Holy stone

back in the 1950`s myselfe and a guy called Dennis Holttum were going to sign onto one of the the Highland ships (either the Highland Monarch or the Highland Princess ) we went aboard and saw the chief Steward who assigned us to a cabin and told us to look over the ship, particuly the resturaunt, first we found the cabin and went to open the door when a shout stopped us "wait a minit" then heard "come in", opened the door to a cabin that had 6 bunks in it, 2 on the left behind the door, 2 on the right and 2 across the bottom, each with draws beneath them, the person who told us to wait was sitting on a bunk otherwise we could not open the door, it was very cramped in there. next we went exploring the ship and found the resturaunt we would be working in. It may have been very gracefull when she was new with a balcony from which a quartet would have played while the bloods ate, and wonderfull decoration around the sides with a fancy ceiling, however it also had a wooden deck which we were informed it would be part of our job to clean each day. this as far as we were concerned was not for us, so we just marched off the ship and never looked back. Comparing this ship with the "Ruahine" which we had just left, was an eye opener to what was out there. I could just imagine the tempreture in that cabin whilst in the tropics, no air conditioning or even a porthole, nowhere to hang any cloths to dry after washing (no washing machines or dryers then ). was happy to go to P & O`s Acadia, even though there were 10 of us in the cabin it was very spacious and no hollystone floors to do, just the usual mop-out and brass cleaning.
keith moody
R635978

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Originally Posted by Louis the fly

Holystoning was a job we all hated. Wet the decks, throw sand and basil on the decks then begin to push the heavy stone up and down.
As you will all know on every ship there were headworkers. Their trick was to put a beer bottle top under the stone, smooth side to the deck, then stand there pushing the pole with one hand and smoking a fag with the other.
I loved the old ships with spotless white wooden decks, varnished taff rails and shining brass.
I was once on a tanker with wooden decks inside the accommodation, one day a flagon of B.O.T. lime juice was accidentally knocked over and where it had run the deck was like new. This was how we cleaned it after that, looked good and smelled good. Don't know what it did to our guts by drinking it.

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Didn't mind holystoning, built up the arm and leg muscles, preferred it to chipping (especially the windy hammer). Also we used to use B O T limejuice on the taffrails around the decks, mix it with sand and use pieces old firehoses as sandpaper to rub it up and down. The taffrails came up gleaming white and then the engineers would start up that wayward generator or blow tubes with soot all over the boatdeck and taffrail, that meant another engineer's port would not be closed by a considerate cadet at the next mornings washdown. The lime juice played havoc with any cuts you had, can't remember sailing with anyone who actually had drunk the stuff

Louis talking of lime juice on wooden decks,when I was galley boy captains inspection wooden blocks in the galley (chopping blocks etc) scrubbed then covered in lime juice and put out in the sun on the hatch which made them gleeming white.
Regards.
Jim.B.

The Empress of Canada had large areas of wooden sheathed passenger decks and it was always the 12-4 deck watch job to scrub them down daily and at least once a crossing they were holystoned.
The best holystone to use is a pumice stone, like your old granny used on her front doorstep.
Whenever I was on ships with a wooden taffrail that had been varnished, or worse painted over, I always made it my job to remove all the varnish or paint, smooth it with pumice stone, if available, if not glass paper. Then use white spirits to clean out any dust or remaining flecks of paint/varnish before applying at least two coats of linseed oil. Varnishing or painting over wood causes it to crack after a period of time unless it is part of the actual hull where water can seep into the grain.
I always was quite proud of my nicely oiled bridge wing taffrails but used to get jip from pilots if the job had only been completed the previous day so that when they lounged on the rail they got their nice soft hands or white shirts stained with linseed oil...silly buggers the smell should have warned them the wood had recently be oiled.
rgds
JA

Ivan,yes I remember well many people drinking lime juice and enjoying it,I got it off to a fine art how to make it drinkable and enjoyable.I used to put sugar in a jug and pour boiling water on it to melt it (its no use putting sugar in cold water it wont disolve)having got this syrup top up with lime juice and cold water and leave in the fridge.I used to put this in the water jugs in the saloon most welcome.
Regards.
Jim.B.

#13... Ref. wooden blocks used to be one of my many jobs when working for a butcher when leaving school. Was scrubbing down the wooden chopping block with a wire brush and hot water to get rid of all the blood stains. JS

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Ref#8... Forgot to mention Jim to put a sign up for Cappy to take off his seaboots before coming in off deck, otherwise would be treating the composition decks twice a week. JS

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#9 Louis a job we all hated... People pay good money nowadays to go to a Gym and get exactly the same sort of exercise as pushing a holytone around. All that exercise early in life has probably put years onto your lifespan. Cheers John S

The old Gloucester Castle had all wooden decks and it was one job I did not like .The Duchess of Bedford had wooden decks but the only job that I got was on the bridge doing the taffrail with pumice and a piece of canvas It was the time we was sent to Glasgow after sailing down the Clyde we anchored out at the Greenock to wait for a convoy to form and by the way the Queen Mary was also there but not to join the convoy we was to go with anyhow the quarter master who was in charge of bridge boys gave us the job of cleaning the rails so I picked up a bucket and to go down to the galley to get some hot water the QM spotted me and said and where do you think you are going so I told him ,then he said bloody hot water he goes and gets a heaving line ties the bucket and over the side it full of sea water he said now get into that lot Boyho was it bloody cold but he was to me and the other boys a lot of seaman ship

Lime Juice was part of your rations as per Agreement. Goes back to Cooks time to prevent scurvy when no fresh vegetables available. If you ever read the Agreement on provisions was supposed to by law to be in a prominent position for all to see. Apart from your 2 eggs a week you were also entitled to a stated amount of lime juce in lieu of veggies. Its also where our cousins the yanks got the name for us as Limeys. JS

There was a time when it was fashionable to put a small amount of Lime juice into Lager -- it seemed a good way to spoil both !!! regards Peter in NZ

Did it evey morning on the Skin boats also all passenger ships,Iwas on about 4 Passenger ships got sick of doing it 12 to 4 watch especially.also quite a few cargo boats.