pets on union castle line

[Bryan Portwig]

where pets allowed on the mailships

[Doc Vernon]

Hello Brian
As far as i can remember NO, there were never any Pets on Board that i saw. But in later Years could well have cahnged, but think not!
Cheers

[cappy]

had a monkey on a british tanker for about 5 months ........had pigeons on a tramp but not succesful....kept them in an old tatty locker .....R683532

[happy daze john in oz]

As I recall there were no pets on any UCL ship.
However I do believe a number of pets may have been allowed as cargo in transit.

But on the Windsor there were a couple of pets, one was on the telephone exchange the other a steam queen.

[J Gowers]

The only 'pet' I ever saw at sea a chick left behind by the Gillygilly man BP Vigour 1987.

13-06-2022 08-15-44.jpg

[cappy]

The only 'pet' I ever saw at sea a chick left behind by the Gillygilly man BP Vigour 1987.

always called the gully gully man in the 50s .....perhaps the gilly gilly man was his son ....from gilly gilly ostenfeffercatsanelabogn by the sea......lol cappy

[Graham Shaw]

Re 'Gilly Gilley men etc:
I remember to this day my Auntie May singing this to me, a toddler in the 1950's ,while babysitting me to give Mum a no doubt welcome break.
I never understood the words of course but it sounded quite fun.These days you would think the singer was having a stroke uttering that refrain.....

YOU TUBE LINK

[j.sabourn]

I was 2nd. Mate on the Jedmoor in March 1960 when we loaded General Cargo for N.Z. among the bits of eveything from a pin to larger commodities was a dead lady who the sights of Liverpool must have been too much for her, for she came onboard complete with coffin, and Cappys good friend Captain Roberts insisted she be stowed among all the beer wine and spirits down No. 2 hold just forward of the Bridge saying that will keep the baskets out if they are scared of ghosts and sure enough there was no pilferage from that hold. Also among this very varied cargo was 3 dogs, 2 sheepdogs and someones personal small shelty. Rather than keep them in kennnels on the funnel deck and have to climb ladders to feed and clean them at intervals, the cook offered to look after one of the sheepdogs and I did the same with the other one. Captain Roberts being the kindly old man he was not be outdone took the Shelty in , maybe because he wanted someone to talk to as most people disappeared whenever he appeared, think the likes of Cappy had been spreading rumours about him. we went via Panama and did the usual bypass of the mutineers island on entering the Pacific to see if they required anything. The 2 sheepdogs had very strict dietary needs and while I stuck to mine , the cook fed his on lamb chops , so what his relationship to its charges turned out to be is anyones guess. The Shelty also had a great life as used to accompany the master into the saloon and had his special area and napkin and was treat like royalty. when it came time for these dogs to go ashore in Auckland they were not allowed to accompany us to the local sin bins which we all thought was a bit off. Captain Roberts however tried to buy his dog without success and Cappy would have been surprised to see the man who terrorised him in tears. That 6 week passage out could have lasted much longer as far as we were concerned. I am sure those 3 dogs would have been appreciated in Ma Gleasons being by that time real seadogs. Cheers JS

[Bryan Portwig]

thats a good story - thanks for sharing - i did manage to dig up a reply of a cat on one of the older union castle mailships - but not 100 % sure of the details

cats.jpg

[Bryan Portwig]

i know that the normandie's forward

normandie pets in funnel.jpg

normandie pets in funnel.jpg

funnel ( ? )