Canadian Pacific skipper Richard Walgate

[Robert Walgate]

Hi there mariners! Anyone have any recollections of my late father, Richard Walgate, who became Commodore of CPS in the 1960s? As a boy I sailed with him a couple of times on the Beavers and the Empresses. Much preferred the Beavers with the wild sea, no passengers and a small crew. We once passed by a hurricane, on enormous swell - the wave tops were visible above the mast from the bridge. The Beaver (-glen or -fir or -ash, I don’t remember) rode over the top of the waves like a seesaw, crashing into the troughs with a gigantic splash, visibly bending up the bow so the ship shivered lengthways a few times after each wave, ringing like a giant bell. Hanging onto the rail over the stern I heard the props thrashing out of the water as we rode over the tops. Stayed there for a hour, enjoying the sea. Surprising I wasn’t lost overboard - it was only a single rail - but an adventure. I did a bit of apprentice navigating with stars, sextant (I still have that sextant), chronometer and charts, which was risky but we still got to Montreal! Dad said “his” star was Altair. Seeing the first lighthouses of Newfoundland, and their local accents on the radio, after five days at sea, was a thrill. Best wishes to you all. Robert Walgate

[John Arton]

I sailed with a captain walgate on the empress of Canada in 1973?, the last year of Atlantic crossing before she was laid up prior to her sale to carnival .
A quiet man who did not like confrontation. I was on 12-4 watch with the 2nd mate, I was in the exhalted position of 5th mate.
Neither of us had been on the Empress ships previously, I got a bollocking off the captain for being late in blowing the ships whistle passing the house of the editor/owner? of the only purely English language newspaper in Montreal, a long traditional salute to the person, that nobody had told us about. He was relieved by captain bill williams who he apparently was in competition with to be commodore captain.
Rgds
J.A

[Johnny Kieran]

Hi there mariners! Anyone have any recollections of my late father, Richard Walgate, who became Commodore of CPS in the 1960s? As a boy I sailed with him a couple of times on the Beavers and the Empresses. Much preferred the Beavers with the wild sea, no passengers and a small crew. We once passed by a hurricane, on enormous swell - the wave tops were visible above the mast from the bridge. The Beaver (-glen or -fir or -ash, I don’t remember) rode over the top of the waves like a seesaw, crashing into the troughs with a gigantic splash, visibly bending up the bow so the ship shivered lengthways a few times after each wave, ringing like a giant bell. Hanging onto the rail over the stern I heard the props thrashing out of the water as we rode over the tops. Stayed there for a hour, enjoying the sea. Surprising I wasn’t lost overboard - it was only a single rail - but an adventure. I did a bit of apprentice navigating with stars, sextant (I still have that sextant), chronometer and charts, which was risky but we still got to Montreal! Dad said “his” star was Altair. Seeing the first lighthouses of Newfoundland, and their local accents on the radio, after five days at sea, was a thrill. Best wishes to you all. Robert Walgate

Reminded me of a rough crossing on the Beaver Pine. The weather was awful, just as you described it, and an Empress boat zipped past us with hardly any rocking and rolling. I don't think I'd ever seen a ship behave that well in stormy weather. Must have had stabilisers?

[Des Jenkins]

I did two trips across the North Atlantic, one on the Basford an old rust bucket where I got washed overboard in a Hurricane then thank god washed back on board, worse happened to a logger about 11 miles to the North of us her deck cargo of logs shifted and we couldn't do anything to help on her Mayday calls she dissipated with 52 men on board.
The trip on the Baron Elibank wasn't much better. I refused any more tramps across te North Atlantic.
Des

[John Arton]

Johnny
Re#3
The beaverpine was a great ship, did a trip around the Carribbean on her as 3rd mate on a charter to a Dutch outfit. Left her in Liverpool where she was laid up prior to her being converted to containers.
Captain bill Clarke was from Liverpool whose wife was a coal merchant daughter, he had also run a green grocers shop in sefton park for a while.
The empress of Canada did have stabilisers and once got a whale stuck on one of them.
Rgds
J.A
p.s thinking on the whale could have been stuck around the bow rather than the stabiliser.

[Johnny Kieran]

Hit a whale on a City boat once, there were several crossing the bow. Didn't half stink, I think it was chopped in half, but I couldn't see it properly due to the mess, then we were gone, except the smell.

Thinking about Canadian Pacific, they were probably one of the best I worked for.

[j.sabourn]

#6 Very true Johnny you can smell them a long time before you see them . Anchored off the NE of Scotland for a few days once and we had a visitation every morning by a whale ,it used to use the ship as a back scratcher and then swim off , it ponged and that was a live one , think a lot of the smell came from the shell fish hitching a ride on it, 57 variety’s of shellfish. JS