Manchester Liners

[Richard Simpson]

Having a bit of a look around I notice there isn't a single posting in the Manchester Liners section. We can't have that. My first trip to sea was 1977 on the Manchester Vanguard. She was brand new at the time, just out of Smith's dock and back in for a snagging list after her first voyage. I spent two weeks in Smith's dock before sailing with her to Gothenburg, then onto Japan via Suez. My second trip was then on the sister ship, the Manchester Venture, also her second trip. I then went to Japan via Panama so I went around the world in the first two trips.

Manchester Liners was a fantastic company to work for. Small enough that everyone knew everyone else, and 90% were local, but big enough to be a good secure employer. When I started the "Magic Circle", The Mate, The Old Man, The Chief, The Second and the Chief Thief, were all doing one-on-one-off on the North Atlantic ships. All other officers did two-on-one-off. As the trips were three weeks it was a pretty good number. The customs officers in Manchester were given a serious run around.

Anyway Vanguard holds a very special place in my heart. Great people, just about all long gone, but the awe and wonder at walking around the engine room looking at this amazing machinery never went away. Her engine was a 7RND90, built by Scotts in Glasgow, and I still remember looking at her name plaque in amazement to this day where it said 20,300 bhp. I remember the couple of days prior to that first departure as the engine was warming through when I used to climb all over it feeling around when I really did think it was slowly coming alive. Then the whole process of preparing her for the first start with priming the fuel pumps, turning with the turning gear, blowing on air, etc...etc.. It really was all very magical. That company put me on a path that didn't end until the end of 2016 when I retired as Chief Engineer of a 125,000 grt passenger ship but I think I still remember my time on the Vanguard more fondly.

Another 7RND90 under construction.

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A couple of shots of the Vanguard.

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And one of the Venture in, I think, Falmouth

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[John Arton]

Richard
I sailed with a number of ex Manchester liners guys in Canadian Pacific and used to have joint parties with them while in Saint John new Brunswick during winter months.
In the 90's I saw one of the ex Manchester liners container vessels in Taiwan, I recognised it by the accommodation block but it had been lengthened and had blisters added both sides to extend its beam, very strange looking vessel.
Think one ex liners engineer I sailed with was a guy called Izzy salters and another was an electrician from barrow in Furness.
An ex liners electrician emigrated to Montreal and had the job of doing all the lamping up on the container ships whilst they were in port, amongst other electrical maintenance tasks. Think he initially emigrated to Canada to work on their defence project up in the artic, the Dewey line?.
Rgds
J.A

[Richard Simpson]

The Vanguard and Venture were a bit of a diversion from thier normal trade and never really made any money they could't go up the canal so didn't really fit any of thier normal operations. Liners Bread and Butter run was the North Atlantic to Montreal, three weeks about. In my early years they went up the Manchester Ship Canal to Salford docks but later they changed to turn around in Seaforth. The MSC passage was brilliant. 12 hours up the canal, always a pan of stew on the range and a steady supply of bacon sandwiches. The routine was that if you were between your two trips you went home for two days, still signed on, and if you were at the end of your two trips you worked by for the two days. The Montreal ships were hammered to death and manitenance was bare minimum in service. We frequently lifted a main engine fuel pump as a result of a high exhaust, then dropped it again when we needed everything to get us to the Liverpool pilot at the front of the queue! Black smoke frequently streaked across the skyline. When I started we had Lecky's but they were dropped in later years and the Second did lamping up after breakfast.

I saw a lot of things with Liners and learned a lot in a short space of time. Probably one of the most valuable was the fact that we could, and frequently had to, acheive anything. A regular run on the North Atlantic through winter, never stopping for ice up the St Lawrence, was both demanding and rewarding and I loved it all.