trecarne

[John Adamson]

I had not been on the forum for some time, so was happy to see this thread.I did my apprenticeship with Hain-Nourse from 65 to 69. My first ship was the Trevalgan, out to Persian Gulf (Not much fun there) I then joined the Cotswold,one of the new Bulk Carriers.Then I joined the Nurmahal under Captain John Reilly. Did anyone else sail with him? I heard later that he disapperd overboard somewhere in the Indian Ocean. I then joined another bulker, the Atherstone, followed by the Trecarrell,Trewidden,Trebartha and the once more on the Trevalgan as a newly minted 3rd Mate under Captain Charles Abbott, who was pleasure to sail with.

Cheers

John Adamson

[Charlie Hannah]

I remember the Tresillian capsizing and sinking in the St Georges Channel on 30 November 1954.
I think 34 men died and about 16 rescued. I also believe another Shell tanker rescued some, The Liparus?
She was homeward bound with a cargo of grain. This was in one of the most severe storms I have ever experienced. That day many ships went down. I was on the Norissia, a Shell tanker bound for Avonmouth, we got the Mayday but were powerless to do a thing about it. It was survival time. I remember a "World" Tanker breaking in half that day/
Cheers
BRIAN.

Brian was that the storm the South Goodwin Light ship was lost together with 11 ships one of them a Hains boat
24 lives lost R.I.P.i was on a Harrison boat at the time SS.Historian.
Cheers.

[Gulliver]

Brian was that the storm the South Goodwin Light ship was lost together with 11 ships one of them a Hains boat
24 lives lost R.I.P.i was on a Harrison boat at the time SS.Historian.
Cheers.

Some Info:

s.s.TRESILLIAN 30th November 1954


On Nov. 17, 1954, the vessel left Sorel, Quebec, Canada, for Avonmouth with a cargo of 9350 tons of bulk barley & wheat. On Nov. 30, 1954, the vessel encountered heavy weather 44 miles off Ballycotton, County Cork, Ireland. At about 51.14N/07.30W. The Captain had indicated that the cargo had shifted, which seems, per the Court of Inquiry, to have been likely so only late in the disaster when the vessel was already doomed as a result of water entry. Any cargo shifting would not have effected the outcome. The ship developed a list to port in winds of up to force 12. The list increased; water invaded the engine room; the vessel listed 30 degrees to port; & capsized. 17 crew members were rescued, 4 by Ardglen (landed at Milford Haven) & 13 by Liparus, a 6473 ton 'Shell' tanker, owned by Anglo-Saxon Petroleum Co. Ltd., & landed via Maer at Cork. However one of the 13 (Charles Harrison, aged 18, a cadet) soon died from swallowing oil, the result of Liparus spreading oil to calm the seas. Tresillian had a crew of 40, so 24 lives were lost, including W. J. Winter, the Captain. It would seem, that Captain Winter was rescued also, but died soon thereafter. A steward who died was 17 year-old John Clark.Other ships searched for survivors also - Parima, Floristan & Brocklebank.
The court of inquiry stated that there was no evidence of a breach of the main hatchways, & that the likely cause of water entry was the breakage of a soil pipe'. The soil pipe that they refer to would be immersed at a list of 5 degrees & if damaged, as they believe it was, would have admitted water continuously at a greater degree of list.
All nine members of the motor life boat crew of Liparus, which could not itself get near the foundering ship, were later awarded the Silver Medal for Gallantry for Saving Life at Sea for their rescue efforts. There were other awards also, including the Bronze such medal awarded to Clement Griffiths, Able Seaman of Tresillian, for his part in saving lives. And Christopher Colley, pumpman of Liparus, received the 'Queen's Commendation for Brave Conduct' for saving the totally exhausted Charles S. Owston, the commander of the lifeboat.





SOUTH GOODWINS LT.VESSEL: 27th November 1954

LINK HERE

[Captain Kong]

For Charlies reply, Gullivers responce says it all, the Storms around the coast then were horrendous, quite scary and lasted for a while. on a par with the other great storm the weekend of January 31 in 1953 when the Princess Victoria went down with 135 and the south east coast and Canvey Island disasters and Holland being flooded with about 3000 dead.
thanks for the picture of the event Davey.
Cheers
Brian

[Charlie Hannah]

Thanks for showing that Gulliver.As you say Capt Kong real bad weather.

[Owston]

Hi,

I'm the son of the officer in charge of the rescue boat from the Liparus. The rescue is quite a tale and has been extensively researched by LSARS (Life Saving Awards Research Society) who produced a 35 page report on the rescue operations, the MoT considerations for awards and some original press reports and photographs.

Interestingly, while researching this I can report that 5 of the rescued 16 are still alive today and I've spoken to 3 of them.

Sadly, Non of the rescue crew of the Liparus are still with us today.

If anyone is interested I could let them have a copy of the LSARS article.

[j.sabourn]

It is good to read some of these accounts of the past. At the time of seamens loss of life etc. may of received a couple of lines in the newspapers of the day. The only ones who will recall correctly will be those who were there and experienced. Sometimes one thinks if all the ex seafarers gave an accurate account of weather and conditions at time. All these posts other seamen can read and understand. Wheras official reports do not clarify too well. JS

[Laurie Ridyard]

Hi Glenn i did 7 months on the Trecarne in 1961 as deck boy Cheers Pete (Wheatley)

Hi!

I was a deck app. on that 7 month trip, which I remember very well ! The other two deck apps. were John " Lofty" Ward [ blond, very tall 6' 2"] and Peter Underwood. The ol' man was a fat , dirty little sod with a goatee called S.O. Watkins, the C/0 was Chas . D. Abbott. The bo'sun I cannot remember his name, he had a scarred and twisted face because of some sort of accident. He was a cockney.

We loaded 6,000 tons phosphates at Tampa , then went round several central American ports loading coffee for Japan. We went to Yokohama and another port to discharge the coffee, then to a small port called Onahama to discharge the phosphates for a new fertiliser factory. We were the first deep sea and first foreign flag ship in the port, and loads of schoolkids came to see the ship in long crocodiles.

In the early hours of the morning of our last day there, a typhoon hit the port and we were half wrecked with the side looking like corrugated iron !

We had to go Ishikawa Jima Shipyard near Tokyo [not Yokohama !] for repairs and were there for 4 weeks, then on to Newcastle NSW for grain to Basrah.

Onahama is no more ! It was washed away in the 2011Tsunami and if you look at the Youtube videos of that event you can see it being washed away....

We were clearing up the tweendecks in Tokyo, and we had to move a heavy wooden beam. One of the deck boys got hold of one end and I got hold of the other. I goes " 1 ! 2! 3! Lift!" and we lifted it. , but it was too heavy for the deckboy and he dropped his end, which hit the deck causing my end to jump out of my hands and land on my right foot !!! I spent two weeks laid up with a very badly swollen foot.

Would that have been you ?

I remember he was about 5' 4" , skinny with black hair.

Get back !

ATB

Laurie Ridyard.

[j.sabourn]

#51... Pleased someone else has been to Onahama, mentioned it years ago and no one said they knew it. Was there about 1970 on a ship called the Maratha Envoy. Some years ago a lady was looking for her father a Captain Wilde, I answered that I knew him and heard no more. He was the master there for a few months. We hadn't had sights for 4 days before making a landfall by D/F bearings got by the Indian sparky, on picking up the land on the Radar it seemed to come in on radar picture as almost similar as expected, so we proceeded into what appeared to be a big bay. The fog suddenly lifted and we were surrounded by Japanese fishing boats, on shouting down to them Onahama they pointed north and said 100 miles. The radio bearings given us by sparks were obviously all a dose of crock. So we followed the coast and as it was a Saturday and as per charter party was not a working day, we finally got alongside at about 1600 hrs and the old man ( this ladys father) went tearing up the quay with his notice of readiness, to hand in at the custom house, which turned out to be closed. So had to wait until the Monday to hand in, and as time didn't start until 24 hours after arrival, must have been why we got longer than expected in this port. It was either the shippers son who I believe was also the ships agent came up from Yokohama and spent a lot of time in his company. I remember a large swimming arena there where they had a musical and aqua show with all these female swimmers dancing in the water, and finishing up in this Buddhist monastery overlooking the harbour in the company of this Japanese supercargo and two Japanese housewifes where they came from didn't ask. The son must have been the black sheep of the family as he ran out of money which meant I was short also. The ship on going to Yokohama asked me to come ashore with him while he went to see Daddy. On going into this huge office with about 50 girls sitting at desks he barrelled his way into the inner sanctum and came out waving money, so we continued where we had left off in Onahama but this time in Yokohama. On talking to him about the war years he said he had been a 14 year old naval cadet trained to fly an old banger as a kami kazi, I asked him what would have happened if called to do so, his reply was I wouldn't have done it. He spoke perfect American with no English accent. My time off the ship was all ok with the old man as he told me to accompany the blacksheep and keep him out of his hair, I had no difficulty with this as got quite adjusted to his way of life and was sorry when it was all over. This is probably one of the fewer good memorys of going to sea. Cheers JS

[pegleg]

1 was in the same storm in the irish sea bound for garston on tetela, i remember we heard about the disaster when we docked.I AM REFERRING TO THE SINKING OF TRESSILIAN.