Sugar Boats

[Keith Tindell]

Hi Louis, Trying to think who we had on board from Cardiff, there was a lot of finger waving, and cheering as they came over us, but cannot recall mooning. The first lot caught us by surprise as they were so low, but after that it was a regular thing, until the company abandoned any idea of going there, and steamed south until a new cargo was found, ah the good old days, regards KT

[Louis the Amigo]

Hi Shipmates ,Hi Keith thank you for your reply, Did you take any photos? or did you see any on the ship , cant remember the shipmates name, Mike or john? he showed me the photos in a pub in cardiff, I asked him for a copy but he shipped out after a few days, He thought the Yankee planes were going to open fire on the ship, he said he mooned them on the poop deck ??? and put up fingers. not a nice thing to happen. To any british crew The yankee planes { our friends} buzzed the ship a few times and took photos of the crew.

[Keith Tindell]

Hi Louis, I havnt got any photos of that, in fact i only have one of the ship, and not a very good one. I have moved so many times since those days that most of my photos have gone, only memories left. Also i never ever got to Cuba, its one of the holiday destinations myself and the wife keep looking at Regards KT

[Barry fuller]

Hi Jim , sorry for taking so long to speak again but I am new to computers and find it a bit difficult to keep on track with everyone else .

Like you I had an experience with a bum in Jamaica , and it also was on the sapphire.

We were at anchorage in savannah la mar and these bums came on board to have dinner in the officers saloon , don't ask me how they managed that because I don't know .

One of them walked in and said. SOUP ! I just looked at him and said nothing , as he sat down he looked at me again and said SOUP! At this point I caught the captains eye and he shook his head as much to say " don't serve him " .

He once again looked at me and said SOUP ! At this point he captain got out of his chair , went over to the bum and whispered something in his ear , a few moments later the bum looked at me and Said , excuse me steward could I please have some soup , which I reluctantly gave o him !

[James Anderson]

Looking for a photo of the Sugar Producer one of Tate @Lyles. I sailed on her in 1964. Took coiled wire to Matanzas Venezuela up the Orinoca river. We hit bottom a couple of times. Had major engine problems twice, Sulzer engine.

[Captain Kong]

Here are a couple of photos courtesy of OLD SHIP PHOTOS.
Brian

[vic mcclymont]

In 1997, there were four sugar refineries in the UK, one in London, one in Liverpool, one in Greenock and a beet refinery at Newark, Nottingham.
The EU in its infinite wisdom decreed that there was over capacity in the UK and two refineries must close, and one of them would not be the beet refinery.
Tate & Lyle owned all three sugar cane refineries and it was deemed that two refineries to close was Liverpool and Greenock. The analysis for closure was done on a cost basis, which refinery needed the least spent on modernisation., London came up trumps and was retained.
In Greenock, as in Liverpool hundreds of direct employees were given their marching orders, dockers and transport workers were also made redundant, because of an EU directive.
Over 400 deliveries of sugar by ship was made to Greenock each year, I assume a similar amount was made to Liverpool.
Even now T&L are threatening to close the London refinery due to the restrictive import tariffs placed on imported cane sugar by the EU. The tariffs are used to support inefficient sugar beet farmers in Germany and France.
As far as I can ascertain no sugar refineries have been closed by the EU in Germany or France, Latvia had to close its refinery due to directives.
regards
vic

[Jim Brady]

Vic I think that it was the CEO of T&L being interviewed on TV he said that each time a ship docks with cane sugar it costs T&L 1 million pound, this is because of our membership of the EU.you can imagine how happy he was when the Brexit vote went through.He said the cane sugar had to go so to keep nine beet sugar farmers going in Europe.
Regards.
Jim.B.

[Red Lead Ted]

One thing none of us will ever loose regardless of which ever company working sugar, The smell of the stuff T@j Harrison's Liverpool discharged there cargo of sugar in the Canada dock, Brought it back from Jamaica many times, You only have to think back and the smell which was unique it will come back to your konk Terry.

[vic mcclymont]

Hi Ted, visited the sugar shed in Greenock in 2010 for the tall ships. The sheds were open for various display etc. They had not stored sugar for nearly 13 years, but the unmistakable smell of raw sugar was still there.
Regards
Vic