Southern Cross

[Michael Rossouw]

Sailed as deck crew from Cape Town to Southhamton in March 1966

[Ron Charlesworth R820665]

Jack
I sailed on herSept 66, worse ship I ever sailed on, plus paid off with a DR for conduct & only got logged twice, she got barred from Tahiti the same trip.
Ron R820665

[Doc Vernon]

Used to see quite a lot of the Shaw Savill,s Southern Cross in the SA Waters around the late 50,s and although she was a very nice looking ship,there were many stories about her not being such a pleasant one to work on!
A friend of mine who worked on her in 57 and did 3 trips with her told me that after those 3 trips he was ready to quit the Sea! But he changed his mind of course and later joined the UCL with me.
Cheers

Her regular trips as you may well know were quite nice as far as passages were concerned!


Southampton - Las Palmas – Cape Town – Durban – Fremantle – Melbourne – Sydney – Auckland – Wellington – Fiji – Tahiti – the Panama Canal –Curacao – Trinidad – Southampton.

Some nice Ports of call! I really liked the look of her lines!

[Dennis McGuckin]

Used to see quite a lot of the Shaw Savill,s Southern Cross in the SA Waters around the late 50,s and although she was a very nice looking ship,there were many stories about her not being such a pleasant one to work on!
A friend of mine who worked on her in 57 and did 3 trips with her told me that after those 3 trips he was ready to quit the Sea! But he changed his mind of course and later joined the UCL with me.
Cheers

Her regular trips as you may well know were quite nice as far as passages were concerned!


Southampton - Las Palmas – Cape Town – Durban – Fremantle – Melbourne – Sydney – Auckland – Wellington – Fiji – Tahiti – the Panama Canal –Curacao – Trinidad – Southampton.

Some nice Ports of call! I really liked the look of her lines!

Agree with all you say Vernon.
Had a few drinks with some of her crew while my ship [Pacific Reliance] was in dry dock in Goven. Some of their stories about the 'stand-over men' where scary to say the least. Lots of DR men from what I understand.
Never fancied doing a trip on her myself.
Although as you mentioned some great ports of call.
Den.

[joemac]

Southern Cross - 17/12/69 to 4/5/70 - Waiter - Pool held a gun at my head to take this - wish they had pulled the trigger. Horrible trip, hated every moment. Cruised out of Sydney with Aussie punters, the top dropsey was 6 cans of Fosters for a 2 week cruise. Nightmare!!
Joe

[happy daze john in oz]

Never sailed on her but heard some horrific stories, what you are saying here confirms all of that. There was one story going round that one trip she arrived back in Southampton with a fair bit of the passenger accomodation wrecked.

[John Ward (2)]

Southern Cross. Nice ports of call and a good lookins ship but there the praise ends! Rather than one afternoon for boat fire and emergency drills we had three which meant that there was no afternoon kip between lunch and dinner sessions. So everyone was completely shattered. Dropsies were awful and I couldn't wait to get off her. The best thing was that we gained an hour of sleep every night as we were going west. Life on the Northern Star must have been awful!
John Winger 1965 or thereabouts.

[Nigel Smith]

I signed on the Southern Cross several days prior to departure on Friday 13th November 1970 (not a good omen).

The voyage was out to Oz via the Panama Canal, then 3 cruises out of Sydney and return to the UK in March 1971.

Being young and naive, I discounted tales that you didn't so much 'sign on' as 'weigh in' on the 'Suffering Cross'.

However the cracks began to appear on sailing day when most of the 'Belfast contingent' of the deck department were in various states of intoxication, thus causing extra work for the rest of us.

Things went from bad to worse during the Atlantic crossing, I was so relieved to plant my feet on terra firma upon arrival at Trinidad.

I stuck the trip out, though not sure how. During the trip there where 3 deaths, a crew member 'disapeared' one night, a passenger died of a heart attack, and there was one other death of which I dont know the circumstances.

I was attacked myself whilst sleeping, the attacker was unaware of the attack the next day due to being on various 'substances'.

During a visit to Suva (on one of the cruises), the catering staff walked off the ship. The band played on for sometime until the Ozzie passengers were no longer waving, the band eventually packed up and went home, as did the stevadores, I never did find out out why they walked off.

During 30 years service at sea I never witnessed anything like the level of violence and drunkeness on that ship, I still have the odd nightmare of this experience.

Having survived the 'ship from hell', I signed up for a correspondence course for 2nd Mates ticket.

Captain Wheatley was the Master on this voyage, a really nice man. What he did to deserve the Cross I really dont know, I hope things were better in his latter career.

When I saw pictures of the ship being scrapped, I had a glass of wine - quite an occasion as I am teetotal!

I'm sure someone somewhere must have a happier experience of the Suffering Cross, but it wasn't me!

[Gulliver]

Hi R893891..sorry to be so formal,no name given!. That was a great personal tale.
A trip like that could either make or break you. It's no wonder so many young seafarers 'packed it in' during those years. Boy am I glad I was a general cargo man.
One of my sadly departed mates,Keith,was a Junior Off. on the 'Sufferin' in the mid 60's. While it certainly helped his social skills,it seems that it certainly did nothing to help the alcohol problems he had later in life,perhaps. But memorable for him,just like your trip.

All the Best
Davey

[Nigel Smith]

I will admit to doing a few more trips on passenger ships, Windsor Castle, S.A. Oranje, S.A.Vaal, Reina Del Mar. The reason I did this was to cram in some study time for 2nd Mates ticket, these ships offered very little in the way of actual work, but plenty of time for study. On the Windsor I finished work 1530 Friday and then off untill Monday morning! (and that was at sea) no wonder Union Castle had so many 'company men', seeing out their days for a company pension.

R893891 (also, Nigel)