Originally Posted by
KiwiAB
In 1949 I spent nearly eight months as an A.B. in the Fort Carillon, managed by the Union-Castle Mail Steamship Co.Ltd. She was a wartime-built Fort ship, single scfrew, coal-burning and very slow!
We left London heavily loaded with cargo for what was to be the great Groundnut Development Scheme in East Africa. On the foredeck we had two steam locomotives and two ex-R.N.steam launches . Aft we had several earth-moving carryalls.
Our first port was Genoa, then on to Port Said, Port Sudan, Aden, Mombasa, Pemba, Tanga, Dar-es-Salaam, Zanzibar, back to Dar-es-Salaam then on to Lindi and Mikindani where we unloaded the Groundnut Scheme stuff, using the 50-ton 'jumbo' derrick to do that. I might tell you that those locomotives joined about twenty others being overgrown by weeds and, if they haven't rusted away after all those years, no doubt they are still there!
Next it was on to Beira, Durban and Port Elizabeth where we loaded a full cargo of 1,000lb bombs which had been stockpiled there during the war. We took that cargo to the Abu Sultan RAF Base near the Bitter Lakes in the Suez Canal, then made our way back down the coast- Aden, Mombasa, Beira, Durban, Cape Town, Luderitz Bay, Walvis Bay, Hamburg, London.
Our Captain was Capt. A.C.M. Black, the best skipper I ever sailed with in that he treated all the crew as equals and 'gentlemen' and in thhat way got our respect. (Look him up in the U-CMSCo. Staff List).
During our 3 week stay in Port Elizabeth, I met my wife and went back to PE to live there, (1950-1954) I worked as a Cargo supervisor for the UCMSCo for that time. My boss was the Marine Supoerintendent, Capt C.J. Clutterbuck, a real character and a great boss.