Athel Line between the wars

[Gulliver]

David.With regard to Athelduke. 'Tarafu' will be TARAFA (now Puerto Tarafa) a port several hundred kilometres East down the coast from Havana.

[Hugh]

Hi David,
The ship arrived in Neuvitas, Puerto Tarafa in Cuba.

Regards
Hugh

Typing at the same time Davy.

[David Lingard]

Thanks to you both for those answers. Is it safe for this land/airlubber to assume that the measurements of draught of water etc were a requirement at each port of call and that, therefore these 2 pages will show all the ports visited on the voyage?

[Hugh]

David,
Pages 21 and 22 of the ship's official logbook is the best place to look for her movements. During wartime the advice was not to include this information but as one of my friends has said many times: "This advice was ignored in the best traditions of the Merchant Navy". So no matter what websites or books you read, if the information is in the logbook then take it as read.

Regards
Hugh

[David Lingard]

Another question, if I may, of those who've "done it". I have a scan of the pages of one of Henry Moore's voyages and I cannot work out which port is in the log.
He left Lagos on 17 Feb and arrived at "Marshall???" after 4 days on the 21st.
After leaving "Marshall" it took 14 days, from 24 Feb to 10 Mar to reach Port of Spain in Trinidad.
Can anyone suggest where this mystery port might be please. All I can get through search engines is the Marshall Islands ...
Thanks in advance, as always.
David

Itinerary_1.jpg

[Gulliver]

Hello David. Re your latest query I presume that log extract is from the tanker Empire Flint.That is a puzzling 'scrawl ' i.e.Marshall,but even the transcript of her port movements in The Arnold Hague Database of Convoy Web shows the port as being recorded as MARSHALL.

At first I was thinking Cape Verde Islands possibly a small port or anchorage there called Tarraful, surely Capt.Moore's 'scrawl' couldn't make it look like Marshall? !,but then I calculated that a 12 knot tanker would take 6 days anyway from Lagos,Nigeria to reach there.
So narrowing it down to Freetown,Sierra Leone would be 4 days at 12 knots for the 1200 nautical miles which would be right.
Obviously Freetown was a place where allied ships 'marshalled' for their next dispersal,either in convoy or independently like Empire Flint.The assembly point ,for orders,is not in the port of Freetown but a pre-planned location somewhere in the area. I would imagine her Master and Officers would have obtained her draft by boat or Jacob's ladder over the side and entered Marshall as the port of arrival and departure. It's then approx 3,000 nm west to Trinidad which at 12 knots could take as little as 11 days,but of course 14 days is entirely possible as we don't know what routeing and zig-zag instructions if any she was given,weather and currents en route,any slow steaming to conserve fuel,engine breakdowns etc.
I know ports can be given a code name,even in peacetime (!) but I feel any such port renaming would be common knowledge by now.
That is just my theory about the port of 'Marshall' ,and it would be interesting to hear if any others agree.

Best Regards

[Hugh]

The port of Marshall is in Liberia, Africa.

Regards
Hugh

[Gulliver]

The port of Marshall is in Liberia, Africa.

Regards
Hugh

Thanks to Hugh- and a mystery solved for David- and me !

Marshall is not too far south east from Monrovia ,and does not seem to be a port as we know them ,more of a beach head or 'surf port' anchorage,i.e.where cargo was offloaded into large surf canoes then transported onto the beach.Very precise of Captain Moore on Empire Flint to log the exact location,instead of just calling it the nearest port Monrovia ! Those old large scale Admiralty charts ,as many of us know here,were brilliant for the amount of detail on them,quite often indicating individual buildings and prominent trees (! to aid fixing a mariner's position. The later bright blue (sea) and yellow (land) metric charts which superseded them could never be as fascinating ,especially when the old charts would give the dates and names of the survey and which hydrographic vessel surveyed particular areas of the chart over the years.

Thanks again Hugh.

[David Lingard]

The trouble with things like this is that they tend to be sporadic and it's nearly a year since my last burst of energy. I'm planning another visit to Kew next month on my way south and have found seven files in the BT165 series that will help fill in some gaps in WW1 and I'm in the process of making contact with the Maritime History Archive in Canada.
However, I've just had a shock. At https://www.mun.ca/mha/research/principalrecords.php it would appear that in the first section of "Crew Agreements and Logs" there is a gap of the years between the wars - is this really the case? If it is, are there any other avenues I could explore because this is the one period which is a complete skeleton with no flesh - I know the ships and dates but no data on destinations etc. The other times are filling in fairly well and the work so far is at www.dragnil.co.uk/HM - if you have the time and inclination just click on his name to enter.

A final point, much more specific, I'm trying to find a picture of the Scottish Musician (146597), I can find the Minstrel but not the Musician - any suggestions?
Thanks as always.
Best wishes,
David

[Hugh]

I've just had a shock. At https://www.mun.ca/mha/research/principalrecords.php it would appear that in the first section of "Crew Agreements and Logs" there is a gap of the years between the wars - is this really the case?
David

Hi David,
BT 165 nominally covers the period 1857-1972 although the majority of logs are from the period 1902 to 1919; other log books are mostly to be found with the Agreements and Crew Lists at The National Archives, Kew with some namely, the years ending in 5 held at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. So basically if there is a surviving agreement there may or may not be a logbook there too. The only way is to check BT 165.

Regards
Hugh