Karel Vízner

* 1954

  • "It was on the very first cruise, I embarked in Rijeka, Yugoslavia and sailed to Poland to Gdansk to dock. And that time we were going across the Bay of Biscay, we were rolling 28 degrees each six seconds. Terrible, it was to die for. I was preparing to write my will. I thought we'd tie ourselves up and I'd quit. But then the doctor came in and put me on medication, pills, and it was fine. It went up and down, I was shaking like a dog, but then it passed. Those were some signs, the old sailors said you've got to get over it. You saw the food and you felt sick. One's stomach had to be weighed down. The water was heavy, it was thrown out. Beer, chewing gum and a piece of bread in your pocket, and out to get some air. The biggest storm I ever experienced was when we were going to Narvik in the Arctic Circle in Norway. There we were rolling 45 degrees at six-second intervals. Our wives and children were with us. We put covers on the windows and doors and nobody was allowed on board. And it was minus forty-five! Terrible! But we did survive!"

  • "You could see and experience something and you even made good money, couldn´t you. We had three currencies. We had our crowns, dollars and a Tuzex [special shops where special vouchers were used] account. So we had everything. Ten thousand a month, and we were doing other kinds of deals, all kinds of business. Sweden and Pakistan had prohibition, so we sold them some alcohol, and in Poland they were dealing with everything. Every time there was a loading or unloading, a worker would walk by and ask discreetly for a beer, a drink or cigarettes. He tried it, and if we got hooked, we'd make a deal. We had a cupboard in the cloakroom where we used to put... Whoever had whatever goods, we'd put them in the cupboard, and we'd write a list, and whoever was on watch, we'd tell them we'd sold this and that, and here's the money. There wasn't any swindle, there wasn't. That's how the extra money was made. I used to have my money sent home, I had the money in my drawer, I wasn´t greedy. I was happy, I bought a house, a car, the normal way, legally."

  • "That was misery. Officers and soldiers everywhere and women doing the hardest work. In the morning, tractors would come in and the girls would polish them. It was misery. We weren't allowed to give them anything or take them on the boat. There were mothers with children, I wanted to give them an orange or milk, they wouldn't take anything, and if they did, they took it secretly. There were ilnesses and rashes, ulcers. People were scared, edgy. They were always looking around to see what was going on. Back then we used to load zinc, similar to bars of gold, little bars of zinc. The girls used to take it up there on pallets. It was watched like it was gold. There was always counting it, always signing something, every load."

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    Ústí nad Labem, 30.05.2022

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Koreans were scared to take oranges we gave them for their hungry children, sailor says

Karel Vízner, 1980
Karel Vízner, 1980
zdroj: Witness´s archive

Karel Vízner was born on 16 February 1954 in Duchcov, but he lived with his parents in Litvínov. After finishing elementary school, he trained as a construction carpenter at a vocational school in Děčín. After completing his apprenticeship he started to work in the Stavomontáže Teplice company. When he was 30 years old, he wanted to get a company flat, but he failed. He therefore took advantage of an offer of employment with the Czechoslovak Ocean Shipping. In 1981 he made his first sea voyage from Rijeka, Yugoslavia, to Poland. In the following years, he travelled through 26 countries on sea voyages. He enjoyed Sweden the most, North Korea the least. In 1985, Karl Vízner was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and was granted disability retirement. In 2017, the witness fell ill with bladder cancer. The illness caused him to become wheelchair bound. The witness was not interested in politics throughout his life. In 2017, Karel Vízner moved in a retirement home in Meziboř near Most, where he was living in 2022.