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Thread: Skycrest

  1. #11
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    Default Re: Skycrest

    Many thanks ivan

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  3. #12
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    Default Re: Skycrest

    Hi Don

    Can't remember playing any football but boy was China in the dark ages 50 plus years ago. I remember one of Hain's ships berthed aft of us and we had to smuggle our books ashore tucked down our trousers so we could do a book swap, they didn't like any western material at all much the same as the Yanks were in New York about the propaganda stuff. Fancy taking a man's souvenir books away from him haha.

    I remember buying one of those heavy blue kapok jackets for peanuts and it certainly came in handy for the snow Canada.

    Was I right about the Fri 13th question you asked?

    How long did you stay at sea after Skycrest ?

    Regards
    Dave

  4. #13
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    Default Re: Skycrest

    Hi Dave

    I also had a blue jacket wore it until it fell apart.

    I found a newspaper cutting about 9 months ago and I have put it some where safe,thats right can,t find it now, on Friday 13th we put in to port to have the ships gyro-compass repaired and have new Co2 bottle fitted to the fire system before they would let us through the canal there was a bit more but can,t remember what it was, when I find it again I,ll let you know the rest.

    After the Skycrest I joined Mavrolens Southwick not as happy a ship as Skycrest, on iron ore run then a few years latter joined the Victor also Mavrolens (both managed by Ivanonvic) went light ship to Newport News to load coal for Vitoria had 2/3 weeks there rain kept stopping play, then iron ore back, it must have been a long old run down for you on the Orecrest? Victor was also a happy ship.

    I,ll save how I gave the sea up to tell some time later.

    Keep The Lamp Swinging

    Don

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    Default Re: Skycrest

    HI Don

    I think Brazil was about a six week trip. Sometimes the longer trips got a bit boring but it was nice to see a different country now and again, I lost count of how many trips we did to North Africa Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia.
    We had a Maltese messboy on that trip to Brazil and before he even attempted to go ashore he bought a bottle of the local firewater, made from peanuts I think, and after drinking it he woke up 3 days later back at sea and didn't even know we had been to Brazil. Although it sounds funny now, at the time he was vomiting 24/7 and had to be constantly watched in the sickbay.

    Somewhere in my a paper cutting of Skycrest arriving in Port Taranaki N.Z. the unusual heavy lift derrick caused a stir.

    Also have cuttings when the Orecrest lost her steering in a hurricane coming back from Narvik, we had to be towed into Trondheim and stayed there for a month for repairs.

    Watch her when she rolls.

    Dave

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    Default Re: Skycrest

    Hi Dave, talking to an acquaintance about 18 months back he told me about the trouble with the steering gear on the Orecrest, he read that you had a rough time of it,going to Narvik. Navik was my first trip on the 12 to 4 and come the midnight watch about 2 O,clock after I had opened the F O purifiers and filled the F O tanks, I used to think never again no more rolly poly iron ore boats for me but you soon forget the bad times and remember the good times.

    Somewhere in my collection I have a cutting of Skycrest on the N Z coast when I find all I will let you know what port it was.

    Talking to a guy a while back about the Cuban crisis, do you know if Ivanovics Tidecrest / Rivercrest was involved he seems to think that they were?

    Keep Swinging The Lamp

    Don

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    Default Re: Skycrest

    Hi Don

    Yeah the Narvik trip was a bit scary and strangely enough a pal of mine picked up an old copy of Sea Breezes or something similar and what was in it but an article about the breakdown written by the C/E a man called Scrivens who by the sound of things lives in Aussie. I can obviously still remember him but he must be a good old age by now. It was quite enlightening to read some facts which, at the time we were unaware of, and how close we actually came to being abandon ship !!!

    Keep your powder dry

    Dave

    Not too sure if any of the other Ivanovic ships were involved in the Cuba crisis but when I was in touch with an old mate who was a cadet on the Tidecrest she always seemed to be on the Central/South American trips, so it wouldn't come as a surprise.

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    Default Re: Skycrest

    HI Dave
    Well although we have had a few thousand hits on site still no fellow crew members have come foward does this mean that we could be the only crew left that sailed with Ivanovic ?.
    I still maintain that the Skycrest was the happiest ship that I sailed on.

    Keep Swinging The Lamp

    Don

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    Default Re: Skycrest

    Hi Don
    Nice to hear from you again. Yes I agree although we have had lots of "hits" i am disappointed that we have not heard from Fellow "Ivanovic - Crest Shipping Company" shipmates. Even though the Company then,was much smaller than in it's heyday i would have thought that even shipmates from the few ships we had left e.g. Orecrest, Tidecrest, Southwick, Formentor to name the ones i can remember,would have joined in to "chew the fat " Surely we can't be the only two old salts left but then again we were in the minority as English crew, we did have a very Cosmopolitan crew in those days, predominantly Yugoslavs because of the Company founder,Peter Ivanovic, then Spanish, Italian and you name it. It was a bit like the Foreign Legion we never knew why or where they came from. haha.

    We'll keep fishing shipmate we might get a bite yet

    Watch her when she rolls

    Kindest Regards

    Dave

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  12. #19
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    Default Re: Skycrest

    Hi Dave
    Just joined this site to see if I could find anything about my mother's cousin Ralph Lowes. I grew up on Vancouver Island, and remember well when the Skycrest was there. "Uncle Ralph" used to invite us to the ship for dinner. One time my sister and I were allowed to bring friends with us! C/E Patterson made a big fuss over us (we were about 10 or 11 years old). He poured us all several glasses of cider, which he reassured my mother was non-alcoholic. Mom had a hard time explaining to the friends's mothers how they got so tipsy.
    Thank you for saying such nice nice things about Uncle Ralph. Of course, I totally agree with your opinion of him.
    Susan

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  14. #20
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    Default Re: Skycrest

    Hi Susan
    Nice to hear from someone who remembers the ship. Capt Lowes was an absolute toff as was the Chief Engineer Patterson, it was a pleasure to be "Captains Tiger" as the 2nd Steward was often called. I remembered BC with much affection and have been out there on 12 occasions for holidays. We had two lots of friends who lived out there, one set lived at Roberts Creek on the Sunshine Coast before retiring, buying a boat and are currently in Florida about to do the Panama and then on to NZ and Aussie. Our other friends used to live in Langley just outside of Vancouver where they ran a company called Commercial Dust Control. They have recently sold their business and moved to the Island and are now living in a place called Cowichan Bay. If you are familiar with the area they live in one of those seafront houses built on stilts, (the one with the red roof) where my pal has a dock leading from his house and keeps his 40ft Sea Ray cruiser. We visited them in 2014 and i didn't want to come home it's so beautful.
    I was on the Skycrest for 19 months and on two occasions in that period we did Vancouver, Victoria, Nanaimo and New Westminster so chances are i might have been on board when you visited. (I was there when Kennedy was assassinated). I was sad to hear some years later that Capt Lowes had died, he once told me he had been at sea for 45 years and reckoned in all that time he had spent less than 5 years at home, such was the nature of the Merchant Navy back then.
    I am really delighted that you have picked up this thread, my other shipmate, Don, and i were about to give up hope haha.

    Best wishes to you and yours

    Dave West

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