the suevic

[philipmthompson]

i done a run job on the suevic,my first ship back after the strike i was flat broke after weathering the strike in tilbury

[George Heggie]

I sailed on the Suvic same trip was 3rd Engineer and flat broke as we were tied up to long during the strike and to many nights ashore did not help.

[Captain Kong]

I sailed on the Suevic January to June 1955, she was a battleship on the Ozzy coast.
We all walked off and refused to work in Beauty Point in Tassie and the Captain got the Police and tries to charge us with mutiny, The Wharfies went on strike for us and we were there for six weeks.
We had no subs so the boss of the Beauty Point Hotel asked us to paint the hotel in exchange for beer. All the paint disapeared out of the focsle and the Hotel was painted nicely out of Shaw Swivel Paint
The Captain could not understand how we came back bevied every night.
I heard a few years later the Hotel was burned down.
I am going to write the story of that trip soon.

[harry appleton]

I sailed on the ss cretic also the ss suevic between 1962/3. I remember one of them had either the bulkhead or the bulwalks painted green for the love of me i can't remember which one.Any guesses ?.

[John Gill]

was on the suevic from january '61 til may of the same year. dreadful ship. had a bit of a mutiny ourselves. one of the crew died while swimming in Fremantle and the company decided to have him buried with just the agent attending. we asked the skipper if any of us could attend, and were refused as the ship was sailing next day.we contacted the local union who promptly declared the ship 'blacked' and if we weren't allowed to attend the funeral with a representative from each department, not only would the ship not leave harbour, but would be blacked in any aussie port. we buried our shipmate. by then the ship had left and we had to take a train journey to, i think melbourne or sydney to rejoin her, which as i recall took 2 or three days. before we left the union had a whip round for us which proved very useful as the company refused us any expenses. part of the deal was that we lost no pay while we were absent. i doubt if the unions are as strong now in Oz, but they were certainly a force to be reckoned with then.

[colin twine]

i was on the good old suevic 1965 great crew great trip no trouble plenty off loverly girls

[Captain Kong]

Here is Clancy on the SUEVIC, nice boy, in Auckland.

[John Gill]

hi clancy------- seems i sailed with Shaw Swivel too early in the sixties-- didn't notice too many 'lovely girls' wandering round the working alleyway when i was aboard, one or two dodgy firemen maybe, but i'm sure i would have noticed the real thing.

[Ray McCerery]

Here is Clancy on the SUEVIC, nice boy, in Auckland.

I was on Suevic DryDock North shields Liverpool bound Ozz 63. Heap of Sh88e.

[happy daze john in oz]

was on the suevic from january '61 til may of the same year. dreadful ship. had a bit of a mutiny ourselves. one of the crew died while swimming in Fremantle and the company decided to have him buried with just the agent attending. we asked the skipper if any of us could attend, and were refused as the ship was sailing next day.we contacted the local union who promptly declared the ship 'blacked' and if we weren't allowed to attend the funeral with a representative from each department, not only would the ship not leave harbour, but would be blacked in any aussie port. we buried our shipmate. by then the ship had left and we had to take a train journey to, i think melbourne or sydney to rejoin her, which as i recall took 2 or three days. before we left the union had a whip round for us which proved very useful as the company refused us any expenses. part of the deal was that we lost no pay while we were absent. i doubt if the unions are as strong now in Oz, but they were certainly a force to be reckoned with then.

In those days the unions in Oz were so powerful many shipping companies would not enter Australian ports fort fear of being stuck there. But now they are like most unions, not so effective.