The Original Sea Diamond Hunters!

[Michael Alexander]

Ok, We have a name, the email came from one, Richard Barnes, who sent us the following note and pics.

" Name is Richard Barnes and worked as a Radio and Electronics Tech on the
Pomona from 1969 to 1971.

    Collins Submarine Pipelines were still operating from a small office in
CT and they, acting as agent for IMS in Dubai, placed an ad. in the Cape
Times for a Radio Tech.  Got the job and flew to Dubai in 1973. My boss was
another Texan and big pals with Sammy named Wynn Harvey and I believe he
featured highly in the old MDC days. He told me that Sammy had gone to
Kuwait and obtained several small tugs and service boats and was involved in
an oil pipeline construction between Kharg Island and Bushire in Iran. When
the pipeline was completed IMS obtained the boats and were carrying out
maint. on oil jackets and rigs. It was also mentioned that Sammy had got his
hands on some redundant plant from road building contracts (dozers, graders
etc) and also not so redundant bits, loaded all of it onto a barge and sold
it in Pakistan for a vast profit. Enterprising fellow! He used to visit
Harvey a couple of times a year but I never met him.
   Have attached three pix, one of the Pomona which you have probably seen,
one of the fire fiasco in Dubai and one of a resurrected Barge 111, towed up
from Durban, cleaned up and used as a work platform.
    Does the book "King of Sea Diamonds" have an ISBN number, will try at
the library?
    WE flew up on either the DC3 or DC4 whichever was working better, mostly
landed at Alex. Bay, Luderitz, Chameis or Hottentots Bays.
        Hope the above is interesting to you,    Best wishes,     Richard
Barnes."

[Michael Alexander]

Gee! Talk about wave action, Gordon sent us this snap of the Colpontoon Rig, part of the MDC boats, people... check out the size of the wave......

Scary stuff........ go back on this posting and have a look at the actual size of this vessel as it headed out of Cape Town harbour,

Now, just for interest sake, I hope the folk building those Seawalkers take into consideration what can happen along this coast.... the old timers knew a thing or two....

Thanks Gordon...

"Today's offshore diamond miners have an easy time of it.
Back in the 60's, the original sea diamond hunters had it real rough!!"

[SandyB]

Awesome ... wonder how many meters high such a wave would be ???  remeber the size of some of them that were  contiously trying to  take out 3 plant  jetty

[henniek]

somewher around the late 1970's . Whe had two persons at CDM , equiped with a rubberduck fitted with two 80 HP Mercury engines . Their task was to study the wave paterns , height , strength etc . that was before 3 plant was constructed . One person was Dudley Woodward . He left  around 1980 .  a number of years later  , while waiting my turn at a dentist ,  lI was reading in an old "Personality " magazine dated quite a few years previously , that a mother in England was looking for her son Dudley Woodward , who might be in South Africa , or may be Australia. the sad thing was that I learned a year or two previously  , that Dudley was killed in a accident in Botswana. Since I had no details , or any facts . I just ignored the advert .

[Malcolm Bertoni]

The wave that drove Barge 77 ashore at Chameis was reportedly at least 20 metres high . . . Think about it - a 65 foot high wave.  Other waves higher than that have been reported off east and west Africa.

Malcolm

[Gordon Brown]

Dudley was an Oceanographer and when he had finished his foreshore work at CDM he went south to Klienzee and beyond. Information received at the time of his death was that he had been killed by a reversing front-end loader on a west coast beach. Wouldn't have been much work for an oceanographer in Botswana. Bob Liddle (geology dept) would likely remember the details as Dudley worked closely with the Geology Dept. under Doc. Stocken. 
Regards Gordon

[Michael Alexander]

@Malcolm, these waves are not always part of storm action and one gets rogue waves that can appear out of nowhere.... those are the ones that we read about that hit ocean liners on a peaceful day...

Me tends to think that we get a few of those on this coast....

[henniek]

Thank you Gordon, I will get my wife to contact Heather Liddle , Bobs wife . They were great friends . We might get some more info from Bob

[Mike Voden (RIP)]

Hennie, we have Heather & Bob's contact details if you require them.

Regards,

Mike

[John Creedy]

This I must tell all.  The picture of Colpontoon riding the wave was made by Tony Hockney when he workd for either ORU or MDC for Dr Guest about early 70's.  He took a photo and superimposed it onto a larger one of a wave.  Study it carefully.  The wave must be 100 feet high.  Err - Um as Mike would say.  It appeared in the local newsletter.  Tony had a regular spot in the newsletter with jokes etc and this was one of them......  He thought it quite the joke and was typical of his sense of humour.

John

[Michael Alexander]

Damn! Gordon, the gig is up , the Canadians have rumbled us.....

John, well done, Gordon and myself were wondering how long it would be before some "auld" geezer would remember the pic....

[Gordon Brown]

Mike and I both wondered how long it would take and who eventually would twig to the spoof.Nice one John. It was indeed taken by Tony.
Best regards
Gordon

[SandyB]

Mmm  the  camera  could  even lie  in that day and  age ???

[musiklood@telkomsa.net]

The barge 77 stranded about 5 kilometers north of Chameis Head. It is visible on Google Earth at almost maximum magnification. The Collinstar also sank even further north as the Colpontoon never mined in Chamaisbucht itself, rather some ten kilos north of Chameis Head. Lood Terblanche

[henniek]

this picture might be oceanographers Dudley Woodward & team mate ' s truck that they might have used to take their boat to the beach and back . after the project was completed, around 1976/1977 the boat & truck was sold. after all these years one's memories gets foggy .   I m not sure abouth this , but as I remember a person living in JHB -  [might have been a emplyee of Debex] - bought the truck and boat