John Davies (South Africa)
My name is John Davies, born 1953 in South Africa. My parents moved to UK with the family in the 1960’s. I attended Brunel Technical College, Bristol 1977-79, obtaining the MRGC and radar certificates. My first few ships were with Unicorn lines of Durban, South Africa and in 1980 I joined Swire Pacific in Hong Kong, sailing on all sorts of vessels including cargo, container, two cruise liners and a VLCC. In 1988 I transferred to their offshore division and worked as ETO on Heavy Lift and Dive Support vessels. In 1983 I had returned to Brunel to do the Diploma in Marine Electronics, and met Graham Wright, G4FUJ, who is included in these biographies. Graham and I used to study together and cram for the exams, forgetting it all later after consuming vast quantities of beer! The photo shows me with my daughter aged 5 on the cruse ship “Coral Princess” in 1987. I lived in Thailand for ten years until 1991 when I moved to Singapore and got a shore job. Now I am back at sea again as ETO on board a Dive Support Vessel working in Asian waters. I am quite active as a radio amateur from Singapore with the call 9V1VV, especially on the low bands. 73 de John