Place
Pacific Ocean
47,39 N
154,19 E
Location
M.S. Geest St. Lucia
Vessel bound from Guayaquil in Equador to Tokyo Japan
via Los Angeles U.S.A.
Local time of recording
12.00 am
Camera person
Captain G. de Ferry Foster
Description of the vessel
Build by Lanyard at Fredeikshavn in Denmark and delivered in February 1993. The M/V Geest St. Lucia is operated by the Geest Line of Southampton UK. a company within the Geest PLC group. She is manages by Ugland Interocean Managemant Ltd.
A refrigerated cargo vessel with a cargo capacity of 18245.4 cubic meters below deck. She also has the capacity to carry 299 X 20 foot containers on deck including 108 refrigerated containers. 140 X 20 foot containers may be carried below the deck if required.
The vessel has a cross tonnage of 13077 tonnes. A beam of 24.40 meters and is 158..13 meters long overall. Powered by a 12147 K Hyundai B & W engine, she has a service speed of over 20.00 knots.
The vessel has a crew of nineteen made up of:
Master
3 Navigating officers
4 Engineer officers
Electric officer
Bosun
5 Able seamen
2 Motormen
Cook
Steward
Master, Chief officer, Chief engineer, 2nd engineer and Electronics officer are British and the other officers and crew are Polish.
Unfortunately there is no video or sound recording equipment on board the ship so I was unable to make any recordings. Therefore at or around the appointed hour I took a series of photographs of different areas of the vessel.
As can bee seen from the photographs the ship appears to be deserted. It being midnight all officers and crew who were off duty were in bed.
The Engineroom is unmanned at night. There is always a duty engineer on immediate call should there be an alarm, all machinery space and machinery being covered by very sophisticated alarm systems.
The bridge of course is manned at night by the duty navigating officer and one seaman. The master and other officers being on immediate call if required.
At the time the photographs were taken the officer of the watch on the bridge was Ryszard Wojtaszek aged 37.
Of the officer and crew.
The Polish officers and crew have worked aboard this ship and her sister ship for nearly one year.
The British senior officers have been employed by the Geest Line for many years.
I am Captain Geoffrey Foster, Master of the ship. I joined the Geest Line as third officer in 1964 aged 26, after having served with a previous company for eight years. I am now 57 and have been with Geest for 31 years, the last 23 years as Master.
The Chief Engineer, Stuart Fraser, has been with the company for 24 years.
The Chief Officer, Terence Hogg, has been with the company for 16 years.
G. de Ferry Foster,
Master, M.S. Geest St. Lucia
10.09.95