surge ports

[William Gardner]

iwas on psnc pizarro 59 great run ireamember loads of good stuff this is one we whent to aport cant rember the name way d own the east coast of south amerrica we enterd between two massive rocks the skipper then turend the ship to face thesea coming in we picked chains off bousys two eache side we had nylon sringers to the chains cargo from barges the mate said to me thi s is whats called a surge port any ome remember?

[leratty]

Ilo in Peru was a shocker went there a few times when on the WCSA. The tide was I believe 9+m? I ironically went there after qualifying as a mining engineer for two year doing the upgrade & installation of a new drag line. Interesting part of the world very primitive in those days.

[Ivan Cloherty]

Lots of surge ports on West Coast of South America William, which was Pizzaro's regular run, as Leratty says very primitive in the 50's, surge ports that come to mind in Peru are Matarani, Mollendo, Ilo and in Chile many more Arica, Iquique, Tocopilla, Mejillones, Huasco, and Antofagasta (many more which others may remember) all anchorage ports apart from Antofagasta, where you occasionaly went alongside. Never rang FWE (Finished with engines) in these ports as engines always remained on standby for immediate need. Always discharged into very large wooden barges when the ship was rolling and the barges also rising and falling on the swell, many winches burnt out by the constant switching from hoisting to lowering as the hatchman judged when it was right to land the cargo in the barge (the Leckys'always had long hours). Even discharged 40 and 50 ton locomotives into those barges. Worst was explosives as dynamite stowed in for'd holds and detonators in after holds and all precautions taken, all went out of the window in places like Arica, as the barge that loaded the detonators would then shift and load explosives on top of them. Interesting times, but a good run to learn your craft of cargo stowage with cargo going out on port side from barges and cargo coming in from barges on starboard side at the same hatch, and never the twain shall meet! and cargo never overcarried to next port. The swell caused by the topography of the coast with large rollers coming in from the Pacific and bouncing against the sheer cliffs predominant on the Peruvian and Chilean coasts, causing large unpredictable rollers at anchorage and surging in those ports when you could go alongside. Interesting times, no doubt no longer experienced by the number of ports that have been developed in the last twenty years which none of us old hands would recognise. The ports in Colombia, and Ecuador were more forgiving as they were up rivers but interesting and dangerous if venturing ashore in Buenaventura, which not many did, as the local tribesmen didn't like you touching their girls, who it must be said were very attractive (well not all of them!) Buenaventura was like a wild west town, but hewn out of the jungle, dirt roads raised sidewalks to avoid the mud on the roads from constant rains and boy did it rain. Interesting times indeed

[Jim Brady]

I remember a couple of times where they had to let the barges go and the dockers had to stay aboard to the next port only overnight of course.The surge being to dangerous for them to go ashore by barge.Much to the annoyance of us stewards as they sat in our alleyway all night yapping away and made a right mess of our bathroom on top of that.On the Cotopaxi our portholes were on the skin of the ship and many times had tobe kept battened down because of the surge,all hands turning to in the morning absolutely drained.I remember one anchor port and a couple of the passengers were going for a run ashore by launch.A woman spotted the launch approaching and decided to go to the bottom of the gangway,she was wearing a nice loose cotton dress.As she was at the bottom of the gangway there was a sudden surge she was upto her neck in water with the dress floating on top of the water.
Regards.
Jim.B.

[leratty]

Jim, she would have a really cold soaking as I recall the water on the coast was cooled by the Humboldt current so was seriously cold. Wonder if the cotton dress was then see through? (:

[Jim Brady]

Jim, she would have a really cold soaking as I recall the water on the coast was cooled by the Humboldt current so was seriously cold. Wonder if the cotton dress was then see through? (:

Come to think of it i dont recall anybody ever going for a swim down that coast,head for the bars and the girls any time off.I dont know if the lady's dress was see-through ,being the gentlemen that all British Seaman are we all looked the other way to save the lady any embarrassment..
Incidently leratty did you work in the copper mines down that coast?carried a few passengers on their way home after their stint there.I think it was Callao where this Scots guy came up the gangway half bevvied he said something like "dont rush to help me boys I'm only a bit of an old DBS".He was a miner i think he ended up on the pop and was fired and sent home DBS by the British Consul.He was on my table on the way home,a good laugh and was skint.
Regards.
Jim.B.

[Ivan Cloherty]

Come to think of it i dont recall anybody ever going for a swim down that coast,
Regards.
Jim.B.

Reckon you would have got bashed to bits against the ship's side trying to get back aboard in those swells, if you hadn't already been skinned alive by the rivets. Favourite place for a swim was Gatun lake on Panama Canal whilst waiting for transit, with some of the lads jumping from the bridge wings, jeez you could imagine 'elf n safeti' on that one today

[Ron B Manderson]

The River Hoogly at Calcutta was the same .Boe tides and all that. 13feet at times.
We even got a note from dock board telling us " we know the cool waters of the river may invite you to swim, but don't"
They must think we were mad. The colour alone(light Brown ) put you off. not to mention the use of thunderboxes from the barges up stream. and watch out for the bodies flowting in the currant. Yuck.!!!
Ron the batcave

[cappy]

the river up to Chittagong.......so fast flowing the when in the monsoon the river seemed to disappear and every thing flooded the mosquitos the size of bloody sparrows and the stinkbloody rank

[William Gardner]

thanks for the correction i said east coast too many cans last night id not know my east from west cheers ivan