General Botha - Class of 1973 | Roll Call
2429 Adam J.C. | 2430 Birtles J.A. | 2431 Bradford S.C. | 2432 Clack G.H. | 2433 Clayton C.J. | 2434 Curran J.J. | 2435 Demont M.C. | 2436 DeVilliers W.G. | 2437 Du Preez A. | 2438 Durell G. | 2439 Greensmith R.J.T. | 2440 Hatch V.T. | 2441 Holmes B.M. | 2442 Hulley M.E. | 2443 Logan A.G. | 2444 McClure T.J.T. | 2445 McGhee D. | 2446 Melvin D.G. | 2447 Merriman I.P.D. | 2448 Moon P.A. | 2449 Moran K.A. | 2450 Nunes F.P. | 2451 Pelizzari P.D. | 2452 Potgieter P.A. | 2453 Proctor S.C. | 2454 Rapson G.T. | 2455 Rycroft C.F. | 2456 Santana F.A.P. | 2457 Smith J.R. | 2458 Talbot N.G. | 2459 Tissink J.C. | 2460 Theunissen S.P. | 2461 Van Zyl J.W. | 2462 Wheeler P.R. | 2463 Whitehead R. | 2464 Zwaan B.J.R.
2442 Hulley M.E.
At sea with with Safmarine and later a Marine Surveyor for SGS in Cape Town
1994 Stowage coordinator for Safmarines Cargo Department
1998 Left Safmarine and moved to England
A brief history of my life since leaving S.A. as follows:
Moved to UK in May 1998. At first couldn't get any permanent work ashore, so
did a bit of marine survey for SGS (worked for them for some years in SA) and
eventually went to sea as mate for about 6 months on an Irish coaster. This was
nothing short of hilarious. When I first joined the ship (BEN ELLEN) the taxi
dropped me off at a little port called Siloth on the west coast and I thought
it must be the wrong place because there were no ships in the harbour.
Anyway, after walking up to the quay and glancing around, I found the ship
sitting on the mud waiting for the tide to come in so they could sail.
Sailing around the Irish sea was really interesting in many ways. The vessel
was boarded on two occasions by the Irish version of a SWAT team. They
maintain security in the area and searched the vessel for arms and ammunition
(I guess).
On one trip from Barrow-in-Furness to a place called Coulport just North of
Glasgow we carried a 100 tonne IBM for the Navy. Followed all the way by
a very fast fishing boat that definitely had no interest in fishing.
After the BEN ELLEN, I was offered a job with BORCHARD LINES as a ship
planner and worked for them for two years, up to June 2001.
P&O Nedlloyd then offered me a job in their planning office in London and I
was with them until about one week ago (27 September 2002). The reason
for leaving was because of the threat of redundancy hanging over my head
since about April this year. Good people to work for in all other respects.
BORCHARD LINES needed planners again and asked me to rejoin them, so
for the past week I have been back with them. As to the future it looks like I
will stay with BORCHARD, unless the book I have written proves to be a best
seller. This is so shatteringly unlikely, that I think we can safely assume I will
be a ship planner to the end of my working life.
The position with P&O Nedlloyd, as far as planners is concerned, has changed
in so far as they have closed down the New York planning office and moved
the planning of those vessels to London, however this development only took
place about middle of September and by that time I was already committed
to BORCHARD.
Lee (my wife) and I now have five children, the most recent born on 25 July 2002.
We have been able to purchase a really nice home about half an hours drive south
of Norwich, just outside a little village called Tibenham (Norfolk). I commute to London
every day, which takes about 5 hours there and back, so I have a great deal of time
on the train in which to write.
Housing in London is way too expensive for us, hence the need to buy something much
further North which was big enough and cheap enough for my family. We were able
to pick up our home for a trivial Two million five hundred and fifty thousand Rand.
It's enough to make you weep.