Ships Nostalgia banner

***bria = 1971-1981

7K views 24 replies 9 participants last post by  John.Wilkinson 
#1 ·
Does any one know the outcome of these ships Hadley,s Sunshine Cruises was a subsidury of Houlders I think was on two of them the ***bria ( URGH !!) And the Camarina lovely little home from home. What was the name of the others
 
#3 ·
Does any one know the outcome of these ships Hadley,s Sunshine Cruises was a subsidury of Houlders i think was on two of them the ***bria ( URGH !!) And the Camarina lovely little home from home .What was the name of the others
One minor correction, Hadleys was a not actually a subsidiary of Houlders, although Houlder Brothers did have a 5pct shareholding when the company was formed on 18th December 1926 (to take advantage of the Anglo-Saxon Petroleum Company (i.e. Shell) Sale & Charter-Back scheme). The name of the company, The Hadley Shipping Company Ltd., was chosen due to Walter Warwick’s home being at Hadley Wood in Hertfordshire and the office was located within Houlder Brothers office at 53 Leadenhall Street, where they remained for 61 years until in 1987 with the Furness Withy Group moving to Redhill, HSC opted to move to their own offices in Wapping, where they are to this day.
 

Attachments

#5 ·
I believe they were also known as Warwick & Esplen.
Brian,

When, in December 1926, Mr Lewis Warwick and Mr Graham Esplen (later Sir Graham) formed the plan to create HSC, they arranged soon afterwards to also create a separate private company to act as Agents for all of Hadley’s business, quite reasonably taking an agency fee for the service provided; that company was called Warwick & Esplen Ltd., and it continues today, living in the same office as HSC.

Regards
Mark
 
#8 ·
Joined the ***bria in Skaramanga, Greece as a 1st trip Engineer Cadet Officer in full uniform and very proud to do so on 5th August 1973 and sailed with a great group of guys until leaving in Emden, Germany on February 13, 1974.

Many many memories, just unfortunate that their were no digital cameras back then or maybe for the older guys just as well there were none.

Jackie Scotland as chief along with his wife who kind of adopted me, a 2nd engineer from Sunderland who hated cadet engineers. Vernon Dukes as third who took me under his wing and taught me alot (& how to drink). John the 2nd or 3rd mate who came from wales and had a thing about Liza Minelli. The extra mate that was into fire engines/stations/trucks and nearly got me arrested along with him in Russia poking around a fire station in the port.

Going aground in the Skagerat due to somebody not doing their job as far as chart corrections were concerned.

A dry dock in Antwerp and watching my buddy, the 5th eng, being pushed through a plate glass window and ending up in hospital and having to pay off.

Being stuck with 3 movies for months and ending up knowing all of the words and we would switch the sound off and take our turns acting out scenes, all well and good until riding the bicycle with the 3rd mate in the Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid & singing about rain drops!!!.

Learning to play "Chase the Lady" and telling the chief's wife what we were playing but used the more common name of "Hunt the ----".

Watching as Coca Cola was used as a release agent to remove injectors out of the Sulzer. Was that an RD 74 or an RND. Rotary exhaust valves anyway.

The 3rd engineer from the army who had learnt how not to work throughout his time there and kept up the practice on board as well. Who was the other engineer with his wife onboard. I think he came from Middlesborough.

Arriving in Rio on the 28th December just before the last section of the bridge was lifted into place.

Being on the bow to ring the 16 double bells for the New Year with many other ships at anchor doing the same and watching the fire works from the Jesus statue and the Sugerloaf Mountain. Memories that will never go away.

Trying to swim on the beach after buying Brazilian style swim "things".

Getting my very first dear John at 9am on the morning of our arrival, thinking the world was not worth living in until the 10am smoko and the girls came on board. 11am, Dear John, what Dear John.

Our trip to the top of the Jesus statue mountain which was OK going up but after giving the cab driver beers could not believe the trip back down.

Having culteral exchanges with the locals at the museums which I think were called the Cowboy --- or something like that. Watching people deny they had been meeting the locals but then pointing out their wet hair after the showers the locals always insisted on.

The butter fly trays and pictures that we all bought and managed to get home.

The engineers letting me do a duty night but fitting a spare ships horn under my day bed as my alarm and the whole ship watching as I ran from my cabin naked & very confused.

To this day I will deny that it was me who nearly had to go to the hospital for some emergency repairs.

The weekly inspections of my cabin by the Captain & Chief Steward.

I am sure many more memories will come back as I think how much I liked that ship. Other than the 2nd eng who I do not think liked himself never mind me I only have very happy memories
 
#11 ·
Nice one Marinejockey, almost exactly as I remeber it, you did forget our first Captain, who was not one of the lads.

Remeber he was tight with the Christmas Decooration and he woke up in Trieste or somewhere with a pine tree outside his cabin. Present from Mel, the 2/O fireman. I believe the Captain had his fiancee on board who he insisted was sleeping in the spare cabin. Not a popular fellow by any means.
The grounding you mentioned was partly due to corrections by a previous second mate and human error at the time.

Being the 3/O at the time I can't remember the bicycle ride but it must have been fun. Also I should say I do not remember assisting someone who did not nearly need to go to hospital for emergency repairs.
The trip really improved when we changed Masters, was Tony Moore one of them. I know Al Capone joined for a while because another was taken ill.

The 2/E you mention has no place in my memory, perhaps this is selective. Ther is a couple of pics in the gallery
http://www.shipsnostalgia.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=107943

a couple of faces you may recognise. Mel the 2/O is there perhaps you can name the others? Nigel? the fiver is there.

John
 
#12 · (Edited)
I am trying to remember the trip

Skaramanga to Brazil ??
Brazil to Turkey
Turkey to Russia
Russia to Italy
Italy to Sweden
Sweden to going aground in the Skagarat
Skagarat to Antwerp
Antwerp dry dock
Antwerp to Rio..........................................
Rio to Emden & paid off

Was the first time to Brazil to load around Vittoria
Turkey I think was Erigili
Russia was next to Odessa
Italy was Trieste
Sweden was Oxelsenasund ??

I think Vittoria was up the river and we loaded at some very large & fast ore berth

I remember going past Istanbul early in the morning and seeing the sun rise strike the gold topped mosques, that was before any bridges

The port in Russia was cold wet dirty & miserable until Mel (fireman) took me to look at the local fire station & nearly being arrested. I think Mel had been a fire chief around Sunderland / Newcastle area.

Trieste was good except Vernon & I tried to go into Yugoslvia to buy an ice cream and all of a sudden we were in no mans land with no paper work. The Italians let us back in.

No memories from Sweden

Plenty of memories about being aground, Vasco was that you who came to the engineroom to tell us we were aground forward & aft and loaded around midships so there was a good chance we would split in half, not what a first tripper wanted to hear.

The dry dock was a learning experience for me in more ways than one. The 5th in the photo does look familiar however I do not think it was him who went through the window.

I certainly wish I had taken many more photos and even kept a diary from those days. I made fun of my best buddy who kept all of the notes, times, locations, people etc but now he can look up a date from back then and tell me what he was doing in the morning and who with.

Again I only remember one Captain from start to finish, was it Glover. He did allow the locals on board and then we caught him with one himself so maybe not bad after all.

Except for the time we tried to remove the injectors and they were stuck until we used the Coke I can not remember one other job I did onboard so I was either very lucky or my mind has gone. For some reason I remember the rotary exhaust valves, maybe I had to lube them or something.

I do remember cleaning my cabin over and over again to keep the Ch Steward happy. I remember drinking shnapps with Vernon & Rio. & Rio. & Rio, oops sorry I do remember Rio though.
 
#13 ·
Marinejockey

Don't remember saying we'll split in half, but might well have. The damage was very severe. I think a certain gent on this site may be able to amplify that.

A little anecdote about the grounding. if you remember Mel,2/O, was qutie a joker. So when he called me at 0600, with Oilskins on and soaking wet to releave him because we were aground I rolled over and went back to sleep. He was the type to put skins on and stand under the shower.
It was only when I was dragged to the Chiefs Office to admire the lighthouse illuminating the place from a distance of very close that I believed him.

I got my revenge on him for his trick. Dashed into his cabin out of breath and asked him to read the draught as I was busy and the old man was (once again) chasing me. It was only when he walked out of the accom doors that he stopped, turned around and saw me creased with laughter, we were in Dry Dock.

Nigel, if he was the fiver, made a brass cube, in a cube in a cube if I remember it was a betbetween him and the Chief. When he proudly produced it the Chief thanked him for the paperweght and walked off with it. Do I remember this correctly/

Ah Memories.
 
#23 ·
Hi All,
This Is Arthur 4/E on ***bria when built at Scotts Greenock in 1971,
Staff on Maiden Voyage; Master, 'Bungalow Bill' Lewis, Wally Elsdon C/E,
Peter Carr C/O, Peter ? 2/E, Mark Glasgow 2/O, ? 3/E, B Wilson 3/O, Me (Arthur) 4/E, Les ? Elec, Dennis Parry C/Stew.

It was a lovely ship, engine room Data logger a bit basic, a nice comfy sea boat,
we spent over 54 days at sea on the Maiden voyage from Narvik, Norway to some Steelworks in industrial Japan.

In those days you had to use an opener to open steel cans, no draught beer on board & we managed but I never travelled without a can opener in my case when joining a ship.

Nice ship. Arthur C. (2012) [Just joined web site].
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top