The Orcadian Features - Captain John Tulloch

Captain John Tulloch
(From The Orcadian dated September 26, 2002)

Captain John Tulloch
(Picture: Charles Tait)

Captain John Tulloch also has the distinction of having served on all seven of the Northern Saints. He was master of the St Ola for 20 years from 1974 until his retirement in 1994. He began his nautical career with P&O Ferries’ parent company and predecessor on the Orkney and Shetland routes on the Earl of Zetland in the early 1960s.

The worst journey he could remember was in January 1962 on his first vessel Earl of Zetland with Captain John “Blazer” Anderson in charge.

Captain Tulloch said: “There was south-easterly weather and it was blowing gale force and more. The ship was down by the bow, and there was just solid water coming across the well-deck. We were running before the weather and the ship was not big.”

He also recalled that while he was serving on the St Clement at the same time as the Longhope Lifeboat was lost in March 1967, his vessel and the St Ninian were both stormbound in Aberdeen for a week.

He also recalled the lack of power in some of the older vessels of the North fleet.

Captain Tulloch said: “If we encountered heavy seas with the old St Ola, the ship had to slow down and reduce speed to such an extent, you sometimes wondered if you would ever get her through Hoy Sound.”

But looking back on his 20 years continuous service on the Stromness-Scrabster route, Captain Tulloch considered that the last few months of 1975 and the first few months of 1976 provided the most prolonged spell of bad weather, with north-westerlies.

“That was an exceptionally bad year,” he said.

Captain Tulloch also remarked on the amount of paperwork which ships’ masters now have to complete for every sailing.

“I counted latterly, when I was on the Pentland Firth shuttle, that I had to write 180 signatures a day, to certify that safety checks had been completed on things like the watertight doors and the ship’s stability and so on.”

Captain Tulloch added his disappointment at the passing of the familiar Saints’ names for the Northern Isles ferry fleet.

“I think the Northern Saints’ names should have been kept. They are very distinctive. It was funny to learn that the choice of the name St Sunniva was made by the London office of P&O, because they couldn’t pronounce St Rognvald when they saw it first, although we have had another St Rognvald added to the fleet since then.”