Keith Mobbs

[Keith Mobbs]

SHIPS NAME AND SERVICE RECORD

Full Name

Keith Mobbs

Discharge Book Number

R ******

Department

Deck

Your Rank/Rating

Cadet/ Jnr 3rd Mate

Which Ships were you on and When

Icenic
Doric
Northern Star,
Saracen
Athenic
Aramaic
1960 - 1965

Notes:

Joined the Union Co of NZ after this and was later harbour pilot in Greymouth and Lyttelton. Then Captain on free flag ships until retirement

[Doc Vernon]

Hi Keith
Are you from Dover or London originally !
Just curious .
Thanks for the Post!
Cheers

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Hi Keith.
I left the Union Co in 64, my last ship the old Karu which they sent to japan for scrap, or so they though, she sunk on the way. Spent a lot of time on colliers running down to Westport and Greymouth, not a good run down the East coast.
Des

[Graham Shaw]

Hi Keith.
I left the Union Co in 64, my last ship the old Karu which they sent to japan for scrap, or so they though, she sunk on the way.
Spent a lot of time on colliers running down to Westport and Greymouth, not a good run down the East coast.

Des

Got a bit more about the Karu Des.

INFOLINK

[As the newly owned and renamed DOROTHIE on her final voyage--from certain Lloyds publications]

' The British flag Hong Kong registered motor vessel Dorothie was on a loaded voyage from Auckland to Hong Kong,when on July 11th,1964 she struck a reef in the Jomard Passage,the main route through the Coral Sea between Asia and Australia.The crew of 13 abandoned ship and were later rescued from a lifeboat by the British motor vessel Baron Jedburgh which then proceeded to Rabaul to land the shipwrecked men.The wrecked Dorothie, fully aground with her engine room flooded was declared a constructive total loss.' ]

There seems to be a conflicting report from other sites stating she was on passage from Sydney to Guam.

Cheers
Graham

Additional Pic and Info from the NZ Ship and Marine Society HERE

[j.sabourn]

Just mentioned the Jomard Passage recently Graham , trying to put my mind back to those years can’t remember any dangerous unlit reefs one of the reasons we always used , I think.? JS

[Graham Shaw]

Just mentioned the Jomard Passage recently Graham , trying to put my mind back to those years can’t remember any dangerous unlit reefs one of the reasons we always used , I think.? JS

Yes,you did mention the Jomard Passage routeJohn,as being a quicker route from Cairns towards Asia. Thankfully,if the reefs were unlit-you missed 'em !
Re the Florida south going inshore counter current,yes I think it was mentioned in the pilot book,or to give it it's posh name,The Admiralty Sailing Directions.The type of master that I sailed with,the 'old school' type mainly ( and nothing wrong with that) ,wouldn't have been so adventurous. I suppose ,being a bit close inshore might have been a bit of a risk with quite likely pleasure/fishing craft around in daylight hours,not so bad at night when you can usually see their lights. I also can't remember-it was fifty years ago after all,-whether there was traffic routeing down there,and whether it was compulsory or just recommended.I do know we had to have those 'orrible green,blue and yellow U.S. Coast Guard charts on board,and had to use them.We also had Loran C - what a lot of faffing around with that.It was about another seven years or so before we got satnavs.It all sounds so archaic now.But hey ! I survived it all, without getting my feet,or anything else wet.I was young,and wouldn't have missed it for the world !

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Hi Graham.
That picture brought back some memories, according to the write up with the picture, she was wrecked on the voyage from NZ to Gaum, for break up. which is what I remembered happened, I thought she was under tow with no one on board when she sunk.
And to think they paid us off because all we wanted a washing machine, LOL
Des

[John Arton]

Going down the Florida strait southbound and close to the coast to take advantage of the current, if NASA was launching from cape Canaveral, a exclusion zone was established off the launch site and it was enforced by the USA navy. I was 3rd mate on a forest products ship loaded with phosphate from Jacksonville bound for Vancouver when the captain decided to ignore the exclusion zone, " no yanks are going to tell me where I can take my ship in international waters". Next thing we had two destroyers positioned close to port and starboard on our bow with the starboard one continuenly edging closer making us to alter to port to avoid collision (forget collision regs). This continued until they had forced us to alter course 90 degree and so clear the exclusion zone, all the time with the captain screaming over the vhf at them that they were denying freedom of passage, all met with a stony silence from them.
Rgds
J.A.

[j.sabourn]

Probably there was no practising NASA during the time I am referring to. The Nazi rocketry experts who were given USA citizenship for their future skills hadn’t by then reached space travel . But there again they might and were holding out for more moolah. Cheers JS

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Going down the Florida strait southbound and close to the coast to take advantage of the current, if NASA was launching from cape Canaveral, a exclusion zone was established off the launch site and it was enforced by the USA navy. I was 3rd mate on a forest products ship loaded with phosphate from Jacksonville bound for Vancouver when the captain decided to ignore the exclusion zone, " no yanks are going to tell me where I can take my ship in international waters". Next thing we had two destroyers positioned close to port and starboard on our bow with the starboard one continuenly edging closer making us to alter to port to avoid collision (forget collision regs). This continued until they had forced us to alter course 90 degree and so clear the exclusion zone, all the time with the captain screaming over the vhf at them that they were denying freedom of passage, all met with a stony silence from them.
Rgds
J.A.

Hi John
And their complaining about China and free passage in the China seas, where so far no ship that I know of have been stopped.
Des