Suevic

[Louis the fly]

This ship is often mentioned on site. Brian Kong says it is one of the worst ships he ever sailed on. When I joined her a fluke of nature must have occurred, every character and comedian happened to be in the Pool on the same day the ship was going through and decided on a trip to Oz and Kiwi.
I was an ordinary seaman aged 17 and had done two trips on the Cedric previously. The first month outward bound passed quickly and I was always laughing at the antics and stories from the AB's. Once we hit the Oz coast the fun began, the deck crowd and firemen went ashore and didn't come back until the money ran out or the party ended. This continued all over the Oz and Kiwi coast, loggings made no difference because we were all in debt to the ship. If we were refused a sub other ways were found to get money, in Timaru the contents of the linen locker was sold in the pub. I came out of the pub and got into a car parked on a hill, somehow I must have knocked off the hand brake and the car began rolling at speed down the hill before coming to a stop in the main road. The police came to the ship the next day to arrest me, I was taken to Christchurch for trial but the charges were reduced from stealing the car to illegally entering a parked vehicle. I didn't have money to be fined so I was ordered to be deported onto the ship and refused entry into New Zealand. Later in Auckland I was found to have to broken the rules and sentenced to five days in prison.
I jumped ship there because a VNC was far better than a double DR. After six months I was picked up and back in the same prison. I came home as DBS on the Medic.
My story of a memorable trip on the Suevic.

[happy daze john in oz]

Many a guy never made it back from Kiwi or Oz.
So many jumped ship and found work.
It was easy back then, big demand for workers.

Knew one guy, was a member before he crossed the bar, went to a motor manufacturers, advertising for staff.

'Ever worked on one before' he was asked.
two hours later spraying new cars, never used a spray gun in his life before then.

[Louis the fly]

Coming back home as DBS with me were a steward who had jumped from one the passenger ships and two Welsh lads.
The steward had met a local girl and started a successful business in Auckland, he wanted to see his parents again before settling down permanently. He went to a solicitor who advised him he had agoraphobia and a term in prison would be damaging for his health. They both went to the police and he handed himself in. All he had to do was report to a police station every week until a ship was found to take him home. He had a free trip back to the UK to see his family before flying back to NZ and entering legally. The two Welsh lads had been in Mount Eden prison for a long time because they had jumped from a tramp which was not a regular runner to Kiwi. The policy was to deport seamen on the same company ships they had jumped from.
In prison I met a guy from Leicester, he had been a driver for a security company collecting and delivering cash. He had agreed to be beaten up and robbed, everything went well with no arrests, with his share of the robbery him and his girlfriend went to live in NZ. They had a good life until his girlfriend became greedy and starting forging cheques from a business they had together. He got involved trying to help her and they were both arrested and charged. While in prison the NZ authorities checked with the UK to see if anything was known on him. The security van robbery case was reopened and evidence was found from an informer that he was involved. When he had served his prison sentence he was going to be flown back to the UK to faces the charges, so for him crime did not pay.

[Keith Tindell]

Interesting story, all part of the life of a seaman of those times, kids today do not know what they are missing, that life has long gone. Some of my memories are best left where they are, 57 years of marriage, don't want to rock the boat now lol, kt

[Captain Kong]

Hi Louis
the Suevic WAS REALLY A BATTLESHIP#
NOTHING BUT TROOUBLE FROM THE fIREMEN ,most first trippers ex army
a shared mess room an rec room
it was worse when we hit the OZZY COAST
THEY would run down the sailors alleyway on the PORT side banging on the bulkheads waking everyone when turned in,

I had KANIMBLA, , AN oZZY GIRL IN sYDNEY, SHE HAD DONE sO MANY TRIPS ON THE Kanimbla, a ferry to Freemantle from Sydney she was named after it.
3 firemen banging on my door, she opens sit and nuts the 1st one and drops him, thumps the next one , nose and lips spurting blood and he dops out, 3rd one legs it.
next day she challenged the firemen to a fight on the quay, she battered 3 of them, Hard woman

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Hi Louis.
When I was on the British Builder half the crew jumped in NZ, first to go were three Geordies who jumped in New Plymouth, met them later when I was on the coast, all of them married women with kids, half the engine room including the Chief jumped in Dunedin, the Chief I met later he had a stable with trotters, we came home with most of the drew Kiwis.
Des

[wayne pennington]

my father left the mv taranaki in 1955 in new plymouth and i beleived that at first my parents lived under a false name and seeing that they could go to jail that would make sense

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Hi Wayne
In those heady days of the 50s and 60s it depended on where you jumped, in Auckland they had a copper called Bird who knew all the blokes who jumped there. In some of the smaller ports in the South Island like Timaru and Omaru I think they were a bit more lenient.
My brother jumped in Lyttleton and went over to the West coast to work, but when he came back to Christchurch they picked him up, he got a month in jail then went on the coast.
Des

[Louis the fly]

In the 60's work was plentiful in NZ and it was very easy to find a job. The only problem was we didn't know the city well so when looking at the jobs adverts in the paper we had to ask where they were and how to get there.
I had jumped with an Irishman, when we went for our first jobs we changed our names. Billy wanted his first name to be Sean, like Sean Connery. The boss was filling in our details and asked Billy how to spell Sean, he didn't know so said Shorn.

I remember Bird, the cop Des mentioned. He used to say "we don't look for seamen they look for us". That was true because most of us carried on life as before, spending our pay in the pubs and partying, drifting back to old haunts like Gleasons. I suppose we missed the company of fellow seamen. When I was picked up by the cops I didn't mind because I was far too young to settle down and wanted to get back home and back to sea.

[j.sabourn]

Which ship did you get for your DBS passage back Louis ? JS