ships at sea

[William Gardner]

remember at sea seing other ships straight away we used to say a blue flue boat or port line federllall ship all the ships wear could be named if we passed one ours like lamports skipper would make coures so we passed close horn sounding and us waving great feeling could recognize ships even hambiure america line the big yank ships with derricks flying the huge tankers of niarcos called world something saw queen marrrey only once at sea white a sight at full speed all the ships wear differant days gone buy now job to tell one from the other now

[Keith Tindell]

I used to love the routine of getting back to sea after several days in port, crossing the Pacific we would not see another ship for many days, but when we did see another ship it was an occasion, and sometimes the bridge would practice with the Aldis lamp. As you say we knew all the different companies, which ones were good feeders, overtime, single berth etc. In those days i never sailed on a boat with a swimming pool, we used to make our own out of dunnage and a spare tarpaulin, so that was only erected on longer crossings KT

[Ivan Cloherty]

Think we had a thread on this some time ago 'Favourite ship profiles' for a lot of men (talking 50's/60's)it was general cargo ships of Blue Flue, Blue Star, Port Line had some good lookers, but I think Saint Line had some of the most streamlined of that era. The American President Lines had purposeful Victory ships and made ocean passages with derricks flying, don't recall us doing that on British ships, we did ocean passages with derricks flattened. Other ships (Passenger) you could tell what they were even when hull down with just funnel(s) and masts showing, Reina del Pacifico was one, Areoul (ED's) another, the Queens of course, Normandie with very distinctive funnels, you could tell which ships were built where by the shape and design of their mast tables, height of masts, especially Germans and Scandinavian, think Soviet ships were the first to have oblong or square funnels, all that is lost now as they all look like brick sh*thouses

[Lou Barron]

My school mate and I after school we use to go down to the River Mersey (this was before the war and sit there on the wall not far from C/lairds ship building yards and in them days there plenty of ships anchored out and we use to have guessing game telling what shipping company the ships belong to the we use to go down to Woodside and get on the ferry and in them days it was pretty easy to get on the ferry and have a couple of trips across then river and we would see all the big passenger ships at the princess landing stage to us kids it was a great way to spend day getting home late always got a clip around the lughole from my mam

[cappy]

#####3 always thought the bowaters paper boats looked smart....the swedes had some crackers to .....my favourite thethe little miranda guinness in the irish sea always looked well looked after

[j.sabourn]

#5... Thats just because they carried the newsprint for the Screws of the World and the Sun. What happened to Bowaters. JS

[happy daze john in oz]

[QUOTE=cappy;161727]#####3 always thought the bowaters paper boats looked smart....

They did Cappy but were no good in the water, got all soggy

[happy daze john in oz]

Now it is rare to see another ship at sea, in 9 crusies in a number of different waters I have only seen two other ships at sea.

[Louis the fly]

When the time came to ship out again all you needed to know was the ships name. This would tell you where you were going, how long you would be away, how heavy on deck, good or bad accommodation and whether she was a good feeder.
This did not apply if you were a tanker or tramp man, you never knew how long you would be away for.

[Ivan Cloherty]

Serving my time with PSNC made me become a tramp man, I wanted to see the world not just the WCSA delightful (Oh! so delightful) though it was. I was fortunate to be on 3 ships in PSNC that got chartered out, 'Salinas' to Shaw Saville so got to see Egypt, Pitcairn and NZ, 'Sarmiento' to Saf-Marine, so got to see West and East coasts of Africa, as well as the Cape Provinces and the East coast of USA, then 'Salinas' again for Suez 1956, so got to Malta, Cyprus and joined in the Suez invasion, so those little jaunts whetted my appetite for more of the world. Sailed with guys in PSNC who never sailed through Suez, never been anywhere except WCSA and West Indies, they missed so much. Tramping- yes sailed on some crap ships, but never a crap crew because we were happy (well not all the time) ending up going into the unknown, ending up in some crap places in some wierd places but compensated for by going to some lovely places in countries never visited before where none of the crew on board had ever been before so could not regale you with what to expect, that in itself was a bonus. Liner route boys never knew what they missed.