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25th December 2016, 10:05 AM
#91
Re: Fruit Boats!
Originally Posted by
John Sparkman
In 1956 when I was at Junior School (Standard 5 or Grade 7) Here is a group of school mates on the bridge.
Attachment 22055
I sailed on the Tintagel Castle Twice 68 and again in 69. The first voyage took in a visit to East London where children from your school visited the ship and had a party on board with the usual tea and tab nabs. I can not remember if it was that voyage or a previous voyage when your school presented the ship with a cat who was called I think ? "Selby" after your school.
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26th December 2016, 10:00 AM
#92
Re: Fruit Boats!
Originally Posted by
Doc Vernon
Hi Wilkie,
Yes that was one of the old Fruit Boats as they were known!
I nearly had a chance to get on one but turned it down,sorry i did!
Anyway here is a bit of trivia on them!
Cheers
But you most probably knew all this anyway!
Cheers
The four Clan "R's" were originally ordered as Union Castle R boats, but were changed due to dispute with the Union's.
The intention was that four castle R boat crews would be replaced with native crews in order to reduce running costs. Seamen's Union refused to discuss the proposal, B&C transfered the new ship order to Clan Line.
Regards
Vic
Last edited by Doc Vernon; 23rd June 2021 at 08:03 PM.
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26th December 2016, 12:23 PM
#93
Re: Fruit Boats!
I do not think the Tintagel or her sister ship the Tantallon Castle were classed as fruit boats they were both general cargo ships. Where as most of the the R boats mentioned were refrigerated and built for the South African fruit trade. If I remember rightly the R boats were laid up at Blackwater in the late 60's and were re-crewed etc. and used just when the South African fruit season started and laid up again when it finished?
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23rd June 2021, 09:54 AM
#94
Re: Ports!!
Hello - I have been digging around on the Internet and searching for the Models of the Union Castle line - have managed to find quite a few - bit still want to dig further - interestingly - I have found articles photos of some of them - which got me thinking - what happened to all the models that were around in the glory days of Union Castle - for example the 2 models in my attached image were on the Century voyage of Union Castle on board the Victoria - then the other images show models in LONDON Offices and in Durban Many Thanks
Last edited by Doc Vernon; 23rd June 2021 at 08:05 PM.
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23rd June 2021, 05:13 PM
#95
Re: Ports!!
Realise this is an old thread, but RE post 93, yes ships were laid up at Blackwater in off season.
After 4 trips on Rothesay castle from 12/1/1966 until 26/10/66 i did H/T runs on Rochester castle and Roslin Castle and both were from Blackwater to South Shields. Then did Rustenburg castle from 18/2/67 till 7 /4/67.
Had some great times as did most of the Castle line crews.
Remember some beautiful looking women in L.M. and remember ladies seeing cigarettes from a tray around their necks similar to the way they used to sell ice creams in English cinema's.
What was the name of the bar/nightclub that had 3 or 4 black guys on stage playing soft jazz and old standard songs. I remember the old drummer playing his snare drum with brushes not drumsticks.
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23rd June 2021, 06:12 PM
#96
Re: Ports!!
It is interesting I sailed on the Clan Ranald 71-73, there was talk of layups but they never materialised.
In 72 we loaded Cape Town as a store ship, sailed straight into Soton, told to go on leave, would get a call to as the ship was to layup in the Blackwater, ended up going top B.A. with spuds.
Vic
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24th June 2021, 06:17 AM
#97
Re: union castle.
Referring to the R boats as fruit boats may not be correct.
But as far as most UCL crew knew all the ships of the company were definitely fruit boats.
Happy daze John in Oz.
Life is too short to blend in.
John Strange R737787
World Traveller
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11th July 2021, 01:59 PM
#98
Re: union castle.
All the R boats were reefers.
The black hull ships were general cargo only: Kinnaird, Kinpurnie, Kenilworth, Braemar, Good Hope, Drakensburg, Tantallon and Tintagel. There were also some pre WW2 black hull ships that were not reefers.
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12th July 2021, 04:30 PM
#99
Re: union castle.
I did a trip on the Reibec Castle.
We carried cattle for Cape Town.
That by no means was a fruit boat. lol.
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