Hadley Shipping Company

[Tony Taylor]

James, Wow! You must have had some really clean tanks on Blyth Adventurer for Shell to allow you to carry aviation spirit! The cleanest cargo we ever loaded in Curacao was a load of Gas oil for the Chilean Navy in Talcahuano, Chile., and that was only after a second cleaning of our tanks prior to loading. Shell. understandably, were very strict about the cleanliness of the tanks, which on ships such as the "Cerinthus", which had been primarily used to carrying really thick grades of crude from Venezuala to Curacao for refining, did pose some problems at times. RICHARD

Richard, I was on an H boat that changed from black oils to white, it took quite a while, tank clean first in Rotterdam then started off with gas oil cargoes and then gradually lighter grades til carrying mogas, avtur etc. Also all tank valve glands had to be repacked once past the commercial kerosene cargoes.

[Richard Harding]

AJ. Certainly didn,t go around the world in 1960 voyage on Cerinthus. In fact the voyage could be best described as "Curacao based". If we were not taking crude from Lake Maracaibo to Curacao for refining, then it was, with one exception, taking crude from Lake Maracaibo to various smaller refineries on both sides of North & South America. The one exception was mid voyage in June/July 1960 when we took a load of crude from Maracaibo to Rotterdam - that was the most easterly port that we went to.At least a third of the crew, went sick or jumped ship in Rotterdam as original sailing orders intimated a UK port after Rotterdam. This didn,t happen and revised orders were received from Shell before we got to Rotterdam telling us to proceed back to Curacao. It took more than a few days to replace our deserting crew, which included "all ranks" from deckhand to 3rd Mate, Radio Officer, Engineers, Catering staff et al, and can remember getting time ashore there ,which was a real treat & a rarity. Haven,t seen my discharge book for years - might be with my daughter, and will try to trace it when l get home in 3 weeks or so, and see what it says, but have a nagging doubt that as an apprentice the voyage details were not recorded. But we will wait and see!

[AJ Hawker]

Richard The Cerinthus used to dry-dock regularly in Barry or Cardiff, I joined her in Cardiff, Stonewall Jackson was captain had a pleasant couple of months back and forth Punta Cardon to Europe.

[Richard Harding]

AJ. Our skipper in 1960 was Capt Welch - he was 34 at the time, but to me, a mere 16 year old he appeared to be 54. He was v.popular with all the crew, strict but fair, and he always acknowledged the efforts of the two deck apprentices. Unfortunately he paid-off in Curacao in Dec ,60 to fly home quickly for an operation on a stomach ulcer. We all reckoned it was caused by the antics of the 1st mate, ???? Walcott, once again a likeable character, but a bit scatterbrained to say the least, but all of that is another story. Punta Cardon, never loaded there, as we , on our Lake Runs went into the furthest reaches of Lake Maracaibo, generally loading the very thickest, crudest crude with was delivered to us at a very high temperature for obvious reasons of course, and the heating coils to all of our tanks were at full blast all the time, from loading to discharging in Curacao. So critical was this ,that tank temps. were taken at very regular intervals to ensure that heating coils to every individual tank were working efficiently - on one trip there was a noticeable drop in temps to some port tanks, and it took the engineers a couple of hours to sort it.l can remember that we had to be very careful when discharging as even with no heat for just a couple of hours the cargo was so heat critical that we had to " mix" the affected portside tanks with normal temp. strbd and centre tanks, so there was a lot of valve turning on that discharge, but all went well in the end. And of course the jolly old Butterworth machines were used to dilute the very thick slops into a couple of slop tanks that could be more easily pumped ashore at Curacao.
We used to pick-up and drop off a special Lakes pilot off Punta Cardon, but as far as l remember we never loaded there.
Just on another topic, and l can see you are located in Barry - a couple of years ago l started having to go to the Thai Consulate in Cardiff to get my 90 days visa for my annual winter holiday, and after, decided to go back down memory lane to re-visit Barry Dock after 58 years. Found of course, the old Shipping Federation offices on the hill, where l first reported in Jan ,60, which are now occupied by the local council as l am sure you are aware, and asked a couple of gents returning from their lunch break if they could tell me where Baileys drydock used to be. One of the gents was on his last day at work,ie retiring that day, and he was only too pleased to spend 30mins or so talking about C.H.Baileys drydock and Barry Docks in general, as he had known it in his lifetime, and how it had become in the 80,s & 90,s, a graveyard for so many tankers, although not for "Cerinthus" as l believe she was broken up in the late 70,s in Faslane, Scotland. Happy days!

[j.sabourn]

#24 ... do you know of any future history of your Capt. Welch ? We had one in Runcimans will have a look in my book tomorrow and see if it could line up with him. Although he was no youngster then and was at sea during the war. Maybe his son ? JS.

[Richard Harding]

JS. Yes, a couple of years ago l did some research on Capt. Welch, but that info is back in the UK, and l am not! l do know that he was C. J Welch, the C standing for Clifford. He passed away in the early 1990s as far as l can remember. l do not know what happened to him after he left us in Curacao, but it should be remembered that Hadley Shipping Company senior staff, ie certainly Deck Officers, and senior engineers were employees of Houlder Brothers, 53.Leadenhall St., London, EC? Radio Officers at that time were supplied by Marconi, and although l am uncertain of this fact, were also paid by Houlder Brothers and not by Marconi themselves. In the days we are talking about, ie 1960s, l believe the Hadley Shipping Co. was a subsiduary of Houlders. Capt. Welch was definitely one who could be described as a "company man" - l cannot think of him as one who would have been hopping from one company to another all the time.
There may be others out there who can provide us with more info., either of his career before or after 1960 ??? Regards, RICHARD

[j.sabourn]

I may have sailed with Welch as an apprentice in which case will not be in discharge book , if it was during that period he was in his 60s ..1953 to 1957. After that was with Runcimans unrtil 1964. Know I sailed with a captain Welch . But probably a different man to yours, although thought my Welch maybe. The. Father of yours. Cheers JS

[Richard Harding]

JS.If you can give me the christian names preferably of "your" Capt.Welch, ex Runcimans, and approx. age , guess maybe at his date of birth, l can look into this further. "My" Capt. C.J. Welch would have been born in 1926. Cheers, RICHARD

[j.sabourn]

Will have a look Manyana . 2300 hrs here. Cheers JS.

[Richard Harding]

JS. Thanks for info. which l did not see previous to your original post. No, definitely not the same Capt.Welch, but as you say, could well be his son! After all the name WELCH is not all that common, and could well be the case of "like father, like son" ! Cheers, RICHARD