zebedee
27th August 2011, 17:35
In its wisdom, the Hain Steamship Co. leased their communication equipment from the Marconi Company. This meant that we had a new Radio Officer every trip and of the dozen or more that I encountered only two made sufficient impression on me for me to remember them! Not surprisingly, the first one that I encountered is one of them. As I spent much of the second half of the voyage on day-work I was a frequent evening visitor to the radio room for mutual entertainment, after the little traffic had been dealt with. According to George W., his father had three tins of nails, one tin for nails “as found”, a second tin for straightened ones and a third tin for those which had been de-rusted and were ready for use. However, more interesting was the event in Hull on arrival in the UK. The Customs rummager spotted a small gap between the top of George’s wardrobe and the deck-head. As this gap was really only noticeable with the aid of the ubiquitous mirror and torch it was eagerly pounced upon; and he found it to be full of tobacco tins! “You didn’t declare any of this.” He crowed. “Of course not,” answered George “they’re all empty!” Naturally the rummager reacted with disbelief, fished them all out and opened every single one. Finding nothing but a few forlorn shreds of tobacco he was not best pleased. “What game do you think you’re playing?” he demanded. “No game at all.” George replied: “My sister is a teacher in a kindergarten and these Benson & Hedges tins are the perfect size for the children to keep their pastels in.” Off went the irate rummager to vent his spleen on some poor unfortunate.
Years later, jumping ahead out of context, I was appointed Second Engineer for the first time and for my fifth trip on the Treleven, coincidentally Bill was making his last trip for Marconi before he retired. It transpired that when he left school he was apprenticed to be a grocer. (In those days. and up until the 1950s, grocers knew about what they were selling without having to read the wrappers!) After a while he was sent together with the other apprentice to fetch a whole railway wagon load of block salt back to the shop with the aid of a horse and cart. Opening the centrally placed wagon doors they loaded the cart and took several loads to the shop. By the end of the day they had “tunnelled” their way through to the opposite side leaving nice vertical walls on either side. Next morning they discovered that the wagon had been moved. As all we seafarers know, the technical term for moving railway wagons is “shunting” and this is achieved by hitting the wagon(s) with the locomotive. In this case the violent acceleration caused the floor to be littered with broken blocks of salt. The shop manager was not at all pleased and when they had fetched all the salt to the shop he made them drive around Swansea crying “Cheap salt for sale”. In the course of this enterprise they passed the office where Bill’s father worked and he heard them. When Bill arrived home that night his father explained in no uncertain terms that he had not apprenticed his son to be a street hawker and what did Bill intend to do next. Bill decided to become a radio operator and spent the rest of his life with Marconi. As all Hain's ships were single operator vessels they were fitted with auto-alarms to cover off-watch emergencies. In the tropics electrical storms would raise false alarms. After the second or third awakening some operators switched the auto-alarm off. (Aren't they glad I don't remember individuals.) Bill, being a proper professional never ever did. No matter how often it awoke him he checked thoroughly before re-setting it and returning to his interrupted sleep. "It might be us out there one day." he remarked to me. Practically all his time was spent on tankers, enjoying good food and spacious accommodation although none of them took him to New Zealand or to Japan. However some time previously he had made one trip with Hains on one of the three steamships which did take him to NZ.! I had been offered “A short trip to the Caribbean”; I got it but it was to Cuba to load sugar for Japan once again. Bill was of course delighted. When we arrived I made a point of showing him the Ginza in Tokyo before letting him see the Motomachi in Yokohama. In his opinion these sights were vastly superior to both Times Square and Piccadilly Square at Christmas. Naturally we then loaded grain for home in Australia, but that’s another story.
I'm not sure that this post is in the most appropriate forum, but l hope that it will be appreciated anyway. Zebedee
Years later, jumping ahead out of context, I was appointed Second Engineer for the first time and for my fifth trip on the Treleven, coincidentally Bill was making his last trip for Marconi before he retired. It transpired that when he left school he was apprenticed to be a grocer. (In those days. and up until the 1950s, grocers knew about what they were selling without having to read the wrappers!) After a while he was sent together with the other apprentice to fetch a whole railway wagon load of block salt back to the shop with the aid of a horse and cart. Opening the centrally placed wagon doors they loaded the cart and took several loads to the shop. By the end of the day they had “tunnelled” their way through to the opposite side leaving nice vertical walls on either side. Next morning they discovered that the wagon had been moved. As all we seafarers know, the technical term for moving railway wagons is “shunting” and this is achieved by hitting the wagon(s) with the locomotive. In this case the violent acceleration caused the floor to be littered with broken blocks of salt. The shop manager was not at all pleased and when they had fetched all the salt to the shop he made them drive around Swansea crying “Cheap salt for sale”. In the course of this enterprise they passed the office where Bill’s father worked and he heard them. When Bill arrived home that night his father explained in no uncertain terms that he had not apprenticed his son to be a street hawker and what did Bill intend to do next. Bill decided to become a radio operator and spent the rest of his life with Marconi. As all Hain's ships were single operator vessels they were fitted with auto-alarms to cover off-watch emergencies. In the tropics electrical storms would raise false alarms. After the second or third awakening some operators switched the auto-alarm off. (Aren't they glad I don't remember individuals.) Bill, being a proper professional never ever did. No matter how often it awoke him he checked thoroughly before re-setting it and returning to his interrupted sleep. "It might be us out there one day." he remarked to me. Practically all his time was spent on tankers, enjoying good food and spacious accommodation although none of them took him to New Zealand or to Japan. However some time previously he had made one trip with Hains on one of the three steamships which did take him to NZ.! I had been offered “A short trip to the Caribbean”; I got it but it was to Cuba to load sugar for Japan once again. Bill was of course delighted. When we arrived I made a point of showing him the Ginza in Tokyo before letting him see the Motomachi in Yokohama. In his opinion these sights were vastly superior to both Times Square and Piccadilly Square at Christmas. Naturally we then loaded grain for home in Australia, but that’s another story.
I'm not sure that this post is in the most appropriate forum, but l hope that it will be appreciated anyway. Zebedee