[jasmacpm]

Hi, hope you had a nice Christmas. Can you help refresh my memory as to the meaning of 'CAST.' I seem to have 'Canadian - Shipping and Transport' in my head but, this is probably well off target.

Cheers,

jimmy.

[joebuckham]

Originally Posted by jasmacpm

Hi, hope you had a nice Christmas. Can you help refresh my memory as to the meaning of 'CAST.' I seem to have 'Canadian - Shipping and Transport' in my head but, this is probably well off target.

Cheers,

jimmy.

hi jimmy
seasons greetings. don,t really know the answer to this but as they were based in antwerp could this be what the 'a' stood for

[non descript]

You ask a very fair question and to be fair there is some reason to suggest that as the acronym CAST was registered as the actual company time, then by a process of back-formation, any set of names can be mixed up to match those four letters. To some people’s mind, Eurocanadian Shipholdings Limited, could have been thinking your set of words, or Canadian Atlantic Sea Transport - which many regard as the thinking behind Mr F Narby's company.

These days, folk tend to forget there was ever another reason for the acronym and just see it as a single word, and then add whatever set of words they prefer to justify the set of unconnected letters. e.g. MFI which has several (crude and not so crude) meanings, was originally called ‘Mullard Furniture Industries’ and was allegedly named after the founder's wife, whose maiden name was Mullard; but I daresay on a bad day, even Mr Mullard chose to re-write history and claim he had a separate vision when he registered the name at Companies House.

[jasmacpm]

Hi, Tonga,

yes, I do wonder if it actually is/was an acronym, but something in the darker recesses of the brain says, it was. Here's another one -what about "DART?" I seem to recall being told that stood for "Direct and Rapid Transport?" What happened to them, anyway?

Jas.

[muldonaich]

legend has it when the company was formed frank narby the owener had broke his leg skiing somewhere it was in a cast so he said why dont we call the company cast im sure john cassels will know the answer he was shore captain with them for years merry xmas kev.

[jasmacpm]

Thank goodness, he didn't have a dose of the trots, or just a dose - otherwise I might have sailed on the Commode Orca, or Penicillin Osprey.
Yes, I think Mr Cassels wil be the man to keep us right. Perhaps, he will also know what became of Mr Narby?
Good New Year, to you and all at SN, when it comes!

Jimmy.

[jasmacpm]

Hi, Joe,
you could be right? I had a few trips up the road in Antwerp, myself. Maybe that is how I got involved in wines, as did Mr Narby, who it seems was the owner and I see he later got involved in wines too. Looks like he owned a vineyard, or two, whereas I drank a vineyard, or two (yesterday, alone).
Cheers!
Jimmy.

[mclean]

CAST stands for "Canadian Atlantic Sea Transport". Frank Narby was one of the brightest shipping men one could meet. I worked for CAST in both Montreal and Antwerp. Frank got into the wine business, in California I believe, and has done well. Colin

[jasmacpm]

Originally Posted by mclean

CAST stands for "Canadian Atlantic Sea Transport". Frank Narby was one of the brightest shipping men one could meet. I worked for CAST in both Montreal and Antwerp. Frank got into the wine business, in California I believe, and has done well. Colin

Hi, McLean,
thanks for solving my query,which 'Tonga' likewise suggested was the answer. I wasn't too far off the mark with my guess? As you might see, I sailed on a couple of CAST ships, whilst I was a cadet and a good many others owed a little of their wages to Mr Narby's enterprise.
As my time at sea was very limited, I can't be too critical, but I recall more than a few grumps among the officers about the quality of some of the CAST fleet, though whether the saying "CAST is last," was justified, I would have to leave to others?
Were you involved shoreside? It seemed like quite a big operation to my youthful eyes, then (late 70's, early 80's). Are you able to give a few examples of the qualities, or activities which drew your admiration? Is Mr Narby still alive and in shipping?
All the best,
Jimmy.

[mclean]

Jimmy, as far as I know, Frank Narby is still alive and hopefully well. No he is not involved in shipping. He handed over the reins of his vineyard business to his son some years back, and I believe the business was sold a few years ago. I would guess Frank would be in his mid eighties now. I was in the operations department with CAST 1975 to 1978. Frank Narby had a great ability to converse in all aspects of the shipping business. a lot of it gained throughout his time with Fedcom. Montreal. He tried his best to fill the executive positions within the organisation, with trusting individuals, a few of which would turn out not to be the case. Regards Colin

[mclean]

Originally Posted by muldonaich

legend has it when the company was formed frank narby the owener had broke his leg skiing somewhere it was in a cast so he said why dont we call the company cast im sure john cassels will know the answer he was shore captain with them for years merry xmas kev.

muldonaich, you are quite correct as far as far as that story goes. If I recall correctly, Frank and Chris Kritikos, the founder of Ceres Stevedoring were having a meeting to discuss eventual stevedoring contracts, with Frank in a cast, and there we go. Ceres at that time was a small stevedoring company started by ex.seafarer Chris, headquarted in Chicago. It is now a large company covering all main nth. amecican ports. Chris stepped down in 2002 as chairman and ceo. Colin

[andrew jaggers]

Originally Posted by joebuckham

hi jimmy
seasons greetings. don,t really know the answer to this but as they were based in antwerp could this be what the 'a' stood for

I remember that when on charter to CAST it always (for us) stood for Calculate Another Stowageplan Today
AJ

[muldonaich]

thank you colin in fact it was frank narby that told us that story on the bridge on cast husky on her maiden voyage into montreal we thought he was joking maybe he was i dont know but i do know i enjoyd my time with denholms and cast kev

[John Cassels]

Originally Posted by andrew jaggers

I remember that when on charter to CAST it always (for us) stood for Calculate Another Stowageplan Today
AJ

Andrew , which ship are you talking about ?.

[mclean]

You may not get a response to that one John! Most people will not be aware of Cast.s other trading areas, namely Europe to St.Lawrence/Gt.Lakes and Nth.America /Continent to Arabian Gulf. Guess you were involved there? With a lot of the parcel cargo being booked out of Friborg, it would be left to Montreal/Antwerp to sort out the stowage. Happy Days. Rgds. Colin

[John Cassels]

Originally Posted by mclean

You may not get a response to that one John! Most people will not be aware of Cast.s other trading areas, namely Europe to St.Lawrence/Gt.Lakes and Nth.America /Continent to Arabian Gulf. Guess you were involved there? With a lot of the parcel cargo being booked out of Friborg, it would be left to Montreal/Antwerp to sort out the stowage. Happy Days. Rgds. Colin

Yes , thanks Colin , a good and prosperous 2009 to you and yours.

I was anxious to know which ship was being refered too here. as you well
know Colin , All of us at cast were very proud of the fact that we made all
stowage plans ourselves . Bookings were constantly being changed and we
could not afford to wait for approval from the ship for every little change.
In the 20 years I did this for Cast , I very rarely had an objection from one
of the chartered ships regarding a stowage plan.
Hence the reason I am interested as to which ship Mr.Jaggers is refering as in
all my years with Cast , the ship was never asked to make a stowage plan.

[muldonaich]

john do you know where the name cast came from was it what frank narby told us that day or was it just a joke he was making at the time if you come over just call on us we now have ret will explain in pm brgds kev.

[John Cassels]

Morning Kevin. Just on the point of leaving for 4 days with the wife's family
to bring in the new year ( have a feeling it will be the longest 4 days of both
years).

Must be honest , have no idea where the name Cast came from. I too had
heard of the broken leg theory , also heard of Colin's explanation but I just
don't know if even that is correct. I was with Cast for nearly 20 years too !'

All the best for the new year Kevin and to all others reading . Hope you all
have a good one.

[Bigred]

I asked that question of Frank Narby in 1973 and he told me the story of the broken leg. He knew due to marketing studies that the company name should start with the letter C and the color should be blue and both were winning combinations.

[oldman 80]

Well well well - and there was me thinking it (Cast) was just plain old Canadian Sea Transport.
What happened to them in the end, or are they still around ?

[Bigred]

We we were taken over in a hostile takeover by Canada Maritime who merged the groups together riding themselves of most senior management then bought a number of other lines and in the end selling out to Hapag Lloyd. That is it in a nutshell.

[John Cassels]

1995 ; taken over by Canada Maritime
1999 ; Canada Maritime , Cast , Lykes and a few others taken over by CP.
2004 ; The whole caboodle taken over by Hapag Lloyd.

[Kingham SJ]

Originally Posted by jasmacpm

Hi, hope you had a nice Christmas. Can you help refresh my memory as to the meaning of 'CAST.' I seem to have 'Canadian - Shipping and Transport' in my head but, this is probably well off target.

Cheers,

jimmy.

come and starve togethet

[oldman 80]

Originally Posted by John Cassels

1995 ; taken over by Canada Maritime
1999 ; Canada Maritime , Cast , Lykes and a few others taken over by CP.
2004 ; The whole caboodle taken over by Hapag Lloyd.

Well I never.
That explains a lot.
Not liquidated then, but rather taken over, and by Hapag Lloyd - who would have thought that ?
I certainly have done the right thing - and to think I used to think Hapag Lloyd were amongst the cream of the cream - but that too was a very long time ago - Cargo Liner days.
And Lykes Lines - well we used to see a lot of them back in those days, all ugly ships I would say - compared with ours.

Edit:- An afterthought:- Well blow me over - not only does it explain such a lot - it stacks up with what I've been thinking all along.

[MurrayDonad]

My very first trip was on Cast Puffin, picked her up at Sullom Voe in Shetlands , I remember being told at the time that it was Canadian Atlantic Sea Transport , 2nd ship Troll Park then third trip as galley boy with Cast Petrel