Colin Hamilton – Engine change in Hamburg and held up by Greenpeace

We went into Hamburg, but we had to do an engine change going down the Elba.

I said, “Well we’re going back at the end of the week, we’re going back to Portsmouth to lay up.” “Well, we might be called off to do something” so we had to do an engine change.

Simon: What does an engine change … it doesn’t mean literally swopping an engine out?

Oh yes, we carried spare gas turbines like they have … they’re Olympus Gas Turbines like they have on aircraft, and they keep them in a pod up in the ceiling and if you have to change them …

Simon: Right, I mean if you’re in the middle of a battle or whatever, you can’t just say, “Hold on a sec, “

“I’ve got to change the engine” yeah ‘cos there are four of them, two on each shaft, but they have two spare.

Luckily my team, the few Leading Hands I had, had had these classes of ship before so they knew what to do, so I made the tea while they got on with the job (laughs), but this was actually going down the Elba to Hamburg.

But we got it done so we could get ashore and then when we were coming out, we were stopped by Greenpeace.

They tried to board us and throw things at us and God knows what, but we just pushed our way through. Went back to Portsmouth.