Meet the Members
From ocean to sky…
This month we meet Ni Thomas, former Merchant Navy captain, and enthusiastic private pilot…
W
elcome Ni, can you tell us about your career?
You are perhaps asking yourselves, “Who is this geezer?” A ‘nobody’ is the answer. A simple, retired seafarer who likes flying. Who actually likes flying a lot, in fact. I was born in Liverpool in 1947 to a sea captain dad, a teacher mum and an elder sister, Viv. Oh! And born along with a ‘hanger on’, a hitchhiker twin brother – who shall remain nameless in case fame goes to his head. We and the Hunts Cross Avenue Gang did all the ‘normal’ Scouser stuff – taking bikes, visiting old bomb craters, etc. When I was 11, we moved south to live in the New Forest, and have never left it (habitation-wise). In 1964 I joined the Merchant Navy with the Esso Petroleum Company and my first ship – a 36 thousand tonner, aptly named Esso Salisbury – as a Navigation Officer Cadet. Following loads of sea time, exams, knot tying, star sights, meridian passes, cargo work and stuff, I worked my way up the ranks – 3rd Nav Officer (liked it), 2nd Nav Officer (hated it), Chief Officer (great job) and finally in January 1980, at aged 32, I was appointed Captain (loved it). I sailed to loads of worldly ports in vessels from
58 | LIGHT AVIATION | August 2021
Above Ni with his RV-9A at home base, Bournemouth, note ‘plastic parrot’ bird scarer above rudder.
6,000tdwt up to 500,000tdwt. My favourite time at sea was undertaking lightning operations in Lyme Bay during the 1980s (if any of you were scooting over the Lyme Bay regions at that time, you’d have seen two large tankers ‘mating’ a few miles off Brixham). A Trinity House Pilot’s licence enabled me to pilot my ships into the Solent and Southampton Water. In 1989-ish, the large multinational oil companies, Exxon (Esso), Shell, BP etc., had seen the light following a small incident you may have heard of, in Valdez, Alaska and, in consequence, commenced getting rid of their owned fleets by disposing of potential floating behemoths carrying loads and loads of liabilities. During this period, the Company asked me to come ashore and become the Nautical Advisor for the British fleet, followed eventually, for the Exxon International fleet. I did that for eight years, heading the Nautical Department. The work was varied, with a broad spectrum of activities – inspections, new port developments in China, India, Singapore, Russia etc. Legal stuff, salvage, investigations, hazard risk and so on – a varied task with much travel (15 times across to Texas in one year). I retired in 2000, set up my own company, and did another 12 years training seafarers and captains of all nationalities.
