Loading of all deadweight Cargoes

[vic mcclymont]

Hi Gents, reminds me of a voyage on the Clan Ranald.
We were chartered to a department of the Argentinian Government to bring potatoes from UK/ Europe to Argentina.
The charter started when we commenced loading and finished when we reached the mouth of the River Plate outward bound.
Because of the high number of ships on charter, we ended up in the tug boat harbour, discharging cargo using our own gear.
After about three weeks in port a Government official drove by, spotted us, had a fit, and ordered the completion of our discharge asap.
Now the four Clan R's normal draught light ship, was bow up, stern down, Cape press described them as ugly ducklings.
Because of the of our natural draught our stern, could touch bottom on the shallow channel.
Much discussion took place between Pilots, Captain Chief Engineer. Fuel was transferred, but made little difference.
We sailed and never have so many wee bumps been inserted in the log book.
Regards
Vic

[Peter F Chard]

Hi John # 58. -- This skipper was a bit of a worry at times. In port he would often leave the ship and go hiking !! If we had four days in port ( say ) he would walk inland for two days and then turn around and return to the ship ! He carried a rucksack just like any hiker, packed with all the camping gear needed ! I suppose he was fairly safe in most places but the Chinese ports could have been a problem with the curfew restrictions in place in those years ! Regards Peter in NZ.

[Peter F Chard]

# 59 Ivan -- your comments about ballasting or de-ballasting whilst at sea are interesting. I was 2nd Engineer ( again ) on the " Delphic ", my first trip. About four days out from Fremantle I had a call from the bridge to de-ballast two tanks (port and starboard ) about 400 tonnes total. I rang the bridge to ask why so early to pump, our main ballast pump could pump 450 tonnes per hour so we could pump just prior to arrival. The Mate replied that there was a problem with the whole bilge/ ballast system and it had always taken 4 days to pump these particular tanks. So, I decided to have a look at the pump -- it took a few hours but I found that the air extraction pump on the ballast pump had been wrongly assembled and had been like that since the ship had been built, some 12 years earlier ! Correctly assembled it took less than an hour. So. I pumped these tanks only to get a panic call from the bridge saying the ship was becoming difficult to handle and what the hell had I done. I explained what I had done only to be told by the mate that I should flood these tanks again and de-ballast again about two hours before arrival at Fremantle. We had one very nervous mate from then on -- I told him a couple of hours prior to the Pilot boarding that I had started to pump and an hour later I rang the bridge to advise that the tanks were empty. We had one very very relieved mate, regards Peter in NZ.

[John Arton]

Peter re your #62
There was a famously well known Master in C.P. who was a noted ornithologist, who whenever his Beaver boat was in Canada used to cycle off for days going bird spotting . He once got arrested as a vagrant for camping by the roadside and when the police phoned the ship to verify his insistence that he was a ships captain, those on board denied all knowledge of him !
He lived in Glasgow and used to cycle down from there to Liverpool to join the ship. Winter or summer he was always dressed the same, tee shirt, khaki trousers and army boots. They said he only ever had two speeds when at sea, full ahead or stop, irrespective of the weather.
In C.P. he was a legend in his own lifetime.
rgds
JA