Artic ice

[j.sabourn]

#37 .. what were the actual decks JG. The mate that relieved me I met again a few years later and he said 6 months after I left the wooden planked decks which was fresh cut wood had started to grow and the butt ends of the planks were in places threatening to push out the shell plating , and he had to go around all the decks at frequent intervals with a hand saw cutting off offending planks and shortening them by a couple of inches. JS

[j.sabourn]

Further to #41 the cars themselves were secured by simply a Spanish windlass on each wheel made with pointline and had to be checked daily at sea by ships staff to make sure they all had the correct tension on to prevent movement. This was a 7 hatch bulker Japanese built with the provision by the builders that she was reinforced to go with 2 holds empty viz 2 and 4 , and no. 4 being the floodable hold or deep tank as formally known.Some bright spark in the office decided later on looking at the ships capabilities that she could go with 2 holds slack , not realising that this was already null and void as was cancelled out by the car decks . She was chartered to load therefore for an ocean going voyage with 8000 tons of iron ore in two hatches each, and 300 tons in 2 hatches each leaving 3 holds empty. And they say why do ships disappear. Only fools and horses would have taken such a decision , God help the Industry if they get such idiots ashore to run ships from an office chair. They tried to make excuses when I went into the office and wanted me to go master the following trip , so I told them to stick their ships where the monkey sticks its nuts. Cheers JS…..

[J Gowers]

#41 JS is you look again at the photo of the VW bus being unloaded you can see rails on the left side the car decks slid out on these pulled by a strop going to the deck cranes, and were stowed the same way, the fwd bulkhead of the cargo hold, in the photo, is actually the car decks folded back in the position to allow access to lower decks. Once a deck was full the next car deck above was pulled into position. They were a nightmare for the mates and deck crew as they tended to jam at times and were pulled free with chainblocks.

[James Domleo]

Spent about 2 weeks icebound off Frobisher Bay until ice breaker Montcalm rescued us.Had polar bears watching us most of the time.Nearly drifted onto shore.
Jim Domleo
R610307

[Geoff Bray]

Hi There

When I was a junior engineer sailing for Bowater's in the 1960's, we used to do a two week round trip from Cornerbrook Newfoundland down to New York Philly and Baltimore, carrying Newsprint. Arriving and departing in

Cornerbrook we always had a Canadian Ice Breaker escort us in and out of the Humber River, She was a steam turbine, and I remember all the maneuvering, full a head /full astern. sometimes the ice was that thick, it would get in the main injections and we would loose the vacuum on the condenser, we used to change over to bottom intake on the main circ pump.

Then sailing later with CP Ships, the Captains always wanted to be the first ship to get through the Bell Isle Straights in the early spring, or up to Quebec City to get the "Golden Cane" I was with "Captain Boots" on the CP

Beaverpine when we got it one year, she was a motor ship, with an internal cooling system ( circulating sea water from one double bottom to another) Maneuvering was a bitch, you were always worried if we would run out of

starting air.

But they were HAPPY DAYS

Geoff Bray

[Tony Taylor]

Hi There

When I was a junior engineer sailing for Bowater's in the 1960's, we used to do a two week round trip from Cornerbrook Newfoundland down to New York Philly and Baltimore, carrying Newsprint. Arriving and departing in

Cornerbrook we always had a Canadian Ice Breaker escort us in and out of the Humber River, She was a steam turbine, and I remember all the maneuvering, full a head /full astern. sometimes the ice was that thick, it would get in the main injections and we would loose the vacuum on the condenser, we used to change over to bottom intake on the main circ pump.

Then sailing later with CP Ships, the Captains always wanted to be the first ship to get through the Bell Isle Straights in the early spring, or up to Quebec City to get the "Golden Cane" I was with "Captain Boots" on the CP

Beaverpine when we got it one year, she was a motor ship, with an internal cooling system ( circulating sea water from one double bottom to another) Maneuvering was a bitch, you were always worried if we would run out of

starting air.

But they were HAPPY DAYS

Geoff Bray

Cornerbrook? aagh! I was there in early 70s, it was something like 9-1 women to men, memorable, the women chased the men.
You just walked into a bar and were immediatly invited to sit beside several of them. Seen nothing like it.

[Geoff Bray]

Cornerbrook? aagh! I was there in early 70s, it was something like 9-1 women to men, memorable, the women chased the men.
You just walked into a bar and were immediatly invited to sit beside several of them. Seen nothing like it.

That is true, I remember the same, the men were always away fishing on the Grand Banks or Lumber Jacking in forests to keep the wood supply for the Pulp mill. I always found the Newfy's very friendly people any way and had a few.

Geoff