freshir:
Reddesertfox:
Fred…The chap on the right looks awfully like Ned Kelly…
ATB… RDF
Ron - The chap on the right is David (Dusty) Miller, another nice man, he was earlier with Astrans . I ‘Think’ that he is now settled down somewhere in the Pacific isles and has a very succesful boat business, Kenny Ward visits him from time to time Fred
The last I heard of Dave he was running his own yacht servicing company in Palma. But looking at his website he may have moved on?
He was captain of an oil tanker before that. - an amazing bloke.
oscarsierra.com/who_we_are
superyachtservicesguide.com/ … afety.html
synfo.com/includes/showresul … 07&Page=28
DAVID MILLER RETIRES FROM OS SAFETY
David Miller, founder and until recently Managing Director of OS Safety Equipment SL, has left the company heading for the land of early retirement and beer drinking as seen in the photo to the left.
Digging into The Islander’s early archives from July 1997 we found a little story announcing that David had left the Palma branch of Drakes chandlery to start the Mediterranean base of the leading UK marine safety company, Ocean Safety Ltd, in a premises at Cami Fondo near to IKEA, where OS are still to be found today.
Not content with that as an account of a man’s history, especially one who has been so involved in the yachting scene here for over two decades, we asked David to tell us more about his background before the Mallorca days.
Here it is in his own words:
“I went to sea just 3 months after my 16th birthday in July 1963 — the first moment that I could legally leave school. I had worked single mindedly to get only the 4 O levels that I needed to be a Deck Officer Apprentice and ignored everything else. I knew what I was going to do and what I needed to get to do it. When I joined my first ship I had always been a vegetarian, and it came as a great shock to find that not only was there only meat to eat, but also that not a single soul aboard gave a crap whether I ate it or starved! I soon got over it though.
Things were very different then, the ships, the men and the work itself. Ships were often still steam propelled, the men rough and ready and the work hard, though with amounts of time in port that today would seem like a dream. It was before containerisation, of course, and ships loaded a huge variety of cargo, normally using their own derricks, and the art of stowing such cargoes so that they did not contaminate or damage each other, respecting their weight and volume, (called stowage factor ) and having them available to be unloaded in their correct port of discharge was something to be seen. Typically this would be loading 200 different types of cargo in 7 or 8 European ports for discharge in 20 ports in the Far East, all through 5 hatches and manually stowed and secured. It was interesting to say the least!
I sat and passed my Second Mates Certificate in 1968, Chief Officer in 1970 and then my prized Masters Certificate(Foreign Going) in 1973. Armed with my new 2nd Mates I joined Cable and Wireless serving on an ocean going cable laying ship, the John W Macay. A wonderful, low stress, company which, unfortunately, got put out of the cable laying business a few years later by the advent of communication satellites. But none the less I took part in the laying of important cables that included Cala Nova to Barcelona in 1970 which was my first visit to Mallorca and the cable is still in use today. From C & W, I moved to the towing business with the Dutch and then, following the quickest route to a command, with Texaco on large tankers where I stayed until I got the silly idea that going yachting would be a good idea which, in its turn, brought me to Mallorca to live in 1989.”
Running parallel to all this David had a second career driving for his uncle’s international haulage company. The combination of the allure of the destinations that his trucks ran to, aligned with the long leaves they got in the wake of the 66 seaman’s strike was completely irresistible to a young Miller. He did his first trip to Moscow in 1969, Pakistan in 72, Saudi in 73 and just about every unlikely destination in between carrying anything from Ice Cream to Oil Rig parts to artificial Christmas Trees. David says it was, in those early years, “just the best damned job in the world.” Going on to say; “Clearly you needed to be both self-reliant and a bit of a loony…but then I was both of those and more!”
His final comments?..”So now, on the verge of retirement, I can look back and say that so far the crac has been ferocious and there is no reason to believe its over yet!”
It will come as no surprise to those who know him, but total retirement is not yet in prospect and whilst his canal barge, Jasper (above) will provide stimulus, David will be keeping his hand in as a consultant on matters maritime and especially marine fire systems.
David can be contacted on: (0044)750 928 8863
