Re: The walk off in the West Indies?
I remember ‚‚tis I worked in the laundry as a younggirl . Yes it was New York the em press of canada
Re: The walk off in the West Indies?
Marian
I was a young 5th mate on the Empress of Canada in her last year of service in C.P. prior to her lay up and sale to Carnival. One of my duties was to do night rounds at 0200 with the Master at Arm's and this meant we toured the whole vessel including all work area's, except the engine room and also the passenger area's, checking to make sure that there was no trouble in the passenger area's or that there were no crew members in passenger area's beyond those whose duties took them Thier. The laundry staff, commonly referred to as "steam queen's" ( Which was not a derogatory term), lived in one alleyway and at times a youngster checking that alleyway at 0200, took his life and virtue into danger, the number of laundry staff was quite large as the laundry operated 24 hours a day. Checking the laundry area was like walking into something like Dante's inferno, with huge washing machines going full tilt, Steam powered dryers going and huge ironing machines going pressing bed sheets etc. The temp. And humidity were tremendous so those girls certainly earned their wages. In addition to all the ship board linen and uniforms they also had to deal with passenger clothing such as cocktail dresses etc. So apart from it being hard sweaty work they also had to be very skilled dealing with many, often Very expensive, fabrics of the passenger clothes.
Rgds
J.A.
Re: Empress Of England Old Bosun
The crew of the Empress of Canada went on strike for wanting better leave and conditions, it was instigated by communist infiltrators to the seaman's union. The directors of CP sold the Canada to Carnival cruise line. The original list of directors for Carnival and those at CP at the time the same names appear.
Was it possible the strike was actually manipulated in such a way, as in poor leave /working conditions leaving the crew no alternative but to take industrial action. This gave CP directors an out so they could sell the ship on and at the same time secure there own well being and screw the British seafarers yet again. No doubt the officers went with the ship, and then eventually the lower officer ranks could be replaced by cheaper foreign officers?
Re: Empress Of England Old Bosun
Lewis
When the Canada was sold to Carnival the whole U.K. crew were replaced by Italians if I recall correctly. At the time of the demise of the Empress ship's C.P. was going through a huge expansion plan with loads of New buildings, employing British officers and cadets, at one time they were one of the biggest employers of British Officers, employing over 1000 of us on salaries matching that of Joe Shell. From 2 Empress's, 2 tanker's and 4 small white Beaver boats in 1967 by the early 80's there were well over 50ships in the fleet. All those ships had been replaced with bulk carriers (cape sized, pajamas and handy sized geared), product, chemical,. Blvd tanker's, container ships, even a RORO. Pity it did not last as by 89, all but the container ships had gone as with virtually all the sea going staff.
Rgds
J.A.
Re: Empress Of England Old Bosun
I remember seeing a lot of there new builds, I also remember the CP adverts in the Numast Telegraph during the time of the expansion. There was a cartoon character as a Pirate with a cutlass in his hand, all are best people run away to sea was the logo lol. I think they lost a ship up in Basra or it was there for the duration of the war along with one or two UASC ships. The CP ship was loaded with grain. I was on a UASC ship at the time. We had been there 3 months as the we had a meltdown on the main switchboard. We cobbled together enough bus bars for 1/3 rd of the board to get power and enough generation supply. We got word from shore side in Kuwait to get the hell out of Basra as all hell was going to break loose. The Basra port authorities would not let us sail because of the state of the ship ref: power supply. When it got dark we got ready and the old man told the mate we were leaving. They cut the ropes and we made a run for it. Made it out of the Shat al Arab and headed for Kuwait. The switchboard went bang again and we were dead ship. We ended up being towed to Kuwait and after a month I paid off. The Iran v Iraq war started 24 hours after we cleared Basra. Question were asked as to why we made it out and two other UASC did not. All I will add was our Captain was a Dublin lad, the other two UASC ships had German skipper and the other ship had an Indian skipper, they were there a long time.