Originally Posted by
Derek Rigby
This was in late December 1954. I had been taken on as a deck apprentice by Overseas Tankship UK Ltd, a.k.a. Caltex which was an American company operating a fleet of oil tankers. My first vessel was Caltex Dublin with Captain Oliver as Master. I was 16 years old, totally green and just didn't know what to expect. My two older brothers had both been at sea, one on deck and the other a fireman and they had regaled me with tales of what a hard time apprentices had, being treated as cheap labour, often getting knocked around and always getting the worst jobs. So I was very apprehensive. I had to first travel to London and report to the company offices. These were very plush, located in a grand building on the Thames Embankment. I had been told to get a taxi from Paddington Station and I arrived totally overawed by an experience I had never in my life had before.
I was introduced to two engineer officers who were joining the same ship and told that they would see that I arrived there safely. The ship was coming in to Flushing in Holland and we were to get a night ferry to go over. I don't know how I would have managed on my own as I was totally blown away by all that was going on.
The following day we learned from the ship's agent that the vessel had been delayed and we would have to stay overnight in a hotel, this was another first for me. Eventually the ship arrived and that evening we boarded, there were no apprentices paying off as this vessel had never had them before. Everything was being hurried as they wanted to get away and make up for lost time. I met the first mate but he was way too busy to be bothered with me and I was told to report to the third mate. I did this and he took me to my cabin, I was amazed to find that I had one to myself! When he realised that this was my first trip he told me that I should just lie low and keep out of the way. You'll be sick as a dog once we are under way he said so it won't make much difference.
I had a very comfortable cabin with its own bathroom, I unpacked and stowed my stuff in something of a daze as things didn't seem to be working out as my brothers had described.
The following morning I was woken by a knock on my door and there was a steward with a cup of tea for me! I ventured out into the midships saloon and met the 3rd mate. He was surprised to see that I was not seasick particularly as our passage down the channel was quite rough. We'll see how you get on when we cross the Bay of Biscay he said with a wink at the other officers. He said I should go along for breakfast and see him later. I went off wondering when I would have to start on the lousy jobs. The mess room was aft on the starboard side. There was a long table with the captain's chair at the head, the deck officers all sat on one side and the engineer officers on the other. I was put at the lower end of the deck section. I was amazed at the food that was served as I had never seen anything like it. I had been brought up during the war and rationing was still in force at home but on board food was plentiful and of excellent quality. I was offered fruit juice, cereals, kedgeree, eggs and bacon, toast with lashings of butter, jam and marmalade. To me it was unbelievable and I tucked into everything. There were Goanese stewards in attendance and the fact that I was just a young squirt didn't seem to make any difference,
they just referred to me as 'chota sahib'.
When I reported back to the 3rd mate he seemed at a loss as to what I should do then he had an idea. He had been meaning to get an inventory of the medical locker for some time and told me I could get on with that. The ship was a WW2 American T2 tanker and the locker was stocked and equipped with most of the supplies it had come out of the shipyard with. I began listing everything in the ledger I had been given unaware that lots of the medications were hopelessly out of date. This kept me busy for about a week as there was loads of stuff to account for. As the ship was originally intended for wartime service they had set it up accordingly, there was even a hospital cabin on board.
The ship's officers were British and the crew were all from India. The deck crew were Hindus and the engine room crew ******s, I could never figure out the distinction but that was the way it was, and they all lived aft on the lower deck, the deck crew on the starboard side and the engine room crew on the port side. The deck officers lived amidships and the engineer officers lived aft on the upper deck. The stewards were from Goa and were, I believe, mostly Christians. The ship carried a radio officer who was a Marconi man, he lived amidships and was always in close contact with the skipper. There was no radio telephone and all communication was in morse code, this was how the company kept track on the whereabouts of its fleet.
The 1st mate did no watchkeeping and saw to the running of the ship and cargo through the deck crew. The other 3 deck officers kept watch with the 2nd mate mostly responsible for navigating, but all officers would be involved with taking on and discharging of oil cargo. The skipper was somewhat elusive, he would occasionally appear on the bridge and glance at the chart but he generally kept his own counsel and was a somewhat solitary person. He would always be evident on Sunday mornings when he inspected all the accomodation.
I think that the fact that the crew were Indian accounted for the way I was treated as normally apprentices worked alongside a ship's deck crew. It was an American company and it was before any real civil rights legislation had been enacted so I can only assume that the owners had decided that this is how it would be. So it was decided that I would take up watchkeeping duties on the bridge and thus began my navigational education.
The bridge facilities and equipment were very spartan by modern day standards. There was a gyro compass and a rudimentary radar but everything else was old school. No auto steering so we carried four quartermasters who took care of the wheel all the time the ship was under way. On long passages, as long as we had clear weather we would shoot the sun at midday and calculate our position, otherwise it was dead reckoning using the log and running time. The officers were really kind to me and I was allowed take a sight and work through the tables and give my input. There was no electronic gadgetry to pinpoint where we were so it was down to the officers' navigational skills and I must say these were excellent. If I was keeping night watch I used to have fun with the Aldis lamp. Whenever we saw the lights of another ship I would get busy and tap out messages, 'what ship? where bound?' It was really interesting to hear from other vessels, what their voyage was and their cargoes. Very occasionally it would be another Caltex ship and there would be a flurry of messages about who might be crew members.
These were the times before merchant shipping went into decline and we would still see the grand P&O liners en route to Australia. There were also sightings of the iconic ships of Messageries Maritimes, with their plain black funnels and the American Lykes Lines vessels which rumour had it went full ahead on leaving San Francisco and didn't reduce on this until they reached Japan.
Our first voyage took us out through the Suez canal to the Persian Gulf. We loaded a cargo of crude oil at Ras Tanura and headed down to Botany Bay, Australia. It was at Ras Tanura that I enjoyed my first Coca Cola. The oil business was run by the Americans (Aramco) and as was the norm they had all home comforts for the work force, ice cream, Coke even an outdoor cinema, all of which we took advantage of.
As mentioned the food on board was outstanding especially for a kid brought up with never enough to eat. It was here that I learned about curry, with the Indian cooks this was of a very high standard and there would be a different one each day, always excellent, I noticed that most of the officers opted for these. Each morning one of the cooks would sit on deck with his stone board and roller surrounded by an array of spices and he would prepare the days curry paste.
Although I had a very easy time of it the 1st mate found time to give me some work on deck, chipping, scraping and red leading around the lifeboats. He also saw to it that I became conversant with the pumping systems for loading and off loading of cargo. I also had to learn about tank cleaning, after discharging a cargo and we were out at sea the tanks would be cleaned with high pressure Butterworth equipment and the resulting sludge pumped overboard. I just didn't realise at the time what a terrible thing this was and as far as the company was concerned it was 'out of sight, out of mind'.
Looking back at this experience of almost 70 years ago I realise that I was a very fortunate young man. I can still recall the tremendous excitement of traversing the Suez canal. I had to take the wheel for some of the passage as a couple of the quartermasters had reported 'sick', I was scared stiff at first but managed.
There were so many wonderful moments; coming up one night on the coast approaching Bombay I asked the 3rd mate what the strange smell was, that's India son, he said. Going into dry dock in Japan, astounded as the workforce swarmed aboard and began working before we had made fast. Watching the sun rise and set on a magical Indian Ocean.
I get the idea that things today are pretty tame by comparison.
