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Captain Adam Plenderlieth ( peleaf )

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#1 ·
do, any of you out there remember Capt; Plenderlieth some times known as the "white tornado" this was because of his mass of pure white hair.
I did several coasts with him and as a cadet he always picked on me because as his runner , It would be Oh! laddie just run up the road to the nearest chemist and get me a bottle of VOSZINE shampoo and a newspaper if it was a sunday. sometimes on the coast you wpuld have to fetch him two bottles maybe he used as shower gel. Does anyone rember the soap ben used to supply called Arena ,cadets used to hoard it and usein Bangkok with a few planks of dunnage for extras.

he was not very tall in fact probable only as tall as Tich wilson another coasting old man, the could both only just see over the dogger. During the day at sea it was ok, you always had to tell him ,even if he was asleep when you were going to alter course .If he was awake you never knew where he was because he used even in summer don a heavy black overcoat and his berrie , dressed like this you could not see his white hair so he would appear from nowhere and ask what was going on.

He didnt like the new ships one coastal trip on the Ledi he just never left the bridge once full away was rung.
He didnt like to trust the tennsion winches he always wanted an extra head and stern line out. And as for shippers parties he hated them.
Still another charachter who lived to a fair age in Aberdeen .
Rgds Ian.
 
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#2 ·
Captain Plenderleith, I was not high enough up the food chain to call him Adam, was Master on my first trip, and again as a very new and nervous third mate. I remember him as a very correct, and very old fashioned Master, who required a regular intake of tea (and make sure the waters boiling laddie) to function at full efficiency.
 
#3 ·
I sailed with Captain Plenderleith a few times as Cadet and as First Mate as Roddy has said he was very old fashioned and strict but once you got to know him he was okay. He had a bit of a rough time during the war kept himself very much to himself.
TomS
 
#5 ·
Adam Plenderleith was my grandfather.
Reading some of your descriptions of him makes me smile, because in some ways he and my dad were indentical.
Sadly, he died roughly 9 years before I was born, and my grandmother is in no state to remember anything about him anymore. =(
Any other stories about him would be greatly appreciated.

Becca
xoxo
 
#6 ·
Capt. Adam Plenderleith.

Hey.
My name is Becca.
I found out about this site through a search for my grandfather on google with a post from someone on this site.
His name was Captain Adam Plenderleith.
He died roughly 9 years before i was born, and sadly my grandmother is no longer able to remember much about him.
My dad remembers that ships that he served on were torpedoed during the war, and that he was in London on a bus, when a bomb went off in which glass shrapnel lodged in his head, which is where it stayed until he died many years later.

I'm looking for anything that I can paint myself a picture of who I can only assume was an incredible man.
So even funny little stories about him would be welcomed.
Thank you
xoxox
 
#7 ·
A warm welcome to you

Becca, firstly well done for finding us, and a warm welcome to you. Yours is a most interesting first (and second) post – I have taken the liberty of merging the two posts, as such a move is in keeping with the working of the Site. - Secondly the comments we have about your grandfather before you joined us, are a very sound reminder to us all to recognize that many people will pass by and see our comments, and we must be mindful of that fact and show utmost good faith a courtesy.

I trust that by bringing this thread to the top it will catch the eye of others, who may in turn add their own reminiscences of your Grandfather.
(Thumb)
Mark
 
#8 ·
I did a 'coast' with Plenderleith on the Benvalla in 1966 when I was a cadet. West India Docks on a Saturday in April - no work. An East End school visit had been organised with the cadets doing the guiding. Yours truly told to go up into the stb'd crane at No4 Hatch (stb'd aft) and demonstrate how the thing worked. Unbeknownst to me the Lecky had been working on it the previous day and then stuck a note on it saying "do not use, will only train to port". Said notice had blown off during the night. So, I duly jibbed up and down, hooked up and down, then put the lever to the right expecting the crane to go right. Not a chance, it swung left, I brought the lever back to stop which the crane did. Unfortunately the momentum, combined with the hook being at the level of the Old Man's fwd facing ports, resulted in a shattering crash and a lot of glass speeding into the Old Man's dayroom. He was sitting in an armchair reading his paper - you can imagine the rest. Schoolkids thought it hilarious; I had my shore leave stopped!
 
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