Joined my first ship, the Pacific Imported, a sam boat, in Cardiff July 1953. As soon as I got on board was sent down no 4 to tally cars, still in full uniform. About 1900, Die Dear came down and said "sorry, we forgot you, come up and we will find you some food in duty mess". I then met the other 2 cadets, Senior was Split Pin Brinkworth and I shared a cabin with Sammy Seal.
About 0300 we were called out as donkeyman had gone to sleep and boiler had filled with coldwater and Jennies had stopped. Red a lot of dunnage into furnace and by torch light and got enough steam to start the steam generator.
The releaving mate was Jack 'Slug' Tye, top shipmate. We still had a large deck cargo of baulks of pine for Glasgow and superintendent said, it is in perfect condition, make sure it gets to Glasgow like that.
Some time during the night, the 3/E pumped up the fuel and somehow got the valves wrong and pumped the hot oil into the filling line. The blank in the filling line in starboard alleyway was not tightened up so acted a spray plate, spraying the hot fuel into a full gail, and having hot black bunker c sprayed all over the ship. The starboard life boats had a couple of inches of oil in the bilges.
WE anchored off the 'Tail of Bank' and drums of kero were ferried out and all hands, even the stewards were turned too washing the oil off. When we berthed, to the mates great relief, the Dock engineer was delighted with the cargo as it was all for use on the wharf and was to be coated with creosote anyway.
When we got to LA and were boarded by yank immigration, one of the greasers was taken ashore for interrogation , he was of Latvian descent and had been forced to sail on a Russian ship during the war When he eventually was brought back on board, don't know what had happened but he tried to hang himself from No 4 derricks.