Graeme Hayes - Engineer with P&O

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Graeme Hayes' Memories

I joined P&O cruises in 1984 after serving a 4 year apprenticeship in Cammell Laird Shipbuilders, Birkenhead, helping out in the construction of such vessels as HMS Liverpool, HMS Edinburgh, RFA Bayleaf and a couple of oil platforms. After completing my time and into the first year as a 'fully qualified' (ahem) electrician, an electrician friend of mine called Mike Pritchard got a job with P&O and joined Oriana; he wrote to me with incredible stories of wine, women and song (strange as he didn't drink…) fun, frolics, etc and said I should apply. I did but unfortunately got the job and was posted to SS Canberra….luckily for me, when its your first ship you don't know any better.

I joined in August 1984 to find the company desperately short of electricians - I wondered why they were so eager to get an inexperienced prat like me (all the senior electricians I ever sailed with all nod sagely….) The day work electricians were actually 2 press-ganged engineers. Oh well, on with the job; 2 day work trips later and I found myself on watch; 8/12 no less - jeez, I have never experienced so little sleep and so much Carlsberg in all my life….. what an existence…..great times.

Canberra 8 to 12 1986ish Barbados Sandy Lane,

L-R Back:

Graeme Hayes, Chris Wright, Joe Grubb, John ? (Eng).

Front:

Jag Lewis, Mrs Anderson, Ian Anderson.

Canberra 8 to 12 1985 Acapulco

L-R:

John ? (4EO), Graeme Hayes, Veggie, Welsh Wizard, Chris Bale.

Three mixed trips later I was moved to Sun Princess as 3ETO. That's more like it I thought. However, the work has incredibly hard, the machinery spaces on this ship were truly kin awful, they were absolutely sizzling, 6 Diesel Gennys running constantly flat out with fabulous items of kit like the Alfa and Atlas Evaps seemingly functioning purely to steam passers by, the legendary Omnipure crap-zapper, No.2 Adams (designed to deliver unconscious engineers at an alarming rate to hospital) and various other delights combined to ensure the old 'work hard, play hard' ethic was fully utilised. A few trips later I was 2ETO and a bloke called Paul Mead turns up…... as has been rightly mentioned by others on this site, this guy Peams was a legend. An absolute delight to work with, drink with and get women with. A natural grafter who could make anyone laugh with the most amazing line in banter. During a refit in LA we hired a car and drove round the stars' houses in Hollywood, we started seeing how far we could take this and decided to knock on a few doors; (Rod Stewart wouldn't answer the door and James Stewart told us to f**k off) however, with persistence we ended up in an actresses swimming pool (ex president Ronald Reagan lived next door), she was just showing us the TV that comes out of the end of the bed when the husband came home and threw us out. When you went on the slash with him you literally never knew where you would end up; unfortunately this could also be the hospital - the result of an over-enthusiastic trip to the Acapulco grand prix where he turned his kart over…..well he hit me first.

Final crew shot before ship was sold - Loads of unknowns I'm afraid, however of the Officers on the upper tier aft of the Starlight Lounge I can see Dave Colclough, Billy Witts, Richard Moody, Paul Mead, CEO Kingy, Ken Willey, Guy Galpin, John Messenger.

These shots were taken of the Sun on her final cruise from the Canberra, we passed between Cabo san Lucas and Acapulco, she is flying her pay-off pennant; I'm on the bridge wing somewhere.

Sun Princess wardroom - the smallest wardroom in the fleet.

L-R Back:

?? (eng), Ken Willey (having a great time with that hairdresser bent over in front of him), Sue Good, ??, ?? (bedroom stewardess), Alan Whittam (1/O), Jim Reeves' wife, Jim Reeves.

On the floor:

Graeme Hayes, Ian Quinn, Jo Helesfay, ??, Dougie Barr (Deceased), Dave Shimmons (sitting on esky drinking beer - go Dave), Dennis Tanner and Graham 'My Boys' Lewis (CEO).

Sun Princess wardroom and the 'Tight Ship' sign on the bar door.

L-R:

Graeme Hayes, Tracy Purser, Billy Witts, Sue Good.

This was a birthday party that was originally postponed after a York Air Con guy called Sarge nearly lost his head in a horrific accident in the engine room. The mood onboard after the accident was truly dreadful for ages, when we finally felt people were ready again it was rescheduled and people went absolutely crazy - 'lads have got to let off steam chief'

Sun Princess 1989, very late at night in Shimmo's cabin - Dennis Tanner, Dave Shimmons, Graeme Hayes, Paul Mead starting to flag….

Sun Princess 3ETO cabin 1989.

Graeme Hayes and the legend of Paul Mead - RIP my friend.

Sun Princess ECR 1989 - Behind the console

R-L:

??, ??, Steve Stroud, Donny Coghill, Ian Quinn, Richard Moody, Guy Galpin, Dave Shimmons, Ken Willey, Dave King, Dennis Tanner, Paul Mead, Graeme Hayes, ??, Chris Fuller, Billy Witts, ??, ????? etc,

Sun Princess final Electro tech department Feb 1989:

L-R:

Graeme Hayes (2ETO), Dave Shimmons (CETO), Don Byne (1ETO), Ian White (3ETO), Dave Colclough (2ETO), Paul Mead (3ETO).

Princess now decided to sell the ship and several Greek guys from Starship Cruises turned up to take over our Sun Princess and turn it into 'Starship Majestic'. I then started doing my electrotechnical college courses and was posted to Sea Princess which was still a Princess ship then. Most of the Sun P ETOs transferred to this ship around the same time; me, Don Millar, Gash, Shimmo, Al Morton, etc and it was business as usual…we set about turning the ship into one we would like and converted the electrical workshop into a nightclub. Cue more fun plus Alaskan cruising, with amazing nights out in Bullwinkle's, the Penthouse and of course the Sportsmans in Whittier….. if you've been to these places you'll know exactly what I'm talking about.

In 1991 Sea Princess reverted to P&O Cruises and a new gang of Leckies arrived including a certain Ian Bremner (aka Woody) and Carl Petty (aka Tom), business as usual ramped up into all out warfare on decks aided by the amazing Mr Sabet and culminating in the infamous '3 Leckies vaulting sofas and performing somersaults in the Caribe' incident and we were all placed on final warnings….. To this day I don't know how it all got to that stage, I gave up arguing; we were actually jiving with some drunk lady passengers, having a great time when all the women decided to have a 'pile on' - from this pile of bodies 3 Leckies emerged to find the night manager making notes, the Captain was informed and that was that. Tom later received another warning and was sacked, Woody left and there was just me again. Tom 'settled down' in Perth WA and Woody went to Canada.

Sea Princess Electrical Workshop (more commonly known as the Rolling Rock Hotel)

L-R:

Colette Trigg, ?? (Receptionist), ?? (AP), ??, Rob Ranson, Howie Balcombe, ??, Mr Sin the electrical fitter, ??, Al Morton, Graeme Hayes.

Tom Petty, Graeme Hayes, 'Mother' on keyboard (out of shot), Wardroom karaoke - Crackling Rosie: Badly

Sea Princess Electrical Workshop

L-R:

Ian Bremner, Tom Petty, Graeme Hayes.

Note the legendary Rolling Rock neon sign - symbol of hope to hundreds of workshop visitors and revellers.

Sea Princess 1992 Panama Canal afternoon

L-R:

Kevin Mcloughlin, Welsh Gadge, Tom Petty, Steve Pegg, Graeme Hayes, Mike Champkin.

Sea Princess 1992 Caribe Lounge

L-R:

Caroline ? (Bars), Ian Sabet and Deb ? (waitress) dancing on the table, me moving the glasses.

Sea Princess Electrical Workshop

L-R:

Howie Balcombe, Al Morton, Graeme Hayes.

Shortly after this I met my wife and things calmed down……as they do….we married in '96 and sailed together on the Sea Princess, Oriana and Arcadia until we left in May 1999.

Taken at my leaving party on Arcadia May 1999

L-R:

Louise Jones (Dancer), me, my wife Paula.

Taken at an outside dinner hosted by Sir Jeff on Arcadia summer 98. Too many unknowns to name however most importantly I am at the back stbd of the flagpole with Mrs Hayes.

Taken at a Captain's Dinner on Arcadia early 1999,

L-R standing:

Tim Gibbons, Bill Kent (Staff Capt), Chris Bullen (Purser), Carole Gibbons, ??, Louise Abrahams (then partner of Chris Bullen), Jackie Bott, Ralf Winzinger (Chef), Mike Carr, Doug Black, Christine Elliot, Marty Elliott, John Hobbs, Gavin Ash, Phil Raymond (CD), Mrs Angie Carr, Graham Santi.

Sitting:

?? (Nurse), Dave McCarthy (Purser), John Crawford (Doc), Hans Ming (Accom Off), Jumbo Jepson, Debbie Feeney, Graeme Hayes, Helen Skoins, Jacqui Howse (now living with Gavin Ash (retired) somewhere in West Wales).

The info in grey has been kindly supplied by Tim Gibbons and Paul Carney.

I saw an advert in the local paper for a technical author and decided that was my chance to come ashore. The owner of the company was an ex P&O/Princess Engineer who bravely/foolishly hired me. Mrs Hayes got a job as a Manager in the local Holiday Hypermarket and so ended 15 years of seafaring shenanigans. We now live in Meols, Wirral, in a house on the sea front and have 2 boys, Zak and Dan.

After being in this company for a year or two we were joined by other ex P&O Seadogs Ken Miller, Kevin Dolan and Ken Ellis - reunions every day!

I still work for this company and we often do work for P&O and Princess Cruises meaning I still get to sail on the ships and meet up with several folk from the 'good old days'. Earlier this year I sailed on Crown Princess and found the Chief was one Mr William Witts, I also met up with Tom Beck, Gary Wood and Rob Macbrayne, all still active seadogs.

So that's me, I hope I've rekindled a few memories for some and not bored the rest! I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all the guys who helped me out over the years, who took the time to teach me stuff and help me progress. I'd also like to take this opportunity to apologise to any senior officers I offended or let down during my time as a young fly-by-night; we were just kids 'avin fun Chief.

Hazey

If anyone would like to drop me a line it would be great to hear from you.

Graeme's email address is gjh@wmtmarine.com