Steve Thorpe – Water treated like gold

Simon: With the diesel, something I learnt as well was that the freshwater is … because it’s not being generated like it is on the nuclears, is treated as sort of almost gold. You don’t really get to use it.

No, so you clean your teeth once a day, maybe twice a day if you’re lucky. You’d have a shave the night before you got back alongside, if you could be bothered, but apart from that, the only people that really used to shower or were allowed to shower were the Chefs, but then bizarrely they used to smell and everybody else didn’t, so your body sort of starts self-cleaning almost after a while. You never had problems getting to the Bar when you got back from sea ‘cos it used to be like a green haze around you. You’d just go to the Bar, and you’d get served straight away.

Simon: Right. And the smell of diesel is within your clothing is it?

Oh yeah. I remember I used to go home when I used to live at my mother’s, and she’d refuse to put the washing in the washing machine ‘cos it used to smell that bad. She used to say, “I’m going to throw it away.” “Well, I’ll just have to buy another T shirt and it will be the same next time out, so just wash that one.” (laughs)