Sunset stirred my memory

[cappy]

went t5o sea , carried a knife ( peeler ) you must have been a pirate

####no that was jim lad ......

[Red Lead Ted]

Cappy, I recall a right hullabaloo coming from the galley fiddly one afternoon the cook and galley boy the lad would not turn to on his sack of spuds until his peeling knife was found this is a serious post, In the end of course he had no choice but to turn to apparently a lot of the knives in the galley a lot of lads found them easier to work with even peeling tatties

[cappy]

###always in the warmer climes i woujd sit on the hatch to peel me tatties many a fireman or sailor would sit and help ...have a yarn the best was one old lad telling me there was a port in the west indies were a special tribe of honey coloured ladies all had there breasts on there back ..so when you danced you got a handful ...now that kept me busy for awhile........cappy

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Cappy, I recall a right hullabaloo coming from the galley fiddly one afternoon the cook and galley boy the lad would not turn to on his sack of spuds until his peeling knife was found this is a serious post, In the end of course he had no choice but to turn to apparently a lot of the knives in the galley a lot of lads found them easier to work with even peeling tatties

##square tatties ted

[j.sabourn]

Cappy did you work in the galley on the Avonmoor. To get to the boatdeck was a vertical ladder outside the galley door. The spud locker was at the forward end of starboard side on top of the apprentices cabin which was at the end of the stewards alleyway. There were 10 of us in that alleyway. Cooks and stewards. No air conditioning 1 toilet ,1 shower if there was any water. And 1 electric fan per cabin if it worked . If you were in the after accomodation you would have been next door to the steering flat. Only the Bosun and carpenter living on the main deck. You must have found the Cragmoor a real palace. She even had a wood sheathed deck. No such thing on the Avonmoor. Anyhow the spud locker on the Avon was quite large and was one of the first places one looked for stowaways. JWS

[cappy]

####no john was 12 to four lived aft it was a rabbit hutch ....hand pump up your shower water ...the holder tank held enough for to soap up but not enough to wash off ......so your mate had to pump more water up ...hence the shout wheres smithi .....hes pumping up for cappy.....which always brought a loud answer in seamans language this vessel was being sold to the chinese and was rotten through ...chipping the deck one hammer went right through.........she was alive with jaspers ....and as once proved by rob ...a jar of pickled onions which i thought vinegar killed most besties had little swimmers even the oldest hands had never seen that before.....i believe she was the ist.merchant vessel into singapore when the japs surrenderd........and no wing of the bridge on the bloody focsle fair weather and foul......until she took a big green one over .....but as she was getting me home after skinning out ..i was one happy bunny was in her about 9 weeks ...she came to shields lucky me may 59 .. ........when i joined the avonmoor most deck crowd had skinned out .....this had happened before on the same trip ...no air conditioning and i cannnot remember a fan down aft ..we had swedes an belgiuns aboard the bosun had jumped and a young ab from scotland took his job ...surely part of my lifes learning curve put me in good stead after that old banger .....people today wouldnt believe it the the mate asked me could i steer ..i said yes he said 12 to 4 watch.....people woulnt believe it today safety lines from the galley to the accom seen a lot in one trip ....cappy

[j.sabourn]

She was the second ship into Singapore after the japs surrendered so there must have been a worse one worth hitting a mine. The Relieving ch. stwd. I mentioned in another post for a passage Trinidad to Montreal in 1966 the scouse who had been a POW same place as the one who died a couple of years ago on this site who would of probably known if could of remembered his name. Was telling me that before they got law and order established, him and 3 others commandeered a Jeep and firearms and screamed around shooting every jap they saw. Stories you don’t hear elsewhere. Wasnt the place to skin out especially if of oriental appearance. I stood by the Avonmoor about the period you mention in Hawthorn Leslie’s, dead ship 3 days on and 3 days off. On my 3 days off., got woken one morning in bed at home someone putting me on the shake, it was someone from the office, wanting me back to the ship as Billy Tennants riggers were on strike and me and others had to go and pull her out of drydock and put her on a buoy. Your right people would not believe you if they knew the half of it. Cheers JWS. PS the 2 mate you talk about could have been a bloke called Nash. He was a couple of years older than me and at the council school we both went to he had the nick name of nasher and us younger ones used to shout at him nasher smokes pasha. Tall fairheaded bloke probably dead by now. JWS.

PS there is another post running by Hugh about a burial at sea which I don’t want to interrupt but if of any use , we had a death on the Avonmoor in 1953 , and died in a corner of the messroom probably where Cappy used to sit later playing poker. We kept the body laid out on a hatchboard also in the steering flat where Cappy probably slept next door to, for about a week. There was no refrigeration in those days and the reason I can only surmise was to ensure that the crew and everyone was assured the man was dead and not buried alive. Seaman were a bit harder in those days and would down tools at any injustice they thought was happening. As for taking a dead body into port it was the unwritten law in the company I was in that you buried at sea, to avoid detention of ship due to medical pratique and other formalities. Witnesses to death had to be entered in relevant log books etc etc. JWS

[happy daze john in oz]

Cappy, that photo of Lewis,s, would you poit out to him, not up to your standard, there is an eye left on one of those spuds, despite new tools tch tch kt

The eye in the spud is to match the one in the Sheep's head, left in to see then through the week!!!!!!!!!!!!

[cappy]

##just as a matter of interest john when i was telling ted about the shower ...on proper hard ships ...i missed the bit were after you pumped up your water you turned the steam valve open to heat the water ...too much and you burnt and too little you got luke warm water ...but that was better than an old hains boat were at one stage we had no bloody water up thr gulf in august....ah but that was when we were needing them not ......feeding them...........and although this may create a disturbance ....a watch at sea ie steering and lookout was perhaps boring apart from a bit of weather now and... then the easiest job i ever had ...i dont think anyone could disagree with that.......but no doubt some one will .........cappy WOE

[Lewis McColl]

Even as late as 1972 on some ships you were still having to pump the water up to a domestic header tank for to have a shower. ED's m/v Perang built about 1954.I did 4 trips on her and it was the last job you did before finishing your watch was to start the duplex steam pump to fill the tank, as soon as you showered the oncoming watch would stop it. Many a cold shower was had on her. She was a 4 cylinder Doxford and all her auxiliaries were steam, even down to the Donkin Steering gear. 3 Furnace Scotch Boiler. Hard working ship but always a great crowd on her. Winter in Liverpool in February you could not get into the engine room quick enough to get a heat, down in West Africa you could not get out of the engine room quick enough to get a cold beer and a breath of fresh air. Would I turn the clock back to do it again, most diffinately. Would I do the last 20 years I did at sea in the modern era I don't think I would.Steering-Gear-Port-Look-Strbd.jpgDonkin_steering.jpg

[j.sabourn]

#121. John that is Cappys credo “ Beauty is in the eye of the Potato”. JWS.