Whilst referring to my diary kept
during these years, its not exactly clear why we travelled due west to Europe
instead of east via the Panama Canal , which may have been quicker. The Suez
canal was still closed to shipping after the 1967 six day war had seen several
merchant ships stranded in the Bitter Lakes, one of which was the Blue Star Line
vessel 'Scottish Star'.
Following our departure in
Hobart we sailed bound for Durban, again not clear why Durban when we were
not going through Suez, however events during our first night back at sea forced
our hand after a breakdown and problem with number 7 cylinder, by the time we
were up and running at reduced speed orders had changed and our next stop was
now Melbourne later the same day. Tasmania was still visible by the time I
came off watch at 8am , whilst it was the lights of Melbourne I would see 12
hours later.
We sailed into Port Philip Bay and anchored whilst parts were
delivered to us by tug boat. I have no record as to what exactly was wrong
but repairs were carried out into the night then I was back onto watches again
as we sailed out of Melbourne, next stop three weeks away. An uneventful
crossing seeing hardly any ships arriving at Durban on April 24th 1975. No shore
leave , its was strictly for bunkers, fuel and fresh water, which took 16 hours
in total then we were sailing back to Capetown, this time to collect mail which
had missed us and would be brought out by launch to us.
We arrived Capetown on
April 28th , it was very foggy and quite eerie with the sound of other ships
blasting their foghorns all around us. We knew they were there and they knew we
were somewhere? As we waited for the mail , Ian the chief
electrician dropped an empty can of beer into the water below, I glanced down
only to see a huge shark appear , attracted by the sound of the can hitting the
water. We estimated by the size of the can , this shark was all of 3- 4 metres
long .
This leads me to tell you about
another fishing episode earlier in the trip. We were catching fish off the aft
end of the ship whilst at anchor off Durban when in the excitement I tossed the
hammerhead shark I had caught behind me and went straight into the swimming pool
where Bill and Davie were enjoying a quiet swim. I have never seen grown
men move so fast.
We drained the pool to get it
out......dead!!!
We sailed out of Capetown eventually
clearing the fog seeing the top of Tabletop emerging out of a large blanket
smothering the city and port. Another three weeks passed as we sailed
north back into homewaters passing through the English Channel into the
North Sea and onto the Baltic. Fortunately we were blessed with good
sailing weather, it was now late Spring in England and over 5 months had passed
since leaving Liverpool. I took a photo of a sunset in the North Sea -as
shown , just before the 'Green Flash' , where the sun turns green for a
split second-only witnessed out at sea in the right conditions.
Arrival at Copenhagen , Denmark was on May 18th, a lovely historical
port, home of 'Hamlet's' Castle , and Carlsberg Lager. We had been at sea almost
7 weeks without going ashore , hence when a tour was organised around the Beer
factory, absolutely, nobody turned it down.
Discharge of cargo complete , the
tour was organised on the very day we had to leave to cross the Baltic to
Helsingborg Sweden , only a stones throw . However moving a ship requires
all procedure's to be carried out to the letter regardless of distance and so
the tour was organised into two. Engineers first, to get back and get the ships
engine ready , with Captain and deck on the second tour.
Perhaps it was unforeseen at the
time or just a confusion over bookings , but with engineers back safely
the tugs arrived early as did the pilot and stand by was rung, with just one
problem , no Captain, or deck officers other than the duty 3rd mate who seemed
quite bewildered at the prospect of us sailing without a Master on board.
. Fortunately our pilot and tug master saw the funny side to it, perhaps the
Blue Star Line accountants did,not when they got a larger bill for attendance
charges. With all on board we sailed for Sweden. The crossing took around 4
hours port to port. A further two days or discharging our cargo then orders came
to sail for dry-docking at Wallsend . We were going home
.
Mother nature though had one final
test , a deep low had moved in over the North Sea directly in our path, and with
the ship light , only minimal ballast had been placed in her tanks , and the
ship was low on fuel and fresh water so our weight was the lightest it had been
all trip. We had departed Helsingborg on the evening tide of the 23rd and
our ETA for UK was 1pm next day.
The storm got worse as we got deeper
into the North Sea, but I was thoroughly enjoying it , no worries like I had at
the start, this was mother nature at her very best, and I went up on the bridge
to experience the whole show coming at us bow first.The sea was the mixture of
greens, greys and deep blues mixed with masses of white tops the wind howling
and spray flying everywhere , hard to believe this was the same passive
sea we had passed through a week prior.
Montreal Star had to reduce speed
from 16 knots down to 8 to avoid damage to the stern gland and propeller shaft
as the ship dropped into large troughs bringing the stern well clear of the
waterline making the ship shudder as the huge blades revolved .
The sea currant
running strong, another 'position sight' was done during a break in the
clouds to reveal we were moving backwards. the currant was sending us back
towards Scandinavia not England. So we rode this storm out for several more
hours finally making headway and arrived off the Tyne Coast at 7pm , the sun was
shining and hardly a breath of wind to indicate what we had passed
through. We had missed the tide so sat at anchorage for another eight
hours before heading in on the next tide and entering the dry-dock .
The engines
shutdown , and shoreside power put on the whole vessel fell into silence , a
most strange sensation after six months , the smells of hot oils and diesel were
starting to dissipate and it all had a surreal feel to it, and sadness. The
adventure over, but would I return , would one trip be
enough?
Saturday May 25th
1975
What had awakened inside me was an
awareness that this was the best life for any single man , yet I needed to touch
base with family, friends who I had missed . At around 1pm a relief engineer
arrived, I collected all relevant paperwork, discharge book, and said goodbye to
the 'shipmates' who were ' family', both officers and crew ,took one last
look into the engine room and walked down the gangplank. Just outside the
dockgates sat a familiar looking blue and white Austin Countryman A60 estate
car, my family had driven from Barrow to meet me, and thus here ends my
first sea adventure.
More adventures in future
blogs.
Next time I take you back to 1964
when I began at Alfred Barrow Boys. The teachers, the lads, and all the things
we got up to!!!!.
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