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Thread: Cunard parthia,

  1. #1
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    Default Cunard parthia,

    It has been on before but there is a shortage of seafaring stories so I will post it again......

    CUNARD`S `PARTHIA` -
    The PARTHIA was built in 1947, at Harland and Wolff at Belfast, the only Cunard ship to be built there, , to be used on the Liverpool-New York service. She was a sister of the MEDIA, By 1960 they were becoming uneconomical and were both sold in 1961, the PARTHIA was sold to the New Zealand Shiping Co, and after rebuilding and the accommodation extended to accommodate 350 passengers, instead of the original 250, she was renamed REMURA.. She entered service in in the NZSC`s London New Zealand service in June 1962. (Both Parthia and Media were used on the Liverpool-New York services. In 1953, she was fitted with the same Denny-Brown stabilizers which her sister MEDIA had fitted a year earlier.
    Cunard Line?s all first class RMS PARTHIA and MEDIA were very popular ships, smaller than the great Liners and more intimate.
    `The Cunarders` the Media and Parthia are my favorite ships` said Katharine Hepburn
    Hollywood stars and celebrities like KATHARINE HEPBURN preferred to travel from New York to England via Liverpool on the smaller, deluxe, all-first-class liners like Cunard`s PARTHIA and MEDIA. They could avoid the crowds and have much more privacy. Hepburn made many such trips.

    I joined the PARTHIA on 21 September 1961 then we moved from the dock around to the Liverpool Landing Stage and the loaded our Passengers and baggage.
    We had an uneventful voyage across the Atlantic until we got off the Nantucket Shoals. Then there was a big crash and the ship lurched, I thought we had been in a collision with another ship. We ran out on deck and look over the bow, the ship was stopped and there was a large whale impaled on the bow, it had cut into it at the middle. about half way in, it was still wriggling around and blood pouring out of it. A few minutes later it stopped moving. It must have been sleeping on the surface and never heard us approaching. Very sad.
    The Captain investigated it and then went back on the Bridge and went astern , nothing happened , we did this a few times , stopping and then going astern again. It was stuck fast. We carried on to New York and the US Coast Guard was informed and off the Ambrose Light, a Coast Guard Cutter came out to us and we stopped in the water again, the Coast guard got a couple of lines around it and then heaved away and then pulled it off us. They towed it clear and then we carried on, the Coast Guard disposed of it.
    We moored at Pier 92, opposite the Market Diner. at the bottom of 52nd Street and 12th. I always enjoyed New York, everything you wanted was in a walking distance. After having a few drinks in the Diner it was a short walk up 52nd Street to Broadway, past the 21 Club where Edward G Robinson was appearing, then on to Broadway to Jack Dempsey`s Bar, so you could `shake the hand that shook the world` and have your photo taken with him for a dollar.
    Across the Road on the Strip was all the Clubs, with the Tommy Dorsey Band playing to dance to and many others with the famous musicians, Dizzy Gillespy, and singing recording stars, You could be with all the famous show biz stars and it was affordable. It was a Technicolor world up there. We would go to bed at 6pm and get a call at 11pm and then go up to Broadway and dance the night away until sun up around 5am. New York came alive at midnight until the early hours, `The City that never sleeps.`
    After a week the PARTHIA sailed from New York for the last time,
    We sailed through Long Island Sound and into the Cape Cod Canal. What a beautiful place that was in the Autumn, all the trees the full length of the Canal were Gold, Red, Yellow and all shades of colours, a fantastic sight.
    Off Boston the Pilot came out to us in a sailing ship, and took us in.
    We tied up outside the city in a place called Maverick. Not a lot there just a couple of bars, we took a subway to Boston City centre but it was very quiet, not a bit like New York. We came back to Maverick and had a few drinks there.
    Six of us were staggering back to the ship through the dock area. It was quite a way so we stopped for a relief against the wall of a cargo warehouse. The six of us were stood in a line with it all hanging out when searchlights lit us all up, and a loud haler shouted `FREEZE, DON`T MOVE OR WE SHOOT, POLICE. HANDS ON THE WALL AND SPREAD `EM`.
    We froze, Kinnell, with hands on the wall all with our nudgers still hanging out. I think the whole of the Boston Police Department were there behind us.
    The cops came over to us and frisked us for weapons and tuned us around, we were blinded by the search lights. `And put those away` the Cop said pointing his night stick at our nudgers. We zipped up quick.
    We are Limies, we kept saying ,but didn`t make any difference.
    One at a time they took us to a Patrol car, `Hands on the hood and spread `em`. Geof went first, a big black Cop towered over him, `Where ya from``, Geof said `The Isle of Wight`, the Cop hit him over the head with his club, AARRWWGGHH, said Geof, as a large lump appeared on his head. The big black Cop said `Ya trying to be funny wise guy.`. `No` said Geof, `I am from the Isle of W-I-G-H-T not W-H-I-T-E. its in England`.
    They went through all our pockets and found our US Immigration Passes.
    A bunch of Limies off the Parthia, eh. So we got a Police escort back to the ship to make sure we got on board. The cops who were taking us back told us they had a stake out on that Warehouse as they had a tip off that it was going to be raided and we had ruined it. They were not amused.
    We sailed the following day bound for Liverpool.
    One of my Mates was my next door neighbour from home, Shaun, he had been in the army and then working as a steel erector, but he got laid off so I got him a job as an Uncertificated Deckhand. The Bosuns Mate, I think his name was Steele, was a big hardcase and he hated UDHs, and always tryed to wind Shaun up, Shaun was good on deck, having been a rigger and erector on the steel he was as good as any ABs I have seen.
    The day out of Boston, Steele got onto to Shaun and a fight started in the alleyway.
    It went down the alleyway out on deck, Stewards started taking bets on the outcome, Steele was first favourite as he was a well known fighter.
    Shaun had been in the Army in the war in Malaya and was also the Regimental Boxing Champion.
    They stood on deck slugging it out, their faces being covered in blood then rolling over on deck battering each other then up again, It was the `Duelo de Titans`
    No one had seen a fight like it, they were fighting to the death. smashing each other, covered in blood their shirts ripped off, hammering and battering each other, it was terrifying just watching. As time went on they started slowing down, rolling over on top of each other gasping for breath through the blood in their mouths, spitting out broken teeth.
    Eventually Shaun gave a last punch and rolled off Steele who lay there semi conscious in a pool of blood and broken teeth.
    Shaun crawled over to us, we were sat on the Hatch, and pulled himself up, his face was just a mask under a curtain of blood, he smiled and his two front teeth were missing. Then Steele slowly got up onto his hands and knees and crawled over to the hatch, `I think he want`s another go` I said to Shaun.
    Steel pulled himself up, his face a like a piece of battered liver, swollen and covered in blood with his front teeth missing, he held his hand out to Shaun and they shook. `You`re the best ` he grunted through his swollen lips. They both lay back on the hatch to rest. The Stewards paid each other the winnings from the `book`. Most had lost, with Steele being first favourite and Shaun the outsider.
    After a while and a couple of ciggies later one of the Stewards took them both to the Medical Centre to see the Doctor who had the job of trying to patch them up. Their faces looked a mess for the rest of the voyage going home without their teeth and black and cut eyes swollen lips and noses.
    It was the fight of the Century. They were friends for the rest of the trip.
    We arrived in Liverpool on 16th of October 1961 and paid off, leaving the ship in the hands of the Shore Gang, After discharging she was taken away to Belfast for rebuilding for the New Zealand Shipping Company, and renamed REMURA.

    Cheers
    Brian

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    Default Re: Cunard parthia,

    Hello
    I was on the Parthia from 23-09-1960 until 12-11 1960 when I got the sack for refusing to get my hair cut and backchatting to the mate. I was wheeled into the chart room and logged a day and a day for 1. refusing to have my hair cut and 2. giving what they called check to the mate when he ordered me to do so. In those days being on a Cunard ship and especially being a young lad you were supposed to do as ordered and call the officers sir etc, etc. Because I didn't conform and had the temerity to answer back to the mate I was not asked back for the next trip, hence in other words sacked.

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    Default Re: Cunard parthia,

    I joined the Parthia in 1953, my first big ship, I had
    spent the previous 3 years on cargo ships, cabin boy,
    assistant steward.
    I was hooked from there ob the big ships.
    The 'pig' monthly trips io New York, wonderful food ten bob each
    way from the waiters I also was impressed with your bunk all made
    up with soap and matches and tended by the gloryhole steward.
    What a life for a 17 year old boy, even though the plate machine
    broke down on my 18th birthday.
    Went on to the dizzy heights of tourist and later1/c waiter.

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