A Career Started
by Published on 14th November 2022 03:08 PM
I started my working career as an apprentice marine electrician on Manchester Docks, mainly Manchester Liners and after finishing I decided that I wanted to join the Merchant Navy. I had to get an offer of employment as an electrical engineer in order to get the seaman's books.
So, I went to London and tramped the streets around all the shipping companies. They all said the same. We want experienced persons.
Eventually I visited Ellerman Lines and personnel said the same but at that point I snapped and said if you don't give people a chance, they won't have enough engineers.
I got the offer of a job. So off to Liverpool to get the necessary documents. I next got a letter to join the City of Port Elizabeth in London as a Junior Electrical Engineer.
This ship normally had three electrical engineers but as it turned out there was only the chief electrical and me.
I sent a letter to personnel to say that as a junior I would still have to do the work of a second.
I was promoted to second electrical engineer. I was only on the Port Elizabeth for a few weeks and then posted to the City of Durban to sail deep sea. My career had started.
That how it began.
To continue;
Passengers and cargo on board, engine standby alarm sounding so down below. The electrical engineer should watch the switchboard but how boring, so it was traditional to stand on the manoeuvring platform and record the telegraph signals (something to do). The ship was one of four Elleman ships on the south Africa run. Passenger/cargo. Carrying passengers enabled the ships to get a priority when berthing enabling cargo to be delivered promptly. But back to the engine room, carry on recording until Dungeness, then down the channel and on to Tenerife. Did not stay for long just to refuel
. Next stop Cape town. The electrical engineer would spend the day maintaining and repairing electrical issues.
One advantage is that we had full access to all parts of the ship including passenger area. One highlight of the week was the film show.
The projectors were on stands that were bolted to the deck outside the bar and lounge shining onto a screen that was in the ceiling in front of the bar. Great fun all dressed in whites. Rells loaded and off. Marriage on the rocks, But, because the new films did not arrive when we got to Cape Town, I got fed up with this film.
So the coastal began around south Africa, Port Elizebeth, East London, Durban, Biera and Lorenzo marques as it was then. Turn round and back the way we came. I was on the Durban till 1966.
Then a change!
Continuing on from my previous episode I would like to expand on life on board the Durban. Initially on joining the ship I was still a third electrical engineer but it became apparent that there was not a second electrical engineer, so I rang the company to complain that I would have to do to more work as the chief electrical was not very dynamic. The company wrote back with instant promotion so my time as a third was short.
Apart from recording the Telegraph during manoeuvring what else did the electrical engineer do. Well it became obvious that the chief electrical did not do much, so I decided to plan my own routine.
As we worked a day shift I would be up early and go to the engine room to check the blackboard and the watchkeeper in case there had been any problems during the night. Then onto the bridge to ask the officer the same question was all well. Any problems would then be added to a maintenance programme for the day. I would also walk around the passenger areas to check lighting. This was the daily routine apart from any major breakdowns.
The excitement of the trip could also be the film shown but after many shows of marriage on the rocks I got fed up with Frank Sinatra. Perhaps one major episode is memorable and that was during the winter in London when a deck officer allowed dockworkers to use one of the tech houses where the electrical equipment for the ventilation system was housed. The dockworkers put sugar in the oilbath bearings. So the first five days sailing to Tenerife was spent cleaning the bearings for the warmer weather required the passenger system to be working. Refilled at Tenerife and then onward to Cape Town.
After number of trips on the Durban I was posted to the city of Brisbane,in Rotterdam she was fridge/cargo and a turbine proportion system. I had also been promoted to chief electrical therefore on the ship there was a second electrical engineer. He was a wonderful ship and she use to carry a doctor but no longer, so I had the doctors cabin, comfort.
I continued with my tried and tested maintenance routine but once we had passed through Suez into the Indian Ocean we began a maintenance programme on the deck winches because in Australia all the derricks would be in use and as the dock workers were on piecework any failure of the system on the ship meant that it was our fault. The dockworkers would use a plank tried to the winch metalwork to make a seat that allowed the worker to use a foot on the brake rather than use the electrical controls this meant that the brakes wore quicker than usual worn. Not really was just an excuse for a smoke. We became very adept at readjusting the by pulling a pin out of the linkage just long enough for the smoke and pull the pin back in the same hole only to be thanked for the so-called repair.
It was during this trip that I met my wife to be but more of that later so we continued around the coast north from Sydney eventually onward to suez and UK.
Last edited by Brian Probetts (Site Admin); 6th December 2022 at 01:44 PM.
