New navigation aid?

[Howard Eastcott]

I have been looking for information about a chap who disappeared off the Levenpool in Feb 1956. This could be an explanation. Do you have a date for when you were in Rotterdam?

Regards,

Howard

[Captain Kong]

Hi Howard, I was with the Levenpool in Rotterdam, Christmas week at the end of December 1956 when the lads on there were trying to get paid off, because of the situation. The ship had a two year contract, coal to BA and Grain back to the Continent
So that would have been several months after February.

Cheers
Bruian.

sORRY , IT WASNT Rotterdam
just checked the story in Seafaring Stories thread, here were the last ports of that voyage, it was Antwerp.

ARRIVED IN GIBRALTER TUEDAY DECEMBER 18
SAILED FROM GIBRALTER WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 19
ARRIVED IN DUNKIRK SATURDAY DECEMBER 22
SAILED FROM DUNKIRK THURSDAY DECEMBER 27
ARRIVED IN HULL FRIDAY DECEMBER 28
SAILED FROM HULL TUESDAY JANUARY 1 1957. George Jones dies, age 22.
ARRIVED IN ANTWERP WEDNESDAY JANUARY 2
SAILED FROM ANTWERP SAME NIGHT.
ARRIVED IN LONDON THURSDAY JANUARY 3

[Howard Eastcott]

Thanks Brian,

How definite is the story that the tanks were cleaned and cement washed during 1956. Could there have been parts where this was not done? or had it been done the year before?

I will get my Dutch friends to look in to whether there was an inquest in Rotterdam and whether the remains were interred there or in UK.

Howard

[John Arton]

On a slightly different note, I see one of the Volvo round the world yacht race {not a singe handed race} has managed to run aground on a well charted reef somewhere near the Setchelles?
So much for GPS navigation then
rgds
JA

[john sutton]

the only decca I saw during my seatime was on the Somme(mullers of Rotterdam)1952 Oh what pretty lines they were.
I had decca on boats that I owned and the last one was on a trawler yacht I brought to spain from the UK.We lost the signal in the Bay and used dead reckoning until we picked it up again on the southwest coast of spain and it continued to work until we got to fuengirola.It functioned as far as Malaga and in those days(1989) one needed Loran for the rest of the med, or Satnav.The problem with satnav was that you only got a signal every 45min and on the coast in a 30knot cruiser it was not very convenient (bought a sports cruiser down there as at that time I was walking through Life with a six foot blond hairdresser and she wanted something with patio doors, she left me 3 months later and left me with a boat that I didn't particularly care for)

[Ivan Cloherty]

Thanks Brian,

How definite is the story that the tanks were cleaned and cement washed during 1956. Could there have been parts where this was not done? or had it been done the year before?



Howard

Howard, Fresh water tanks were cement washed at least once a year, usually on the annual drydocking, where it was normally carried out by dockyard personnel, although I have personally had that lovely task at sea whilst an apprentice in the 50's. I also served on the 'Levenpool' in the 60's but had never known about the body until Brian mentioned it. Men getting trapped in tanks was not an unusual occurence, but fortunately an infrequent one. It was very easy to get trapped in a tank if you didn't take the right precautions like leaving a heaving line trailing into the tank in case some silly bugger pulled out the wandering lead light and you had to find your way back to the manhole in the dark whilst crawling through numerous lightening holes. You couldn't always hear a man shouting in the manhole 'is there anybody down there' and lets face it some workers faced with the cement washing may have had a bevvy or two at lunch time and with the cement fumes and heat it is quite easy to nod off into a deep sleep if you don't keep shouting to yourself or singing etc. Accidents happened because invariably there was never room for two men to work in a tank at the same time and the manhole attendant may have been called to another task in an emergency or to 'lend a hand' elsewhere.

[Captain Kong]

I will get my Dutch friends to look in to whether there was an inquest in Rotterdam and whether the remains were interred there or in UK.

Howard
.
Hi Howard, it was Antwerp where it happened, not Rotterdam, see my last post above.
58 years ago now.
Cheers
Brian

[Howard Eastcott]

Hmm, I think my wife's cousin lives in Belgium so might be able to help.

What are the chances that a skeleton in the forecastle water bunker would be missed when cementing the tanks? I guess that would be where the biggest air pocket would sit.

Best,

Howard

[Captain Kong]

Hi Howard
It was the after Peak Tank. and she was alongside in Antwerp.
Cheers
Brian

[Ivan Cloherty]

There would be no air pocket in the tanks, they are filled until they overflow out of the sounding pipe which is normally two feet above main deck level. This procedure was followed to ensure that you had the fullest tank available for that precious commodity when surrounded by water you couldn't drink. If you saw a skeleton in the tank, you certainly wouldn't miss it, but you would be out of that tank quicker than Jack Flash, thought I'd explained the circumstances of how a man could unwittingly be left in a tank in #36