Chipping Gangs in Durban

[John Arton]

Can any one remember the hand chipping gangs in Durban. They used to start around 0600 and go right through to around 1800 or later with only about two or three 20min breaks. It was like being right next door to a windy hammer times 4 the noise they made.
I was on a 66000 ton tanker that was alongside in Durban for pumproom pipeline and major engine overhaul. Myself (3rd Mate) and the 2nd mate were put in charge of getting all the bits for repair out of the engine room and pumproom for going ashore and putting them back in when they returned refurbished or repaired.
This difficult task undertaken in the full glare of a Durban summer required us to partake of large amounts of the local brew. That coupled with long nights and early mornings enjoying the sights and sounds of Durban, meant we got next to no sleep.
Imagine our horrer when we were woken up by the chipping gang descaling a Dutch cargo ship virtually from top to bottom just across the dock from us. The noise was horrendous.
At that time C.P. were going through a lean phase and had stopped all paint maintenence ( I know how daft can you get) so we were looking pretty shabby.
The boss of the chipping gang visited us and quoted for his boys to scale and paint the ships side from w/line to main deck. The price if I recall was only around $3,000 which seems ridiculous but i'm pretty sure it was only around that figure as the super in charge of the repairs refused it saying he did not have anything in his budget for it so we all said we would club together and pay it out of own pockets but to no avail.
brgds
Capt. John Arton (ret'd)

[Tony Wilding]

How crazy is that, ? getting a free paint up and refusing it, the worst thing for a ship is to let the rust take hold.

[Ivan Cloherty]

Remember sailing from Durban in ballast and going to Beira and 200 chipping guys came aboard (1957) whilst at anchorage awaiting our next cargo., So all hands busy rigging stages everywhere, the noise was horrendous the ship being empty, but those guys did in a week what would have taken us months to do working piecemeal at it. we even gave them two windy hammers and they were queueing up to us them in turn, boy did they get through some work. The bonus was of course that there was no windy hammer jobs left for us to do, so it was nice clean painting jobs for months thereafter. It must have been cheap because PSNC were not noted for paying out large sums of money to contractors. We were on Time Charter to Safmarine at the time and although the WCSAmerica was every young mans Utopia it was nice to get away from it and see another part of the world; but it sure was nice to get back down the WCSA and see Dolores, Maria, Veronica and the other girls who had been patiently waiting at home doing knitting and embroidery whilst waiting for us to return, well that's what they told us anyway !

[Captain Kong]

Hi Ivan,
Here is a memory of the WCSA Valparaiso, Scandi Bar. that is me with my arm around Maria`s Daughter.could be yours. 2006.
The bouncer is in the pink shirt.
Cheers
Brian



Scandi-Bar%201%20(Medium).jpg

[John Pruden]

not knowing much about what went on down in the engine room the only outside help i ever saw was ladies cleaning i think it was carbon out of the engine room on blue funnel ships in hong kong am i correct some of the ladies used the seaman's washrooms and often walked in on them taking a pee or sometimes a shower was it carbon they were taking out? most of our time was chipping and painting if you were lucky you over hauled all running gear.JP

[Ivan Cloherty]

Hi Ivan,
Here is a memory of the WCSA Valparaiso, Scandi Bar. that is me with my arm around Maria`s Daughter.could be yours. 2006.
The bouncer is in the pink shirt.
Cheers
Brian



Scandi-Bar%201%20(Medium).jpg

Brian, you found her !! thanks mate, I owe you one !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!