Better Times
by Published on 26th September 2018 01:34 PM
Cityof Hereford 2.jpg
It was September 1951 when I left Esso Tankers and in October joined the “City of Hereford” as a Quartermaster/Able Seaman. Her main trade was the UK to and from various ports in India. General cargo outwards and raw material homeward. She was an old ship, built in 1927 and basic in the navigation department, no gyro compass, no automatic steering and 1951 was long before the days when radar was fitted to Merchant ships. She was a coal burner with a steam ‘up and down’ engine but nevertheless capable of twelve knots. She was owned by the Ellerman group which had a massive fleet of ships trading mainly to India, and of course they all carried Indian crews, with British Officers, Engineers and Quartermasters. The “City of Hereford” was no exception.
The Captain was the epitome of an English gentleman and was nearing retirement, as was his ship, he was frail but always very pleasant, even under the discomfort of the heat of Bombay where he wore his white tropical uniform as though it was a personal air conditioner, he also reeked of Germolene. His demeanor was the same even when muffled up and on the bridge during the stress and cold of transiting the English Channel in thick fog.
There were two cadets, both about my age, who had the same ambition as me but had the advantage of a far better education and were products of excellent pre-sea training schools such as the “Conway”. We had a mutual respect, but it was at arms length, after all, they were better educated and were expected to become officers, while I was ‘clawing my way up the hawsepipe’. Oh, how we British loved and protected our class distinctions!
There were six QMs, two to a watch, and our duties were steering and other general duties around the Bridge. Quartermasters were generally older ABs who could no longer face the rigours of general ship work, at my age of eighteen I was considerably younger and so was know as ‘the young QM’ a title which I retained until I passed my Second Mate’s Certificate two years later. We had our own cabin and a mess room which was quite spacious with plenty of table surfaces for me to use while studying. We also had the services of Indian stewards. The Indian crew did all the other ship work under the directions of the Chief officer and second engineer who were ably abetted by the senior Indian, a fearsome looking character called the ‘Sarang’.
This was my first experience of Indian crews and I was impressed by their numbers, at least twice as many as a European crew, but after a while I learned that there were reasons for this. There were very many unemployed in India and the authorities wanted to see as many employed as possible, and their pay was far less. The Indian cast system controlled what job a man could do, for instance a low cast man could only do menial jobs such as sweeping decks and cleaning toilets, woe betide him if he handled a rope. There was strict segregation between Indian crew and the Europeans, mainly due to religion. Our crew had to have their own eating and cooking facilities, as did the Europeans; so, there were two galleys. This made for a lot of crew but all in all it worked very well. Communication with the crew was expected to be in Hindustani although some could speak good English, this led to my purchase of another book called ‘The Malim Sahib’s Hindustani’.
The cooks were good and could prepare excellent European food as well as the inevitable variety of Indian curries, I hadn’t tasted curry before and at first was not impressed but soon acquired a taste for it. A taste which I still have.
Taking bunkers (coal) in India was an interesting sight. A rickety set of steps made from bamboo and planks lashed together with rope yarn was constructed leading up the side of the ship from dockside to the deck. A group of women known as ’Coal Bibbis’ with baskets of coal on their heads formed a single file, carried the full baskets up to the deck, dumped the coal and then climbed down for a refill. A sort of continuous human conveyor belt. A similar system was used to transport the coal from deck to bunker hold, all in all a dusty, hot and arduous system which required a great deal of sweeping and washing down afterwards.
The ‘City of Hereford’ being a coal burner required a great amount of coal shoveled into the furnaces beneath the boilers, this was accomplished by stokers who had to remove he resultant ashes, so, at the end of each watch, every four hours, the ashes were transported to the deck and dumped overboard. This was accomplished using a bucket and lift system up a chute which passed by the QM’s accommodation. The system was hand manipulated, so the yelling up and down of the chute together with the rattle and bang of the bucket caused a great deal of noise. Unfortunate for us but the only times when the serenity of our noiseless cabin was disturbed.
When navigating in fog regulations required the sounding of a prolonged blast on the ship’s whistle every two minutes, this to warn other ships of our closeness and visa versa; the ship’s speed through the water was measured by a log which consisted of a rotor attached to a line which was towed through the sea and which in turn was attached to a clock which indicated the speed. Our log clock was attached to the wing of the bridge where we QMs kept a lookout. It was a source of amusement to me to see the ship’s speed reduce from, say seven knots to five after each blast and then to slowly return to seven. I realised that the use of steam to sound the whistle took pressure of the engine, and so we sort of hiccupped our way through the water.
I spent five months on the “City of Hereford” and then transferred to the Bibby line, again Indian crew, where I spent the rest of my time as a QM.
