Joseph McCarthy in Fifties America Immigration

[Stuart Henderson]

Hi Stuart, Its great that little snippets of information on here seam to rejuvenate the little grey cells
and bring back memories that have been long forgotten, you mention whisky, we were loading a cargo
which was part whisky in KGV and the dockers decided to go on strike, they wanted Temptation Money,
which was to be paid extra money so that they didn't pinch any of it. Fred.

What a GOOD IDEA, why didnt we think of that on the ship...... It was an immediate sacking of course if you were found with "cargo brand" in your possesion. I remember in Glasgow again about same time as other story about immigration. I remember one of the boss stevedores coming up and knocking on my door whilst loading another full cargo of whiskey and asking me to sell him a case of Red Barrel beer. I said it wasnt allowed which was the case but he was very persuesive so in the end I relented. Two things came of this. Firstly that night on retiring plunked my head down on the pillows with a resulting "ouch".... Under the pillows three bottles of a really expensive brand of whishy forget brand. Shock ! Horror ! Did the most sensible thing I could think of at that time of night and transferred contents into empty ships issue bottles (entertainment allowance) filled original bottles with tap water and launched them into Clyde. Second thing later that week going ashore in evening to my normal haunts in city centre and quickly bypassing the REALLY rough dock pubs from the door of one of these hostelries the same stevedore saw me and dragged me inside for a pint.!!! Stuarts my buddy he annouced to the crowded bar of dockies, anyone messes with him theyve got me to answer to all right (all in Scots accent of course) Never did get up town that evening......
Stuart

[Dennis McGuckin]

Joined the Pacific Reliance, loading whiskey in Glasgow.Was in the mess, when someone asked me if I would like a drink.
He opened the dart board cupboard, and there was a line of bottles of Scotch.
All 'liberated' from the cargo.
Also recall undercover U.S.customs trying to by whiskey from the crew.
Word got around, so no one got caught.

[William Clark]

Regarding Immigration it was still the same in the 60s. Short arm inspection for
all regardless of time of arrival. We used to load up with Whisky at Yorkhill Quay
and even took over Horses which were kept on special transport units. We once
took wrong Cargo it was destined for Canada and by the time we took it back to
there was quite a few cases missing. This was on the Alaunia in March 1961 when
I was Saloon Boy, 2nd. Stwd. was Don Burtonshaw

[John Albert Evans]

Gosh it appears we have all been through the same sort of rigamarole with our supposed cousins across the pond. In 1957 arriving at Newark I think, asked all the silly quetions about are you a commie, is you mother or father a commie, eventually given i think an aliens registration card to go ashore there. I was 16 years of age so it was all new to me and an adventure. However fast forward to 2001 now 61 years of age living in Nova Scotia, Canada, my wife and I together with my brother and sister in law we were travelling to my nephews wedding in Ontario from NS but going via New England to see the colours in the fall. We left Falmouth Canada and arrived at Portland ,Maine by car, we were stopped by Immigration, brother and sister in law stated they were Canadian citizens no problem, I said my wife and I were British subjects but living in Canada, he became very offensive and demanded our passports, I went into my inside pocket to get them and you guessed it out came his gun, shouting get out of the car keeps hands were he could see them. We were marched into an office and kept seperate both questioned repeatedly why we were living in Canada, why we were going through the USA to go back into Canada when we could have driven direct to Ontario to go to a wedding. The man had no more common sense than a baby in arms. We were kept there for about 4 hours and it was like talking to a brick wall. In then end he told us he was using his discretion and allowing us entry to the US but was putting both of us on parole for 3 months whatever that meant I never did find out but it was stamped into both our passports and signed by him. So nothing has changed after all that time.

John Albert Evans

[Peter F Chard]

#12 The mention of whisky revives a few memories. We loaded barrels of whisky at Grangemouth for Australian ports. I would guess that every tenth sling of barrels was deliberately crashed landed onto the lower hold deck just to smash a few barrels, and low and behold, there was a group of wharfies on hand to bail the leaking fluid into bottles, tea kettles, buckets, the lot. The whisky was first discharged at Fremantle and then around the Aussie coast to Brisbane and the accident rate with damaged barrels was stupendous. We laid over at Brisbane loading a bit of general cargo and then started to re-load the empty barrels for return to Grangemouth, going back to the Aussie ports as far as Fremantle. These barrels are valuable, made of American timber and well seasoned, they are re-used time and time again. However we set off to return to Suez but were quickly diverted to Trincomalee in Ceylon to fill up with wooden aluminium lined wooden crates of tea. All went well for a short time and then the local wharfies got the smell of whisky and prized open a lid or two of the barrels to find a millimetre or two of whisky in the bottom -- it did not take much sampling by people not used to alcohol to get blind drunk. So now we had five hatches full of drunken Ceylonese and not much work going on. Then someone said something to someone else that was insulting and it was all on -- a huge drunken mob fight. The local police could not handle the situation so a message to the authorities in Columbo resulted in the Army being sent, this took twelve hours for them to arrive and by the time they arrived the mob were all fast asleep and those awake had monumental hangovers and not in any fit state to take on the Police. We returned directly to Grangemouth and discharged the empty barrels and I vowed I would never again sail on a ship that carried whisky as cargo !! Regards Peter in NZ

[cappy]

whisky or not peter it was a great life for young men .......and to see the world .....and have mates who would stand with you through thick and thin.....and then come home to a humble house and be a millionaire ........for a few days any way.....regards cappy

[Captain Kong]

Our lives were saved by whisky in Patagonia on the Urmston Grange, when the Vigilanties and Gauchos arrived on board demanding to hang us or shoot us for stealing three horses,
the Captain got six cases of Grants Standfast Whisky from the cargo and paid them off. One case each.
We had to pay for it from our wages. Better than being hung.
Cheers
Brian.

[Ivan Cloherty]

#12 and I vowed I would never again sail on a ship that carried whisky as cargo !! Regards Peter in NZ

Never got chance in my day to ask to see the cargo manifest before I signed on, sailed on many a ship with whiskey, explosives and incenderies, would I have signed on had I known beforehand? probably! unpredictability and excitement is what life is about. Sailed on one ship with 6000 tonnes of highly volatile cargo, tank and aviation fuel in steel jerry cans, bombs, naval shells, artillery shells, detonators and other ordnance, had to power vent-off (compressed air) fumes four times a day with dedicated installed compressors. ALL personnel regardless of rank had to wear rubber soled shoes which had to be stuck on, not tacked or nailed. Whiskey and stevedores sounds fun to me.