articles that will take us back to the harsh reality of the 70's and 80's, known to most of us only from stories told by our parents or grandparents. Their author is Mr. Andrzej Buszke, a graduate of the Naval Academy in Gdynia, a sailor who worked 28 years of his life at sea. The stories are accounts and descriptions of subjective feelings of the author. The stories describe the reality of communist Poland, as well as the world, which no longer exists, seen through the eyes of an adept and then ETO (Electro-technical Officer).
‘Politechnika Slaska’ - I was told in the office on Malopolska Street in Szczecin. Af ter half a year's daymanship I was completely financially washed out. The ship stood, as I was informed, at the mustering, at the coal pier in the North Port. At that time the largest bulk carrier in the Polish fleet (apart from two others) was to carry 55 thousand tonnes of coal dust to the other end of the world, to the port of Hirohata (Honsiu) in Japan. Well, at that time - in the 70’s - we did not have anything to trade, and such goods as Inka coffee, our ‘Wyborowa’ vodka and just coal, even transported so far, brought us foreign currency.
function - I lived with four occupants (‘Phoenix’), two (‘Oder’, ‘Sola’) or on the stern oble (‘Miner’), this cabin was spacious, with a couch, windows instead of portholes and had a bathroom with shower! We docked the next day. What a terrible ‘quake’! Those three bulk carriers ( ‘ Manife s t L ip cow y ’, ‘ Polite chnika
It was December 1976. There was no tunnel cros sing under the Mar t wa Vistula river then. I could get to the ship from Stogi district only on my own legs. Snow had fallen, I was trudging at night along an unknown road ‘with my soul on my shoulder’ through deep snowdrifts. The distant lights of the North Port were leading me. Getting acquainted with cabin II El was a pleasant surprise. After several previous ones, where - depending on the After heading south, it was getting warmer every day
22 | Winter 2022 | Lifestyle
Szczecinska’ and ‘Politechnika Slaska’) were known in Polsteam (Polish Marine) for terrible vibrations, coming from the badly bearing main engine shaft. It was the worst on the first of the ‘Manifest Lipcowy’ series (During sea trials, the lamps in the engine broke off and the wings of the bridge, which were flapping, had to be supported by pipe brackets in the shipyard. The crew
