Mr Carry

American legendary field assembly supervisor, 1962-1965 Your writer is telling a very old story. Our American supervisor had a very simple name Joseph Carry (Mr Carry). He said that his ancestors were English, French, Irish, who first immigrated to America, and that even the native blood gene was mixed. He spoke an elusive English with a Central American farmer accent. In 1960s when American companies took every industrial facility tender in the Turkish market, there were no Germans, Japanese or Chinese. A new thermal power plant would be built next to the Mersin Ataş refinery. Fuel oil no. 6 produced at the refinery would burn the nr.6 fuel oil in steam boilers to produce 2x25 Mwe electricity and give electricity to Çukurova region. The American company, with which we would later establish a joint venture company, received the tender on a turnkey basis. Americans gave the domestic field assembly work to our local company, which had many English-speaking Metu graduate engineers. Americans sent a supervisor from America who knows the field assembly business very well. They gave the man a late model American car. The Company covers accomodation hotel and the food expenses. Our man travels between Mersin and Ankara every weekend for consultation and routine reporting. However, in the 1960s, the roads were narrow and very bad. He had an unfortunate accident while driving fast on rough roads with an American car going like the wind. He was caught and taken to court. The judge does not impose a large prison sentence, but imposed a travel ban from Turkey so that he can pay monthly monetary compensation to unfortunate family. His wife in America has divorced her husband. Mr Carry forbidden to drive, company give him a local driver. The site assembly of thermal power plant was finished. A new 2x25 Mwe power plant tender was coming out, Japanese Mitsubishi received the new job, we still have the assembly work eith our American supervisor, we received the order and finish it. Our American supervisor was very lonely. His Turkish friends found him a beautiful widowed wife (Melahat) with two children, Mr Carry got married, he adopted the children of the woman's previous wife, and he had a child himself. Years pass, our hero is getting older, his job in the local company is on, still working on new projects, he continues to financially support the family he pays compensation to, he takes care of his wife's ex-children and his own child. I met him in the 1990s. Mr Carry was involved in our new projects that client said, "We definitely want an American field supervisor." His native English was still smooth, he spoke Turkish with a broken local South accent. Then I lost track. Time passed, I attended a Powergen conference in Milan in the 2000s, I met a young American engineer in the breakfast lounge of the hotel I was staying in, he spoke perfect Turkish. As the conversation deepened, it turned out that our young American was the son of our American supervisor with his Turkish wife. He was Tarsus American high school graduate then from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at istanbul Boğaziçi University after high school, he has received graduate education in his father's state in the USA, he was working in an American energy company, his father Mr Carry was old, the ban on leaving Turkey was over, but he did not leave Mersin. Looking back, we live in an interesting world where incredible coincidences bring people together. 4x25 Mwe Mersin thermal power plant has aged, privatized, sold, dismantled as scrap, a new investment will be made in its place. Let's see what new owners do. Istanbul, 17 November 2022