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LYCAON
3 built at Khorson Shipyard, Khorson, USSR in 1976, 11,893gt, 533 feet.
Shown here with yellow funnel.
Like
most Russian ships, she was quite nice to look at but the quality of
her build was poor.
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Bob Wright
writes:
I also served
on the Lycaon for two voyages as PO mechanic. The first from 7
March 1978 to 14 July 1978, joining and leaving in Hong Kong.
At that time we were on the Far East (Hong Kong, Kaohsiung, Keelung,
Busan and Singapore) to Middle East (Eilat on the Gulf of Aquab
and Jeddah) run and I well remember the panic when we had to change
a crosshead bearing in the Red Sea, the ship drifting toward the
shore in the night until the water was shallow enough to anchor.
The PO mechanic's cabin was facing for'd near the cook's and bosun's,
it was a godsend because, as I am sure you well know, the AC was
lousy, so I always used to open the for'd facing window for cool
air.
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Lycaon in Hong Kong 1978
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joined her for the second time in February 1980 at Antwerp. We sailed
to West Africa and returned to Antwerp and Rotterdam about twelve
weeks later. Before sailing again for West Africa, Captain Gwylim
Owen, a man from my own home town of Pwllheli joined as Master.
(I still see Captain Owen regularly, he's now well into his seventies
but still sprightly). I had had a tattoo removed in Rotterdam and
it turned bad five days out. I well remember holding my right arm
in the sink in the hospital cabin as the chief steward tried to
remove the large plaster. The only anesthetic was apiece of wood
to bite on and the engine-room head man, I think it was John Pedder,
held my legs, the cook, Tinker, my head and Capt Owen my left arm.
We were due to call in Arrecife, on Lanzarote to collect piston
spares which had been flown out specially as we were again having
engine problems. A chat, in Wesh, with Captain Owen saw me paying
off in Arrecife on May 22nd as we both considered it too risky for
me to visit West Africa with my arm in that condition. I had a night
in a hospital ashore, five days in a hotel with the holidaymakers
and was then flown home via Madrid. |
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That was
my last trip to sea.
I then started
my own garage business in Pwllheli and I am still at it today,
as well as being Lifeboat Coxswain. The Lycaon still reminds me
of how poor Russian engineering was. My first job every morning
was to repair a water leak somewhere that had developed overnight
under the bottom plates. The pipework was so thin that the cooling
pipes were covered in repairs consisting of rubber patches and
jubille clips.
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