Originally Posted by
Clive Burrows
Lewis McColl. The chinese crew I sailed with in Blue Flue (Alfred Holt & Co (Engine room and stewards) were excellent hard working men and on a few occasions I went ashore in Indonesia and other foreign places with the younger chinese firemen who could speak english well and knew the good places to visit. I would not say the Blue Flue engineers were lazy, but the chinese firemen were professional and did their job meticulously and so helped the engineers become more professional. I never smoked and regularly took and stored my ration of cigarettes and when we left Indonesia (where the crew sold soap, cigarettes, clothes and everything for rupees) When the crews smokes were all gone, smokers were in severe withdrawal with no cigs on issue. I gave my large carton to my fireman to share, He was so grateful, he invited me to the poop deck where the Chinese firemen cooked me a chinese banquet. Being an Aussie, one reason I joined UK Blue flue, was I just avoided the mandatory birthday ballot to go to Vietman, where some of my mates were later killed, and those who survived came back slightly damaged. Blue flue was a valuable education for me. I served / sailed with Blue flue from 1968 to 1971. I got my second steam engineers in Glasgow, and a scottish wife also. Went back to Australia for a further 4 years at sea and got my combined chief engineers (Steam and Diesel) in 1974. I retired ashore in 1976 as a consulting engineer in high rise buildings. It is hard to track down the crews and engineers I sailed in Blue flue on SS Jason, SS Patrocolus, SS Perseus, SS Talthibius and SS Ulysses. Clive Burrows R865333 UK Seamans Record Book issued 30 Sep 1968.