Vindi onwards....
by Published on 31st December 2022 10:44 AM
I guess us “old Vindi boys “ are all getting to the
end of the voyage, so at 90 years of age I can’t take anything for granted and I will not.
I hope this short story is of interest.
I left the “Vindicatrix “ in September 1949, with a travel warrant, to travel to the Pool at
Bristol. There I was informed I should be on the Pool at Newport ( Mon, Wales ). So armed
with another travel warrant I left Bristol for Newport.
I was given a berth on a small bulk ship of around 2000 tons called the s/s J. Duncan.
I asked at the dock gates where the ship was berthed and was told it is that four poster down
there, ( some way down the docks )
Just as I was about to trudge down the docks, a row of railway wagons moved away and lo and behold,
there was the J.Duncan, loaded down with good Welsh coal, almost down to wharf level.
I don’t know what I was expecting, but whatever it was I don’t think I got it. On board us catering lads
were down aft over the screw on the starboard side with the firemen opposite.To say it was a cabin
was really stretching the imagination – bare steel bulkheads for us all. Amidships it was the Skipper
Mates and Engineers and Cook/Steward and Radio Operator.
The Skipper was a Mr Martin and the bond locker was his settee which he slept on whilst in Port.
The R/O was not one forgotten in a hurry, he used to lock himself in his cabin/radio shack when
sending or receiving messages and going ashore always wore a WHITE Stetson! A white Stetson
with a cargo of coal being discharged?
The 2nd Mate was a veteran of the St.Nazaire raid and had an OBE and, when writing to him, his
wife always addressed the envelope with his full title.
The sailors were housed in the Fo’castle.
From memory I think the J.Duncan was built in 1914 and was still around in December 1949 when
we paid off in Port Talbot or Swansea Wales.
We sailed from Newport to London and the coal was discharged into lighters, then from there to Gateshead
coal London, then we picked up cement for Plymouth, then back to South Wales for coal for France, carrying pit props back
we then hit a gale I think we did two knots forward and one back.
One fond memory I have, is sailing out of Swansea in the late afternoon of November 5th, seeing the bonfires lit up on the
Welsh hills as we sailed down the Channel.Many years later, whilst working on maintenance in a big steel factory doing
night work, a worker with a Welsh accent asked me if I had ever been on the Newport ( Wales ) Pool? Yes I replied way
back in 1949. He replied “ I spoke to you back then and you joined the J.Duncan”
A small World.
Fred J Saunders discharge book # R 518224. civilian i/d card # XPEQ .16 . 3
