School of Navigation - Plymouth

[Peter Ward]

Hi,

My name is Stuart Cullum and I attended Plymouth as a Deck Apprentice employed by Shell Tankers (UK), for my Phase 1 from September 1967 to March 1968 and for Phase 3 from September 1969 to March 1970.

Phil Purdie, Matt Beddow, Stuart Harper, Chris Cowell, Stuart Trought and myself are in touch and meet for a beer and catch up, and would like to reconnect with anyone else who was around at the time.

Get in touch through the site

http://www.merchant-navy.net/forum/p...=newpm&u=17815

Hi Stuart,
I don't remember your name but as a BI cadet I sailed with Phil Purdie and Chris Cowell on the BI cadetship MS Chantala.
It would be good to contact them. I have a photo of a group of us attending the Plymouth Navigation Ball. I am sure that would be a good thing to share.
Regards,
Peter Ward

[Tony Taylor]

[QUOTE=roger sanders;254304]

Hi,

My name is Stuart Cullum
Get in touch through the site

Hi
Roger Sanders here I remember some of those names from 66-68,I was an engineering cadet with B&C and am still in touch with Andy Roots,Jan Colbe,Owen Waters and Bob Marshall, unfortunately Steve Hobbs who was the other guy in our 'cabin' in Portland Square passed away after a motorcycle accident over 20 years ago. I remember Stuart Harper from North Road hostel with Bill Currie as warden.
Stayed deep sea until 1974 when I left and worked for British Rail in Holyhead for two years and then met an air stewardess in my local who I married in 1985. Now living in a small village near Brighton and running my own engineering company making powder processing equipment. Those 8/10 years in the MN were probably the best of my life until my son came along in 1994.

Roger, I sailed with a deck cadet called Bob Marshall (Shell - Voluta) in 69/70, could it be same one? He could not have bin more than about 17ish? slightly built. I have a photo of him taking a break, the brush he had was nearly as big as him.

[Gordon Rowley]

Hi Stuart, Gordon Rowley Here, I've just joined the club and sent you a reply using web address above but don't see on this thread now. Not sure if you saw it.
Gordon.

[Martyn Hammond]

Alan

I finally retrieved my password and have seen your posting. I retired last February and moved to a place north of Tucson, Arizona in the foothills of the Catalina Mountains. I don’t think it is possible to get more opposite to the marine environment - desert, cactus and mountains.
Since coming ashore I have worked and lived in eastern Europe, under the communists, Africa, the Persian Gulf and the north, south and now the southwest of the USA and at one time was responsible for business in Mexico and Canada. One would not necessarily think of Canada or the USA as a Brown Envelope environment but my experience proved otherwise. In Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe, on those rare occasions that corruption was heard or talked about it tended to be on a large or even massive scale and totally out of my league. In Canada and the USA it was very common even all pervasive but small, bottles of good scotch, lunches, golf clubs, rounds of golf, plane tickets for wives, logo clothing etc. Many companies (even oil companies) allowed it but with say $100 limit.
Covid has been a real pain in the a. I have had both shots, the booster and Omicron over Christmas. I have enough antibodies to protect me from a middle ages plague.
All the best

[jim halligan]

Due to Covid and other events the Plymouth Engineer Cadet intake of 1970 reunion has been rescheduled for September 2022. Numbers are now up to around 30 but still looking for others still out there!
Any leads appreciated!

[Stephen Lee]

Hiho Alan,

I was an Eng App in Plymouth for 2 years from Sept 1967. I was in 10 Queen Annes Terrace, Chief Towzer was the warden!! The names Pete Gill, Chris Savage, Ben Cook certainly ring a bell!!

[Alan Knight]

Hiho Alan,

I was an Eng App in Plymouth for 2 years from Sept 1967. I was in 10 Queen Annes Terrace, Chief Towzer was the warden!! The names Pete Gill, Chris Savage, Ben Cook certainly ring a bell!!

Hi Steve: I haven't been on the site for a while and only just saw your post. I remember your name, but cannot remember your face, but is has been 52 years!

I was at 22 Portland Square (now demolished), Merrifield Hall, and the new College Building when it opened in 1970.

Pete Gill became Marine Superintendent in Shell, and then retired to his place of origin, Guernsey.

Chris Savage left Shell, became Master in S. Africa, and is now retired.

Ben Cook spent several years as Second Mate, but he struggled with diabetes, and took early retirement. He died about 2014.

I left Shell as 2/O, and went offshore North Sea, rising to C/O on Anchor-Handlers. In 1980, I was offered command of a new-build Platform Supply vessel in Canada, and spent 7 years as Master before coming ashore as a Nautical School Instructor, then Marine Superintendent, and for the last 33 years as a Port State Control Officer with Transport Canada Marine Safety, and still having fun. Best regards, Alan

[Peter Gill]

I just about remember Stephen Lee, from the West Country I think, Barnstaple? biggish bloke, blond hair. Shared the same cabin in 10Q
Age is preventing me from recalling more of the folk!
After almost 37 years with Shell, I became Harbour Master in Guernsey for nearly ten more years and having retired from that, was appointed as a Jurat of the Royal Court. The population is too few to have random juries with no connection to any of the relevant parties, so there are sixteen of us Jurats who perform this function for all the larger cases ( 9 sitting). This provides, if nothing else, consistency. Also different to the British system, we did the sentencing as well - among a number of other less stressful and more enjoyable tasks.

[Peter Gill]

Craig Rich, who has died aged 86, was the first and longest-serving regional weather forecaster, an avuncular presence on BBC South West’s Spotlight for 25 years.
Before joining the BBC in 1978 he had served in the Merchant Navy, and in 1968 was navigation adviser to The Sunday Times, sponsors of the single-handed Round the World Yacht Race. It was he who discovered the truth about Donald Crowhurst, the yachtsman who mysteriously vanished from his trimaran in the mid-Atlantic.
It was the first non-stop round-the-world yacht race, and at a time before GPS and support crews it was a gruelling test of physical and mental stamina. The race was controversial because no evidence of sailing experience was required to enter, and because, of the nine men who set off, only one, Robin Knox-Johnston, finished.
But his feat was eclipsed by the mystery of Donald Crowhurst, a 36-year-old businessman, married father of four and enthusiastic weekend sailor who entered his untested yacht Teignmouth Electron.
Crowhurst left from Teignmouth on October 31 1968, watched from the shore by cheering supporters and one or two sceptics who noticed that his sails were attached to the wrong halyards. He encountered immediate problems, and in the first few weeks contact with Electron was lost.

Donald Crowhurst before setting off in the 1968 single-handed Round the World Yacht Race Credit: Getty Images
By December, however, he had resumed contact, claiming he was making good progress – so good, in fact, that there were hopes he might, against all odds, come home the winner.
Although some of the positions he gave became vague, as summer 1969 approached preparations were made for his triumphant return. The BBC and ITV sent their film crews to Teignmouth, while his sponsors prepared their adverts.
On June 25 1969, Electron was sighted in the mid-Atlantic by a Norwegian cargo ship and Crowhurst waved, looking fit and cheerful. On June 26 he radioed his position to his agent. But from then on nothing was heard.
On July 10 the Royal Mail vessel Picardy sighted a small yacht 700 miles west of the Azores. When the Picardy’s captain went aboard Electron he found the cabin in a mess, other than three log books lying in a pile on the chart table. The chronometer was gone, but the lifeboat was in place. There was no sign of the skipper.
Rich’s suspicions that Crowhurst’s claims of making good progress were not all they seemed had been aroused by “some very odd messages and claimed records”, and he was asked to examine the log books by Harold Evans, the Sunday Times editor.
It transpired that Crowhurst had pretended to be sailing around the world while actually dawdling in the South Atlantic, apparently hoping to deceive the race organisers by entering false plots in a set of spare logbooks.
“It was clearly apparent that he had not circumnavigated the world,” Rich recalled. “It was a profound and sad experience to have to confirm what I had suspected for some time – but an even sadder fact was that the log books also revealed Crowhurst’s deteriorating state of mind as the voyage progressed.”
When he told Evans what he knew, “Harold Evans said a strange thing. He looked at me and said, very slowly, if we didn’t disclose this, did I think people would find out? I said, ‘Christ, you want me to say absolutely nothing about this for the rest of my life?’ He said that that was what it would amount to.
“I think he either wanted to protect the family or he thought it might reflect very badly on the Sunday Times, encouraging the guy to go to sea for the money.”
The story was held while Evans pondered further, then on August 2 the paper carried a front-page bulletin which began with the words: “It is with great sadness that The Sunday Times announces that examination of the log kept by Donald Crowhurst, a competitor in the Sunday Times Round the World Race, has revealed that the voyage he had made would not have qualified for any prize even if he had returned safely to England.”
Rich was subsequently involved in helping Nicholas Tomalin and Ron Hall write The Strange Voyage of Donald Crowhurst, and was interviewed about the tragedy for documentaries. Crowhurst’s body was never found.
Craig Rich was born in Plymouth on February 3 1938 and, after evacuation during the war, attended Devonport High School for Boys. Aged 16 he went to sea as a cadet with Ellerman Lines and became navigating officer aged 20.
He remained at sea with the Merchant Navy for 12 years, qualifying as a master mariner and developing his interest in meteorology and weather forecasting. He then lectured on navigation and meteorology at the Sir John Cass School of Navigation, City of London Polytechnic, for five years and it was during this time that he advised The Sunday Times.
After achieving his extra master’s certificate, in 1971 he was appointed a lecturer in the School of Maritime Studies in Plymouth’s new Polytechnic (now the University of Plymouth), where he spent 10 years as the head of the department of shipping and transport, developing a master’s degree in international shipping.
In 1978 after presenting a paper at a conference in Brussels, he was interviewed by Hugh Scully, presenter of Spotlight: “Because of my background in navigation and meteorology I was asked if I would like to present the weather in the programme, as at that time no BBC region had weather presenters. The news editor felt that the time spent on the weather was insufficient and not detailed enough.”
Rich jumped at the chance, though as he recalled, the studio technology was rudimentary: “In the early days we used magnetic symbols which from time to time would slip and fall off the chart.” In 1988 he gave up teaching altogether to concentrate on his television and radio work.
His contribution to Spotlight went well beyond his weather responsibilities. He often found news stories and his expertise was called on during coverage of such events as the Fastnet Race tragedy in 1979 and the Penlee disaster in 1981.
In the 1980s he presented That’s Rich, a late-evening series of regional programmes. He was the commentator for the start of the 1998 Tall Ships Race on board the destroyer Nottingham, where he interviewed the Princess Royal as part of BBC South West’s live coverage.
Later that year he was in Ypres with Spotlight for the 80th anniversary of the Armistice and in 2000 he was in Dunkirk for the 60th anniversary of the evacuation. He also took part in the BBC coverage of the total eclipse in 1999 and for many years produced and presented programmes for BBC Radio Devon.
He retired in 2003, joking that “I’ve always said when I got the weather right I would give up. So I must have got one right at last.” He spent much time doing charity work and served as president of the Looe RNLI for 10 years.
Craig Rich is survived by his wife Pat and three children.
Craig Rich, born February 3 1938, died December 1 2024