What was the worst cargo you ever carried?

[John Arton]

WE all recall the good times we spent at sea or in port irrespective of the type of ship we were on but can anyone remember the worst cargo you ever carried on a particular voyage be it a smelly, dangerous, heavy/light, or whatever cargo.
Some of the worst I remember were
Hides from Canada, stunk like crazy
Bulk Copra from Indonesia, even after fumigation there were still places on board with copra beetles.
Sulphuric Acid, dangerous yes but on the small chemical tanker I was on, when she was pitching the cargo seemed to lag behind the ship so you felt you were attached to a pendulum.
Wax, disgusting stuff, stinks and to think that there is food grade wax.
Orange peel cake, from Brazil. After they have squeezed the juice out of oranges they turn the remaining pulp and skin into cattle feed. At first the ship smells beautifully of Oranges but after a few days the smell becomes overpowering and you never want to see or smell another orange.
Passenger. The inane questioning and ignorance of passengers is beyond belief but you had to be polite and smile to them at all times even if you had a banging hangover and their question was so stupid that it beggared belief.
Urea. Does anyone want to stand next door to 3000 tons of pigs piss?
Any more you can think of
Rgds
JA

[cappy]

#1 yes john a supercargo in one of runcimans who belonged to the family thought he was on a passenger ship......didn't last long then flew home that in 1957

[John Gill]

Re #1 Loaded coal in Gdynia for Oz on a Court boat. I was catering boy and responsible for cleaning all the inboard decks. Couple of hours after i'd done my scrub outs the coal dust settled on my nice clean floors. 2nd steward was a bit of a taskmaster (can't spell t**t) and usually made me scrub the decks again. Even after loading was finished the coal dust still settled on everything.

[Louis the fly]

Cargo of dried blood from the slaughter houses of Brazil and Argentina. Used as fertilizer.

[Ivan Cloherty]

Think we've been down this path before, but eh! oh! here we go!

Guano (Guano bird sh*t) fertiliser from Peru, there is (was) an whole island of the stuff
Passengers (any) again with their inane questions
Wet grain (smells like a communal grave that has been re-opened, and experienced that smell in Suez 1956 at El Gamil airfield, next to the cemetary), always got a seat on the bus after cleaning the bilges when going ashore, smelt like you'd been dropped into a Thames Bovril boat
Rotting melons from Chile on a non refrigerated ship
Carbon Black, contaminates everything if a bag bursts, takes ages to get out of your skin. Al Johnson would have been proud of me!
Bulk alumina, like loading talcum powder, airborne goes everywhere and takes weeks to get rid of, had 21000 tonnes of the stuff, discharged by grab in China, the port was white as if it had been snowing in May. The port not happy at all, nothing worse than upset Chinese officials, of course the ship got the blame, not themselves for importing the stuff in bulk
16000 tonnes bagged rice, constructing all the airway channels, longitudinal, thwartships and vertical to prevent sweating, loaded in minus temperatures and discharged in high temperatures with bad weather passages and cargo requiring ventilation at all times
others have already been mentioned but hides always stick in the mind (urea I didn't find too bad)

That's all for the moment, but some smells stuck with you for months despite all the deodorants and liberal applications of Old Spice

[cappy]

#4 good for making black pudding

[cappy]

Think we've been down this path before, but eh! oh! here we go!

Guano (Guano bird sh*t) fertiliser from Peru, there is (was) an whole island of the stuff
Passengers (any) again with their inane questions
Wet grain (smells like a communal grave that has been re-opened, and experienced that smell in Suez 1956 at El Gamil airfield, next to the cemetary), always got a seat on the bus after cleaning the bilges when going ashore, smelt like you'd been dropped into a Thames Bovril boat
Rotting melons from Chile on a non refrigerated ship
Carbon Black, contaminates everything if a bag bursts, takes ages to get out of your skin. Al Johnson would have been proud of me!
Bulk alumina, like loading talcum powder, airborne goes everywhere and takes weeks to get rid of, had 21000 tonnes of the stuff, discharged by grab in China, the port was white as if it had been snowing in May. The port not happy at all, nothing worse than upset Chinese officials, of course the ship got the blame, not themselves for importing the stuff in bulk
16000 tonnes bagged rice, constructing all the airway channels, longitudinal, thwartships and vertical to prevent sweating, loaded in minus temperatures and discharged in high temperatures with bad weather passages and cargo requiring ventilation at all times
others have already been mentioned but hides always stick in the mind (urea I didn't find too bad)

That's all for the moment, but some smells stuck with you for months despite all the deodorants and liberal applications of Old Spice

don't know why anybody went to sea ivan......billy McGee might know

[Ivan Cloherty]

There were also lovely smells Cappy as you walked past the Spice and tea etc Warehouses in the London Royal Docks and other ports, those smells transported you to places in your imagination you'd not yet visited but hoped to one day. Why did we go to sea, what else would we have done, especially in the years we fondly remember, down the mines or in a factory turning out widgets bored to bluddy tears, we saw the world when it was larger then (or so it seemed) and most didn't have the opportunity. Turn the clock back and we'd all sign on tomorrow.

[cappy]

There were also lovely smells Cappy as you walked past the Spice and tea etc Warehouses in the London Royal Docks and other ports, those smells transported you to places in your imagination you'd not yet visited but hoped to one day. Why did we go to sea, what else would we have done, especially in the years we fondly remember, down the mines or in a factory turning out widgets bored to bluddy tears, we saw the world when it was larger then (or so it seemed) and most didn't have the opportunity. Turn the clock back and we'd all sign on tomorrow.

the most wonderful smell in the world the smell of the perfumed garden .......but it could be a bit fishy sometimes....yes I would have done it again.....but perhapsa better fortune smiled on me as I would never have gone anywhere at sea to many temptations....found it much easier to give orders ashore than take them abroad.....and I think asyou grow older a lonely life for some at sea

[gray_marian]

Trying not to emulate one of John or Ivan's 'passenger's' but what is pigs urine used for?