Cargoes

[Ivan Cloherty]

What I have noticed when visiting modern "Box" ships is the romance behind the smell of a cargo, on the modern ship there is no smell its all sealed in thos boxes to be opened inland

In the old days there were some glorious smells when hatches were opened especially on the non refrigerated ships

The smell of spices from India and the Far East, melons ripening from South America, even the onion smells were not unpleasant, the pungent smell of copra, the smell of fresh grain in Vancouver, the lanolin smell of wool in New Zealand. Rubber tyres from the India and the Far East

Mind you there were some bloody awful smells also,
cow hides from India/Pakistan
Wet grain in the bilges

I bet you guys can think of many more

Then there were the the rituals of preparing the ships before wing tanks and hopper DB's were the fashion

The construction of shifting boards for grains and the palm leaf and bamboo tunnels for rice cargoes, all gone now (thank god) but all part of normal shipboard life in the old tweendeckers, it was the variety that made it interesting and a challenge.

What do you other guys miss apart from the booze, the girls and fresh air, mind you in some places the words girls and fresh air should not be used in the same sentence!

Regards

Ivan

[Jim Brady]

The worst smell to me without a shadow of a doubt was Fishmeal.They used to put up those wind socks or shutes to keep it cool whilst we were at sea so you could even smell it then.I think after a while you became immune to it and did'nt notice it.Another thing about it,it to took ages to load,I think we were about two weeks in Walvis Bay taking on a full load for Poland.Walvis Bay must be about one of the worst places on the Planet.
Regards.
Jim.B.

[Pete Leonard (Bruno)]

Thank you Ivan for that bit of nostalgia. It certainly gets my juices going to think back on those old smells (good or bad) I always remember the aromas you got from the spice warehouses around the old Pool in Dock St. All now sadly gone. There was a pub next to the Pool that everyone called 'the pepper house' because of the smells. My most vivid recollection at sea was laying on a hatch cover at night in the middle of th Indian Ocean and marvelling at all the stars there were and how bright they were. That and the gentle rolling of the ship would make my day.
Nostalgia is a thing of the past.
Cheers
Pete

[Ivan Cloherty]

The worst smell to me without a shadow of a doubt was Fishmeal.They used to put up those wind socks or shutes to keep it cool whilst we were at sea so you could even smell it then.I think after a while you became immune to it and did'nt notice it.Another thing about it,it to took ages to load,I think we were about two weeks in Walvis Bay taking on a full load for Poland.Walvis Bay must be about one of the worst places on the Planet.
Regards.
Jim.B.

Hi Jim

I forgot about the fishmeal, and how the hell could I do that, I lived in Hull and when the wind was in the wrong direction the whole town within a five mile radius got it. Also sailed on deep sea trawlers as a "pleasurer" when 13 years old (and 14, 15 ) out to Iceland and Bear Island etc, and it was Sparkies job to render down the cod livers into oil in his own little boiler room near the galley, now there is a smell you will never forget, you think it smells bad when its cold, wait till you smell it when its boiling --

And then there was the Guana from Chile

and then there was that ginger headed cadet I shared a cabin with ????????????

Ah memories ????????????????????

Rgds

Ivan

[Stuart Henderson]

Remember sailing out of Meadowside Quay in Glasgow in the sixties with full cargo of crated whisky.for the States, before the box boats (ACL) arrived on the scene. Definitly an aroma to remember on those ships........
Earlier did a couple of coastal collier trips and whilst no smells it was defintely a mucky business trying to get ashore to see the girl friend in a clean white shirt (and tie of course) in those days.
Stuart

[Ivan Cloherty]

. My most vivid recollection at sea was laying on a hatch cover at night in the middle of th Indian Ocean and marvelling at all the stars there were and how bright they were. That and the gentle rolling of the ship would make my day.
Nostalgia is a thing of the past.
Cheers
Pete

Agree with you there Pete, at least with our tarp covered hatches, you could lay on them and they were surprisingly comfortable and yes it was pure magic just you (or so it seemed) and the stars and not a sound from that slow revving steam engine.

magic

Rgds

Ivan

[Jim Brady]

Ivan,what on earth was a "pleasurer"#4?
Regards.
Jim.B.

[Ivan Cloherty]

Ivan,what on earth was a "pleasurer"#4?
Regards.
Jim.B.

A pleasurer was the term for young lads who went to sea on deep water trawlers, but never got paid for the privelege, in fact your parent or guardian had to pay sixpence for a stamp which was then attached to an insurance document to give the trawler owner indemnity.

As a pleasurer you had no bunk, but slept underneath the messroom table until all hands were sure you were not going to be seasick, then if you passed that test you were allowed to hotbunk whilst they were on watch.

A pleasurer got all sorts of jobs, peeling spuds, shovelling coal in the stokehold, chopping ice down the holds, all the jobs the regular hands didn't want, bonuses were going on three week trips to Iceland, the White sea, bear Island and Arctic circle, quite an adventure for a 13 year old. The trawler men made sure you worked hard, but also made sure you were safe and gave you a good scrub down before sending you home to mother, who thought you had been on a pleasure cruise, and believe me it certainly wasn't, but by hell it didn't half toughen you up. Had mother known what it was really like she would have had a fit and that would have been no more trips

My first trawler was a 150 tonne coal fired steamer built in 1914, no hot water, try getting washed in cold water in the Artic even in summer

I enjoyed all my trawler trips and they stood me in good stead when I eventually went to sea at 16 as an apprentice. We had some really bad weather and I was never sea sick, trawler men will not let you be sick, they have a cure which would not go down well on passenger ships-- they tie you to the foc'le rails facing forward for a couple of hours, your so s--t scared you don't even think about being sick as the sea is coming towards you, one miute your looking at a wall of water the next all you see is sky

It was hard but I loved it, there was only room for one pleasurer on the 200 tonne trawlers but some of the bigger 350 tonners took two at a time

The lads on the trawlers always gave you big tips when they collected their pay the next day, well if you worked hard they did, and hard work was something I was never afraid of, earnt enough tips on my first trip to buy myself a brand new racing bike-- felt like a king

Never did know where the term "pleasurer" came from but that's what we were called

Rgds

Ivan

[sailor63]

well remember walvis bay, the streets stopped andthe desert carried on as i recall. sand and fishmeal end of.lol.

[Gulliver]

Sailor 63 wrote:-
' I well remember Walvis Bay. the streets stopped and the desert carried on as I recall. sand and fishmeal end of.lol. '


I visited Walvis Bay several times in the early eighties. Like Sailor 63,my impression still lingers(no pun intended!) of sand dunes and fishy aromas from the fish processing factories,probably like Grimsby I imagine(never been),but there was also a very noticeable aroma of bird sh*t (to be honest)coming from the guano platforms One of these was actually built over a rock offshore,and I can remember seeing it on the chart and reading the Pilot book about it.
I've found a bit on the web about it ,an interesting read.

http://web.uct.ac.za/depts/stats/adu/walvisbayguanoplatform.htm





And I always thought a pleasurer was a tickling stick.Please don't burst my bubble.