Waiting in the ice
by Published on 18th May 2020 02:12 PM
Hi everyone. My name is Jim Stevens
I was born in Hull in 1934 and the first time I went to sea I was 14 years old and it was the Summer School holiday. I went to Iceland in a Hull Trawler, the Darthema, a side winder trawler belonging to Humber St Andrews Fishing Co.
In those days trawler owners were allowed to take schoolboys to sea to give them experience of life in a trawler and providing they had a signed agreement from their parents.
It was certainly an experience and on returning Hull we had to go back to school.
However my mind had been made up.
I loved the sea and ships and anything to do with shipping and my desire was to go to sea in the Merchant Service as soon as I left school.
So, after training on the TS Vindicatrix I, like many friends and visitors to this website, went off tramping around the world on various ships for the next 5 years or so of my life.
In January of 1955 the Hull trawlers Roderigo and Lorello were both sank when fishing off the coast of Greenland. The Roderigo capsized due to the weight of ice build up on the ship and the Lorello also capsized for the same reason when she was on her way to assist the stricken Roderigo.
40 Hull fishermen lost their lives and most of them lived in the Hessle Road area of Hull where I was born and grew up.
In January 1956 I and my Fiance Audrey decided that, after 4 years of courting the time had come for us to be married.
The date had been set for the 31st March. I had spent the previous 8 or 9 months at sea on the S S Dago, Ellerman Wilson's regular service to London,Genoa, Naples and other Italian ports and Sicily, London, Hull.
It was the early January and I was aching to get back to sea so I joined the United Baltic Lines ship Baltavia. United Baltic had a number of ships out of Hull and in fact the Port of Hull had developed with its trade to the Baltic ports.
The Baltavia was due to go to out to the Kiel canal and then on to Gydnia, Poland with a general cargo. A voyage which she had done a number of times and the usual time scale was 3 to 4 weeks back to Hull.
So, in normal circumstances I would be back in Hull in February.
1956 was again a very cold winter when in late January the Baltavia left the Humber and headed across the North Sea in a snowstorm.
About halfway across towards Brunsbuttel, in bitterly cold weather the handrails and other exposed parts were beginning to ice up. It is somewhat surprising to see how quickly the diameter of a ships handrail can increase in a short space of time and in no time at all we were told to get rid of the ice.
Memories of the Roderigo/Lorello disaster were still fresh in everyone's mind
and with whatever tools we could get hold of, scrapers, shovels, chipping hammers etc. we set to and, for some short time the ice seemed to reappear as soon as we got rid of it but fortunately, as we got nearer to land the temperature rose just a degree or two but enough to stop any icing.
A few ships were waiting to get into the canal so we had to wait off for a few hours before it was our turn. The weather was still very cold and miserable with snow showers occasionally.
Eventually it was our turn and we got through the canal into Kiel Bay and almost immediately we were stopped in thick ice. A number of other ships were also stuck in the ice. The Baltavia had a reinforced bow, most of the United Baltic vessels had reinforced bows, this enabled the ship to get through slush ice and thin ice but they were NOT ice breakers and any thick ice would stop the vessel.
We waited in Keil Bay for 3 days and then a big Russian Ice Breaker came along and then all the vessels were freed from the ice. We started off into the Baltic
in slush ice which from time to time slowed the ship down and sometimes the ship was stopped and then the Officers and crew were occupied looking for passages through the ice. This at times meant some going astern and ahead in order to get going again in the right direction.
It was still bitterly cold and progress was slow.
It took us more than a week to get anywhere near to the Polish border and we were now well into February.
Eventually we got into the bay where the Port City of Gydnia was situated.
We anchored in the Bay. There were 3 other vessels anchored also and it was still bitterly cold weather.
I was in a Cabin for four, the norm on those days. Metal bulkheads of course, no heating and in the corner where the bulkheads met there was continuous dripping of water which by now had turned into ice and this icicle grew bigger and fatter as the voyage progressed.
We had anchored in water but overnight the sea froze solid. It had been so cold overnight - I remember it well - you had to keep moving about to try and keep warm and in your bunk you had to try to sleep with your clothing on and as many bed clothes as you could manage to get your hands on.
The sea had frozen so quickly it was still in the shape of the small waves.
In the morning the Bosun and First Mate went down onto the ice and gingerly walked around the ship, I guess they were checking the hull but we were told to stay aboard.
We could see the long jetty we would eventually go to but we had to wait and wait and two days later the same big Russian ice breaker appeared. It seemed as though the Baltic Sea had only one Ice Breaker available to cover the whole area from the Finnish/Russian border to the Kiel Bay!
It took almost all day to get all 4 ships free of ice but eventually we were alongside this very long jetty.
In 1956 Poland was still a Country ruled by the Russians and immediately we put the Gangway down on to the jetty a Russian armed guard appeared and an armed guard was there for the full time we were there. You could only get ashore if you had a written permission from the Chief Officer.
This was a very long jetty and it could accommodate maybe 5 or 6 large ships and about every 80 to a 100 feet or so there was a large post with flood lamps facing down on to the jetty and these flood lights were on all night long.
Spaced between these flood lights was another post at the top of which were large loudspeakers . The loudspeakers blasted out Russian Martial Music all the time and this was interrupted with loud Russian gabble which was assumed to be Russian propaganda telling the Poles how good it was to be Russian!!
This music and propaganda continued all the time, day and night non stop.
It was almost deafening and it was certainly nerve wracking and the noise was abated somewhat when you were down in the cabins but ear plugs or ear defenders would have been useful.
The dockers worked some times for the next day and in the evening I and the Chippy (I had made friends with him) we decided to try and get ashore just to get away from the noise. So we got a pass from the 1st.Mate and off we went down the gangway and was then stopped by the armed guard. He looked at our pass and then consulted with another guard before waving us on.
However we quickly found ourselves walking in deep hard packed snow and the snow was in places as high as upper windows of the houses we saw. The place was deserted and we could still hear the awful loudspeakers belting out the martial music.
Within a short space of time we realised that we would not find any shops, bars or people so we slowly made or way back to the jetty and back aboard. As we were
getting aboard the Chippy noticed the dockers still working cargo and he mentioned to me that they were strapping big fellows all well wrapped up against the weather.
We discovered later that these big fellows were in fact all Russian Women!
Next day we left Gydnia in slush ice which made our passage slower but the weather was very slowly improving, although the days were going by and we were now into March. I was getting a little apprehensive at times but not too worried at this stage.
However when we finally did arrive back in Kiel Bay there were at least 20 vessels waiting to get through the Canal. So we had no choice but to wait there for another three or four days. Fortunately we did not have to go to London before returning to Hull, this often happened with the Baltic ships and also with the Wilson Line ships, and, in the 1950's the London Dockers were prone to going on strike if they felt they needed to.
Back across the North Sea to the Humber and I paid off on the 29th. March and got home in the late afternoon.
I understand that my future Mother-in Law was getting rather anxious and my future Father in Law was going around muttering to himself about what he would do to me if I didn't arrive.
Nevertheless all that happened 64 years ago and we are still together.
Jim Stevens
