sniffer66
Distinguished Member
- Joined
- May 22, 2004
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"Thirty years, Man and Boy. 'ardest game in the world that is....."
Reading the post about the job at Amazon got me thinking about some of the jobs I've had. What was your worst ?
Mine was about 20 years ago when I was travelling in Oz. I'd hitched on my own from Sydney to Cairns (North-East tip) and was staying at a Backpackers there. A van turned up one morning asking for guys to work on an old container ship in the estuary. Turns out this ship was about 50 years old and they were pumping out the ballast tanks to be used for fuel storage after its refit. They gave 10 of us overalls, a chipping hammer and a miners light and sent us down into the bulkheads. Each space was about the size of 2 coffins with a smal hole through to the next space and pitch dark.
The seawater used for the ballast had formed sludge and rust pockets on the walls and floor and it was our job to clean all these off with the chipping ammer. Every time you hit one it would explode in your face ! You were also lying in about 6 inches of sludge as they hadnt been able to pump it all out.
We did this for 10 hours a day and because we were out on the lash every night we often went to sleep for an hour or so in the sludge, trying to recover
Once a week we took it in turns to go up on deck and shovel oil drums of sand into a rolling furnace to dry it our for sandblasting. I also spent one lovely day slung over the side in a bosuns chair 50 feet above the croc infested water (no safety line !) with a huge angle grinder cutting away lines of paint so the welders could get cutting.
All of the above was in 40 degree c heat and for $10 an hour. We did get a free meat pie for lunch though !
Kids these days don't know they are born
Reading the post about the job at Amazon got me thinking about some of the jobs I've had. What was your worst ?
Mine was about 20 years ago when I was travelling in Oz. I'd hitched on my own from Sydney to Cairns (North-East tip) and was staying at a Backpackers there. A van turned up one morning asking for guys to work on an old container ship in the estuary. Turns out this ship was about 50 years old and they were pumping out the ballast tanks to be used for fuel storage after its refit. They gave 10 of us overalls, a chipping hammer and a miners light and sent us down into the bulkheads. Each space was about the size of 2 coffins with a smal hole through to the next space and pitch dark.
The seawater used for the ballast had formed sludge and rust pockets on the walls and floor and it was our job to clean all these off with the chipping ammer. Every time you hit one it would explode in your face ! You were also lying in about 6 inches of sludge as they hadnt been able to pump it all out.
We did this for 10 hours a day and because we were out on the lash every night we often went to sleep for an hour or so in the sludge, trying to recover
Once a week we took it in turns to go up on deck and shovel oil drums of sand into a rolling furnace to dry it our for sandblasting. I also spent one lovely day slung over the side in a bosuns chair 50 feet above the croc infested water (no safety line !) with a huge angle grinder cutting away lines of paint so the welders could get cutting.
All of the above was in 40 degree c heat and for $10 an hour. We did get a free meat pie for lunch though !
Kids these days don't know they are born
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