Flights to ships

[lakercapt]

Joined my first ship in Newcastle NSW in 1953. Ropners S.S. Firby
Flew out from London on a BOAC Argonuat with two ships crews to replace the crews that had been out two years.
Took five days to fly out as except for the first night we stopped overnight.
Quite an adventure for a 16 year old.
Course it was not much of an adventure after that as we were on the Aussie coast for two years hauling coal and iron ore.
Total time on that trip 2 years 1 month and 26 days

[Pete Leonard (Bruno)]

Hi.Den.
In answer to your question, my first flight to join a ship was in 1951 to join a Shell tanker in Reykjavik.
The second time was in 1952 when a complete crew were flown out to Japan. The reason was that the original crew had been out of the UK for two years, which was the maximum for British articles. This was in pre jet travel days, so we flew in an Avro York. This was a derivative of the old Lancaster bomber. It took us best part of a week, because we were staying overnight at all the intermediate stops.
Hope this answers some of your question
Cheers
Pete

[Graham Griffiths]

Hello all,

I joined British Gull 28th Sept. 1972 in Little Aden and after sailing the Indian Ocean for a few months I left the ship in Wellington NZ 8th Feb. 1973.

Three of us 'paid off' together, 3rd Engineer, myself and another Deck Cadet. In the agent's office we were given a choice Singapore or LA. I'm sure it was yours truely that wanted to fly via the States so that we would have been around the world in one trip.

We flew to Auckland on an internal flight and then to LA, via Tahiti, on a Panam 707. This was First class because company policy was to fly 1st on flights over 24 hours. What service, we loved it. fantastic food, free drinks and lots of them and they even took orders before we took off.

A stewardess asked us what a certain abbreviation against our names was and did it mean we were members of a band?

At Tahiti the plane filled with Americans, many in first class looking at these long haired (uncut for several months) youths.

The curiosity got the better of one of the 'old' men (a Senator as we were later told) and he asked who we were? The 3rd engineer picking up on the earlier question said we were a band called 'The Pipers'. Our nosey Senator had heard of us.

At LA Pan am paid for a night at the Sheraton and whilst waiting for the curtesy limo we were approached by a fellow 1st traveller who asked why we were flying 1st Class, 'Its the only way to travel', 'I agree' he mumbled as he shuffled off.

A night in a very boring hotel and back for the last leg. non stop from LA to Heathrow. First Class on a 747. Now this was worth joining the Merch for, all on its own.

Drink, drink, food, drink, drink,snore, awoken for more food and drink, snore.

I awoke refreshed a few hours out and went to the upstairs bar, another few drinks with the stewardesses and it was time to fly down the full length of the UK on a cloudless morning, the cities below being pointed out to us. We landed on a February morning to Zero degrees and in summer gear. It was woth it, if only to show off a goose pimpled tan.

Btw my year's salary was £456 and the flight was £516

Graham

[John Albert Evans]

In January 1962, I , together with a lot of other crew members flew from Southend to Rotterdam to join a Shell Tanker the 'Platidia'. We arrived back at Tilbury in December 1962.

It was a very good ship.

We flew in an old Dakota but our luggage followed us on a jet plane.

John Albert Evans.

[Glyn Jones]

Never flew to join a ship, but went out passenger on the Saxonia to join the Romney in Halifax NS in Dec 1958, and again on the old QE in May 1961 to join the Siddons in New York, came back on the Sylvania 12 months later, far more civilised than flying, and a lot more enjoyable.

[Ivan Cloherty]

Never flew to join a ship, but went out passenger on the Saxonia to join the Romney in Halifax NS in Dec 1958, and again on the old QE in May 1961 to join the Siddons in New York, came back on the Sylvania 12 months later, far more civilised than flying, and a lot more enjoyable.

Also never had the pleasure of flying to join a ship, tried it once but the Wright brothers said they had no room for me and my quadrant, but as I was there would I spin the prop for them.

[Tony Morcom]

Just like Andy, in the 70's we thought is was the norm to fly out to and back from ships. During my last trip I worked out that in nearly 8 years I had been on 12 ships, some twice, visited 87 countries, sailed round the world once and yet I had still flown more miles than I had sailed by 240 miles. I only ever joined and left one ship in London. As for the rest, courtesy of Houlders I've joined in Panama, Capetown, Singapore, Freemantle, Los Angeles, Istanbul, Curacao,Yokohama and Dubaii plus a few I can't even remember. Pay Offs were exactly the same. When I got married the first time they even flew my wife out to Capetown with me and flew us both back from Los Angeles, all at their expense. We even had 8 days in Capetown before the ship arrived, again at the company's expense. The best airline of the lot was Singapore Airlines in those days and the worst was Pan Am. It was all part of the job in those days and added to the excitement. Our flight home from L.A. was the most eventful as it included a stop over on Baffin Island because of a bomb scare, but that's another story....

[Lou Barron]

bloody hell i must have been in the wrong mn flying to join a ship or flying back home even at to pay myown tram or train fare myself and all that free booze you guys got

[Ivan Cloherty]

bloody hell i must have been in the wrong mn flying to join a ship or flying back home even at to pay myown tram or train fare myself and all that free booze you guys got

Looks like you and I were in the same MN Louis

[Gulliver]

Like Tony said it was the ‘norm’ to fly out/back I from the 70’s onwards when many British company's ships never came home to U.K.
I joined my first ship in 1970 by air and flew back from my last in 1990.I have almost as many ‘air miles’ as sea miles.

I agree that Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific were just about the best,with Swissair a close third,whilst the worst was undoubtedly Aer Afrique(Scare Afr EEK!)- Marseilles to Abidjan via Conakry and Nouadhibou-I was scared,no exaggeration.
Good old British Airways was somewhere in the middle for 'care in the air ' but I always felt safe flying with them,(even though that could just be psychological).
Shortest flight was -on my very first trip(and the first time I’d ever flown anywhere)- from Liverpool(Speke) to Chester(Hawarden Airfield) -10 minutes then same plane (Viscount 748 of Cambrian Airways )continued onto Heathrow on a morning commuter flight.
Longest flight 28 hours from Hong Kong to Heathrow (pre-Jumbo)by BOAC 707 via Calcutta,Karachi,Damascus and Rome,and having to deplane at every stopover.
Most interesting -Heathrow to Tokyo on JAL via Anchorage (Alaska)and the Polar route. Impossible to distinguish between day/night,and we saw the sunrise/set about half a dozen times,and the cabin crew gave us an ‘enforced ‘sleep period by blacking out the cabin portholes and all the lighting.!
Biggest body temperature shock- boarding in Singapore at + 32 degrees C to disembarking Heathrow at -6 degrees C in February -within A 16 hour time period..
I have loads more air travel snippets but I’m beginning to bore myself now…..