Travel times: London to Amsterdam

[Ivan Cloherty]

Just checked pages 1 and 2 and now I'm off course, sorry Roger

[cappy]

you didn't say much about being very scared but not showing it and always happy no matter what to here someone say .....ive seen it worse than this.....but I think you have nailed that small ship life ....regards cappy

[Captain Kong]

Hi Roger
that is the best account of a coaster mans life I have ever read. It says it all, I wish I could have written like that as so descriptive.
Thanks,
my experience of a Coaster was on the BEECHFIELD an old coal burner,
.
.

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 bastard 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.

Cheers
Brian.

[leratty]

Just going back a bit as to the editing & or correcting of spelling mistakes grammar etc. I do understand of course & agree with site admin as to 'editing' the often huge quotes put in some posts & taking up far too much space. I too just move on due to it. I can also agree with Ivan in p. 13 though often I feel we make typos rather than spelling mistakes? failing to correctly punctuate could also be due to the typing away?
Roger, a top read really enjoyable. Used to enjoy watching the coasters running all over the place though never thought of joining one nor was one offered at the pool.
Brian, as always both a good read as well as amusing. Mattresses at sea were a lottery, the worst I ever had was a B.A. Flyer still recall it where I swear they were cotton waste or straw filled pally-asses. You know those things, bloody awful & reckon they had not had their filling changed in 30 voyages. Must say never had a sleeping bag not sure what I would have said or done?

[j.sabourn]

Donkeys Breakfasts Richard. John Sabourn

[Roger Dyer]

Hi Doc (Vernon)

Tonight I am enjoying a cleansing ale (or six). after a rather warm day down here in the flatlands (at 7pm. this evening the temp. was still 34 degrees which I'm sure will make both you and Richard grateful that you both chose to live on top of a mountain).

My reason for this post is to apologise to you the author of this thread and to the members for any confusion or inconvenience I may have caused for posting a thread totally alien to the subject matter. It is not, as some may think, a silly attempt to demonstrate my own dislike for thread assassination, but, rather, the result of an old man's folly. It had been my intention to post this on the 'How Many Miles from London to Amsterdam' thread, but as our friend, Ivan, so subtly hinted, my navigation was way off course. It seems I was in dire (or Dyer) need of a Pilot....what a silly bu--er? Sincerely sorry for my error, but now I must hurry back to the task at hand...hic'

......Roger


P.S. Just an afterthought, but is there anyway my post and posts relating to it could be joined onto the ' London to Amsterdam' thread.?....my sincere apologies for any troublemy stupidity may have caused.

Posts relocated to this thread after Roger wrote this.

[Ivan Cloherty]

Don't know what coasting is like now with GPS and systems I've never heard of and wouldn't know what they were if I actually touched them and all the channel and routeing instructions to be obeyed but I bet it would be beneficial for any budding navigator to spend two months on a bridge of a coaster before departing back deep sea. Coasting was (perhaps still is) the fastest learning curve for a deck man than any other type of vessel, and a curve that stands you in good stead for the rest of your life. When I finished my time I went on the coast for a few months, I think I learned more in the first four weeks than I had learnt in the previous four years, especially about close quarters navigation, currents, depth of water, buoyage etc. Mind you most of the previous four years the nearest I got to navigational instruction was cleaning the bridge brass and close encounters with ship construction by bilge cleaning, chipping, painting and cargo watch, and the nearest you got to land without a pilot was probably 5 miles, on the coast invariably you were your own pilot and the Master expected you to be even as 2nd mate.

Perhaps our administrator could move posts #23 onwards to the London - Amsterdam forum, just in case Samantha revisits us, as she may find these latter posts enlightening for her novel/non-fiction etc: just a thought

Done as requested Ivan.

[cappy]

where I lived in shields as a boy ...It was perhaps300 yards from the cliff tops and about 1 mile south of shields pier with a clear viewof the north sea .....in winter the gales were often continousfor 4 o5 days .....when the small colliers and coastal vessels came out the river they sometimes all but disapeard at night I would look out as a boy and see the mashead lights disappear and sometimes wait and wait...and think jesus its not coming backup ........on these nights I can remember both my grannies and my mother always saying .....god blessthe poor sailors on a night like this.........had a few months on the allurity one of everards a coastal tanker ......the slightestsea when laden and all awash......but a good set of mates .....one being a full blooded Cherokee indian longblack hair looked like Geronimo........another jock who would go ashore late at night and burgle shops he got into boots one night andcouldnt get out .....last of him ......only liked the coast cos could be ashore with my girl more regular......but loved the thrill of letting go on a tramp and thinking were to this time.....and how much will I have when I get back

[John Arton]

One of the happiest ships I ever had the privilege of visiting was in 79 when I was mate on a cape sized bulker discharging grain in Rotterdam. For some reason that terminal did not work weekends, which was nice. Anyway on Saturday morning this girl turned up at my office saying she was the mate off a small British coaster called the Fordunna and was it possible to buy some provisions from us. We gave her a load of staples (Bread, milk, eggs etc.) and out of curiosity I went across to visit the ship. She was a Captain owned coaster of around 750 tons dwt. that had been built in Holland some years previously. She had the wheelhouse situated on a half deck above the accommodation and was one of many similar built Dutch coaster built in the 60/70's . (the Hull outfit Whit?? had similar). I met the captain who showed me around his ship and it was absolutely immaculate with accommodation for, I think, 7 in total. His main trade was grain from Rotterdam to Kings Lynn and at that time he was making a good living. I asked him about his mate being a female as even deep sea in those days females were a rarity amongst the crew. He said she was very good but all the rest of the crew slept with their cabin doors locked as she was a rampant sex maniac. Spent some very pleasant time with him and he and his crew visited us for meals and drinks over the weekend. The next weekend we were still in port and he was back for another load from us. Again no work so again a good ship visit only this time they challenged us to a game of cricket. We had no problem making up a team as we had Indian crew who all wanted to take part so there it was the crew of a Cape sized bulker taking on the 7 crew of this coaster in a cricket match on a patch of waste ground by a grain terminal in Rotterdam.
Result. Cape sized 102 all out
Coaster 110 for 5
Beaten hands down.
14 years later I went on the coast and had the best 17 years at sea ever.
rgds
JA

[cappy]

crew locking there cabin doors john ......sounds like one of them big ships were they are all arsing about ,,,,,,,ithink on most if not all of the ships I was on ....we would have been batting on a sticky wicket lol