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Article: Hain- Norse Trewidden.

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    Hain- Norse Trewidden.

    17 Comments by Trevor Bodiam Published on 30th January 2019 10:59 AM
    After my first 3 ships being B.P. tankers i’d decided that i needed to see more of the world than the Persian gulf or being loaded offshore at places like Sidon so tried Union Castle and had great times around African coast on Rothesay Castle, doing 3 trips on her.
    Stupidly took another tanker the Bedford on maiden voyage from yard in Japan and ended up of course in the gulf. [think i only took her because the flight to join her was via Anchorage, Alaska and over the pole and that idea sold me ]. Got a VNC when i walked off her in Rotterdam and got ferry home.
    Made a vow to myself never to go near the gulf again under any circumstances.
    Then tried some liners - Andes, Queen Mary and had some experiences that come with such vessels.
    After the Mary and back to the pool and was offered the Trewidden and had to join her in Antwerp.
    Loaded everywhere including England and we were carrying beer, gin, whisky, and so many more items required for our armed forces serving - where else but the bases in the Persian gulf.
    About 6 and a half months and what a great ship.
    We spent many hours down the holds of a night helping ourselves to cases of Tuborg, and any spirit we fancied.
    I think we only did 5 or 6 ports if you can call them that and mostly were anchored off when unloading.
    Sharjah was a very entertaining stop drinking in the canteen with the troops where we met a guy who was immune to pain and would enthrall us by butting his cigarettes out on his hands and arms. He was a very crazy character and his skin was a mess from burns that he couldn’t feel.
    Some of us - bout 18 or 20 of us paid some local boys who had boats to take us ashore one night and after much alcohol we tried to steal a boat to get back to the ship but were picked up by a very scruffy security force of some kind all carrying automatic rifles. We were bundled into the back of a truck and it appeared to be driven into the desert and we were convinced they were going to shoot us and were hysterical with fear and laughter. We arrived at some sort of warehouse that had low benches inside and was very brightly lit with ceiling lights, concrete floors and no windows and instructed to sit on the benches.
    It became very cold and we spent the night shivering and trying to sleep before the truck came back in the morning and took us back to the ships boat still under armed escort.
    The whole trip we really only got ashore properly as in tied up to a wharf once and that was in Mombassa on the way back home.
    We were somewhere in the Gulf for Ramadan and as we were drinking constantly the natives who were living on board got angry with us and started to play up. After several scuffles and heated threats from both sides they decided to revolt and were becoming a major threat.
    Due to our cargo we were always slighty tipsy or even worse and we were up for trouble if it started.
    I found a length of steel rod in the engine room and was trying to sharpen it to a point for a weapon when one of the engineers turned the grinder wheel off - for my own safety,- and i went back to see what was happening up top. The natives were screaming and banging on the steel access door to the deck and i went to the door and asked one of my mates to open it and let me at’em. He swung the door open and i leapt through it only to be smashed across the side of the head with a large piece of deck timber and that’s the last i knew until i awoke 15 or so minutes later.
    There was lots of questions asked and the whole unloading crew were changed for new workers and shore authorities requested some crew members go ashore and identify those we thought had stirred the trouble, but no-one was willing to go as we all were too scared to do so.
    We returned to Sharjah some time later and went looking for the painless man only to be told he’d been discharged on medical grounds.
    Radio Sharjah was the base station and they were having a charity drive where they were playing the same record continuously until someone phoned in with a request and paid money to change the song. We thought this was a great idea animist of the crew donated a pound or two and we got together about 35 - 40 pounds and i was the one who called the station and my request was for the Beatles - Sergeant Peppers. A few were happy but most did not want to hear it until someone topped our bid which i thought very unlikely.
    After 1 play it was taken off air and i wasn’t very popular, gotta laugh thinking back.
    This was such a happy ship and even though we didn’t go to any desirable places it was the second most enjoyable ship of my Merchant navy time.
    After joining this site i got in touch with an A.B. from the Trewidden who was also on the Port Montreal with me 2 years later. Hadn’t spoken to him since 1969 and after saying Hello Mate, how are you he said “Hey Trev remember when you got knocked out”.
    Both he and his younger brother were on the Port Montreal but that was another story that was 11 months of madness and mayhem and the greatest ship of my life.
    I know some of you have had bad times with Hain’s but maybe i was fortunate to be with them when they were Hain-Norse as it was a very good ship with good cabins, food was good and plentiful.
    If you have a good laugh, good crew, good food and accommodation what more do you need ?

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    Default Re: Hain- Norse Trewidden.

    Hi Trevor.
    My first ship was a Hain's boat the Trevose, I did four trips on her two years all up, mostly the same crew amidships but one or two changes down aft, same bosun. The best ship UK I was ever on, went everywhere but always ended up in Aus.
    Cheers Des

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    My first trip was on the Treworlas, a real oldy, the bow section had been blown off during the war, and a longer section stitched back on. Finally managed to visit the Haines museum in St Ives, Cornwall last year, well with a visit. Hains was good company, always seemed to have happy crews, kt
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    Default Re: Hain- Norse Trewidden.

    St Ives once had its very own shipping company called The Hain Line. From the 1850s, Captain Edward Hain, who was from a long line of local fishermen, built up a small fleet of sailing ships. The company later switched from sail to steam and expanded rapidly. During 1906–c1930, these premises were the Hain Shipping Office and then the Hain Estate Office. The building later became part of Curnow’s Hotel and then a nightclub, in 1978.

    https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restau...l_England.html

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    Default Re: Hain- Norse Trewidden.

    Quote Originally Posted by Keith Tindell View Post
    My first trip was on the Treworlas, a real oldy, the bow section had been blown off during the war, and a longer section stitched back on. Finally managed to visit the Haines museum in St Ives, Cornwall last year, well with a visit. Hains was good company, always seemed to have happy crews, kt
    ###they had some decent vessels keieth but also some old bangers.......visited the museum many years ago and it was worth seeing saw my old vessel there the trewellard ....coal burning galley ......now that was hot up the gulf ......was told dont go ashore in abadan apart from the seamans club .....as there was trouble brewing against the brits .....a swede or german had his throat cut and chucked in the river .....but young and with more balls than sense my oppo and i set of to the local market to by jeans and tee shirts.....the price was not right and the vendor started screaming as they do up there.....the next thing a punch in the back of the head turned round another punch ....the same with my oppo ..then 8 or ten all started punching and spitting it appeard then every body was giving us a kicking ...i was going down when a whistle blew so loudly and the crowd scattered .....there was a woman in western dress and two army types ..i can remember seeing yellow stripes on there trouser legs .....she spoke perfect english and we were told later she was the Shars secret police....she was waving a hand gun round .....we were escorted back to the ship black and blue ........but interestingly a RN vessel arrived to tie up near us and quickly rent a mob appeared throwing stones etc and again screaming like they do......after a short while action stations was called ovr the tannoy and she started the whoop whoop of a naval vessel the guns on deck were manned and swung round to the quay ......hussain bolt had nothing on them blokes they were trampling each to get away ......strangeley enough we had been discharging boxes of ammo and others of explosive nature ....so where they ended up .....who knows ....that was 58......cappy

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    Default Re: Hain- Norse Trewidden.

    Mine was the Trevaylor, Tramping around the Mexican Gulf and South America, I was lucky to be with a mixed crowed who where all great lads Jocks/ Geordies/ Scousers/ Paddy's/Taffies/Bosun was a great guy he went by the name of Cockney Sparrow he was from poplar London. Even sailed with a guy from Burnley that was a first and last Regards Terry.
    Last edited by Red Lead Ted; 4th February 2019 at 10:43 AM.
    {terry scouse}

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    Default Re: Hain- Norse Trewidden.

    Cappy, sure is a wonder we survived these situation, being young and stupid, i also ran into trouble in East London SA, in 59, got rolled by some white SA, and smacked over the head with a pistol, and they really meant the business, have to confess, the common denominator is usually the booze. Thank god these days i,m more sensible !!!, but aint it bloody boring ?, kt
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    Default Re: Hain- Norse Trewidden.

    Good old St. Ives company, later moved to Cardiff - lock, stock and barrel.

    K.

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    Apparently most of the Hains boats were named after Cornish villages, and named by the founders wife. While touring in Cornwall i made the effort to find Treworlas village, was not even really a village, just a gaggle of houses and a timber hall for the locals, kt
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    Default Re: Hain- Norse Trewidden.

    Quote Originally Posted by Keith Tindell View Post
    Cappy, sure is a wonder we survived these situation, being young and stupid, i also ran into trouble in East London SA, in 59, got rolled by some white SA, and smacked over the head with a pistol, and they really meant the business, have to confess, the common denominator is usually the booze. Thank god these days i,m more sensible !!!, but aint it bloody boring ?, kt
    ####yes boring for sure although the river swale runs through our village and on sat it was in spate with the snow melting up the hills ...a woman flagged my son christian downand was in a state of shock crying a man is in the river and is drowning ....christian went in a got him out then found he had lost his keys so pat went to pick him up ...it appears the guys dog had gone in then he had slipped and couldnt get any purchase ...chris got him out and an ambulance was called .....any way my buddy charlie the rugby player grandson is home from france today as NICE dont have a game for a couple of weeks or so so it will keep me busy ...........he will be happy they won by a big margin yesterday happy days.......regards cappy

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