The world of 2008 is far removed
from that of 1975 with the technology we all now have available. For
thousands of seafarers back then a voyage from one continent to another was
quite literally being out of contact with the world. Ships would receive and
send messages via each other , which took time, with no satellite
navigation our position at sea was always by sight from the sun and
stars. Truly we were at the mercy of the elements and relied on the
professionalism of good seafaring and engineering. One could pick up on world
events once near land by receiving either the world service or local channels on
a personal radio. Each week we would have a movie on board, films were
issued to each British Merchant navy vessel and rotated from ship to ship when
swaps were done in ports. Sometime we would lend them out to Russian ships as
their seafarers rarely saw anything from the west , depending on their skipper.
Arrival in Hobart was wonderful, we
would be loading apples for Europe. After three weeks of just sea, the city
looked lovely, surrounded by lush hills and impressive mountains, I was allowed
on the Bridge to witness seeing my first Australian port. Later that day the
second mate asked if I could post some letters to his wife as I was going
ashore. Hobart looked so clean and inviting, we were the only ship in port
except thePort Line vessel ' Port Nicholson' which had suffered major
engineering problems and was stranded awaiting parts to arrive from overseas. I
dropped Peters mail in a letterbox near the Post Office, then went and bought
some postcards to write home but they told me to post them at a different
letterbox which I thought nothing of , at the time.
It however turned out that I had
posted Peter's mail in a disused box , one of Hobart's first pillarboxes and not
opened since about 1948. Needles to say it had become a time capsule of sorts
and this was more evident as they had to get a small engineering company in to
retrieve the mail by removing part of the lid!!
Chief Engineer Bill decided I needed
a few nights off, I had covered every night in port for almost 3 months now as
well as continuous watches . This was great, freedom in a lovely place like
this, but overlooked one thing. My first trip and no doubt others wanted to have
some fun about it. Up to now I had maintained total sobriety , only the
occasional beer to quench the excessive heat after watches were over .
I was
invited ashore with most of the engineers for an evening at the newly opened
Wrest Point Casino. Once again , first time in a Casino. It started with a light
beer but by the evenings end I was knocking back Southern Comforts like they
were going out of fashion. Returning to the ship in taxis we bought some pizzas,
again something new , and Iain the electrician offered me a cigar , which until
then I had never smoked -but took it gracefully and thought why not? I felt
great. Whatever state I was in was likely to get worse as once back on
board the ship another round of drinks began , and although I cannot recall the
actual moment it occurred I somehow dropped my head on the bartop straight onto
my pizza ending up with pizza on my face and glasses with my cigar stubbed over
my mouth. Photos were taken and I was quite oblivious to all this at the time.
However the late evening was to get even better.
The Chief had retired for the
night but his attractive wife Sandra decided their was just too much fun going
on to leave the bar. As Tony (4th engineer) cranked the bar music up to
Neil Diamonds Crunchy Karooler Suite and tried to do ballet dancing with Ron
(3rd engineer )I decided I go one better and grabbed Sandra who was in hysterics
by our antics, meantime Dave the 2nd engineer and Iain were splitting their
sides laughing , so much so Dave fell off his stool backwards behind the
bar stating later it was the best laugh in 12 years at
sea.
Here I was dancing with the Chiefs
wife covered in pizza and a squashed cigar hanging from my mouth. Ron tried to
grab Sandra from me but missed his footing and went flying into a bar light
sending him into space for a few moments.
On returning to sit down at the bar
, trying yet another drink I passed out , waking up in my bunk next morning with
one heck of a hangover and some strange feelings about my person. I was about to
discover what else had been done whilst out cold. My stomach churning I
headed for the abulsion block, and sitting down on the loo passed a great gusto
of wind which straight away sent a huge cloud of dust skyward filling the
cubicle. For one awful moment I thought I had blown my insides out ?
.....but know , whilst out, Sandra had gone and picked up her sons baby talcum
powder and thrown heaps of it down the back of my pants.
Somehow I made it for
breakfast , a quiet meal on board ship, normally conversation only emits from
the Captains table.
At the engineers table Tony mutted
to me, "well you certainly made your name with Blue Star now", then in walked
Bill and Sandra with Grant their son to the quiet saloon. All of sudden a
burst of laughter came from Sandra as she looked at me and this was then
followed by the other engineers, with Bill and the Captain looking quite puzzled
as to what was going on.
Breakfast continued in relative
peace which just grins been exchanged from table to table.
Like any family, word never takes
long to get around and even Jerry and Ivan our stewards asked me sarcastically
if I would like my eggs scrambled or poached .
Parties were always a happening
thing and Blue Star Line had a good name for ships parties . The deck cadet
Wayne, radio officer Brian and I rang around a few places to see what
companies would like to join us for one. Usually the shipping agent would
arrange this but did not stop us asking others. We managed to find interest from
one Hospital where a group of nurses said they would love to come to our
party-if we arranged the transport. It turned out the hospital was 45 kilometres
away , but thanks to Brian who had hired a car for a week we thought that no
problem. On arrival at the Hospital it turned out to be a mental home and we had
been set up as no nurses showed. However several parties did happen and also our
crew held a few which -been Barbadian were tremendous , the carnival atmosphere
of those men was amazing including huge stereo speakers at the time
generating the Three Degrees Song' When will I see you again " right around the
harbour as we sailed out bound for Denmark , one the longest passages for any
vessel to sail with just one scheduled stop back in South Africa for
bunkers/fuel.
We said goodbye to Hobart, home of
'Cascade Beer' and Australia's Factory Plant of the British Cadbury Chocolate
maker
on April 3rd 1975, Helsinger bound
some 6 weeks away. The photographs shown are one of myself wearing deep sea
blues without tie and jacket -probably ready for lunch prior to watch,
with Bill the Chief Refrigeration engineer -not to be confused with Bill
our chief who was alot younger and Dave the second engineer taken in the Indian
Ocean, standing by a winch that controls the derricks and aft steering gear
/bridge. A view of 'Montreal Star' from the bow as we head west back towards
Africa, and a nice view of Hobart port with Montreal Star the ferry Lady
Wakefield which was on loan from Sydney after a terrible bridge disaster which
cut off links across the harbour not long before we
arrived.
Next week we reach Scandinavia and
how our Captain failed to show when the pilot and tugs were ready to move us out
into the Baltic Sea, and how we managed to be sailing backwards in the North
Sea. I will also recap on how our swimming pool had to be evacuated in a
hurry.
Hello Wallace do you have parties still, as you get older the parties get to long and you cannot keep up with it all,well you sea faring man i bet this diary of yours fetches a lump to your throat writing this, its is brilliant i hope you are keeping an account of this for your book. Regards Doris
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