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Thread: Accommodation.

  1. #11
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    Default Re: Accommodation.

    I've only ever served on one Jap built ship, was a bulk carrier. As I recall the ship was about 5 years old when I joined. The accomodation was not nice, most cabins were just painted steel with very little thought to any comfort. The Officers mess consisted of one long table with steel framed chairs with wooden bases. The old man (a Yugoslavian) had a habit of purchasing fish from fishing boats at sea, hence most meals consisted of fish (I've not eaten fish since). Although the 'fish' thing had nothing to do with the drab accomodation, it didn't help.

  2. #12
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    Default Re: Accommodation.

    The Yugoslavs must have something about fish. During a bad time in the North Sea I took a job on A FOC ship the Yugoslav ship master was about the most ignorant seafarer I have ever sailed with apart from one other. We had pirates on board in South America through his ignorance. He would not buy food stores , sailed from Guyana with a few watermelons for a passage to Italy, I said wheres the food , he said we”ll stop a fishing boat and buy for cigarettes. I said where are you going to find fishing boats in the South Atlantic. Of course no fishing boats. Arriving Italy 2 of the 4 crew had To go to hospital for malnutrition , I in the meantime had sent my notice in to the owners. He was sacked but wouldn’t leave the ship and insisted on staying on board wth the new Iranian master until the ship arrived in Ireland. People don’t know the half of it. One of the ships I can’t remember the name of. Must be my memory wants to forget it. JWS
    Last edited by j.sabourn; 26th November 2018 at 09:25 AM.

  3. #13
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    Default Re: Accommodation.

    THE ACCOMMODATION ON THIS ONE TAKES SOME BEATING......................

    This was a hard ship,

    SS BEECHFIELD
    W. SAVAGES, Ltd. ZILLAH STEAMSHIP CO

    I joined the BEECHFIELD in Liverpool in at the end of November 1952, she was built in Lytham, around 1900, a coal burning steamship, tall woodbine funnel, and an open wheelhouse, oil skins and sea boots were required when on the wheel, I was 17 years old and an Ordinary Seaman.
    We lived in the focsle underneath the chain locker, a square hatch on the deck next to the chain locker with a vertical ladder going down to a dark and smoky open focsle with two firemen, two ABs and me, it was a death trap down there
    There was no electricity on board, all the navigation lights and accommodation lights were oil lamps, and my job was to keep them trimmed daily. Down in the fore peak where we lived was one grimy oil lamp, and it was still dark with that on, there was a coal bogey in the middle surrounded with ash, cinders and coal and the smoke was thick, there was no ventilation down there, we were below the water line when she was loaded. There were five filthy bunks, black with coal dust mattress, one filthy blanket, of course no sheets, pillows or towels. There was no bathroom sinks or toilet, it was unbelievable.
    One old fireman was 84 years old and permanently bent over at an angle of 90 degrees, he had never paid off for over 25 years he had no where to live and would have lost his job if he had paid off so he was there for ever.
    The other fireman was a completely mad Irishman, always talking to himself and sometimes he had terrific arguments,
    There were two ABs, one was over 80 years old, and had no where else to live, the other one joined with me, he was OK but after one week he leapt ashore, I was going as well but the Skipper, Captain Jim Marshall, made me up to AB, with a big increase in pay, so I stayed on for a bit longer.
    We loaded coal for Dublin, Belfast, Londonderry, and stone from Paenmenmawr and Trevor in North Wales and Peel Island back to Liverpool. If you wanted a crap or a shower you had to wait until you got to the other side and leg it to the Seamens Mission.
    It was December, the weather was atrocious, and on the open bridge the wheel was six feet in diameter with chains and rods to the rudder. When she was shipping seas they would go right over the open wheel house and you would get swept off the wheel and if you hung on to the wheel and a sea hit the rudder it would spin and throw you over the top and across the bridge if you tried to hang on.
    The Captains way of navigating to Belfast or to the North of that would be ""Keep it on this magnetic course and if you see a light ahead it would be the Isle of Man so bring her round to port and when the light is abaft the Starboard beam bring her round to the next course, I will see you tomorrow," then all hands would turn in, I would be up there for about ten hours clinging to a spinning wheel, the sea, hail, snow and rain blinding my eyes, soaking wet and hands frozen to the wheel.
    During one of these storms after leaving Derry, with big heavy seas and swell coming in from the North Atlantic, the Cook got burned to death, A large pan of chip fat was flung off the stove and went all over him when the ship took a big roll, and then it burst into flames when some went onto the galley fire and he became a ball of flame and collapsed on deck into the scupper screaming his last.
    The Cook was dying in the scuppers, blackened by the flames, the Second Engineer caught sight of him leaping about and then collapsing. He got a bucket of water and flung it over him to dowse the flames but it was too late. He had gone to where all good Cooks and not so good Cooks go to, that great Galley, with unlimited stores, in the sky.
    All this time the wind was blowing a hooley and seas crashing over the decks.
    We had to pick him up and we laid him on the hatch, Captain Marshall certified him dead. He told us to lash him on the hatch, a line around his wrists and ankles and star shaped, he said the salt spray, would keep him fresh and stop him from stinking. He looked gruesome lying there especially at night his head moving backwards and forwards with the ship rolling. He stayed there until we arrived in Liverpool two days later. A Policeman and an undertaker came down and took him away.
    The Mad Irishman would sit on the hatch and have some terrific arguments with the dead Cook, and became angry when the Cook was ignoring him.
    The Captain told me I was to be the Cook, until they got a replacement but I still had to do the night watches on the wheel. There was not enough food to go round, what the Cook had done with the food money no one knew, but he had a few empty whisky bottles in his bunk.
    On those Coasters, known as Weekly Boats, you got paid weekly and out of your wage you had to pay the Cook for the food every Friday, and then he went ashore shopping including getting drunk in the alehouse on the way.
    I was knackered doing the night watch as well as Cooking, but a few days later he found some dead beat `Cook` from somewhere.
    Then he got rid of the Mad Irishman, he was in the focsle and started an argument with the coal bogey and because it would not stand up and fight he kicked the crap out of it, flaming coals and hot ash and smoke was all over the focsle, fire was burning every where. We had to leap up on deck and throw a heaving line with a bucket attached over the side and the pass the bucket of water down the hatch to pour on the flames. After a few of these the focsle was full of smoke and steam.
    "That`ll teach the baatard not to fight wid me". said Paddy
    The Captain kicked him down the gangway. I was going to follow, `I`ll promote you to Fireman` said Captain Marshall, `it is a good experience`.
    It sure was, four hours on and four hours off, two furnaces, do your own trimming. Feed `em, throw a pitch on, a little twist of the wrist and jerk and spread the coal evenly across the fires, rake and slice break up the clinker, dump your own ashes at the end of the four hour watch, keep her on the blood, 180 psi, and watch the water level, I got myself a belt with the buckle at the back. A buckle at the front could blister your belly with heat of the furnace on the metal. The sweat would cut rivers in the ash and coal dust stuck to my face and chest.
    No lights down there, just the light from the flames in the furnace, like something out of Dante. After dumping the ashes and handing over with a load of coal on the plates for the next man it would be twenty minutes later, then fight my way forard between the waves and then crash on my filthy mattress still covered in ash and coal dust, at seven bells, three hours later, get down to the galley have a bacon butty and then stagger down the fiddly to the furnaces.
    After one month I had had enough, and paid off, a much wiser and fitter man. Even though Captain Marshall pleaded with me to stay on, "I will teach you Navigation if you do, and then you can go Mate".
    Next week I went back to the Pool, Mr Repp said, "Why didn?t you stay there you have only been there for a month" it seemed like a lifetime to me, I had aged ten years, "Here is another coaster, one of Everards, the `Amity." . That is another story.
    Last edited by Captain Kong; 18th May 2012 at 08:33 PM.

  4. #14
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    Default Re: Accommodation.

    ###always a treat to read brian ...they were proper hardships .....and hard times .....but what a learning curve for life .....you did more by you would be 17 than ...billions have done in a boring lifetime ....but then some do it some dont ....its what makes the world go round..them who have done it and them who leave no mark just pass through ....sadly.....respects cappy

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    Default Re: Accommodation.

    Quote Originally Posted by j.sabourn View Post
    The Yugoslavs must have something about fish. During a bad time in the North Sea I took a job on A FOC ship the Yugoslav ship master was about the most ignorant seafarer I have ever sailed with apart from one other. We had pirates on board in South America through his ignorance. He would not buy food stores , sailed from Guyana with a few watermelons for a passage to Italy, I said wheres the food , he said we”ll stop a fishing boat and buy for cigarettes. I said where are you going to find fishing boats in the South Atlantic. Of course no fishing boats. Arriving Italy 2 of the 4 crew had To go to hospital for malnutrition , I in the meantime had sent my notice in to the owners. He was sacked but wouldn’t leave the ship and insisted on staying on board wth the new Iranian master until the ship arrived in Ireland. People don’t know the half of it. One of the ships I can’t remember the name of. Must be my memory wants to forget it. JWS
    ###only once bought fish at sea john ...on the Cragmor down to oz ...off pitcain we lost some deck cargo canadian timber out they came when the weather calmed and big fresh fish was exchanged for goodies from old roberts......always remember the ship smelled like a forest with the sap coming from the timber it was a good land smell......happy days

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    Default Re: Accommodation.

    Roberts must be a long time dead by now Cappy. Funny old bloke not too well liked by most, but I always got on with him , called his bluff a couple of times and he was ok after that. If he saw you were weak he would take advantage. Caught me coming back to the ship in the morning in Kobe, called me up and started to give me a bollocking , said hold on a minute what I do ashore is none of your business, I’m free white and over 21. He carried on about not setting the crowd a good example , I said half the crowd were where I was last night and they couldn’t give two hoots what I do. After that never bothered me again. His bark was worse than his bite, was just a
    lonely old man , probably had nightmares from various sinkings during the war years. RIP Capt. Roberts. Cheers JS

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  8. #17
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    Default Re: Accommodation.

    When I was on Bibby's LPG carrier Staffordshire we were told to stop and drift off the coast of Sri Lanka and wait for orders.
    We did that for I think it was two weeks. Anyway we had a visit from a fishing boat and they wanted to sell us some fish. Well it was certainly fresh enough as it was still flapping. We got all sorts from them even a Blue Marlin. We had a case of whiskey onboard and it was horrible stuff, certainly was not Scotch or Irish that's for sure. So we paid for the fish with this and ciggies. I am sure a deckie can help me out here!! the current had us drifting from Sri Lanka back towards the Malacca straits. So after a week? we sailed back to our original position and stopped again. The next day the same fishing boat was back again threatening blue murder, they said we had robbed them as the whiskey was fire water(it was ) so we did the decent thing and bought more fish with 555 cigarettes that must have been on the ship since she was built, I think the ciggies were in tins of 200? Me I love fish and I will eat form of sea food apart from sea slug.

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    Default Re: Accommodation.

    ###coming down the jetty from the alkali pub in adelaide i was carrying to buchets of beer having been sent with a load of foriegn coins before the swill finished ....as i got to the gangway ..old roberts appeared on the wing of the bridge .....bellowing what is in them buckets ......with his bullhorn in hand ...me it is beer captain ....him beer beer who sent you for that ....me i dont know captain ......him you have been aboard this ship for 6 months and you doint know who sent you are you bloody thick ...me not answering ....him throw it in the harbour now ....now i say ......so i dutifully threw the two buckets into the harbour whereby all hands standing round roared .....shouting let the boy alone and other things....his parting shot ..you will pay for them buckets and of he went....

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    Default Re: Accommodation.

    Had to reply to this great post Brian, as you know I also sailed with W.A. Savages out of L'pool in the early '60s as a deck boy and then j.o.s. Must say they had moved on since your experience in the '50s, I had my own cabin above the prop' always warm bit noisy in heavy weather but clean and tidy in all, had to pay weekly for food and only as good as to the cooks sobriety, but all in all good little ship. Went on the Thomas M after (Metcalfes) now this had to be the worst accomodation that I encountered while at sea. Three sailors aft' cabin over the prop' damp bulkheads ringing in condensation, no heating, no hot water no showers, toilet and basin adjoined cabin about a metre square The crapper was a piece of engineering, had no flush water just a lever which operated a sluice gate. Timing this wonderful bit of "Old British engineering" was a must in heavy weather if after releasing a hostage you pulled the lever as the ship was going down in the swell, the sea water came straight back up the drop pipe and deposited all the contents on the deckhead (nice one). Never got it wrong pull the lever on the crest only with screw racing or get covered in s#it !! A dirty little British Coaster that they spent nowt' on
    Last edited by Ken Norton; 26th November 2018 at 08:02 PM.

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  14. #20
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    Default Re: Accommodation.

    Hi Brian.
    Chain and rod steering, Oh what joy, would have been better if they had a chair over the bow and push her around. We were lucky not to have broken arms and sometimes legs to hang on., I could smell the smoke from the coal bogey when I was reading your account. We had the same death trap on the forecastle, a hatch to get down to the smoke hole that was our berth, it's funny but in my memory it was always either heavy weather or pistling down.
    It was much better when i was steering the Bounty up Sydney harbour on the big wheel with ropes and blocks down to the rudder, smooth man, but would have been a different experience in heavy weather.

    Des

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