Can any old timer confirm this

[John Arton]

One of my long dead relations was, I believe, a Chief Engineer in the Blue Funnel, or possibly Lampbert and Holts,
This would have been in the 1930.s I guess.
The story I was told that he was given an award by his employers for suspressing a mutiny by the Chinese engine room crew. Apparently he wacked the ring leader so hard that he actually killed him.
Now I know that sounds a lot like a cock and bull story but I can remember my mother telling the story a numbber of times and she was very close to this uncle of hers.
His name was Marshall Steele Clark from Maryport in Cumbria.
Anyone out there ever heard of anything like this
rgds
Captain John Arton (ret'd)

[Chris Allman]

If it was a Chinese engine room crew, then it was possibly Blue Flue, John, Lamports only had Chinese crew in catering.

Chris

[Capt Bill Davies]

John/Chris,

Whilst I have no knowledge of the incident under discussion I can say that Blue Flue carried Chinese catering ratings on the majority of their vessels and Chinese ER ratings on all their vessels.

Bill

[John Pruden]

catering engine crew laundry man and a tomalow{chippies mate} but they hardly mixed they kept themselves to themselves they never seemed to go ashore they would often fish of the stern on catching a shark they would eat the lot hanging the fish and making soup out of what they caught.never any trouble out of them most never even spoke funny breed?jp

[j.sabourn]

I had occasion on two separate times to sail on 2 different ships of two different companys, and was a bit weird as had the same chinese 3rd. Mate and his brother as Bosun in both cases. I found the Chinese crews very hard working and as long as you always spoke civilly to them and they never lost face, they would work their heart out and were very loyal. The Bosun could not understand English very well so most communication was done through the 3rd. Mate. The 3rd. Mate was not very well up on his navigation etc. so used to do all his paperwork for him, for which he was very appreciative and used to get relieves as much as an hour early, so I had no complaint. I think of all the foreign national crews I had to sail with, I would put the Chinese near the top of the list. Think I may have said this before. Cheers John Sabourn.

[Keith at Tregenna]

DOUBT THESE ARE THE ONES AS YOU MENTIONED THE 30'S, BUT INTERESTING ?

In October 1940, 12 Chinese firemen appeared before a Liverpool Magistrate charged with refusing to obey the commands of a ships officer. They were accused of mutiny and attacking the 3rd and 4th officer with weapons before the ships master had to restore order with a pistol. The men denied the charges against them. 3 men were found not guily, 6 bound over and 3 recieved a prison sentence of 14 days

LINK: Chinese Community - Liverpool And Merseyside Remembered

REPORTED 1942:

The seamen from the empire overseas did not regard the war as in any way 'theirs' and were quick to insist that in these new conditions they would no longer tolerate what had become habitual and institutionalised indignities. Ships' officers and employers of Chinese crews found it especially hard to adjust. In what for Chinese seamen was to become a cause célèbre, the master of the tanker Silverash shot and killed a Chinese crew member during a dispute in New York in April 1942. The master was arrested but soon released after a Grand Jury found there was no case to answer. For its part, the entire crew was arrested and held in detention on Ellis Island. Thereafter, British ships with Chinese crews which called at US ports faced large-scale desertions.

LINK: The Merchant Seamen's War

K.

[Lou Barron]

The german commerce raiders during the war it was common knowledge some of the ships they sank if there were any Chinese they would keep them on their ship to do work .In the pow camp it was the Chinese who gave us the most help in doing so it placed them in a lot of danger .

[j.sabourn]

Ref. Large scale desertions in USA with Chinese crews. The only reason for this was the same trouble nowadays with illegal immigration. I joined a ship in the late 60"s in Philadelphia. The first morning on getting up found 70 percent of the chinese crew were gone. We had Pinkerton Security guards on board at the time, as was an agreement with the crew that there was no shore leave in the US for them and the US government used to put a 1000 dollar bond on each crew member. They must have paid off the Pinkerton people as they had no excuse for letting this happen. Later on translating documents it was discovered that it was a well planned operation by a ring called the Happy Villagers Association. This was the only cause why the owners changed their crews back to Lascars. A few years after this episode (which incidentally was a common occurence) I was in Hong Kong and was invited by one of the ex crew out for a meal by one of these deserters who had returned to H.K. a rich man by chinese standards. They worked with relatives etc in kitchens and other places, when they had earned sufficient they handed themselves into the immigration and were returned to Hong Kong. To my mind it was every chinamans ambition to get to the USA and for Lascars their ambition was to get to the UK. This to a much higher degree is the same as what is happening now. Only the mugs in power think it is something else, and have no idea on how to handle it, as it has gone too far under their tenures in office. Regards John Sabourn.

[Ian Walker]

Heres how the British goverment treated some chinese seamen after the war.



Liverpool and it's Chinese Children

[j.sabourn]

I wonder what would be the answer of any so called statesman who was around in those days. No doubt as they all have the gift of the gab whether true or otherwise he would have some plausible answer. whenever there is war or strife in a country going back to the source nine times out of ten it can be laid at their door. The thing that annoys me is there smugness when they say they did it for the good of the country. I know a lot of the old chinamen sailing into Liverpool in the 60"s the customs used to turn a blind eye to those who smoked opium. After all it was the British Government who legalized it to them years ago. Probably that breed of chinamen has long gone by now. Regards John Sabourn.