Originally Posted by
Ross Davidson
Hi Davey, The old Gloucestershire was a bit of a tub on her last voyage. Everything was stuffed, above and below deck!In Tilbury(Dec '70)i used to wake up in the morning with hundreds of Roaches nestled in my crotch keeping warm. My cabin was one wall thickness away from the crews quarters so you can imagine the migration from one side to the other. I told the Chief i wasn't going to sail unless he moved me. I was put in the first passenger cabin on the port side- beaut!! However i nearly had a heart attack when i was wakened by this horrible banging noise coming through the deck head - your lovely steam winches that you mentioned!What a racket.
The Worcestershire i joined Dec '71. We took general cargo to Doha(Qatar), Bahrain, Kuwait, Khorramshar, Basra. We ende up with some Campbells soups from broken pallets. We left the Persian Gulf at high speed and headed for Port Lincoln, South Australia(with the anchor stuck in the pipe). We arrived at the same time as a Jap ship and it was first in best dressed and we won the race as we frantically tried to free the anchor. We went from Port Lincoln to Port Giles(York Peninsula) and then to Albany(West Australia).After Albany we went to Durban and then Glasgow. We anchored off Gourock(my home town) and my mother had a bedsheet hanging out the upstairs bedroom window so i knew she'd be home.Much embarassment.The pilot came on board around 0100 hours and we arrived at Dunbarton at dawn. I signed off at lunchtime and caught the train home.I have a lot of memories of that voyage but it would have to be done by private mail.If i can find a pic, i'll put it on the site, Cheers and thanks for your mail as it jogged a lot of memories and cleared a few cobwebs,Ross