Derek, M0YAW, gave a brief overview of his work experience and up to the present day. He spoke of his training in electronics such that he could service any make of radio equipment, receiver or transmitter. He worked for BP on tankers ranging in size from 80,000 tons to 400,000. He circumnavigated the world twice and visited many interesting ports. Shore leave gave him the opportunity to experience some of the rarer destinations in the Pacific, particularly Pago Pago in the eastern district of American Samoa. In the tiny harbour, the tanker had a very slow discharge rate using one pump running at quarter speed, instead of four pumps each running at 3 tons per second! So he had plenty of time ashore. Derek was on BP ship British Wye when it was called into service under MoD charter in the Falklands War in 1982. All the crew on board were volunteers. Derek added that when they sailed south to Ascension Island, they all thought the matter of the Falklands war would be over before they arrived. The sinking of British warships made them realise just how serious their task was to be. Two particular events were recalled, one was the ship being bombed by an Argentine Hercules. The MV British Wye was carrying 36000 tonnes of aviation fuel and the aircraft made a low pass and the  bombs were pushed out from the loading ramp. The outcome was a scuffed deck where one bomb bounced from the deck into the sea. There was an almighty underwater explosion. Later when the WYE was transferring fuel to another ship, Derek explained that the ship’s gyroscope malfunctioned making the parallel course with the other ship very challenging. Derek did a manual reset of the gyroscope in 30 minutes instead of 30 hours. The end of the conflict with Argentina was also the end of Derek’s life as a ships radio officer. He was awarded the Falklands Service Medal. After working in sales, he moved into technical authoring.     A job that he is still doing!

Report by Paul, G1GSN