MV Debrett

[Bryn Jarvis]

Hello all mariners.

Having just found this site, I was very interested in a thread I came across that was posted up way back in April 2011. The post was from a Peter Axon, who mentioned that he sailed on the MV Debrett in 1963 & his comment referred to a visit to Recife, which was my very first port of call after I'd joined the MN in 1962, & sailed on the Debrett after first calling in Swansea, Newport & then bunkering up in Las Palmas. He also mentioned the serious engine room fire in 1963. I was a Junior Engineer on the Debrett from November 1962 to August 1963, so that must have happened after I'd signed off with Lamport & Holt. She was built in 1940, 1955 transferred to Blue Star Line renamed Washington Star, 1956 reverted to Debrett, 1964 sold, renamed Ambasciata and later scrapped. A full list of L&H ships can be found here, Lamport and Holt Line Although she was a motor vessel, she is listed here as a Steamship!
It would be great if any of my shipmates from that time spotted this post & got in touch.

I had a very spooky coincidental experience which involved a port visit in 1964 & present day. I might just share it on the forum sometime.

Regards

BeeJay

[Doc Vernon]

Welcome Bryn
Well you never know on here many an old Friend has been found using this site!
I hope that this may be yet another for you!
Thanks for joining and Yes do post that life experience I am sure it will be very interesting!
Cheers

[Chris Allman]

Good Evening & welcome to the site Bryn - I was a cadet on the Rubens in May 1964 and we were at anchor outside Recife when Debrett went on fire, we were waiting for her berth. We were brought in and put alongside Debrett to help fight the fire in the engine room. We thought we had got it but it flared up again and we had to shift ship very quickly to stop it spreading to us. The fire had got into the fridge insulation and she burnt for a couple more days before it was finally out. They had to cut a hole in her side to let the water out that the Recife Fire Brigade kept pumping into her and to correct the quite bad list she had. We stayed a couple of extra days but could really do little to help, so were instructed to sail and leave her. A team of repair engineers from Russells were sent out to repair her and some three months later she actually sailed home under her own steam to Liverpool. She was sold soon after. The Chief Fridge Engineer and a Donkey man were killed in the fire, apparently the boiler blew back when the donkey man was lighting it, which started the fire and the Chief Fridge went down to shut the fridges down. Very sad all round.

[Bryn Jarvis]

Hello Chris, Keith & others, thanks for your welcome.

With the time scale of the fire incident, this must have happened very shortly after I'd left L&H Line (Blue Star) Because of that fact, I must have sailed with the two casualties. My watch on both voyages was the 4-8 with the 2nd Engineer, a John Silver from Nutsford, Cheshire. The Donkey Man was Assad, obviously not necessarily the casualty, but I spoke often to the Chief Fridge Engineer, I only remember his first name, I think, & that was Ken, a very quiet man. It's a shock to hear of the way the poor guy died.
But it's good to know she made her own way back to Liverpool, but sadly, only later to be scrapped.
Regards,

BeeJay.

[Bryn Jarvis]

Hi all, I just popped in to see what's what & reading the above I thought my experience might be of interest. The date was 14th May 2015 & was on holiday in Barcelona with my wife. During a tour of the area we stopped off to admire the view overlooking the port & I spotted the grain silos. I mentioned to my wife that that's where I was once tied up alongside taking on cargo onboard the MV Velarde. Shortly after we took a boat trip (as tourists do) We were a tad ahead of time for returning to the berth, so the skipper decided to use up some time by sailing past the very silos where I'd been berthed years ago. It was a very weird feeling. When we returned home, I decided to look up the date when I was there on the Velarde. Reading my log, I was aghast to realise that the date was 14th May1964 & the date I again sailed past that very spot on holiday, was 14th May 2015, 50 years to the day, weird or what?

Cheers, BEEJAY

R780686