Williamson Turn

There have been a couple of incidents of passengers going over the wall on cruise ships.
Most say they must have fallen over, but when you look at the height of the rails you know that is almost impossible.
Unless fooling around they either jumped or were pushed.

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Originally Posted by j.sabourn

I am going to repeat a story on site which was proved wrong by someone producing a newspaper account of the incident which differs. I will repeat my version whether right or wrong is immaterial as is what I remember whether right or wrong. Apprentices name was Tarbut as far as I can remember newspaper is different , and coming out of Cairns again different to media who said Brisbane or somewhere.I was 2 mate and the apprentice was farmer on the same middle watch.He was missing at the end of the watch and I called the master, and the Barrier Reei pilot who would later disembark at Thursday Island. Ship was turned round and course was retraced back as far as Cairns . A boat was launched at various reefs to see if he was there .Just outside Cairns is the Grafton passage which has an unmanned light on and for some reason we did not search this reef just blew the ships whistle.as was daylight by this time.. The usual radio traffic was put out and we recontinued our passage home.Later the same apprentice was found alive and well on the reef at the Grafton passage, he must have hidden in the long grass when we were there . There were all sorts of repercussions from this incident when the ship arrived Liverpool and is another story in itself and is also on this site on another theme. But apart from ali The waffle , it is my belief that the app.jumped and swam to the beacon on passing , this was substantiated when on his following ship he jumped in Australia taking the ships best silver to set up house with his paramour in Australia. The first jump was doing it the hard way , for others also apart from himself. JS

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John,I have just got very dirty and dusty (Atishoo !) from trawling the archives both here on site and in my Casualties;-Accidents and Incidents subfolder, and come up with that 1961 newspaper report you mentioned.It was put on here by Doc Vernon,9 years ago now....

Cheers ! Graham

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Thanks Graham anyone is at perfect liberty to believe what they read, myself I would have more belief in myself, at the time , however is no skin off my nose , as had no adverse effects on my own well being or conscience , apart from strengthening my resolve not to believe everything I read. For the record also the merman was a very strong and able swimmer and had been a contestant at various swimming events. I accepted the same report 9 years ago on the assumption that we are all fallible when it comes to memory , but thinking back to similar occurrences of false reading matter , keep most to myself today. Thanks once again to the Sherlock Holmes stuff ,

Cheers JS

In 1971 on the Pendennis we did a Williamson turn and recovered a passenger who had jumped. Probably didn't want picking up. Was kept in the 'Hospital' after that so he could not do it again.

We did it (at least once) as a training exercise on the BI cadet ship Chindwara in the 60s.
As you say, it worked well, at least by day.

Williamson turn was a standard part of offshore survival training at RGIT Aberdeen, so quite a few of us have at least practiced it,

Yes, the turn was practiced several times. A German Master in Mobil (believe it was Frank Hammerbacher) developed a turn in which the engines were put full astern as the turn was made. If the initiating first wheel over was done at the point where someone fell over the ship would end up stopped at the point they fell over. On the ship model pond at Warsash the Hammerbacher turn was taught to training staff from Mobil. It worked but luckily we only had to use it in drills. On some long voyages slow steaming a VLCC these were useful things to do!

#9. Dennis the Securitay call most thought it was just for weather warnings I wonder how may times the sparky sent out for another of its purposes. It was used all the time on the VHF every 15 minutes or so when towing , before VHF became common to most shipping would have saved you quite a busy time . Cheers JS.

Well, how to be embarrassed.
On the British Guardian heading for Aus, Colombo was behind us and only the Indian Ocean in front, I was farmer and on lookout on the forecastle for the middle two hours on the 12 to 4, I remember snuggling in between the anchor cables, the next thing I wake up and stretch and look around and all the mast lights are on, I lean over the after rail and see blokes with torches, I shout, " what's up,? and somebody yells there he is, They had turned the ship around thinking I had gone over the side, my stupid mate had just come up to relieve me and when he couldn't see me, without looking, yelled out man overboard. They had only just turned the ship around so it hadn't been long.
Got a hell of a dressing down from the Skipper, but probably as i was on my fourth trip on her he let me off, BUT it was my one and only time cat napping.
Des

Something similar Des , we were in ballast and about to cross the equator the following morning, we had one deck boy first tripper who was lined up to have his head shaved etc, etc. when ceremony time came he could not be found .The ship was searched also every empty hold , no luck . Turned back and all the calls made via radio. 8 hours later a white faced apparition appeared asking if it was all over. He had been hiding on one of the box beams down one of the holds. He still got his head shaved . JS