I did a round trip in her in 1948. (LONDON,ZARATE, MONTEVIDEO, ANTWERP, LONDON).
I rate her as the wost ship I ever sailed in! She was a brute to steer. You worked hard for two hours to stop her from veering off course, all the while staring at a dancing image in the gyro compass that was hypnotic, to say the elast!
THe food was so bad that while in BA and Monte we only ate ashore. Another Kiwi, John Marking, and I agreed to talk to the Mate about it. All we got was a diatribe about bloody stirring colonials and if he had known we were NZers he'd never haver signed us on!
Zarate was interesting. Aboout a day's sail from BA up a side river. With her bad steering, she sheered from bank to bank and the decks were coverrd in branches! We moored at a big frigorifico (Meatworks) I was told by the stevedorte that a bull entering the works at 8 a.m. w3as in our hold by 4 p.m.!
I captialized on her baf steering! We carried a few passengwrs and to make the anchoir sweep more profitable, the crew were allowed to be in. I drew 6 pm and was on the wheel when we came in to the bunkering point at Cape Verde Is. By surreptitious "juggling" of the wheel, I managed to delay her coming on to teeh anchoring bearing by 2 minutes and the hook went down at 6 pm! I think the Old Man was on to me. "What time did you have?" he asked me.
Alistair Kerr;
'KiwiAB