Australind Shipping Company
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Derek Maeer
I was 2nd Mate on the Limerick during the Strike in Liverpool. Happiest ship I was ever on, probably because of Capt John Blake
Derek Maeer
Derek,
Old posting I know but a couple of questions if you still look in here.
Am I correct in thinking that apart from being on the Limerick under John Blake we worked by on either Antrim or Galway when she was dry docked at Smiths in North Shields around 1969. There was a large explosion leading to a fatality and injuries to dockyard staff and ship was shifted on the blocks.
All a long time ago but I remember hiring a car together to get back home.............cannot remember why.
Going back to the Limerick 1n 1966, can you remember the name of the third mate, think he later went off to Geest line?
Paul
Australind steam shipping co
Dave in reply to your query has any body heard of this co ,i sailed on the Australind in january 1970 we ended up, up the gulf for weeks we caught fire in Basrah which burnt out the turbo blowers so they towed us to aberdan in Iran where we stayed a few days waiting for the parts while a shore gang of arabs cleaned up all the black bulkheads in the engine room the morning of the fire we all moved aft as flames were coming out the engine room sky light the captain and chief engineer were shouting get down and fight the fire , we were saying you get down and fight the fire in the end the iraqi fire brigade turned up and put it out we had one man blotto and carried him from the accomodation to the poop ,after leaving Aberdan we went to Lorenco Marques to load ore for middlesboruogh arriving on the 8th of May one of our crew was later to be the lookout on the Bow Belle .and the engine room storekeper was sent home under suspision of starting the fire we also had some fires in the hatches the same night ,the greaser on watch said there was 4 fires in differnt locations in the engine room he put 3 out but the 4th one blew a round cilinder tank and he just got out ahead of the fire beside that it was a great trip with a good bunch of lads and not a bad ship
Re: Australind steam shipping co
Hi I was 4th Engineer on this when we caught fire. In Basra I remember. It made a hell of a mess in the engine room and we ended up doing Engine Room watches with torches until we got to the UK.