Please Note: The following was originally written for general consumption and various
technical items have been recently added so for the seafarers amongst you: Sorry if I seem to ‘state the bleedin’
obvious’ a lot of the time. It was 1961 and my five year Toolmaking apprenticeship was approaching completion along
with my colleagues Colin & Terry and we all hankered after overseas travel. I'm not sure what put us onto it but we became interested in a seafaring career and would
buy the Lloyds List regularly, drooling over the far away places listed as ports of call by the then numerous shipping companies
operating out of the There was often an advertisement in the
'Geographical Magazine' for the New Zealand Shipping Company and we were much taken by the Maori names of their vessels....'Rangitiki',
'Ruahini' 'Rangitane', all names of significance in the 'Land of the long white cloud'.
So a decision was made, to apply to that company for a position as a Marine Engineer! We knew virtually nothing of ships and their associated machinery but ignorance is bliss,
and we managed to obtain a copy of Marine Engineering Knowledge and Orals, the 'Bible' we were told, for all Marine Engineering
Certificate aspirants. We became aware of a whole range of mystifying terminology and were somehow preoccupied with matters
pertaining to bilges, mud- boxes and the disposal of sludge, not necessarily in that order!
Despite the detractors, we envisaged a somewhat idyllic life- style as we cruised the
oceans and visited exotic locations whilst being paid for the privilege, due to some degree I suspect to an advertisement
for marine engineering componentry that appeared regularly in a shipping publication.
It depicted a ship's engineer in a dazzling white boilersuit complete with white topped uniform cap, epaulettes of
rank and highly polished shoes, studiously examining a set of pressure gauges (all registering zero) below which was the intriguing
caption- 'Middle watch- check on the Iberia'.
The company in question, P & O, by that time owned the NZS Co and Federal Steam but the ‘bull’ supposedly
associated with that company had not filtered down to it's new- found and lesser acquisitions
(I'm pleased to say). 'Middle watch check' and those seemingly associated
with it became a target of derision and was oft quoted tongue- in- cheek as we got around in our filthy overalls with the
sleeves cut off with tin snips, our shoes falling apart due to the effects of constant exposure to various oils and socks
that could be stood up in the corner after removal! Not quite the life- style suggested! Due to a shortage of aspiring Junior Engineers at that time we were reluctantly given
the nod by the ‘Examiner of Engineers’ in his city office but in the ‘unclassified’ category. So began the great adventure……….. Stepping smartly into the company office at the Royal Albert Dock I enquired as to the
whereabouts of the 'boat' to be told tersely that it was a ship, not a bloody boat, "a boat's a thing with oars". I was directed to the 'MV Rangitane' which
looked enormous at the dockside. I staggered up the gangway with my baggage and was greeted by a steward who enquired
as to where I was headed. He grabbed much of my burden and 'minced off' down
the passageway aft to the Engineers' quarters. "How obliging", I thought, "these fellows obviously know an officer when they
see one", albeit a very junior one. After depositing me at the door of the Second
Engineer's cabin he left with a conspiratorial wink and a cheery goodbye. I
was greeted with hoots of laughter from the rabble that were sitting around on the deck of the cabin, beers in hand."Y'eve
made a guid start there laddie, she fancies you right enough", this coming from the Scottish '2nd', who turned out to be a
notorious leg- puller! That's not to say that the steward was anything but 'a first class fairy', a particular branch of the
human race of which I had no previous knowledge or experience. I was to rapidly
find out more about them however as passenger ships had more than their fair share of 'gay' crew members.
When a ship was in it’s home port, shoreside engineers would invariably be engaged
to carry out the vast amounts of maintenance that always accrue during a voyage of any duration. Therefore the ship’s
own engineers were restricted to routine tasks due to the hold that the shore side unions had on shipboard activities once
they were engaged to carry out work. It was an easy going life that presented
itself initially, infact we would vie for any mundane task to break the monotony particularly as the Rangitane was a passenger
ship with plenty of empty cabins whilst in This lackadaisical lifestyle was in stark contrast to what was to come when the testing
of equipment was completed, the ‘Mighty Doxfords’ run at the dockside with extra mooring lines attached to prevent
the ship moving at it’s berth as the propellers churned up the sludge beneath the vessel. From the Royal Albert we would make our way to Tilbury to pick up 400 passengers having
already loaded general cargo for faraway places. The Engineers not on watch would
lean over the after rails and survey the latest crop of passengers with particular interest being shown in the young females
amongst them, having already perused the passenger list in the purser’s office whilst lining up for pay....who had their
mother with them, who was travelling alone etc. Once we got away to sea the full
enormity of what I had done hit me as we butted down the channel in late winter and gradually felt the full force of the My shipmates, with the exception of a couple of other newcomers, were no help. “Take plenty of salt tablets”, was the advice, these came straight back
up again! It was said that those who sailed regularly on passenger ships were ‘only along
for the ride’ and to my mind and particularly in retrospect, it did seem to attract a fairly untypical cross section
of engineers and I use the term engineer loosely as the one thing I found was that despite the fact that I came from a dubious
engineering background according to the Board of Trade, many of those from a supposedly heavy engineering background knew
very little about the finer points of fitting, machining and actually being able to do anything remotely skilled. Their limited skills seemed to lie in the area of the big hammer and use of a shifting spanner or
wheel key for most situations. Prior to embarking on the first voyage we newcomers were advised to “Get your own
shifter, torch and Swarfega” (a degreasant used before showering and much prized, as the alternative supplied by the
company was soft soap and sand, mixed and rubbed on to remove oil and grease, very painfully!). Several of the regulars were inclined to be ‘up themselves’ to use a modern term. ie thought
they were God’s gift to women, claimed to be accomplished drinkers and thought
they knew everything and didn’t mind saying so. The regular sight of watchkeepers throwing up in the bilges at the start
of a watch (despite it being considered a serious breach of form) from excess alcohol certainly belied at least one of the
claims. There was no doubt that it was easy to become an alcoholic, booze being
so cheap. Consequently it was a huge learning curve both technically and socially for a country
boy who had lived a fairly sheltered life and had mainly associated with quiet country folk. I have to say though that there
were some good guys from whom I learnt a lot. Eventually we moved into calmer and warmer climes which was a relief but with it came
the inevitable warming up of the engine room. We passed the Azores and headed on down to Curacao in the Quite apart from this ritual, if you were unlucky enough to find a loose nut you were
expected to fix it yourself or to coerce a reluctant colleague into assisting you. Following this procedure and any other maintenance that could be done in the time available
or that was of a pressing nature, the Chief Engineer would see that a carton of beer was made available for the bedraggled
and exhausted team. He never joined us or verbally expressed any words of appreciation.
Neither did he come into the engine room unless it was a real emergency or very occasionally to accompany some travelling
dignity on what was called a ’Cooks tour’ down below, mostly though the junior engineers were given this unpopular
task to be completed in our own time. We would take the gawking passengers to
the hottest parts of the engine room and then linger there answering questions and giving detailed explanations of the plant
whilst they writhed in discomfort, from whence we would go to the refrigeration plant room and into the brine room which was
around -12c.....if we had to be down there they were going to be sorry they asked for a tour. Other wags on watch would grease one side of the hand rails making negotiation of the highly polished
ladders very tricky, blast steam and compressed air around in close proximity to the visitors, sound bells and klaxons, close
watertight doors to frustrate the reluctant guide and scare the visitors and write vulgarities on the engine- room blackboard.
The chief would be in a high old mood if required to come down for an emergency, everyone
being held to blame for whatever had brought about such a requirement. On one
occasion the ‘rough log’ filled out down below, was accidentally spattered with oil due to a mishap. The 4th Engineer
(and it couldn’t have happened to a nicer bloke) had to ring the Chief and tell him what to expect when the log was
sent up for his perusal during the 8- 12 watch. I was the unfortunate ‘junior’
who had to face the old so- and- so at the engine room door. He snatched the book off me with suitably abusive remarks. That’s
nothing to what the 4th Engineer had to endure and I had a bit of a smirk despite my own discomfort! I think initially my worst nightmare was having to answer the engine room phone. It was
usually the bridge with a garbled message requesting the transferring of ballast to trim the ship, put water or power on deck
etc. To the new- comer the terminology was like a foreign language and the accousti- booth in which the phone was situated
did little to help separate the message from the myriad noises ever present in a working engine room. Often after several requests for the deck officer to repeat the message one would usually have to ask another
engineer to take the phone which generally resulted in a torrent of abuse especially if it were someone such as the 4th Engineer,
who would rant and rave in his Merseyside accent. Not long into the voyage the 2nd came to me and said “Hey laddie, I’ve a
wee job for you.” Pointing into the entablatures he said “You see yon lubricator quills, well several of them
are blocked and I’d like you to unblock them”. “Sure Sec, er how do I go about that then whilst everything’s
running?”. “Och it’s straight forward enough, you’ll work it out.” I became jokingly known as the ‘Lubricator king’ and I guess it went with
the territory of being the lowest first trip junior. Many a happy hour was spent crouching in the entablatures trying to time
the thrust of the drill with the parting of the pistons. Then having cleared the blockage, a refurbished n/r valve had to
be inserted between the blasts of flame, the noise of which generally brought a call down from the chief to know “What
the hell is going on down there?” Needless to say the lubricators adjacent to the
governor arm (or bacon slicer) only got done in port! For a first trip at sea our voyage was an exciting cross section of spectacular world
destinations. ‘It’s out there’ someone said down below, and I made an excuse to rush
up to the funnel door and have my first glimpse of the fabled Isles of Polynesia, the high peaks of Tahiti of Paul Gauguin,
Captain Cook, Bligh and Marlon Brando fame, wreathed in cloud, the mysterious Moorea and then the smell of copra drifting
out to meet us. As we approached the dockside the well versed regulars
pointed out ‘Quinn’s Tahitian Hut’ a bar with a long and notorious reputation where we would subsequently
obtain big hangovers and be ripped off buying drinks for the ‘wahines’ who we were warned carried every disease
known to those who frequent seaports and some others besides and who had definitely
seen better days particularly since the arrival of the French military, who seemed to be able to shatter the south sea island
image by just being there. We were threatened with dire reprisals if we should attempt to hire a motor- scooter
on such a short stop- over and reminded of the cost of air travel between Tahiti and
‘The One of the most unlikely chance meetings occurred on that first trip to NZ. We arrived
on a Friday and Saturday in port was always a half day. Whilst showering after our morning’s work someone opened the
bathroom door and yelled out “Trev, there’s someone to see you”.
Who would know me, on the other side of the world? I thought....With that, Colin, who had gone away with the same company
some months before me, poked his head around the door. His ship had arrived in After a month around the coast our passengers embarked and the whole drama began again
as we headed north on our 30 day voyage home. This time I was out of the
Engine room and enjoying the rank of 3rd ‘Freezer’ (or Refrigeration Engineer), which meant nothing in terms of
my place in the hierarchy or financially. It did mean however a fairly
cosy number which verged on the boring. This tedium was livened up by the fact that the Chief Freezer was a complete idiot. He would drink himself senseless nightly and when it was time for me to call
him for his 4 am watch he would be impossible to wake or if he did, would launch into a tirade of abuse and additionally would
often demand to know the temperatures of various refrigerated compartments of which there were dozens. This latter initially caught me out but I resolved to nightly learn them all off by heart, which
took up time and gave me a sense of satisfaction when this clown made his very
unreasonable and more often than not totally unintelligible demands. It all came
to a head when the 2nd Freezer had his birthday and when it came time for his watch at 8pm, the party was in full swing and
he was in no state to go below. I actually
nipped down, checked everything and came back up despite the fact that the Chief should have been on watch till 8 and it was his responsibility to do the first 2 hours
of the following watch in the absence of the regular watch keeper. When
I nodded across the room to him that everything was OK he yelled “You get down there and do his watch....now!”
I said “I don’t mind checking things out but I’m not doing his watch, it’s your standby”. Well one thing lead to another and the assembly looked on with amusement as
the Chief turned every colour imaginable, finally promising me that by the time the Chief Engineer had finished with me this
would be the end of my brief seagoing career. At that stage I couldn’t
have cared less.....Ultimately nothing much came of it, as even the Chief, who was pretty unreasonable, had come to the conclusion
that there was no case to answer. To annoy the Chief Freezer we would deliberately
put the coir mat ‘on the skew’ at the bottom of the steps leading down to the ‘fridg. flat. He would go
completely ‘bananas’ over this as it was one of his many areas of paranoia! Despite my less- than salubrious introduction to
the ‘merch’ as the scousers called it, I did relish the thrill of returning home from overseas, an experience
that can only be appreciated by those who have been away and returned. Things would never be quite the same again and I found
that I appreciated my home and family so much more after the experience and meeting with old friends and trips to the local
pub were much enhanced with my new- found knowledge and experience of ‘foreign parts’. Later in my career though there was a time that that aspect of the seagoing life experience
backfired badly. Peter, a regular at my local, the Holmbush Inn, was, unbeknown
to me, a WW2 fighter pilot (and as ‘camp’ as a row of tents). He would always ask me where had I been and I answered,
on the occasion in question- “Japan”, whereupon his whole countenance took on a dark and menacing appearance and
he spat out the words...”Those bastards! To think what they did to our boys.” Being somewhat taken aback, all I could say was, “Well I don’t think any
of the people I met had anything to do with it”. I did another trip to the ‘ Eventually the weather improved and I ran short of cash (as you do!).
I got a job with William France, Fenwick and Co. and very soon flew out to My shipmates were a motley crew although the senior officers on board were all ‘Company
men’. Our maiden voyage was a litany of breakdowns due to substandard equipment
and workmanship although the two guarantee engineers we had on board for almost a year were most indignant when we hooted
with derision at each failure. They would always claim that particular
item was anything but Spanish although they couldn’t do that with the main engine since although it was a 6 RD76 Sulzer, it had been built under licence by Naval in Bilbao, sad when it was based on such a beautiful
piece of Swiss engineering. Eventually Juan and Victor got to know our warped
sense of humour and towards the end of their stay made the comment-”When we come on ze Chetwood we think you all crezee,
now we think we maybe little crezee too!” Our singing, particularly
of dirty ditties, especially when doing some really onerous work, always left them shaking their heads, “The stop valve
was left- handed” requiring considerable clarification particularly to Victor who was the senior ‘managerial type’
and a very serious ‘Basque’ to boot as opposed to Juan who wielded the ‘big hammer’ and was used to
the banter of shipyard workmates and ‘hard yakka’. Leaving the Naval yards we were confronted with fresh water tanks that had been painted
internally with a bitumastic coating just prior to the ontake of fresh water. Needless to say everything became contaminated
with this foul tasting and presumably dangerous concoction. But… we had an Atlas fresh water generator and stewards
would make the hazardous (for them) trip down with jugs to draw off water from the test cock once we got it working. As soon as we left the Our first trip was a P&O charter to A few days later, a clanking could be heard in the #6 cylinder, so heave to and off with
the head where the sacrificial fire ring was found to be neatly coiled up on top of the piston! We held it up like a trophy,
jeering and hooting and if the Spaniards had had a gun they would have ended it all there and then, I’m sure! We then started to have constant problems with the 3 Ruston VEBZ diesels. We could not
stop the water circulating pump seals from leaking despite numerous replacements. It eventually turned out that the header
tank had been fitted far too high (in the funnel flat) providing head pressure in excess of that for which the carbon seal
was designed! Gear drives to the lube- oil pumps sheared with catastrophic results. At the switchboard the synchronising mechanism on one alternator failed, requiring a
screwdriver to be carefully inserted in the guts of the dead -front board to release the locking device. When we finally encountered rough weather, we found that the exhaust gases from the funnel
were being swept onto the boat deck and into the engine room ventilation system. We suffered with it for 12 months then twelve
foot extension pipes were added to the top of funnel to overcome the problem and produce some very racy lines to the ship’s
profile! The Spanner boiler gave us heaps of grief since it was well nigh impossible to keep the
burner going. Everything was tried and after quite a while a technician was sent out on a later voyage to relocate The PE
Cell mounting so that it could more effectively pick up the flame when it fired up! There was no provision for warming the main engine through and a heat exchanger was eventually
fitted after numerous complaints. A test cock blew out of a P&J cooler cover, blasting sea water straight into the
switch board disabling numerous items and from then on we noticed other brasswear breaking down ie: valve spindles snapping
off for one. Pipework started to leak and numerous ‘Thistlebond’ sessions were held to
bind up the wafer thin sections with fibreglass bandages. We would mix up the two- pack then a team would run to all parts
to carry out the repairs before the mix went off (very quickly in hot weather!). The gasket material used on flanges seemed to be nothing more than cardboard and we had
to systematically go through replacing flange joints especially on the oil- carrying lines. Makes you wonder who these so- called designers/ architects were or did Naval buy up
all the failures at a special price. On a later voyage (and I have to say I was glad to be on study leave at the time) there
was a huge breakdown on the west coast of The upshot was that it came to light that from day one the fuel injector retaining studs/
nuts should have had a heavy spring washer fitted and the nut correctly tensioned to allow for expansion. What happened without
that was that the injector nozzles had been distorted by heat with no provision for expansion and the fuel directed onto the
fire ring where it received more heat than intended resulting in failure. Over my time there we embarked on a series of voyages under charter to other companies
and never knew where we would go next. As a small company, the operators
were always keen to see outsiders that met with their approval sign up as company men and by default I found myself rapidly
promoted with this in mind. We ran around the globe visiting mainly good
places including as I have said, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Tahiti, Canada, the USA, South America, the
Philippines, Malta, The Lebanon and various other ports of call on the way. On one trip, prior to old Freddy leaving as chief to make way for the newly qualified
Chief John, (a good mate of mine), Fred took me aside and said “Ye’ll probably find he’ll coom back and
start to poke ‘is nose into everything, ‘e won’t be able to help ‘isself....if he does, tell ‘im
to get xxxxxx”. This coming from a chief who wandered round with a torch, glasses on the end of nose
peering, probing and generally making a bloody nuisance of himself.......Well, sure enough, it was exactly as Fred had predicted, but I couldn’t quite bring myself to address ‘the newly ordained chief’
in Fred’s eloquent tone especially as he was a good friend, so I quietly left him to deal with the particular problem,
dressed in his ‘best tropical rig’. Although we never spoke of it at the time, years later John had admitted that
it had been a lesson in leadership that he had learnt the hard way. However, seemingly it didn’t last as after we were
both retired and we went on a Narrow Boat cruise together, he immediately assumed superiority of rank to the extent that he
kept a log of the voyage! It was definitely a case of ‘The pot calling the kettle black’ with Fred
and on one occasion when Fred was being an even greater pain in the bum than usual, around a generator, I yelled through the
noise, “Why don’t you xxxx off chief?” “What’s
that?” he said, “I said, you can go up now if you like, I can handle this”. “You booger” he
replied, “I heard what you said!” A charter to the French company Messageries Maritimes took us on one of our best trips-
to the Pacific and a couple of weeks in Tahiti where we hired motor scooters and roamed around the No account of life on the Chatwood would be complete without reference to some of the
other characters that I was ‘privileged’ to live in close proximity to....When I first joined her as a junior
there was Jerry and Mick, Welsh 3rd and Scottish 4th Engineer respectively. A couple of nasty pieces of work after a few beers,
also ‘Nick’ a somewhat useless junior engineer, and the other junior Johnny, a scouser, who sang Beatles songs
continuously in his waking hours. As a junior I started off with Mick on
the 8 to 12 watch, Nick with 2nd John and Johnny with Gerry. Since
nobody much liked Gerry and he hated Nick, Johnny and I decided on a ploy to
get the two of them on watch together, so we asked if we could swap watches from time to time. It was agreed and so Nick and Gerry were teamed up, whereupon Johnny and I decided that
swapping watches wasn’t such a good idea after all, leaving the two antagonists permanently together and the rest of
us quite happy with the arrangement. Nick used to say “Next trip I go on Greek ship with my own people” Everyone
gave him encouragement but it was to be close to a year before such an event could take place. We used to hear Jerry ranting
and raving at the latest stuff- up that Nick had allegedly been responsible for, although to be truthful many of them could
well have been down to Jerry. Some of the best times I remember (and people paid big money to do this) was after the
evening 4 to 8 watch John and I would sit out on a ventilator cover in front of the bridge and drink an ice cold beverage
or two, with the cool breeze and a sky full of stars in the Pacific after a hot engine room….. it was the nearest thing
to heaven!
On a visit to Sydney Jerry met up with a rather tough ‘blonde sheila’ who
had seen better days but he was in no position to be fussy and fell madly in love with her, arranging for her to travel to
Wales to meet up with him when he got home. She was, as he said “to stay
with his mam up in the valleee” which amused everyone as we all thought he might possibly have just been her ticket
to the “We’ll kee- pa welcome in the hillside.........” Johnny used to keep
us in fits. Captain Billy did likewise but for entirely different reasons......
His wife Mabel would accompany Billy on some voyages which was always good for a laugh.
On one occasion Johnny had made a real mess of shaving his somewhat spotty face. With
his face a mixture of blood and shaving soap and clad only in a towel he ran up the flight of steps between the Engineers’
cabins and the Mates to show the 3rd Mate what he had done, having done so, he leapt back down the stairs, towel flailing
open, singing “She looves yuh, yeah, yeah, yeah” only to be confronted by Captain and Mrs ascending the same stairway, his only reaction was to attempt an impromptu salute whilst gathering the
towel about his partially exposed nether regions, muttering “Captn.....Mrs W.”
It seems that after the initial shock of the confrontation they did eventually see the funny side of it, as Billy said
later “My wife had never seen anything like it!” Funnily enough saluting is not part of shipboard etiquette in
the ‘merch’ so goodness knows what possessed him to do that, panic I suspect! Another time a group of us were on the monkey island above the bridge watching Billy’s
somewhat unorthodox antics whilst attempting to manoeuvre the ship at a busy anchorage. Without looking down, Johnny blurted out in his loud scouse brogue “What’s
the stupid so- and- so oop to now?” only belatedly to see ‘Billy’ looking up from just a few feet below. We all quietly took 3 paces backwards in an attempt to distance ourselves from Johnny. It was he who confronted a stowaway in the shaft tunnel outward bound from Dar- es-
Salaam. I was having a quiet drink with Dickie, the chief engineer, when the engine room phone
rang, I could hear a garbled Johnny on the other end and the chief’s face turned to a frown and then a grin. “Johnny
reckons he’s found a stowaway in the shaft tunnel, I suppose we better have a look”. Sure enough when we got down there. a pathetic african male was cowering in a corner, Johnny stood
back, brandishing a shifter. He described the sequence of events thus: “I
was joost checkin’ the baarins and this XXXXXXX black guy sproong out with his ‘ands oop.” The ‘black guy’ came with what he stood up in and remained on the ship for several voyages
becoming very popular with all concerned before heading home to Nigeria, I think it was, with great wealth, presumably to
become chief of the village or whatever, after being eventually signed up as a crew member. Captn. Billy liked the odd tipple and one particular form of ’sport’ was
to lure him away from Mabel on some pretext, ply him with drinks to which he offered only token resistance and send him back
legless to face the music. On one occasion with his cap on sideways. They
would then come down for lunch with Bill making an even bigger fool of himself and Mabel with a face like thunder giving us
that “I know you so- and- so’s are responsible for this”. We would all gulp down our lunch and beat a hasty retreat! Bill fancied himself as bit of a wine and cheese connoisseur but would often attempt to palm us off with
a cheap alternative wine on Sunday mornings when the senior officers traditionally gathered in his quarters but we were a-wake
up to his tactics and would protest loudly whereupon he would reluctantly get the good stuff out. I can still see Dickie hacking into Bill’s special cheese with Bill beside himself over the
desecration. He kept a supply of smaller cheeses in the cook’s storeroom and when Ronnie the cook was on board he and
I would feast on one nightly. Ronnie would also make a brew of Japanese green tea and have a cup waiting for me when I came
off watch in the morning. Billy liked to hob-nob with dignitaries when we were
in foreign ports. On one occasion in When I came home on leave I would always visit the friends I had made over the years
and Colin was one of these. On one occasion when I called round to view Colin’s first born, he had his cousin Pat from
After a few short trips on other
vessels of FF’s, I left the sea and came to grips with the prospect of
only earning half the wage I’d been accustomed to…..although 4 years later we moved back to Oz where Hospital
Engineering became the job of choice and I met up with with a fair number of old sea- dogs, and the
rest, as they say, is history! Oft
used expression “If you cant take a joke You shouldn’t have joined” ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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