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Looking back on a wide variety of ships from 300,000 DWT tankers tramps and little coasters. the best jobs were Fyffes old banana boats, the ones built in 1920s. three men to a cabin great for playing cards. eight derricks with rope falls, nice and clean, four hatches, no overtime and so plenty of off watch time for bronzy and Kingston Jamaica for the bars, girls and rum. four week trips. all the bananas you could eat, nothing else to eat, could do all that again. easy going.
There is no doubt in my mind as to the ships that I enjoyed most and they were Port Lines cargo/passenger vessels. A happy combination for passengers and crew. Three stand out in my mind the Ports Alfred, Melbourne and New Plymouth.
I have to add that the worst was an old Sam boat Royal Mail's Barranca. A ruddy nightmare!:eek:
From a catering perspective I think it was as much about you position as the style of ship. Sailed liners, cargo, tankers, liked them all in their own way. Don't recall any crew members that were a real pain, some were a bit but you could live with them. Enjoyed life as a wingerand as genarl asst steward. But without a doubt the best ppsition I had was as officers steward living in a two berth up on the boat deck. Different regulations there and most of the officers were easy to get on with. Got away with many an act that would have had me in trouble anywhere else on the ship. Of all the officers engineers were the best lot.
friendship
john sutton
Never really favoured any but I guess 25 years on tankers kinda sways it towards them. As mentioned earlier, looking back, general cargo could be too long in port. Four months on the Ozzie coast was a killer :-). Pass enger boats, too short, apart from the 3 days in Cape Town and Durban.
Spent thirty years at sea catering side. My first ten years did one trip one ship to get experience and see the world which I did and experienced passenger ships,cargo passenger,tankers,coasters,troopship and a wide variety of runs, longest trip eleven months,shortest Royal Sovereign river trips. Then I joined Cunard cargo boats and had found my niche, liked the runs,length of trips, shipmates and promotion quickly followed to 2nd then Chf Stwd. Stayed till container ships started and their quick tanker like turnrounds. Then on to ferries mostly at "her indoors" instigation but thats another story. After Cunard though did a couple of tankers whilst waiting for ferry job. The Panocean ship "Postrunner" was one of the happiest ships I sailed on,great crowd and trip to Far East with palm oil.
Stuart H
T2-SE-A1 tankers, Westinghouse propulsion preferably.
Joined the ruahine (nzsc.) in 1955 as bellboy, looked after the kids resturant for 2 trips and assisted in the resturant as required, 4 of us were not invited back for the next trip!!!! Another story. Followed by 31/2 years on the old acadia (1953)made up to a/s., followed by a couple of years on the dover ferries, next out to the med. With currie lines then onto clyde shipping for coastal work. Then maiden voyage on the canberra, very happy to get back on a passenger ship, accomodation varied, ruahine for her day was very good for the crew, we had a 4 berth cabin done out all in wood and a porthole where we managed to ship a green one now and then, 2 months on the nz coast gave us lots of time to work ashore and earn extra money, 4 moths after sailing paid off with 7/6 pence (old money) we tried the highland monarch next and when they gave us our cabin we had to wait fora person to jump onto the bed befor we could open the door, we looked at the holystoned floors and no airconditioning and decided this was not for us.
Next came acadia, bellboys 10 to a cabin, a/s berths 8 and 10 metal beds and lockers. But a fun ship. We used to spend up to 3 days in melbourne and 2 weeks in sydney (aus) before our return trip. All sorts of things got organised for the crew, like visits to the blue mountains koala breading farm, and cattle milking farm the most modern in the world at that time, next ferries back to the metal bunks.and onto curries ( mv england) also metal fittings, clyde shipping (mv.goodwin) also had good accomodation for a coaster, onto tthe canberra where we thought we were in heaven with just 2 of us sharing a cabin, and with a sink too. If i " could" go back to sea it would be the passenger boats every time. Although the type of passenger who travel on cruises these days, i might cange my mind.
Seafarer r63579
keith moody
Never enjoyed my 2 years compulsory OBO service. The ones I were on were simply not good ships and
had been traded in coal for far to long before going back to oil cargoes.
A bad combination ( metaforically speaking ).
Anything but passenger ships, just a personal thing, but always felt it must have been a bit like working in an hotel. Tramps or tankers around 18000 ton, usually good accom and could, and did, go anywhere in the world. Cheers. Albi