TWO TRAMPS and A COASTER
By: BRIAN GRACE

The Ships involved are the SS INGLETON  built 1942 and scrapped in 1967 and the MV SCORTON built in 1957 and abandoned on fire off Sri Lanka in 1971 and the SS DOTTEREL built in 1934 as the SS Dundee was renamed as the Dotterel in 1948 and then scrapped in 1961.



It was Tuesday the 26th March 1957, I was on my way to join the SS Ingleton at the Middle Docks in South Shields,it was a dull grey windy day as I left the railway station and headed towards the taxi rank, I didn’t realise it then, but this day and the following years were going to get worse.
I was really happy and feeling excited, as I was about to join my first ship, in what I thought was the glamorous and glorious British Merchant Navy.
You see, I came from a tiny coal-mining village some 30 miles from the sea and thought all the Merchant Navy vessels were like the Cunard liners.
With my one suitcase which contain all my dad’s and elder brother’s cast-off’s , I jumped into the back of a black cab and asked to be taken to the docks.
I was feeling a little apprehensive as I was expecting to be greeted at the ship by officers and crew in immaculate attire and here I was in clothes that had seen better days.
“So which ship are you joining son?” asked the taxi driver
“The Ingleton as an Apprentice Navigator ” I replied feeling very grown up and proud.
“Oh well you’ll be seeing a lot of South Shields then” he added.
I thought that’s a strange comment.
My idea of the Merchant Navy was, once on board I would have my duties to do and after our meal the crew would have recreational things such as a games room, tennis and deck quoits and we would be sailing as soon as the cargo and passengers were on board.
What I didn’t know was that I was about to encounter my first experience of the British workers right to stay at home if they didn’t like the conditions they were being asked to work in, I was later to have wished that the Merchant Navy employees had been of the same mentality.
Mind you, later on, I was to witness the black side of the employment of dockers in Liverpool when men used to turn up for work and stand praying that they would be picked by the foreman, many everyday had to turn around and go back home.
“This is as far as I can take you, go straight ahead to those cranes and then turn right, best of luck, you’ll need it” the taxi driver said in a sad tone.

                                                       Middle Docks, South Shields

I walked between the tall dirty buildings with the deafening noise of hammers, drills, winches ringing in my ears, thinking this is nothing like what I had seen at the cinema as people boarded ships.
As I approached the end of the buildings a sling flew through the air just behind me and a voice yelled
“What the hell are you doing here, are you trying to get yourself killed.”
I felt really frightened and alone, at seventeen this was the first time I had been away from home.
I looked to my right and thought I must have got the directions wrong, that’s why that docker had yelled at me, because there’s no British Merchant Navy ship here, only a small rusty old wreck that must have been brought back from the Suez Canal, after being bombed and trapped there for months, I wandered around for awhile and eventually built up the courage to tap a welder on the shoulder, he scowled at me.
“What is it.”
“Do you know where the Ingleton is” hoping he would say that it had sailed and then I could go back home and try and get my job back as an Apprentice Draughtsman at the nice quiet friendly Teams Valley.
I had been to a Grammar School and having passed my GCE’s in Maths and Art it had been suggested that I become an Apprentice Draughtsman., luckily I found a place immediately with a mining machinery company on the Teams Valley industrial estate at Gateshead.
However it quickly became apparent to me that being bottled up in a factory all day wasn’t for me, maybe the fact that my parents were continually fighting had a lot to do with it, so when a colleague told me stories of when he was an engineer in the Merchant Navy my imagination was fired up.
“This is the Ingleton can’t you read”.
My eyes scanned the red rust of the hull and there behind cables and mooring ropes were the faint letters on the stern “INGLETON NEWCASTLE”, I must have carried on walking, I was in a daze when suddenly a voice awoke me.

“ Well are you coming on board or are going to walk around admiring the docks all day”.
I looked up and there was a little old grey haired man , I was going to say tramp but that would have been an insult to many of them, he was standing amidships above a narrow plank of wood which had a rope handrail, I looked at it and thought that cannot be the way on board.
“Come on I haven’t all day to stand here”, so I walked to the gangplank , it was about 3 feet away from the dockside, I looked down, the water seemed to be miles below my feet, water was pumping out of the side of the ship just below the plank, my suitcase was feeling 10 times its normal weight, my heart was pounding, here was I joining the Merchant Navy and I couldn’t swim, I took a gulp of air and with my suitcase in my left hand I reached and grabbed hold of the rope with my right hand and stepped onto the plank, there were pieces of wood going across the plank every few inches so that your feet could grip the plank, it started to sway as soon as my foot touched it, for a moment I thought I was going to go down between the ship and the dockside, I hurled myself back onto the dockside falling over my suitcase.
I got up and looked at this growling old man, he had a rope in his hand,
he yelled ‘here tie this to your suitcase and hurry up’,
the end of the rope hit me on the head and it was quite painful, I tied the rope the best I could, when I looked up, ready to tell him to start pulling, he had gone. I stood there trying to work out if he was coming back or not, when I felt a tap on the shoulder, I looked round a lad was standing smiling at me, he wore a white scarf over a black blazer with a badge on , which I later found out was the Merchant Navy badge.
The names ‘John’ he said, ‘ John Halliday-Foley and I presume you are the new apprentice’.
‘I am’ I replied.

‘I’m you’re your senior apprentice’, he looked younger than me, it turned out he was 2 months older and had just completed his first 6 month voyage.
There were always 3 apprentices on each ship if they could get them and then if they could keep hold of them, that is why he was the senior.
‘I thought that old bloke was going to pull my suitcase up but he’s disappeared’ I remarked,
‘Not likely, that’s George the bosun, he doesn’t do any work, just try to keep on his best side’ John answered.
‘Nip up the gangway and I’ll tie this rope on your case properly because that knot who have just made will slip and your case will be in the drink’ John added with a smile on his face.
I managed to get onto the gangway and as I walked up, it began to sway, I was stumbling and grabbed for the rope handrail but it was very slack and I fell clinging onto the rope, I got up and looked down and John was laughing, I wished I as was back home.
‘Are you a seaman or a bloody steward ( those are the crew that cook and serve the food, I found out later)’ roared the boson who had returned.
I quickly got to my feet and reached the top and onto the deck, he slung the rope into my hand told me in a very ungentlemanly manner to get the case pulled up or there would be boot coming my way.
Looking at him I thought how can anyone be so miserable and nasty but as it turned out he was the least one to worry about.
We eventually made it to mid-ships where our accommodation was.
‘This is my cabin’ John pointed to this tiny room with just a bed against one wall and a padded bench on the other-side, with a little table at the top of the cabin under a porthole.
‘I have the best cabin as I am the senior’ he said proudly, I thought if this is the best what is mine like, he pushed open the next door and inside the same size cabin were 2 bunk beds and no porthole.
The ship was in a terrible condition with the whole of the deck covered in wires, ropes, filthy tarpaulins but yet there was nobody on board except for the 3 of us, it wasn’t a Bank holiday, so I couldn’t understand why the ship was here.
Suddenly George appeared and snarled that I should go and get some sleep as I was night-watch man tonight and then he disappeared as quickly as he had arrived to the back of the ship, I made my way back to mid-ships and went to John’s cabin and asked what was a night-watch, which when explained was obvious , I was to stay up all night and watch nobody came on board.
I thought the Merchant Navy was all about taking cargoes from one place to another across the sea , not tied up in a dock, why hadn’t I joined the Royal Navy, the stories I had been told by Jim a work-mate on the Teams Valley must have been his imagination, Jim had been an engineer on the oil tankers and he had persuaded me to join a dry cargo company because he said that you stay longer in port and therefore see more of the world, I didn’t think he meant South Shields, I could have come here as many times as I liked on the train and still being making mining machinery in my old job.
After being on night-watch I was just falling into a deep sleep when I was awoken by banging and people yelling, I thought some local thugs must have got aboard, my first thought was for the boson but there again maybe he’s been abusive to someone once too often. I got dressed and made my way out onto the deck, there were workmen everywhere, I felt a slap on my back and as I turned around the bosun yelled
‘Come with me’.
‘What’s going on ‘ I asked
‘The strikes over, we’ve got a crew and we need to get some steam on deck quickly’ the boson retorted ‘ go down below and tell the grease monkey to do it now’.
I later asked John what the strike had been about, the answer didn’t really mean anything to me at the time but later on into the voyage it did, apparently the ship had arrived at South Shields with a lot of crew from foreign parts and non union, this had caused the ship to be blacklisted by the unions.
During the previous voyage there had been some trouble with the crew of British seamen and they had left the ship abroad.

The Crew was
Position                            Name                               Age                From                   Born
Captain                            John A Robson                 52                 Ashington            South Shields
1st Mate                          Ernest Moffitt                    42                 Gosforth             Sunderland
2nd Mate                         Leslie Wood                      32                 Hull                    Hull
3rd Mate                         Thomas Downing              47                 Taunton              Johannesburg
Radio Officer                  Graham Webb                   19                 Lymington         Lymington
Bosun                              George Blakey                  56                 South shields      South Shields
died in South Shields 26/1/58
AB                                   John Mathieson                40                 Stornaway           Stornaway
hospitalised Venice 3/8/57
EDH                                Douglas Clyne                  21                 Edinburgh           Edinburgh
arrested Venice    5/8/57
EDH                                Donald Eglintine              19                 South Shields      South Shields
arrested Venice  5/8/57
AB                                  Ants Laidlo                       49                 South Shields      Estonia
hospitalised Immingham 17/1/58
DHU                               Daniel Davenport             27                 Gateshead            Gateshead
hospitalised Venice  8/8/57
DHU                               Edward Wottan                 26                 Newcastle            Newcastle
arrested Venice  5/8/57
Deck Boy                       Terence Myers                  16                 South Shields       South Shields
hospitalised Port Alberni, Canada   19/11/57
1st Eng                           George H Reed                 72                 Liverpool              Jarrow
hospitalised  Venice  6/8/57
2nd Eng                          William Cummings          63                Wick                      Kirkcaldy
3rd Eng                           Terence Miller                 23                 Liverpool              Liverpool
3rd Eng                           Thomas Burke                 37                 North Shields        North Shields
D Greaser                        Mohamed A Nasser        31                 Liverpool               Aden
D Greaser                        Ali Massan                      66                South Shields         Aden
D Greaser                        Mohamed Rajeh             39                 Liverpool               Yemen
Fireman                           Qussin M Ali                  32                South Shields         Aden
hospitalised Aden  20/7/57
Fireman                           Abdul Ali                       52                 South Shields         Aden
Fireman                           Ali Mohamed                 38                South Shields         Aden
Fireman                           Ali A Galil                     32                 South Shields         Aden
Chief Steward                  James Mosley                52                South Shields         South Shields
Ass Steward                    William Elliot                 24                South shields         South Shields
deserted  Port Alberni, Canada   20/11/57
Cook                                Charles Cinques             24                South Shields         South Shields
Ass Cook                         Fred Loft                        19                South Shields         South Shields
deserted Port Alberni, Canada  20/11/57
Catering Boy                   Ronald Barnshaw           17                Hebburn                 Hebburn
Apprentice                       Brian Grace                    17                Ryton                     Ryton
Apprentice                      John Halliday-Foley        17                Rochester              Croydon
Fireman                           Ahmed F Saido               40                South Shields        Yemen
joined ship in Aden 20/7/57
1st Eng                            W Whitely                      62                Kendal                   Kendal
joined ship in Venice 6/8/57
AB                                   F Guiseppe                     54                Venice                   Venice
AB                                   B Angelo                        44                Venice                   Venice
AB                                   S Mario                          26                 Venice                   Venice
AB                                   M Silvano                      27                 Venice                   Venice
Deck Boy                        M Deacon                       25                 Hastings                Hastings
joined ship in New Westminster 30/10/57


George pointed to a door just after amidships and before I could ask anymore questions he was gone, I made my way to the door hoping someone would come out of it before I got there, the door had a long metal handle which I tried with all my might to pull down but could not move it, I began to panic because I thought if the bosun returns and I am still here I’d be in for it, as luck had it someone pushed me to one side, he was covered in grease and dirt and had a dirty red rag round his neck, he got hold on the handle and pushed it upwards and the door opened.
‘Are you coming down then ‘ he asked .
‘Yes ‘ I replied ‘ I’m looking for the grease monkey’
‘What, who the hell are you’ he snarled
‘I’m the new apprentice and the bosun sent me’ but before I could finish he growled ‘that old bastard, what does want now’.
‘He says he wants steam on deck’ I stuttered not knowing what it meant.
‘OK, go down below and ask Abdul to do it’.
I made my way inside and there was this narrow metal ladder going down into the ship, the steps were covered in oil and the metal handrail was hot, the further I went the steeper the ladder seemed to become, I was petrified in case I slipped. At the bottom the noise was tremendous, I was scared to move but eventually a coloured guy again with a rag around his neck came up to me, I guessed this was Abdul.
‘ The bosun says he wants steam on deck’ I sputtered out
‘OK’ he said and walked away , I thought I’ve come all this way just for that, haven’t they got a telephone.
I later found out that all the bosun had to do was to go onto the main-deck and he could have done that, he was probably on his way to do that when he bumped into me, but oh no, I later learnt that was too easy, he was on his way to my cabin to wake me up for me to go and do it.
I made my way back up the ladder, I was frightened to look down the steps seemed to get steeper and steeper, I wanted to stop but was afraid I might pass out with the heat, I literally crawled the last few steps on my hands and knees and found enough energy to push the door open, the smell of fresh air was heavenly and I fell out of the door onto the deck.
‘What the hell are you doing, get yourself down aft and start taking the hatches off’, I didn’t need to look up I knew who it was.
Aft, what the hell does that mean, I knew it was towards the back of the ship because that was the direction he pushed me in. I carried on walking when luckily one of the Dockers, or that’s what I thought he was, I later discovered he was the Terry the 3rd Engineer.
He asked if I had come to take the hatches off, when I replied in the positive he began lifting a piece of wood, which had 2 metal handles on the side of it, these were in the middle part of the deck and were on a rectangle metal frame about 3 feet high, I got hold of the next one and tried to lift it, I strained but could not budge it.
‘No’ Terry screamed ‘ not that one, the next one in the same line, when you finish this line you will have to knock the beam across to get the next line out’.
When we had finished the first line, he put his legs over the side and into the ship interior which I later found out was called the ‘hold’, finishing the first line of hatches I tugged at the beam to move it across without any success.
‘What the hell am I going to do’ I thought , I shouted down the hold my voice echoed inside but there was no response, I decided to go down into the hold to see if he was ok, I walked to the side of the opening and looked down, the depth must be tremendous because I couldn’t see the bottom, a thin metal ladder was attached to the hold and it disappeared into the dark. There is no way I am going down on that or every will, how wrong I was. As I moved away a voice shouted
“ here take this mallet and knock the beam across”, I turned around and it was George the Bosun.
‘Bloody hell stop’ a voice from down in the hold shouted ‘are trying to knock the beam down into the hold’.
‘Go across to the other side and gently tap the beam’ grunted George as he pushed me in the back and I almost fell onto the deck.
We continued taking off the hatches until the hold was fully exposed.
We went to the aft of the ship and he opened a door and from inside he threw out a massive coil of rope and a bucket.
‘Pick them up and let’s get going.’
We made our way back to the hold opening, my heart sank, I’d thought we were going to go somewhere else, my worst fears were confirmed, I was terrified of heights.
He tied the bucket to the rope and then tied the other end to side of the hold and lowered the bucket down into the hold.
‘Right let’s get going’ and he clambered over the side and onto the ladder, I thought well if he can get down it , I can.
The moment I put my foot on the ladder I looked down, that was fatal, I began to sweat , my hands were slipping on the metal rungs, I wasn’t going to make it, what a death falling to the bottom.
Suddenly the bosun stepped off the ladder away from the hold, what a relief , there was a deck halfway down, I put my feet onto it, I was shaking like a jelly, I threw myself forward but the moment my other foot hit the deck I began to fall backwards, I found just enough energy to stop myself and I landed on my backside holding onto the side of the deck looking down into the hold, picking myself up I followed George into the dark, through a door and there ahead was a stairway going downwards.
When we got to the bottom the smell was vile, the engineer was standing there waiting for us.
‘It’s well and truly blocked’ he told George the Bosun
George turned to me and snarled ‘right, get the bucket and clear the molasses out of the bilge’ as he pointed to the side of the ship which was like a drain with wooden hatches to cover it, some had been removed, I guessed by the engineer.
They both turned away and walked towards the other side of the ship, I stood there thinking what’s this got to do with navigation, I was about to follow them and tell him this point but then thought better of it, as he didn’t seem to appear to be sort of person that debated the rights and wrongs of a situation.
I was thinking what am I supposed to do, I must have been standing for awhile before a voice brought me back to earth.
‘Haven’t you started’
‘What do I use’
‘Your bloody hands, what do you think, there’s a torch in the bucket, we don’t want you losing a hand to a rat’.
What, I was numb.
Before I could speak I heard the Bosun from the stairway shout
‘When you’ve filled the bucket , give me a shout and I’ll pull it up.’
I pulled the molasses out of the bilge, it was thick and slippery and the smell was sickening, I kept shining the torch behind me in case any rats came up behind me, when the bucket was full I tried to lift it, it was impossible, I dragged it inch by inch across the hold floor, the gunge was slopping about and falling on the floor, eventually I could see the sky.
George was looking down and he immediately started pulling up the bucket, I had to dive to the floor as the bucket started to swing in the air, it missed my head by inches and some of the molasses splashed onto the floor inches from me.
As the empty bucket was lowered down to me the Bosun yelled,
‘When you have finished the port side do the starboard’,
What the hell is the starboard I thought.
It took about 6 buckets to clear and just when I was thinking what to do next I heard footsteps on the stairway, when I looked around it was the engineer, he came over and looked into the bilge and commented on the fact they were now clear and should be ok when they start pumping.
The engineer introduced himself to me as Terry, he remarked that the engine room and the bridge were normally bitter enemies.
Luckily I found out what starboard was when he pointed to the other side and suggested that I had better get started on it before George bust a blood vessel.
Terry and I became very friendly after that and I started to begin feeling that life in the Merchant Navy may be ok after all, that feeling didn’t last too long.
In the next few days the ship became a hub of activity as the crew began joining the ship.
I knew something was about to happen when one day John informed me that the next day we were to wear our Merchant Navy blazer for lunch, up to now we had been eating in the Dockers canteen.
‘Where are we going to for lunch ‘ I asked.
‘In the Officer’s dining room’ John replied.
I had to inform him that I didn’t have a blazer, nobody had mentioned that to me.
‘Didn’t the clerk in the Newcastle office tell you what you had to bring with you’ John snapped
‘No ‘ I replied ‘he only told me that I would need a long warm overcoat.’
‘Well he was right about that, you had better go into town and get a blazer now.’
‘But I haven’t any money, I only had a few pounds when I arrived and that’s all gone on food ‘ I replied
‘You had better go and see the Steward and tell him and ask for a sub, you’ll find him in the cabin next to mine’.
I knocked on the door and was greeted by a swarthy face  who wanted to know why I had woken him up from his morning nap, he went on to inform me that he had been up since early morning getting the supplies for the galley sorted out.
When I informed him what I had come for he snarled that he would go and see the Old Man, he pushed passed me and went up the steps, which took him to accommodation above our cabins.
I went back to my cabin and John was still there, I told John what had happened and how the Steward wasn’t very happy, his reply was good because that’s what he’s there for.
‘Right, you 2 up forrad and get the gear to start on amid-ships’.
I didn’t have to ask who that was, it was George, his ulcers must be playing him up but that was normal and it wasn’t surprising considering the amount of alcohol he consumed and god only knows what had passed through his kidneys over the years.
John explained that we were to start preparing bulkheads so that they could be painted , my first thought was that we would have to get a bucket of water and start washing the paint work.
When we got to the bosun’s locker, which was in the forward part of the ship, John emerged with just 2 little hammers.
‘Come on ‘ he yelled ‘ lets start chipping’, it turned out our job was to chip all the rust spots away until we got it back to the bare metal, I thought was it worth all that studying and revising at grammar school to get 4 GCE’s for this.
It was a bright sunny day and I was just starting to enjoy the 2 of us working together on the vast white face of amidships when a voice from below yelled out that the Old man wanted to see me, it was the Steward.
I made my way up the stairs and found myself walking into the bridge, this is the deck where the compasses and the steering wheel are, I turned and walked out and along the passage until I saw an open door, as I approached it a huge man came out and he looked at me with a smile and enquired if I was lost.
‘I am looking for the Captain’ I replied.
‘He’s in the cabin on the other side of the bridge’ he retorted ‘ and by the way who are you?’
‘I’m the new apprentice’.
‘Ah, I’m Moffitt, the Chief Mate, you’ll be seeing a lot of me from now on, the Old Man ‘s in that cabin, don’t go upsetting him, it’s better when he’s left alone’
As I walked through the door the smell of whiskey hit the nostrils.
A tall slim bloke with a full uniform on got out of an armchair and turned to me, I later realised why he was slim, he never ate, all he had every day was whiskey.
‘You are Grace, I presume’ he said smiling.
I nodded.
‘Is it Grace before lunch or Grace after money’.
I smiled and thought it’s different from the normal ‘ Gracie Fields’.
He turned out to be a great guy, the first I had met since joining the ship but later I was to discover he was only like this if there were no problems.
Captain Robson became a father figure to me but in time the illusion became a nightmare.
Anyhow that will become clearer later, now I had the money and I went off to get my first apparel to say to the world that I am in the British Merchant Navy.
The glory lasted a few days until Friday the 5th April 1957, we were on our way to Norfolk, Virginia in the glorious USA to load the ship with, yes, we had to come all the way from Newcastle for COAL!.
Why hadn’t I just got on the train at South Shields back to Newcastle when I had gone for my blazer.
But then I wouldn’t have met drunkards, thugs,maniacs,physcos etc.
As we were leaving the South Shields dockside you could see from the faces of the dockers that they were feeling sorry for us, knowing that we would have to spend months on a ship that should have gone to scrap yard long before the Liberty boats.
The Liberty ships were built by the Americans during the war to carry cargo across the Atlantic, they had been built in a hurry because hundreds of Merchant vessels had been sunk by the Germans, they were supposed to have been scrapped after the war but some continued for a few more years.
No sooner had we got out to sea and the Pilot had left when Moffitt, the Chief Mate or Officer, as he would have been called on a half decent ship, came into our cabin and announced that I was to be on his watch which was the 4 to 8, I didn’t have a clue what it meant but just accepted it.
He also pointed out to me that whenever he is on deck, I will be.
It didn’t take long at sea to begin to realise this was going to be a complete different life, the ship was constantly on the move not just the obvious forward but it rolled from side to side, then the bow would lift way out of the sea and then come crashing back down, after the first night I was almost in tears and feeling very ill and homesick, word must have around about me because as soon as it was light, the deck crew had grabbed me in my cabin and were frog marching me to the forward mast, they tied me to it and made we look upwards.
The clouds were flashing across the sky due to the wind and the movement of the ship, within a few minutes I was emptying all the previous days food and it felt and looked like several weeks.
They untied me and told me that I would feel great now.
Great! I staggered back to my cabin and fell onto my bunk, it felt like the end of the world, I must have fallen asleep, although it felt as if I hadn’t when a voice yelled at me,
‘Get yourself ready Grace you are on watch in one hour’, I looked up it was Moffitt.
In the next few days it got a lot better because we were now out of the North Sea and going down the English Channel.
My watch with Moffitt and one of the deckhands was the 4 to 8, so that meant I had to be up every morning at 3 o’clock but when you are sea time doesn’t really mean anything except for light and dark.
The watch was split up between steering the ship and look-out, that is you had to go and stand at the focastle, the very furthest front part of the ship and if you saw a light ahead you ran the bell.
It was always freezing cold especially between 4 and 8 in the morning, luckily before I left home the one thing my father did that was of some use, he gave me a long black heavy overcoat which was priceless and was borrowed by many of the able seamen, this stood me many times in good stead with them.
During the watches the apprentices had to spend one hour pumping up water, the AB’s ( able seamen) didn’t have to do it, we never found out why when we asked we were told that it had always been that way.
The pump handle was about 2 foot long and you had to push it down almost to the deck and let it spring back, you did this for one continuous hour in all weathers.
The reason for this was the water had to be pumped from the lower deck to the top tank above the galley and the accommodation, there was no electric pump, when I joined my second ship 2 years later it was new and everything was automatic.
When I finished at 8 o’clock it was straight into breakfast and then into my bunk, well it did for a few days then one day I was rudely awakened at 10 o’clock with the order ,
‘Right Grace out of your pit and on deck ‘ it was George and when I got on deck I was handed a chipping hammer and told I was on overtime until 4 o’clock doing paint maintenance.
I soon settled down to the daily routine of life at sea and in my spare time I either read or did my dhobi (that’s washing your clothes in a bucket).
When arriving in the USA we were told that it would be a couple of days before they started loading the ship, so after getting a sub from the skipper we went ashore and the first place the crew headed for was the first bar, this during the voyage became the norm, some never saw any country other than through the eyes of the customers in the first bar outside the dock gates and if there was a dockers bar inside the docks that was even better .
While we were in the bar most of us non-alcoholics were desperate for food.
So we sent out a couple of scouts to see the lay of the land and hopefully bring back some food, we waited and we waited, no return by the scouts maybe the Indians have got them, after a hour or so we decided to go looking for them, it was only a few yards when we came across a drug store and first impression was that’s the last thing we need.
As we passed the window it was to our surprise and delight, the scouts were sat on stools and appeared to be eating, there was a sudden reversal in direction and we were all trying to get through the door into the drug store all at once.
Hi mates they shouted come and have a sandwich and some soda, I thought at first lets get out of here and try and find a proper cafe.
After we had time to reflect at what was going on there was a clamour to order a sandwich because on the counter was a continuous supply of potato salad free, before we left we must ate the whole potato crop of West Virginia for that year, how the owner of the drug store made any profit was a mystery but there again it was probably the only time that he ever came across the crew of a Chatty Chapman boat.
We had to work for 36 hours non-stop in order to meet the time schedule and when we were preparing to leave the Pilot ( he’s the bloke that navigates the ship out into the open sea) commented to the skipper that he hadn’t expected us to be a coloured crew.
Once we had dropped off the pilot and hit the Atlantic it was back to normal sea watches which meant that I had only a couple of hours to get cleaned up and some sleep as I was on the 4-8 watch, the wash had to wait no sooner had I sat down, I was fast asleep.
Our destination with our full cargo of coal was Leghorn or the correct Italian name being Livorno, the journey would be a long one but at that time I didn’t realise what an ordeal it would be.
Here I was on my first trip with fellow Geordies looking forward to seeing the historical and beauty of Italy, life couldn’t be better.
The able-seamen or deckhands or crew whatever the name their accommodation was at the stern or aft of the ship whereas we apprentices or cadets or lackeys whatever the name we were accommodated at amidships or in the middle of the ship.
So therefore we only came into contact when we were on watch together, well that was the way the skipper wanted it but we used to go down there in our leisure time to play darts, dominoes etc but eventually cards and gambling was introduced and that was the beginning of the end, however looking back I suppose the end result would probably have happened anyhow.
We were a dry ship, that is the chief steward, he is the one who controlled all the stock i.e. food, cigarettes and booze made into one because the only ones who saw any alcohol were the skipper, himself and his cronies, this made him feel really important.
In desperation the crew would sneak as much as they possibly could afford onto the ship when we were in dock but once at sea it never lasted long, you have to remember that most of them were almost alcoholics as that is all they did when ashore, most never got past the first pub outside the dock gates.
Later on in the trip when we were at sea for many weeks without even seeing land let alone putting our feet on terra firma, we actually went from North Africa to Japan, I witnessed some amazing sights such as one of the crew straining boot polish through some gauze in order to extract the alcohol content from it and when the cigarettes ran out some rolled coco-matting clippings up in newspaper and smoked it.
The card games at sea soon became nasty instead of enjoyable pastimes because when the losers had gone way above their limits they demand the games to continue when the winners wanted to stop and eventually cheating reared its ugly head.
Finally it came to a horrible head in more ways than one, we were awoken during the night with a banging on our door, when we opened it the sight almost made we vomit, standing there, well I should say crawling by the door was one of the crew,John Mathieson he was unrecognisable, his head was twice its size and he was covered from head to toe it blood.
We dragged him into our cabin and put him on the settee, where he lay for 7 days until we reached Venice.
However this was months after we had discharged our cargo in Leghorn.
Leghorn was my first visit to a foreign country, although we had just been to America it had not felt different because of the language and also I think the people.
My first impression of Italy was the noise, as we tied up the ship it was like being a crowded bar, the Italians were all shouting continually sometimes it appeared for no reason, mind you I could understand a word they were saying.
While we were in port we were asked by the local custom people if we were going to Pisa to see the leaning tower, as I was unaware what this was, I had decided to go along with the crew, as I have explained previously there was only one question and decision with them, where is the nearest bar.
When it was mentioned to them about the Leaning Tower of Pisa, there reply was who the hell wants to see a leaning tower, we see plenty of them at half ten at night in Newcastle.
The drinking among the crew started and was continuous with John Mathieson, Dougie Clyne, Don Eglintine, Ants Laidlo, Dan Davenport, Eddie Wottan & Bill Elliot.
Day 3 Dan didn't appear all day, Day 4 Eddie stayed ashore, Day 5 Bill, John, Dan & Eddie stayed ashore.
When we had unloaded our cargo we set sail across the Med to Casablanca,Africa, I thought of all that sand and sun, the camels and the nightlife.
However John the AB wasn't he was in his bunk all day and refused all attempts to get him on deck.
After we had tied the ship up, the Customs men came aboard and soon there was a lot of active and shouting, John eventually came and told us that we were not being allowed ashore because there was a lot of fighting in the town and we would be in danger.
What a come down, it was late afternoon when we entered the harbour and one of the seamen summed it up.
‘Where the hell are the lights and the nightlife’ the place was in almost total darkness but not for long.
We had only just welcomed the Customs aboard when there was this loud screeching noise, we dashed to the side of the ship and witnessed a scene that would have graced a Harrison Ford epic.
Two of the cars collided but we couldn’t see much then the gun fire started, we all should have legged down below but everyone stood there numb, next there was an almighty explosion and one of the cars burst into flames.
The Customs advised us not to go ashore as there were government protests taking place and we might not be made welcome by some, well we had already worked that one out.
Most adhered to the warning but in our case being apprentices Moffitt had decided for us, the thought of being walloped wasn’t very appealing
However later that night the desperate ones decided to take a chance, they never got outside the dock gates, they later said that the place was like a war zone.
The next morning we awoke to the noise of dockers loading our ship with phosphates and life seemed to be back to normal except for the burnt out car on the docks, the dockers tried to encourage us to go ashore but not one of the crew took up the offer.
The next day we were back at sea and on our way to Durban, South Africa.
The crew were rebelling again and this time it was about soap, they were issued with Sunlight soap and they refused it stating that they wanted Lifebuoy, they then said they did not want Lifebuoy they wanted Toilet soap, eventually they accepted Sunlight except John & Dan.
We sailed down the African coast passing the Canary Islands for about week until we reached Dakar where we stopped to get supplies.
Sailing down the African coast was a great time to start appreciating the life, the sun and the ship beginning to look good with all the painting being done and then bang all of a sudden some of us were rounded up and covered in horrible thick grease and then finally thrown into a tank of water.
We had just crossed the equator and the crew had found that some of us were doing it for the first time.
As we were rounding the Cape of Good Hope, which turned out to be an apt name, the winds became stronger and the sea very rough.
There was no sleep that night and by the time my watch started at 4am the weather had reach frightening force, I remember vividly as stood behind the steering wheel size of the waves crashing over the bow and the tremendous effort I had to put in to keep the ship on course.
We were supposed to turn round the Cape up north to Durban but we were heading south for Australia.
I remember the feeling behind that wheel very well, people asked me afterwards if I had been afraid, but it had been the opposite, it was a feeling of excitement, the ship by this time was now not only pitching and tossing but rolling from side to side.
The rails on the side of the ship were disappearing into the sea and then reappearing only to go several feet into the air.
There was loud long blasts on the ships siren, I didn't know what this meant, nobody would be able to hear us, the noise of the wind was too loud, all of a sudden people were running everywhere and shouting.
The loud blasts I was eventually informed were to call everyone on deck, I heard Moffitt saying if she hogs that could be it, good job I didn't know what he was talking about, later I found out that hogging is when the bow and stern are supported by the sea and the middle of the ship is unsupported i.e. she could break in half.
Captain Robson was shouting our main problem is if the cargo shifts, she will not come back, again it was lucky I didn't realise the fill extent of that.
Eventually the weather eased and we docked several days later in Durban.

I had passed geography in the GCSE's, but they had never taught us anything about apartheid. I wish they had it would made life easier.
I didn't know the structure of South Africa and as I had been to sea for months with about 30 blokes of which several were coloured, Charlie Cinques the Cook was black and I always remember once he felled a bloke with one punch, I said to him
"What did you do that for, you've been called that many times and you have just ignored it".
He replied " I know, but it was the enamel bit".
The bloke had called him a black enamel bastard.
The difference with South Africa was that we all lived together on the ship and the colour was not an issue, peoples behaviour was but here in Durban from day one it hit you in the face and for the coloureds I mean literally.
The dockers were all coloured and the foremen white and on the first day they were all down in the hold of the ship getting it ready for the cargo and they must have stopped working, the foreman picked up a shackle, they are iron "U" shaped bolts, and he threw it down into the hold which is something like 50 feet deep, it would have killed someone if they had hit on the head.
His only shout was "get moving you lazy bastards"
I remember telling him what I thought but was informed in no uncertain manner to be careful what I said.
The brutality and humiliation they had to endure continued daily.
One day on the dockside some 20 or 30 coloureds in chains were in a line and after some chanting they all bent down and lifted this huge girder which they then had to carry away, they were prisoners and the guards had whips and weren't afraid to use them.
After a while we realised the dockers were starving, so the Cook started making buns which were only flour and water and they would gollop them up until the foreman arrived and chased them throwing anything he find at them, you can imagine how the Cook was feeling but was unable to say or do anything.
Many years later around about 1978, I was the only one to vote in a Lancashire Rugby meeting against the proposal to play a South African touring side, I sent a letter saying my reason was that it did not contain one coloured player, I sometimes regretted that I hadn't made a bigger stand.
Again when we went ashore I was totally innocent of the politics, walking up to a pub one day I got distracted for some reason possibly talking to a local, all of my mates disappeared into the pub ahead of me, so I followed.
There was 2 doors right and left, I without thinking went to the right and next minute there was shouting and screaming and it still didn't register with me that they were all black, I was eventually pushed out the door and then was dragged by my mates through the other door.
I was later told if the police had caught me in the black section it would have been a lengthy stay in South Africa.
The amazing thing was, you weren't allowed in the bar with blacks but you could get in a carriage like a rickshaw which was pulled by blacks.
However there was also the bad side of the blacks, when one of the AB's, Dan Davenport decided one night to return to the ship on his own and as he was walking through the docks he was attacked and badly beaten up and robbed by them.
When I look back , I was an apprentice and should really have been given some facts and guidance by the skipper but as he was nearly always drunk there wasn't much chance of that, being only 17, I was learning life the hard way.
One night I was night-watchman and some of the engine room crew, who were all from Aden or Yemen, came to tell me that they had been burgled, so off I went to tell the skipper who words of concern were
"You'll have to take Abdul with you to the police station and report it"
He didn't realise but he was being helpful because as we walked through the docks in the pitch black there was constant noises of people hooting and whistling, others told me later that I had only been saved from an attack because I was with a coloured guy.
When we reached the police station, he was made to wait outside and after I reported the burglary it was obvious nothing was going to happen and we had to make the hazardous walk back to the ship.
There were some great times in Durban as it is a beautiful city but it was a place of conflict because even the British people as we met a few told us that they were afraid to put the Union Jack on their property in case of attacks from some of the Dutch.
As I have said before the crew in the main were alcohols and nutters and one night out in the town we were in a restaurant which was on the 3rd floor overlooking the street and some of them were dropping ice cubes and then their ale on the people below as usual there was a fight and we were thrown out.
The crew were as usual either drunk or not on the ship, this time John, Ants, Dougie, Don, Dan , Eddie stayed ashore and John, Ants, Dan , Eddie decided to make it 2 day holiday, when they returned they said they were ill and the skipper sent for a doctor who diagnosed that John, Ants, Dan and Eddie were suffering from alcohol poisoning ie drunk.
Next day Ants was confined to bed suffering from bruising after falling over while drunk where  he stayed for a couple of days, John went missing again  and then Dan decided to verbally attack the Skipper, in all of these incidents they were docked pay, at this rate they will be leaving the ship with zero wages.
After we had loaded the ship we set off up the coast for the Suez Canal, but once again Dan was drunk and causing trouble and refusing to work, Captain Robson read all the mis-demeanours they had performed in port but Dan and Eddie were too drunk to understand and Ants said his were due to him being ill, the rest said they had nothing to say.

                                                       SUEZ CANAL 1957
As we sailed up the African coast there was a lot of anxiety because just 12 months prior the Egyptians under the rule of General Nasser had nationalised the canal taking it out of the control of the British and French, he had taken this action because the Americans had withdrew their promise to fund the proposed building of the Aswan Dam.
Prime Minister Eden against the wishes of the Americans had got the Israelis, who didn't have to be asked twice, to attack Egypt.
British and French planes gave support , the Egyptians blocked the canal with sunken ships and tugs but the canal was retaken.
The UN organised a truce and the canal was reopened in April 1957 only 4 months before we arrived.
As we sailed through the canal we passed many sunken ships and tugs, they obviously only cleared enough to make a safe passage.
When we passed Ismalia everyone was on deck, it was hilarious but in hindsight a really stupid thing to do, within hearing distance was an army training camp, it wasn't obvious at first sight because there were 2 or 3 rows of men marching, some had uniforms but there was not 2 alike, some had boots and some sand shoes, one or two hand rifles, others had just what might have been brooms.
The deckhands were giving them some stick, however the Egyptians got their own back when we were tied up.
On board came all the traders with the watches, jewellery etc.
When we had set sail again and having a look at what had been purchased, someone had a watch and was proudly telling everybody what a bargain he had.
" What so you good" asked Bill
"This watch is indestructible" replied Don
" Don't be stupid, no watch is, what makes you think this one is"
" The Gypo showed me, he threw against the bulkhead and it bounced off"
At that he was persuaded to give a demo.
It smashed into a million pieces.
What's that smell?
It's coming from those boxes.
" Hey Doug what is it, in the boxes"
"Turkish delight for the girlfriend"
When he opened it there were millions of maggots.
Back at sea we were on our way to Venice, you would expect to remember Venice for the canals, gondolas or vino, but no it was remembered for the sickening violence on the ship.
As I have mentioned before John the AB was beaten about the head by Dougie and Eddie as he lay in his bunk with a wooden clog.
He lay in my cabin and myself and John were terrified they would get drunk again and come back to have another go at him or even us.
When I think back the Captain or any of the other Officers didn't really give a dam, the skipper was now permanently drunk and the 3rd Officer, Tom Downing drunk a bottle of spirits everyday if he had it, he said it was to preserve his kidneys as that is what they use in laboratories.
We finally arrived in Venice and what a shock, up in the top of the warehouse were police with their guns trained on the ship, some came on board and  Doug Clyne, Eddie Wottan and Don Eglintine who had beaten  John Mathieson up were handcuffed and taken ashore they were also charged with wilful damage to the ship,  John was taken to hospital, that was last we ever saw of the 4 and never found out what happened to them.
The city of Venice is a magical place and the experience should have a lasting life experience but with the crew we had that was never going to happen.
We started the evening drinking in the beautiful St Marco square which during the day was a tourist attraction but at night it became a great place for drinking, later we found out that we may have been watched by our future ship mates.
You see the 4 that were taken ashore had to be replaced and obviously they were  Italians, later at sea we discovered 2 of them had spent a lot of their time as pickpockets in St Marco Square.
One evening after a bout of drinking the deckhands decided to have some races, they nicked a couple of gondolas and went up the Grand Canal, eventually parking them next to a pub which they went into.
That didn't last too long as they were told to leave and on the way out they threw their glasses into the fireplace.
After the cargo had all been discharge and we were getting the ship ready to sail, the hatches had to be closed but lying across one the beams was a sack of corn that had been used to stop the cranes lifting wire from rubbing against the beam.
Dan Davenport gratefully agreed to sit on the beam and make his way across to the sack, unfortunately he was as always drunk and when he lifted the sack the weight pulled him off the beam down into the hold.
They winched him up on a stretcher and that was the last we saw of him.
We also lost our Chief Engineer George Reed in Venice due to illness and he was replaced by Bill Whitely.

                                                             Fred Loft

We were due to sail the next morning, the Assist Cook Fred Loft and myself decided we had had enough and decided to jump ship, we managed to find a rowing boat and tied it up alongside the ship.
Secretly we packed our bags and during the night we lowered them into the boat, when everything was quiet we rowed down the canal, it was pitch black when hit the bank which we thought was well outside the docks, so we got our bags out of the boat and left it, little did know but the boat had drifted away.
We had decided to stay where we were until daybreak and then when the ship would have left we were to make our way to the British Consul.
As we awoke in daylight to our horror we were on a little island in the middle of the river, people were shouting to us and eventually a boat came out to us and took us back to the docks.

 

                                                 Venice Docks

With our bags we trudged back to the ship as it had not sailed due to some problems that I can't recall but their waiting on the top of the gangway was Captain Robson whose comments to our surprise was
"Where have you two been"
We headed south down into the Mediterranean to Sfax in Tunisia.
In 1956 Sfax had been taken over by Tunisia from French control and therefore was in its infancy, so there was very little security especially to foreigners.
Once we had tied up they were off ashore, totally against the advice of the ship’s agent.
Next morning they were wishing they had stayed on board, after walking out of the docks they headed for the bright lights but they didn’t get very far when they were set upon, they tried to bribe their way out of trouble.
You might be able to do that in daylight or on the safety of the ship and docks but not on a dark isolated road in Tunisia, they were lucky that they were only robbed.
The temperature was very hot and fortunately the dock area was only a jetty, so on one side of the ship was the open sea which was clear blue.
The crew decided they going to into the sea to cool off, it was the first time that was glad that couldn’t swim.
I had never tried to learn to swim since I was 7 years old, after the very first time I went to the swimming baths on Scotswood road in Newcastle, I was standing on the side of the baths watching my sister and friends swimming when someone came up behind me and pushed me in.
It seemed to take ages before anyone got to me and pulled me to safety.
The water in the Med was calm and beautiful and they were all dying in when several of the Tunisians were shouting and waving their arms to the crew.
After a few ingenious interpretations, they were trying to warm them that there were sharks in these waters.
Some took no notice but others were petrified and they received many useless suggestions, such as, if a shark comes towards you don’t panic but put both hands under the water and clap.
I never thought a Jacobs ladder could withstand the weight of so many at once.
After we had loaded a cargo of phosphates, we set sail for Japan via the Suez Canal again.
It was going to be a long trip as we were leaving in mid August and we wouldn’t get to Japan until late September.
The 4 Italians we had taken on were on the whole a breath of fresh air compared to the 4 that had gone.
Mario was a useless seaman but always willing for work, but he made some horrendous mistakes and on one occasion almost cut a few of us in half when he allowed the steel wire hawser to slip off the winch and it flew past us at a hundred miles per hour, it was a miracle none of us were hurt.
Angelo was a really great bloke who had lived a life of living off rich women in Venice and he was always willing to learn about seamanship and became a great shipmate.
Guiseppe was older and had some experience of the sea but like the other 3 they had terrible eating habits, food especially bread crumbs were always all over the floor.
It was a good job he was with this present crew, if he had been with the crew we had on our next voyage they would probably have ended up in the drink.
After making our way through the Suez Canal we crossed the Indian Ocean stopping at Singapore for supplies and then up the South China Sea passing Formosa to Osaka in Japan.
As we were entering Osaka the Pilot soon let us know that he was unhappy with the present Government because he pointed down to the tug man and told us that he was on more money than him because the tug man had many children and got allowances for all of them.
Our 3rd Mate, Tom Downing told him that he was unhappy about his previous government for what they had done to the British during the war 15 years ago and true to his word the Tom never went ashore while we were in Japan.
That doesn’t mean to say that he didn’t drink their whiskey which was called Tory, he used to drink a bottle a day if he could, his reasoning was that they kept human organs in alcohol in laboratories, so he was preserving his.
Japan came and went without much to remember until we got to sea.
The sky and sea was like the Mediterranean and then on the horizon it went black, the skipper reported it was Typhoon Hester but it was travelling in opposite direction to us.
As the day progressed we could see the storm turning and as if it was human it was chasing us, there was panic as the winds increased and the rain and sea lashed the ship, the ship was hove to, that is it’s bow was put into the wind head on.
All hands were on deck, we tried to attach ropes down the length of the ship so that we could hold onto, empty oil drums flashed past you as we were up to our waists in water.
The tarpaulins were lifting off the hatches, the bosun was shouting for us to secure them because the danger was that the wind would then lift the hatches off and as we were a light ship i.e. we had no cargo, then the sea could pour in.
The metal deck near to one of the Samson posts, these were posts that had derricks on them, derricks were lifting gear, began to crack, this looked like the begin of the end but luckily the typhoon passed away but in total darkness we were lost.
The saviour as we drifted aimlessly was Moffitt, he managed to get a sighting using the moon, this is never used as it is usually inaccurate, he positioned us close to the Japanese coast and the next day in daylight he was right.
This had been the second time we had faced the possibility of going under.
An extract from Wikipedia
Typhoon Hester
Hester formed on October 3 east of the Philippines. It moved north and strengthened to a typhoon with 150 mph winds and a pressure of 900 mbar. It became extra tropical on October 11, moved east, and dissipated on October 13, just over the dateline. Hester never struck land and it isn't known if it caused damage.
After accessing the damage it was decided to head for Canada.
We arrived in New Westminster 3 weeks later.
The loading of paper and timber meant that we went to several ports in British Columbia one of which was Vancouver and as we were preparing to leave the Chief Mate Ernie Moffitt while hauling in the gangway fell into the drink between the ship and wharf, he escaped bruising and a sprained ankle.
The one that will always be remember was Port Alberni on Vancouver Island, it was right in the heart of the island and the waterway to reach it was some 50 miles.
This was the only means of reaching as there no roads out, so the residents travelled either by boat or seaplane.

There were no pubs, only a community hall which was supplied with beer only once a month, so when the likes of our crew were there it didn’t last very long.
We lost 3 more in Port Alberni, Terry Myers the Deck Boy, who during the trip had taken a lot physical abuse the crew ended up in hospital and left the ship, 2 others left ship as well but as deserters, they were Fred Loft the Assistant Cook, who had tried to desert in Venice with myself but this time he wen with Bill Elliot the Assistant Steward.
The police came on board and reported that Ants Laidlo had been run over by a car and it was no surprise to learn that he was drunk at the time of the accident, he was taken to hospital with a broken nose and bruising.
While we were in New Westminster we got friendly with a free lance reporter who was a bit of a local celebrity because he had written an article about the Chief Constable not always going to church on a Sunday, apparently he discovered that this was a statutory part of his job.
Also we were down by the river Fraser to watch a Frenchman complete the swimming of the river in December.
December 22 A French adventurer completed a swim of the Fraser River from Prince George to New Westminster’s Pattullo Bridge.
An extract from a Canadian newspaper.
Terry Myers the deck boy who left us in New Westminster was replaced by a British lad called Mike Deacon who had spent the last couple years travelling and working his way across Canada, he was lucky he was getting a free passage home and getting paid for it.
Leaving Canada we headed for the Panama Canal via Los Angeles where we stopped for supplies.
At the entrance to the Panama Canal we were boarded by Customs officials who not only took all our details and fingerprints but also many questions.
To our horror the one of the crew was led off the ship by customs and we set sail without him.
No one knew what the problem was until we arrived at the end of the canal and there he was waiting on the quayside , he came aboard all smiles to tell us that he had travelled the length of the canal by train.
During his questioning by the Customs he had told them that he was a Communist.
We arrived back in the UK in London in January 1958 after having stopped at Los Angeles for supplies and then via the Panama Canal.
After unloading part of the cargo in London we moved up the east coast to Immingham and then on to Grangemouth near Edinburgh.
Arriving back on board the ship after a nights drinking in Immingham  we lost another AB, Ants Laidlo who came back aboard drunk and staggering along the wet timber on deck slipped and fell between the ship and the dock, he fell 16 feet, he was taken to hospital where he was diagnosed with a compound fracture of his left leg and would be in hospital for about 3 months.
I was overjoyed when the skipper told me I could go home to Newcastle and stay there until the ship was ready to sail again from South Shields.
While I was away George the Bosun had taken ill and went home where he died of  pneumonia.
My leave lasted only 2 weeks and we set sail for Norfolk , W Virginia once again on the 6th February 1959 to take coal from there to Montevideo in Uruguay.
We had almost a complete new crew, thank god.
The crew was
Position                       Name                                     Age                    From                    Born
 Captain                     John Ainsley Robson              53                      Ashington             South Shields
hospitalised in Yokohama 9/11/58
1st Mate                     Alf Brockwell                         63                      Cardiff                  Hounslow
2nd Mate                    Fred Etherington                     24                     Gateshead             Gateshead
3rd Mate                    Rod Stones                              22                     Alford                   Canthorpe
Radio Officer             Jerry Cullen                            21                     Dublin                   Dublin
Bosun                         Harry Temple                         46                     South Shields        South Shields
Apprentice                  Max Louis Bezencon             20                    Tonbridge             Brighton
Apprentice                  Brian Grace                           18                     Ryton                    Ryton
Chief Steward             Charlie Wheldon                    56                  South Shields         South Shields
Assist  Steward           Alf Dadswell                          18                   South Shields        South Shields
Chief Cook                 G Hall                                     54                   South Shields         South Shields
Assist Cook                 Jack Larcombe                       23                  Bridport                  Porthryd
Catering Boy               Barry Mithcell                       18                    Aberdeen               Aberdeen
Chief Engineer            William Whitley                    62                   Kendal                   Kendal
2nd Engineer                Peter Paju                              68                    Cardiff                  Estonia
3rd Engineer                Tommy Burke                       34                   North Shields         North Shields
4th Engineer                 Denis Husband                     29                   Howdon                  Walker
D Greaser                    Mohamed Rajam                   39                   Liverpool                 Yemen
 D Greaser                    Mohamed Abdullah Nasser   35                   Liverpool               Aden
D Greaser                    Said Mohamed                       54                  South Shields          Aden
Fireman                       Ali Ahmed Mulhammed        40                  South Shields          Aden
Fireman                      Ali Abdul Galil                       34                   South Shields          Aden
Fireman                       M  Musari                               58                  South Shields         Aden
Fireman                       Ahmed F Saidi                       41                   Cardiff                    Aden
AB                               A MacNeil                             33                   Barra                      Barra
AB                              T Fraser                                  22                   South Shields       South Shields
EDH                           J Carr                                      25                  South Shields        South Shields
EDH                           J Wilson                                 22                   South Shields        South Shields
SOS                            J T Barrie                               19                   Aberdeen              Aberdeen
SOS                            R Johnson                              18                   South Shields        South Shields
Deck Boy                    Brian Mulvay                        16                   South Shields        South Shields
Captain                       Bernie Wright                        46                   Seaham                 Seaham
joined the ship in New Westminster 1/12/58

                                                   Alf Dadswell

                                         Ralph Johnson, Alf Dadswell , Tommy Burke

                                          Alf Dadswell, Brian Mulvay , James T Barrie
                                       

                                                     Fred Etherington , Rod Stones

                                          Rod Stones , Brian Grace

                                                          Max Louis Bezencon

It was amazing right from the start of this voyage the atmosphere was totally different from my first trip, we had got rid of all the alkies and physcos but however the Ities had been great and I missed them especially Mario.
We arrived in Norfolk, West Virginia on the 19th February to load coal for Montevideo.
On the first trip to Norfolk we had tried to eat them out of potato salad, on this trip someone  told the bar owner how ill fed we were and without any conscience we took up his offer of free spaghetti and meatballs .
After 4 days we left for  South America stopping at Point O Pierre, Trinidad, we eventually arrived in Montevideo on the  17th April.
Our first place of call and for the next 12 days was a pub owned by a Londoner who was a Tottenham Hotspur fan, his local team in Montevideo was surprisingly called Liverpool but as half of the crew were from South Shields his offer of going to a match wasn’t taken up.
We were berthed alongside the huge Fray Bentos abattoir and factory which employed thousands, the downside was soon apparent to us as the ship was attacked by a huge army of bluebottles. One day we were all had to leave the ship and on our return we  witnessed an incredible sight as the ship had been  fumigated and they were sweeping up the dead bodies and the pile was enormous.

                                                         FRAY BENTOS factory

We set sail up the River Parana  to Rosario, the river at times was barely wide enough  and it took us 3days to complete the 200 miles.

 It was lucky for us that there was an English mission there because we were able to send our mail home through them because at that time foreign letters and parcels were going missing because the stamps were being removed.
Knowing that we were starving, the mission was a favourite attraction for egg and chips.
After a 11 days in Rosario we made our way back down river to Buenos Aires.
Being on the river  for several days gave us the chance to paint the sides of the ship, on one occasion I was lucky to escape with my life, the AB’s were on the stage and I was passing down the paint and rollers, I was lowering a roller down to Joe Carr when the knot slipped and the roller  fell hitting him, in a second he was on the ladder and coming up, I legged it and never looked back but I could here him, luckily he never found me.

We were only in Buenos Aires for 2 days and then we were off with our cargo of grain to Genoa, Italy.
For 36 days we crossed the open Atlantic  getting the worst it could throw at us, as someone said , it’s like being on a two masted scrubbing brush.
The thing that I always remembered Genoa for was the fountain in the town centre

 

4 days in Genoa and then down the coast to the city that someone said ‘see Naples and die’ referring to the fact that

It is so beautiful that you should see it before you die, but  we were there only for 1 day and that was enough because of the slum housing and the open sewers it  was a place to die.
Leaving Naples we were on our way to Sao Vicente, Cape Verde Islands for  supplies and back to Rosario and Buenos Aires to load pollards for Japan. Pollards are what is left after wheat has  been milled to get flour.
We began taking a strange route considering we were heading for the Cape Verde Islands as we were heading for the Isle of Capri, all of a sudden we had Custom boats with search lights descending upon us, mysteriously 2 Italians appeared on the ship deck, the skipper informed us that they were stowaways, we headed away from Italy with these 2 onboard.
The 2 so called stowaways told us that they had been involved in cigarette scam with the skipper, they were supposed to be picked up by a boat and load the cigarettes and take them to the Isle of Capri, don't know what they eventually told their family where they had been having left Naples on the 26th June and arriving in Rosario on the 31st July.
We  were in Buenos Aires for a week and on one day of the week, none of the restaurants were allowed to serve steak, I think it was to help increase exports, so on that day someone suggested curried chicken and rice, unfortunately nobody could speak Spanish and the waiters didn’t understand English, so there was a game of charades started, with somebody flapping their arms like wings and  clucking, it looked like the waiter had got it was chicken, he then somehow got rice and then pointing to something yellow, he gave the thumbs up.
We waited in great anticipation that we had succeeded in communicating with an Argentinian, it arrived chicken, rice and CUSTARD.
We left Argentina on the 22nd August for Japan, we stopped for supplies at Balik Papan in Indonesia, but unfortunately when we arrived on the 10th October there was a civil war going on.
The USA under the disguise of the CIA were assisting the rebels to overthrow the military President Sukarno, but despite their greater numbers and hardware supplied by the Americans they were routed.
We had to anchor offshore and all we could get was oil, no food and no water.
Water was so scarce on our trip up to Japan that we had to get water from the engine room to wash, after awhile you could scrape salt off your skin. The cook had to be imaginative because we had rice for every meal, rice cakes, rice pudding.
Another war going on at this time between Mainland China and Formosa as it was called then, the skipper received a message from the owners not to go through the Formosa Straits, I remember his reaction was scathing to them saying the cost of the cable should have used to get us some food.
Our first port of call in Japan was Yokosuka and the first night ashore we were stopped by a military guard telling us that we could not go into certain parts of town, after a lot of arguments it was realised that the guards were American and they thought we were from their ship the USS Lexington.

 Now the first carrier whose planes were armed with air-to-surface Bullpup guided missile, Lexington left San Francisco 26 April 1959 for another tour of duty with the 7th Fleet. She was on standby alert during the Laotian crisis of late August and September, then exercised with British forces before sailing from Yokosuka 16 November for San Diego, arriving 2 December. 
One night we met up with the yanks in a bar inside their zone, one of them was loudly spouting his hatred of Russians when one of our crew jumped up on the table and declared that he was a Communist.That was the end of the friendship across the pond.
From Yokosuka we went to Yokohama and from there we had a couple of great nightouts in Tokyo where we went to by train and that was some experience, in that the trains were so full we were actually pushed and squeezed onto the train.
As I have said before when in Japan the cheap drink is saki called Tory and Captain Robson had stocked up with a good supply because 5 days out on our way to New Westminster we found him on the floor of his cabin with his head in blood and vomit.
We sailed back to Yokohama and left him there in hospital, when we eventually arrived back in the UK he was there on the dockside and tried to convince everyone that he had taken ill in Japan, no one said anything different and allowed him to and others to believe that, what was ironical was that the skipper who took over from him and joined us in New Westminster was a disciplinarian and before we set sail he ordered a lifeboat drill and asked the crew to lower the boats.
The boats wouldn't move, to think I had been on this ship 20 months in several dangerous times and these boats would have been useless, he then had all the tins of food taken out of the boats, they were rusty and took a great effort to open them and when we did the biscuits were rock hard and inedible.
Captain Wright had them all photographed and when we arrived back in the UK instead of being praised for diligence, he was sacked.
We arrived in New Westminster on the 25th November and after visiting Victoria, Chemainus, New Westminster, Victoria, Chemainus and New Westminster again we left on the 29th December.
When we were in Victoria the bosun Harry Temple, because the skipper had found trouble with the lifeboats decided to test one of the small boats, he made a mast and sail and off we went sailing out to sea.
Everything was going great and we were learning a lot about sailing until he asked one of us to scale up the mast to adjust the sail, next minute we were capsizing and into the drink, I remember coming up and the sail was on my head, I could see others and we were trying to get clear of the sail when some bright spark shouted there could be sharks, panic set it in and we eventually got clear and managed to cling onto the upturned boat.
Luckily there were fishing boats close by and we were picked up and taken ashore and wrapped in blankets.
On the way to the UK we stopped for supplies at Los Angeles and then through the Panama Canal and getting more supplies in Curacao arriving in Liverpool on the 17th February'
Virtually everyone on the ship brought huge amounts of cigarettes back with them, they were everywhere some were down the 2 large forrad air vents and the Bosun made the crew remove them in case the hatch boards might be blown off. The engineers had constructed a false pipe of tins of cigarettes from the bottom to the top of the engine room, they were caught out when a Customs Officer went and leant on it.
Approaching Liverpool docks the Customs raided the ship by boat and this soon had everyone throwing cartoons of ciggies into the Mersey, someone down river must have had a great story to tell about fishing cigarettes out of the water.
Later we were all gutted as well as the engineers because we hadn't needed to get rid of the cigarettes as the Customs were only on board because the Captain had radioed ahead that he had found a gun on board, it turned out that one the Donkey Greasers from the Yemen had bought it and hid it in the engine room.
Cigarettes have always been with all returning seamen or tourists a means to make extra money but one funny episode was at the dock gate when the Customs asked someone to open his suitcase and there on the top was cartons of them, the Custom Officer said ' Why did you put them there, I was only going through the routine ', he replied I thought I would put them in the most obvious place and you wouldn't look there.
 I asked to go on leave even though the cargo needed to be unloaded in Liverpool, Manchester and Garston which took 36 days, my leave was granted but I had already decided that I had had enough was leaving the Merchant Navy.
After several talks with the owners I agreed to join the MV Scorton which was only 2 years old which I did on the 31st March.
Position                     Name                     Age                From                Born
WH Peacock             Captain                    44                 Whitby             Whitby
G Townsley              1st Mate                   59                 Penarth             Hull
FW Scott                  2nd Mate                  25                  Newcastle         Lemington
H Vickers                 3rd Mate                   24                 Northallerton     Middlesborough
AN Pulseford            Radio Officer          21                 Scarborough      Scarborough
W Krapp                  Carpenter                  48                 South Shields     Estonia
R Duffet                   Bosun                       38                Southsea             Portsmouth
RC Thompson          AB                           38                 London                Hastings
D McInnes               AB                            49                 Barra                   Barra
JP McNeil                AB                           24                 Barra                   Barra
J McNeil                  AB                            37                 Middlesborough    Barra
DL Guyver               AB                           21                 London                 London
P Culpin                    EDH                       19                 Leicester             Leicester
W Carter                  Chief Engineer         55                 North Shields       North Shields
E Harrison               2nd Eng                    62                 Sunderland           Sunderland
AJ Evans                 3rd Eng                     25                  Cardiff                 Cardiff
J Bullock                 4th Eng                     24                  South Shields        South Shields
JC Thompson          Jun Eng                    21                  Hebburn                Hebburn
PJ Willoughby        Jun Eng                    21                  Moreton                 Birkenhead
B Thomas               Jun Eng                   21                  Liverpool               Liverpool
Z Khan                    D Greaser               53                  South Shields          India
M Abdul                  D Greaser              38                  Pakistan                  Pakistan
EJ Cannan               Ch Steward            54                  London                   Liverpool
KE Waterfield         Ass Steward           20                  Leicester                Leicester
R Duchesne            Ass Steward           18                   Sheerness               Devizes
SA Showers            Ch Cook                 57                  Liverpool                Freetown
MT Russell              Ass Cook               17                   Grangemouth          Falkirk
PJ Marks-Easter       Catering Boy        17                   London                   Bodmin
JW Lewis                 Catering Boy         16                  Wimbledon             Epsom
FJF Merry                Deck Boy              17                   Enfield                   London
KF Johnson             Apprentice             19                   Rochester               Rochester
B Grace                   Apprentice              19                  Ryton                      Ryton
F Coward                 Apprentice             16                 Glenridding            Glenridding

I joined the Scorton in the Stepney docks and we loaded cars to take to the west coast of the USA, little did I realise that in a couple years I would be joining the Ford Motor Co where I stayed for 36 years.

We made 3 ports of call Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle.
While in LA I started having breathing difficulties and they diagnosed as Rhinitis an inflammation of the nose caused probably by the smog conditions in LA, which is the result of motor car pollution, when we were in Long Island and looked across to LA you could actually see the smog.
A year and a half later I had to have my indentures terminated early so that I could have an operation in Liverpool where we had docked, the operation was to removed polyps from my nose, luckily on one of my previous visit I had met a girl who I had kept in contact with, so she visited me in hospital , she was the only one because most of my family were in the North East, later we married and still are to this day 50 years on.
On our way to LA we got some strange stories from the Chief Mate, George Townsley who used to sleep every night with the light on, he said that it become a habit because he was a wanted man in States where he used to live.
He told us that he was a close friend of Marilyn Monroe and that he had become involved in some criminal activities which I can't remember what they were, however we all thought he was away with the fairies but when we got to LA the customs refused him entry, we never found out why, so it always remained a mystery if he was a nutter or a criminal.
While we were in San Francisco it was decided to paint the bow of the ship, up to now all I had done was the sides that had been a nightmare at first, so when I saw the staging being setup I thought thank goodness I won't be on that, that's what I thought , some of the AB's had not returned from going ashore, I found out later that outside the dock gates the road was very steep and the crew had only got half way up when they came across a pub called Smokey Joe's and that's where they stayed, so the Bosun Ron Duffet said to me you will have to go on the stage. I tried all ways to get out of it , like the stage is too far away from the ship, he replied you will be able to do it with a roller, I thought no way.
I started down the ladder and someone suggested that I went down the side of the ladder, I thought no , it is narrow enough , down I went and when I looked up there were several leaning over the rail looking at me, the further I got down the ladder it started to go inwards, Ron was shouting 'go down the side', I was petrified,  I was almost parallel with the water, somehow I managed to pull myself up and got myself onto the side of the ladder and what a difference that made, I was back to perpendicular.
Down I went and when I got level with the staging, Ron shouted lean over and grab hold of the staging, I thought you are joking I can't move with terror, the drop to the water seemed miles away, luckily one of the AB's on the staging leant across and pulled me and the ladder to the stage.
He said grab hold of the stage rope, which I did and he let go of the ladder, I was just about to put my foot on the stage when it started to swing, I somehow managed to get 2 feet onto it  but it was so narrow and it started to tilt, years later a chap I worked with at Fords told me he was captured at Dunkirk during the war, he said he could have got away but when he was running he kept slipping on something, that seemed to be happening to me as I tried to walk along the stage holding onto the guide rope.
Somehow I managed to make my way to the middle stage of 3 and was relieved when I sat down, little did I realise I was going to have do that allover again going back up. I felt a lot happier others came down and went onto the other stage, but then to my amazement the stage nearest the bow was one short, next minute an AB climbs over the rail and shimmies down the down the rope to the stage.
I was sitting on the stage with my feet feeling like lead weights trying to pull me off the stage, Ron then started lowering paint and rollers to us, when all was ready I still thought we will never reach the side of the ship until someone said , hold on, which I am pleased I did because the next minute the stages were being pulled into the side of the ship.
Months later after this I was able to go down onto the stage and actually stand while it was swaying .
After unloading the last of our cars in Seattle we went to British Columbia to load timber. Again we went around the islands picking up bits of the cargo in Nanaimo, New Westminster, Victoria, Chemainus, Vancouver, Chemainus again and Port Alberni.
We arrived back in the UK at Liverpool on the 8th August, unloading the timber at Garston, Manchester, Ellesmere Port.
Going to Manchester  was at times horrendous , we were bombarded with stones being thrown by youngsters and one night we had to tie up underneath a bridge, the next morning the deck was covered in litter as people crossing the bridge drop all the chip papers, cartoons onto the ship.
After unloading all our cargo we proceeded to Avonmouth to load chemicals for Los Angeles.
The Crew was
Position                        Name                                 Age                       From                 Born
Captain                         WH Peacock                      45                         Whitby              Whitby       
1st Mate                        G Townsley                       60                         Penarth              Hull
2nd Mate                       FW Scott                           26                         Newcastle          Lemington
3rd Mate                        H Vickers                          25                         Northallerton     Middlesboro
left ill in Singapore
Radio Officer               W Cusick                            20                         Leasowe           Birkenhead
Carpenter                       W Krapp                            48                         South Shields     Estonia
Bosun                             R Duffet                            39                         Southsea             Portsmouth
AB                                 J Doolan                             21                         Liverpool           Liverpool
AB                                 R Yates                              27                         Rochdale            Heywood
AB                                 G Walton                           25                         Liverpool          West Kilbride
AB                                 TFS Howard                      25                         Liverpool            Liverpool
AB                                 D Millward                        33                         Manchester         Manchester
EDH                              MJ Morton                         19                          Derby                 Derby
deserted  New Plymouth
Chief Eng                      DW Chalmers                     38                        Newcastle            Greenock
2nd Eng                         IW Carter                           26                         North Shields       North Shields
3rd Eng                         WB McKenzie                    27                         Kenton                 Tynemouth
4th Eng                          P Willoughby                     21                         Moreton              Birkenhead
Jun Eng                         JC Thompson                      21                        Hebburn               Hebburn
Jun Eng                         D Newby                             21                        Hebburn               Keithley
Jun Eng                         EL Pugh                              21                         Birkenhead           Wirral
D Greaser                      Z Khan                               54                          South Shields      India
D Greaser                      M Abdul                             38                          Pakistan               Pakistan
Chief Steward               E Mudd                               54                          Cardiff                 Cardiff
Ass Steward                  G Pearse                              42                         Tilbury                 Liverpool
Ass Steward                   MP Scraggs                        20                          Liverpool            Liverpool
Chief  Cook                   SA Showers                        57                          Liverpool            Freetown
Ass Cook                       MT Russell                         17                          Grangemouth      Falkirk
Catering Boy                 JW Lewis                            17                          London                Epsom
deserted  New Plymouth
Catering Boy                 BE Corcoran                       17                          Liverpool            Liverpool
Deck Boy                      R Holmes                            16                         Salford                 Blackpool
Deck Boy                      N Davies                             16                          Salford                Salford
Apprentice                    KF Johnson                          19                          Rochester           Rochester
Apprentice                    B Grace                                19                          Ryton                  Ryton
Apprentice                    F Coward                             17                          Glenridding        Glenridding
After discharging in LA  we made our way to Vancouver to load timber for New Zealand.
Those who had a decent radio always bragged about receiving music stations, so when we went across the Pacific no one could pick up anything until one day there was  someone shouting that he had a station, he came down to earth with a bump when he was told to look out the window, we were passing Hawaii , so close that you could see the letters of the radio station on a building, something like KKB.
 We arrived in Auckland on the 8th December to start the best 8 weeks of my Merchant navy life in New Zealand and Australia.
Auckland town centre was like being back in most towns back home and wherever we went we were made welcome and were invited back to a lot of homes for meals. We spent Xmas in New Plymouth and had Xmas Day on the beach with several families and a endless supply of alcohol and food.The only downside was that we left on the 30th December on our way to Australia , so we spent New Years Eve at sea.Although there were several attempts to delay the ship , like we awoke one morning to find the mooring ropes had disappeared and the ship was only tied up by the steel hawser, never found out who or why they were taken, but money amongst the crew was short after being in port a long time, the crew had obtain a large roll of male suit material from somewhere  most probably illegally and they eventually managed to sell it.
The weather difference in New Zealand was amazing, when we were in Auckland and New Plymouth it had been red hot but when we went to Bluff at the southern tip of the south island it was snowing.The one thing I remember vividly about Bluff was as we docked there was a milkman on the quayside , the crew descended on him and relieved him of his milk.
From New Zealand we went to Urangan in Queensland to load sugar, it was primitive to the extreme, we were there for 3 weeks but what a great place, they only had one pier and the bags of sugar were transported along the pier by a small railway and then put on a conveyor belt up to the ship, they were then physically carried to the hold and opened with a knife and poured by hand into the hold.
We must have been probably the last ship to load sugar because this appears in the facts about Urangan
( Sugar was one of the main exports, however had to be transported from as far north as Bundaberg. When the Bundaberg Port was built in 1958, it took over sugar cane exports and the Urangan pier ceased exporting sugar.)

                                                            URANGAN PIER
Urangan was a holiday camping site with a great beach which had a pub, the owner was great to us as he had served with the British during the War, we also became friendly with a few young couples on a camping holiday, they were from Toowoomba near Brisbane and I was very close to deserting as they were offering accommodation and work , the offer was extended to anytime in the future.
If we wanted to go somewhere else other than the pub we had to walk along the coast road to Torquay and Scarness, which was about 4 or 5 miles but when you were drunk in the early hours of the morning it was a lot longer, I remember halfway back one night, there was an outside restaurant so we put all the tables together and slept there, in the morning as we got back to the ship the skipper Peacock when seeing us said, who have you been boxing, Floyd Patterson, our faces were swollen having been bitten by mosquitoes.  
Urangan is now a large holiday resort called Hervey Bay and it is advertised as the World's Capital for Whale Watching.
Leaving Urangan we went up the Queensland coast through the Great Barrier Reef to Cairns to finish the loading, while we were there some of the crew were walking around the town centre when they stopped at a jewellery shop and someone leant on the showcase and it opened, several items were taken and the next morning the robbery was mentioned on the radio, the police never suspected that it would be seamen, however the majority were somehow returned without detection.
As we were now on our way home 2 of the crew who were active members of the newly formed National Seamen's Reform Movement  were trying to recruit the others, they were  opposing the National Union of Seamen which was led by a Tom Yates who apparently was hated by most, seamen worked for 56 hours a week in port and  at sea but were demanding a 44 hour week, the Reform Movement was led by a Paddy Neary called for a 2 week strike which forced the NUS to negotiate and they agreed with the owners to a 44 hour week in port and a 52 hours at sea, this was rejected by Neary who said that Yates was so out of touch he didn't realise that seamen are at sea the majority of time, the 2 week strike took place in July 1960 and after another strike a month or so later, nothing was achieved because seaman at sea couldn't strike as they would have been classed as mutineers, Neary was jailed and the disputed ended but many felt they had succeeded in getting Yates to negoiate with the owners.
After stopping at Singapore for supplies we arrived back in Liverpool 7 weeks late on the 21st March.
After a 10 day leave I rejoined the Scorton in Cardiff and after unloading we sailed light ship to Rosario , Argentina with a new crew.
 Position                   Name                                Age                  From                       Born
Captain               WH Peacock                         46                    Whitby                  Whitby
1st Mate              JM Orenston                         60                    South Shields         Scotland
2nd Mate             WD Collings                        26                    Seaham                 Seaham
3rd Mate             TD Ventermar                       26                   North Shields        North Shields
Radio Officer     T Kelly                                 36                    Kilkenny                Kilkenny
Carpenter            W Krapp                              49                    South Shields         Estonia
Bosun                 J Richardson                        60                    Kirkdale                  Birmingham
AB                      D Pearson                            30                     Birmingham           Birmingham          

AB                     S Simmonds                         38                    Cardiff                    Abertilley
AB                     RJ Jones                               23                     Mountain Ash        Mountain Ash
EDH                  B Ledsam                             20                     Cardiff                   Cardiff
SOS                   J Davey                                24                     Penarth                   Penarth
Chief Eng          DW Chalmers                     39                      Newcastle              Greenock
2nd Eng            R Thompson                         31                     Jarrow                    Rhyhope
3rd Eng             WB McKensie                     28                     Tynemouth            Kenton
4th Eng              JC Thompson                      22                     Hebburn                Hebburn
Jun Eng             EL Pugh                              22                      Wirral                    Birkenhead
Jun Eng             A Green                              38                       Cardiff                   Cardiff
Jun Eng             A Cave                                21                      Newport                Newport
D Greaser          Z Khan                                55                     South Shields         India
D Greaser          M Abdul                             38                     Pakistan                  Pakistan
Chief Steward   EA Hone                             40                     Chobham                Woking
Ass Steward      W James                            25                      Liverpool                Liverpool
Ass Steward      G Pearse                             42                     Tilbury                    Liverpool
Chief Cook        SA Showers                      58                      Liverpool                Freetown
Ass Cook           BG Miller                          21                     Cardiff                    Cardiff
Catering Boy     JP Fleming                        17                      Milford Haven        Menai Bridge
Catering Boy     F Gilligan                          16                      Liverpool                Abingdon
Apprentice         B Grace                             20                      Ryton                      Ryton
Apprentice         F Coward                          19                      Glenridding            Glenridding
Apprentice         AP Jupp                            16                      Brighton                 Littlehampton
Passenger          A Chalmers                       30                      Greenock
Passenger          DW Chalmers                     1                       Greenock
While we were in Cardiff  I witnessed one of the funniest pranks, by the Assistant Steward , there 2 buses at the stop, one in front was full and the other empty, Bill went up to the first one and rang the bell and shouted 'all change', people started getting off and boarded the other one, asking what was wrong, we just said don't know and carried on walking.        
Loading at Rosario and Buenos Aires we sailed on a 8 week trip to Osaka and Nagoya.
On this trip the Chief Engineer brought his wife and 11 month old son.
I left the Scorton on our arrival in Liverpool and had my indentures mutually terminated 5 months early as my breathing problems had worsened and I immediately went into a Liverpool hospital for an operation.
My last Pay slip as an Apprentice

 The operation was a success and I was able to return to work, I enquired about taking the Second Mate certificate but I needed to have 4 years at sea so I decided to stay on the Home Trade until I was fully recovered and also to see if I was going to continue with a Navy career.
I joined the SS Dotterel in Liverpool which was doing a 2 week trip to Amsterdam & Rotterdam  and back to Liverpool.

                                                  SS DOTTEREL
The crew was

Position                    Name                     Age                        From                            Born

Captain                 GFC Mugford            57                       Liverpool                   Liverpool

1^st Mate                 DJ Beamer                57                        Liverpool                   Liverpool

Left 9/1/61

1^st Mate               JA Gage                     26                         Wallasey                   Hemel Hempstead

2^nd Mate              CA Roy                     39                         Liverpool                  West Hartlepool

3^rd Mate              B Grace                      21                         Liverpool                  Ryton

Chief Engineer   RJ Squires                 62                          Liverpool                  Liverpool

2^nd Engineer       J McFadyen               32                         Liverpool                     Liverpool

3^rd Engineer       EG Jones                   24                          Liverpool                    Liverpool

Left 29/12/60

3^rd Engineer       ST Rogers                 35                            Wirral                        Liverpool

Left 13/1/61

3^rd Engineer      FG Noble                  24                            Salford                         Pendleton

Chief Steward   L Higman                 31                            Huyton                         Wigan

Asst Steward    J Bayliss                   18                            Manchester                   Macclesfield

Chief Cook      V Brown                   55                            Liverpool                       Liverpool

Catering Boy    TB Moses                16                            Liverpool                       Liverpool

Catering Boy    A Richardson          16                            Liverpool                       Crosby

Bosun              RG Lambert             47                            Liverpool                       Liverpool

AB                  P Keogh                    34                             Liverpool                      Liverpool

Acting Bosun 7 to 21/2/61

AB                  EA Barry                  38                           Manchester                      Manchester

AB                 G Mathers                 24                           Huyton                             Liverpool

Left 29/12/60

AB                  F Harris                   36                             Liverpool                           Dublin

Left 29/12/60

AB                  R Durbin                 29                            Runcorn                             Runcorn

Left 29/12/60

AB                DP Stewart              40                             Kirkby                                  London

AB                RJ Miller                 21                             Blackpool                              Blackpool

AB               J Vanders Huizen    61                             Rotterdam                             Rotterdam

AB              A Holden                 37                              Liverpool                                Liverpool

D/Greaser    W Spratt                 28                              Liverpool                               Liverpool

D/Greaser    A Den Esiten         54                               Holland                                  Holland

D/Greaser     M McKeown        40                               Liverpool                               Liverpool

D/Greaser     H Brannen            46                               Liverpool                              Liverpool

Fireman        C Melis                 50                              Antwerp                                  Holland

Fireman       AE Rea                 35                                Liverpool                               Liverpool

Fireman       M Morton             22                               Birkenhead                             Birkenhead

The Dotterel was originally built in 1934 as the SS Dundee, this is a model of her

 

 

 In the 2 months I was on the Dotterel I learned more seamanship than I had done during my 4 years with 'Chatty Chapmans'.
Sailing along the English Channel with only the Decca Navigator was at times challenging especially in dense fog.
On one trip from Amsterdam to Liverpool the fog was really bad and I was looking for the East Goodwin lightship when a large tanker appeared on my starboard side, he then started sounding his horn so I guessed after awhile that he had visibilty of the lightship and he started bearing down on me, so I took his cue and altered course to port, after he had passed me I went for the Skipper, he had previously told me that he only wanted disturbing in an emergency, but when I tried to wake him there was no response, I guessed he was drunk. I can't remember what happened next but I obviously made it  back on course.