Paul Bueren

Chief Engineer, R/V Melville

Denise: How did you come to work on the Melville?
Paul: I' worked here for 22 years, 23 in June. I had graduated from high school and was working for my neighbor the plumber. A neighborhood friend had gone to the California Maritime Academy, so I gave it a try. I spent four years there, did training cruises and got hooked. When I got out of school it was kind of a tough job market, but I happened to call Scripps and they said, "When can you be here?"

Denise: Are you from San Diego originally?
Paul: I'm from the bay area, so I grew up on boats, sailboats, my dad always had a boat � spent a lot of time on the water.

Denise: What do you find is attractive about working on a ship?
Paul: When I was younger it was the travel and going out to sea for three, four, sometimes five months, then coming home relaxing and having a nice vacation. I've been to Tahiti, Chile, Costa Rica, South Africa, down to Antarctica a couple of times.

Denise: What has been your favorite place to visit?
Paul: Cape Town is really nice and we were just there in port for three weeks. Australia is great. I love Valparaiso and Moraines, Chili and then going from there down to the ice. I think those were the neatest trips I ever did, although being at the Fly River is pretty neat too. Going down to Deception Island and Antarctica Peninsula is really interesting.

Denise: How did you meet your wife Sarah?
Paul: Sarah worked for NOAA, she was the med tech on the ship and they were tied up next to me and we kind of hit it off, dated for four days, then didn't see her for five months, she was gone and I was gone. Then we finally met up again and have been together ever since. It will be fifteen years married in December, and eighteen years together. We have one daughter, Emma, she will be nine in February.

Denise: What's one of the first things you'll do when you get back to shore?
Paul: Before Emma came along, my wife gave me a week to sit and do nothing. Now I get about one day. I have to switch back. That's the hard part. Before Emma I would miss my wife, but now it's really hard.

Denise: Does your family ever have a chance to meet up with you somewhere before or after a cruise?
Paul: They come down to San Diego. And when we did the refit in Louisiana in 1991 my wife rode the ship from Louisiana back to San Diego.

Denise: What would you say to someone interested in going into this type of a career? Are there any qualities that are important to have to work on the sea?
Paul: Anything can happen, you just have to take it in stride, can't get angry or uptight about it, you just fix it, or find somebody who can! Especially working with scientists, they need to get their work done, so whatever we can do to make that happen is our mission. The first mission is to keep the ship floating and everyone safe, and after that whatever needs to be done to get the data.

Denise: I would imagine it's a big difference to work on a research vessel compared to working on a container ship?
Paul: From what I've heard, I don't have any experience in that but yes. For example we were in Easter Island and there's no pier there at all, you anchor and everything is done by small boat. That's the big difference, where we go. Also, every trip is different; every group that comes onboard has their own equipment, their own vans, sometimes their own winches, sometimes they have special requirements that we adapt to.

Denise: As Chief Engineer, what is your typical day, do you work closely with the groups that bring the equipment on to help with set-up?
Paul:Yes, a lot of times if they let us know in advance if they have special needs we can make arrangements, we can get them hooked up electrically, if they need plumbing, if things break we are more than happy to weld things or supply them with tools and parts to fix things. Typically for me my main job is to keep the lights on, the engines running, the propellers turning, and when that's all doing well, we do the extra things.

Denise: Is there any moment on the Melville, I'm sure you have thousands, but anything that stands out as a particularly good or bad event?
Paul: Yeah, well the scariest time was being in the middle of a cyclone off Tahiti with 100-knot winds. We took a 55° roll, the lights went out and we lost steering, everybody was running around. I was the second engineer at the time, maybe the first, but just running around like a nut - you didn't really have a chance to get too scared! The memorable times include when we went to Deception Island which is on the Antarctic Peninsula and anchored in the calderas and had a nice hike, there were fur seals and penguins and all sorts of interesting things that was back in 1982 or 1983.

Denise: One quick question, what is a 55° roll like?
Paul: I was in the engine room and the lights went out, so I just got up on deck, they said up on the bridge, the bridge wing almost hit the water. The seas were running about 45 feet; things were flying off the ship.

Denise: Do you go on deck at that point to anchor anything down and if so do you tie in?
Paul: Well we actually went right through the eye and they did run out and tied some stuff down but it was a very short time.

Denise: Well, that's very different that what we're experiencing here on the Gulf of Papua, there's been a little roll but nothing like that!
Paul: Well, this is nice.

Denise: Anything else you'd like to add?
Paul: The fishing is great, we're here to fish too so I've got to say thank you for all the fishes.

Denise: So do you do all the grilling? I know the other night we had a great fish.
Paul: Yes, Sunday is barbeque night. You always think of the traditions of the old sailing ships, Sunday was the day you sewed up your socks, took care of your personal things. These days it's a little different, but I still think it's unfair you have to do laundry at sea, but Sunday is a day to try and relax a little bit as long as nothing's going wrong!