GERMAN DRY DOCK ON THE ARAMAIC (By Mike Hall)

[Doc Vernon]

GERMAN DRY DOCK ON THE ARAMAIC

After the two previous short voyages, I decided on a longer voyage, but this did not go to plan , it turned out to be another continental voyage , if it had been longer I would have been going to Australia.
I set off as usual from home with my luggage, and made my way into town on the local bus and then the train to Woolwich and the ferry beyond. Then onwards to the docks.
I had reported to the federation offices in the Royal Group Docks on Monday 27th November 1961 and was given the Shaw Savill ship Aramaic.
What a mess this ship was in, all the port side bridge front was smashed in, she had been in a collision with another ship on her previous voyage .Once unloading was complete we would be going to Bremen for repairs. We only sailed with a skeleton crew. I was employed as a scullion which is a cross between a galley boy and an assistant cook. My job consisted of cleaning all the pots and pans that were used within the galley, this job was carried out in a special room, I also had to prepare the vegetables for every meal, and I had a different area to do this. I was also responsible for keeping the stores and fridges clean and tidy.
My cabin was situated on the main deck and was a two berth cabin, with two bunks, two wardrobes, a settee, a chest of drawers and a chair.

We all signed on Tuesday 28th November, My wages were £36-10-0 a month We left on Wednesday 29th November out of the docks assisted by tugs and a pilot on the bridge, who was to disembark at Gravesend to change with the river pilot who would disembark. Once in the English Channel, the Walker’s Patent log would be put into use, this was a bronze rotator attached to a long line, which rotated by the ships movement forwards, measured the distance travelled and the speed. This would be used every time we left a port. The fire/boat drill was not carried out due to the damage of the ship as it also included the boat deck. We arrived in Hamburg on Thursday 30th November to unload the remainder of the cargo, I had made several trips ashore and we left on Saturday 2nd December for Bremen. Where we arrived on Sunday 3rd December. We unloaded a bit of cargo, then proceeded to the repair yard/dry dock, of Bremer Vulkan. This is where the ship was originally built, to have the bridge front repaired. As there was a lot of time here, lots of trips were made ashore, note: ---because we were in dry dock, if we wanted to go to the toilet, we had to use the toilets on the dockside. The bridge front section had already been fabricated at the shipyard and transported to the ship. the damaged part was removed and the new part put in its place, once welded and repainted, you would never have known the ship had been damaged. Once completed and the clearing up done, we were on our way for Hamburg sailing on Thursday 21st December for loading. We arrived the same day; I managed to get ashore a few times. We left on Saturday 23rd December, and arrived in Antwerp on Christmas day morning, Monday 25th December where we had our Christmas day Celebrations. I did not go ashore here as it was a busy time for the catering staff. loading did not start until Wednesday 27th December, we left here on Thursday 28th December and arrived in Rotterdam on Friday 29th December where we signed off,
My wages for this voyage were £35-7-8 and I had spent £10-4-10 during the voyage.

We left the ship here because the original crew had been ferried out to Rotterdam to take over the ship and we made our way to the hook of Holland by local train, and the day ferry, the .Amsterdam to Harwich, then to our own homes, just in time to celebrate the new year.



CONSTRUCTION NOTES

BUILDER-----------------Bremer Vulkan, Germany
YARD NO----------------
ENGINES BY
YEAR BUILT------------1957
PROPOLSION
LAUNCHED
TYPE----------------------Cargo Ship
TONNAGE---------------6553
LENGTH-----------------475ft
BREADTH---------------44ft
REGISTERED AT------Southampton
SPEED--------------------17 Knots
OFFICIAL NO.---------300096








HISTORY

1957 Built for Shaw Savill ltd as ARAMAIC
1968 Transferred to PSNC and renamed OROPESA
1970 Transferred to Furness Withy renamed PACIFIC EXPORTER
1970 Transferred to PSNC renamed OROPESA
1972 Sold to Hong Kong Island Shipping renamed LANTAO ISLAND
1982 Sold for breaking up at Kaohsiung

[Mike Hall]

Another Christmas away from home.

[John F Collier]

Shaw Savill's ARAMAIC was one of three sisters, ALARIC, AFRIC and ARAMAIC, I joined AFRIC September 58 at the KGV Dock London,
she was by far the most modern ship I'd been on and in comparison she was quite streamlined, she was also the fastest at 17 knots,
my cabin was single berth with wash basin and small cabinet with mirror, a wardrobe , settee and writing desk also an electric iron
was supplied, this was only her second voyage so everything was virtually new. WHen loading was complete we sailed for Australia,
did the usual discharge and loading of cargo around the Aussie coast, it had been a very uneventful trip, so nothing to speak of really.
We departed Australia and was homeward bound for Hull via the Suez canal, it was at the end of November and we were all hoping we'd
be at home in time for Christmas, the weather was fair and we made good time to the canal, at Port Said I was on the lookout for some
of the better things you could get off the bum boats, Christmas was coming and I needed some presents to take home. A couple of days
out of the canal we were told that we would be passing our sister ship ARAMAIC which was on her maiden voyage, as the two ships got
closer they ran up flags and sounded their horns, we passed quite close and many of the crew from both ships were on deck to greet each
other by waving and calling out, then the two captains spoke on the ship to ship system that we could all hear, when our Old Man said he
was trying to get us home for Christmas a huge cheer went up from our lads, and then she was gone, on her way to Aus, got to say to
Mike Hall, she looked a lot better than when you joined her. All through the trip the Donkey man had been trying to persuade me to sell
him a sweater I had, I liked the sweater so it was a no no, as the trip was coming to an end his offers got better but it was still a no no.
we approached the channel and everyone was getting happier, the the donkey man came to our cabin holding a full bottle of rum he had
been saving, well I knew how much Dad liked a drop of rum and thought it would be the perfect Christmas gift and afterall I would soon
be home with money to spend at the High St shops with loads of sweaters to choose from so it was a no brainer and a done deal. We
arrived at Hull in the early hours of Christmas Eve, when we turned to we were told that we'd be paying off that morning, everybody was
elated, over breakfast we were all discussing our plans when out of the blue we were told it's off, it seems there was a problem with the
shoreside staff, there was a stunned silence and a really awful atmosphere, the thought of staying on board over Christmas like that was
unthinkable everyone was so down hearted. Then again out of the blue we were told it was back on as somebody ashore had pulled some
strings, we all disappeared to our cabins to pack our cases. The paying off was usually done in the saloon area so we all met up in the Pantry.
By this time a couple of reliefs had turned up and to my surprise one of them was my old cabin mate from my first ship, I hadn't seen him for
a couple of years and he told me he he had left the MN, got married and was now a father, divorced and back at sea, we paid off, I got a cab
to Hull's main railway station from there to Kings Cross London, on arrival at London it was now getting very late and being Christmas Eve I
thought it may be hard to get a cab as I still had a distance to go but was lucky and got a very cheerful cab driver who wanted to know where I'd
come from and did nothing but ask questions about Australia, when we finally got to my road in Wood Green North london it was well past
midnight, so i told him to park a couple of doors away as I intended to let myself in, drop my case in the front room, go to bed and then
surprise them in the morning, as this was my first Christmas at home since i went to sea in 1955 it was a bit special, I put the key in the
door as quiet as I could only to find mum had bolted the door so I still had to knock. Dad came down followed by Mum, my sister lived next door and both she and my brother in law came in, how dads eyes lit up when I gave him his bottle of rum, there was sausage rolls and mince pies ready for
the taking of and I was famished, it had been a real rollercoaster of a day but the ending made it well and truly worthwhile. cheers.