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Thread: 'Chatty 'CHAPMANS

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    Default 'Chatty 'CHAPMANS

    Is there anyone out there who sailed with the illustrious company(maybe notorious would be a better word)?
    I was on the GRAINTON for her last trip in early 1970.Crowd was grom all over U.K,one memorable character was John Lynskey southern Irish by birth, Polish by name and a bit of Chinese in his ancestry, i later heard he went missing while ship was at sea,both the skipper and the Bosun were From Barra and that proved to be a deadly combination for the deck crowd.i joined her in drydock in Rotterdam,we went to Rosario and Buenos Areas lightship to load for Zeebrugge and where we paid off,we left 3 0f the deck crew in B.A.so enjoyed a wee.bit of.short hand money it was welcome because she was miserly in overtime as well as apoor.feeder

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    Default Re: 'Chatty 'CHAPMANS

    A bit before your time but knew 2 who served their time there. One didn’t know had gone there but someone on site who knew him said he did when he died a few years ago a John Eggleston. The other one was a Charlie Briggs from Sunderland , think he stayed with Chapman’s a few years after , he was on the Geneton in 1954 in BA and I went onboard to see him. Someone again on this site told me he finished up harbour master at Blyth in Northumberland.
    The Geneton what I remember of her was worse than the vessel I was on , as she had an open wheelhouse and must have been uncomfortably wet crossing the North Atlantic in winter. She had no carpenter and the apprentices did all the soundings and battening down wedges etc. and any other chippy jobs. When I was in Runcimans we had a master who told me that at one time he went for an interview with Chapman’s for a masters job, on going into the office he hung his coat and trilby on a clothes stand before being interviewed . Coming out of the interview they told him they would let him know later. He later got a letter saying his services were not required as his powers of observation were not up to standard. They had switched hats on him , so must have kept a lot of hats in the office of various sizes . On getting home he found it was not his hat but decided to keep it until went back to the office. He never did .He came master in Runcimans so maybe we weren’t so choosey. Cheers JS
    PS the skipper from Barra wasn’t another Murdo McLeod was he ? JS
    Last edited by j.sabourn; 22nd March 2022 at 08:33 AM.
    R575129

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    Post Re: 'Chatty 'CHAPMANS

    Before I begin,can I just ask our Admin Doc Vernon to consider correcting the forum title to Chapman and WILLAN,please?


    Well,thanks to Shipping Today and Yesterday magazine there is a feature also on line about this company HERE.
    It gives us a good 'part' history about the company up to a certain point when it informs you 'for the rest of the history,please subscribe to the magazine' !, but nevertheless what it gives is quite a good little history.

    As always ,when anybody mentions the name of a ship,I just have to look it up to see it's history,fate etc.
    So,JS ,in Yr.#2 you had me fooled looking for your 'Geneton'-it took me a while before I found it-the GENERTON !

    INFOLINK-GENERTON

    Image courtesy John Bage Coll'n.Sunderland Ships site

    She traded for 33 years,19 of those with Chapman & Willan,5 years with the Finns,then 9 with Panamanian flagged Far East owners. She had amongst her career highlights been bombed in the North Sea in July 1940,and the year before her scrapping in Taiwan in 1969 she was abandoned with leaks by her crew,before being salvaged and towed for scrap.

    Her similarly dimensioned sisters built slightly later were the HERMISTON and the SCORTON

    GENERTON 161600.jpg

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    Default Re: 'Chatty 'CHAPMANS

    Re CHAPMAN AND WILLAN
    My apologies to you if i offended you with my terminology ,but that was how they were reffered as by most in the trade.While i was there one of the ABs Stanley Donaldson from Islington and my cabin mate once told me he had been on another off there vessels previously and she run aground somewhere in the Philippines and they had another ship run aground in the general area prior to that.I cant recall the skippers name but the.bosun was.Murdo Mcintyre.
    ..

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    Default Re: 'Chatty 'CHAPMANS

    I was on the Amberton 1964 for 8 months, Argentina, Japan, British Columbia then home via Panama, a great trip. Not a bad company, good crowd, food was not bad not much overtime, but good runs ashore. As they say Chatty but Happy. Believe the Amberton was sister to Grainton.
    Last edited by AJ Hawker; 3rd April 2022 at 02:28 PM.

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    Default Re: 'Chatty 'CHAPMANS

    Norton. June 67 to Jan 68. I seemed to remember paying off with £70!! Had a bloody good time though!
    Lynton. Feb 68 to April 69. One trip!!!

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