Blue Funnel

[Mike Hall]

HI,
I have been uploading plans of Blue Funnel ships.
I have noticed that the ones i have uploaded have passenger accommadation.
Does that mean that all the blue funnel ships are classed as passenger/cargo ships.?

[Doc Vernon]

Hi Mike
Well according to this Link, No not all were Caro/Passenger

Cheers

Blue Funnel Line - Wikipedia

https://www.ggarchives.com/OceanTrav...unnelLine.html

Blue Funnel Line 'P' and 'H' Classes of 1949/51 - Shipping Today & Yesterday Magazine (shippingtandy.com)

[j.sabourn]

It was usual by British maritime law that a vessel could carry up to 12 passengers if had designated passenger accomodation without carrying a ships doctor. I was on a Norwegian Seismic ship with the Norwegian master still on board , they carried a ships doctor due to the large number of surveyors and Reps on board. This doctor got above his station in life and was condemning foodstores as above their use by date .so the Norwegian master just sacked him and re-employed a ships medic. A lot of British ships were built with an Owners suite on board and this was used if necessary for a couple of passengers if ever needed. However as stated for British ships upto 12. I was on a Liberian vessel and carried passengers every 6 weeks, no doctors and am also almost sure we exceeded the 12 at times as long as had the accomodation for them. $100 US a day was not to be sneezed at, and this was 1967. JS
As a previous post I was sent up to Singapore to bring a small Russian Survey vessel on to the Australian coast with the usual self and 8 seafarers , the Russian crew were and surveyors etc. numbered about 48 so the total complement was well over 50 . I did a face to face interview with the master by telelink to discuss arrangements as they didn’t want to leave the vessel. My main concern was the medicine locker as found out it was all named with Russian titles , as the charterers were present during this interview I demanded at least a medic. They said they could not find one and if I could to go ahead and employ . I did this, he was the owner and past medic of a private Ambulance Service close to where I live. He came up with us with a suitcase of medicines and drugs more so for the Australian crew. So off we went and everything was well organised with very few hiccups. Many different types of vessels carry passengers. When you talk about cargo vessels being cargo passenger vessels you are only visualising the past and not the present . Cheers JS

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Hi Mike.
I painted a London tug many years ago put it on site and one bloke said that the funnel was to big, they where forced draught tugs, and it reminds me of the Blue Funnels on the ships you mention don't know if that was their reason.
Cheers Des

[happy daze john in oz]

On the 'Paprao' we had 8 such passengers all looked after by one steward.
Stayed in the accommodation area and were rarely seen by many crew.
Got off in Melbourne but onward from there none.

[Mike Hall]

Thankyou all for the help and information.
The reason i ask is that some of these ships are in the Gallery under "Cargo ships, engines amidships".
whereas some could be under "Cargo passenger ships" .
At the time being i will leave things as they are.
Thankyou.

[j.sabourn]

The Rules to day may be totally different than what they were yesteryear if you can get hold of a book called Shipmasters Businesss think it was by Kemp and Hughes the distributors you may find the rules and regulations pertaining to British Shipping during the period of most on this site. Passenger certificates were issued to certain vessels and they had to comply with certain regulations. With wife’s of crew members they weren’t passengers but signed on as supernumerarys and paid a nominal wage to get around the red tape. Also had to sign an excemption form for any accidents occurring. Believe however that was not really legal but more a warning to be careful. Even some offshore supply vessels carried a passenger certificate for taking and bringing workers off offshore structures and were highly fined if they exceeded the Quota . The biggest drawback legally to carrying passengers was lifeboat availability. Even the standby safety boats had a passenger certificate I beleive the Silver Pit was 250 I mistakenly said in a previous post it was 300 , but looking back that was another one I was on before that , that was 300. Can you imagine saying to a survivor Sorry old boy , we are full up you’ll have to walk home. Cheers JS
If you google Shipmasters business there are numeruous editions but can’t see anything before 1982. They are very expensive as well. Most of us are well before this time and a lot has happened to the Rules and Regulations since we learned the early official ones . Cheers JS

[Peter Armitage]

I was with Blue Flue in 1968, based out of Birkenhead. Even when dockside, they continued to ensure that we all changed into dress uniform for all mealtimes; this was because so far as I'm aware, all the Blue Flue ships were combined passenger / freight, though by '68 I believe that few deepsea voyages carried passengers... jet planes to Asia and Australia really made them redundant.