ALBION 1954

These are great old pics . Ruud. I,ve most of them here . Tih ALBION was old man Westers ship . He ended up living in Ireland . He was a tight oul,skin. I mind him up here in Letterkenny , He would,nt part with much , The lads working the cargo were,nt too fond of him .
John

Ahoy John,
I know those feelings against those captain/owners, mostly hard working[which isn't a shame],small fees,no overtime,and lots of time hardly a good meal,once a week an obligatory nap on Sunday,but not on all of them.Yeah those were the days my friend,never regret 'em.

I know Ruud and i had many good friends on them , but whose fault was it where the grub was concerned .?? Take a small coaster in the 50,s , early 60,s for instance the URANUS -B. The capt and his wife ,s quarters took up nearly the whole bloody ship . The lads were crammed 3 in a cabin down aft with the steering shaft running thru, the middle of the cabin. When one man got dressed they other two had to stay in their beds as there was hardly any room on the floor . That was sailing captain - owner style . but thank god somebodt changed the regulations . It was,nt all viewed thru " rose coloured glasses" .
John

Quarters on the Egerland were a wee bit bigger than that.
As far as being "tight" with money, Peter Quast, the owner / captain
was a fairly generous type. but look at the finances on a coaster...
At one time he had a very good charter to some British company at
500 Mark a day (roughly a Mark a ton) plus fuel.
He had a crew of 7 to pay, food, paint, supplies, taxes, repairs, upkeep...
I am not so sure that there was a lot left on the end of the day.
His personal car was a Opel Kadett and his wife worked in an office.
She wasn't the seafaring kind, but a nice lady the few times she came onboard.
I suppose some of the owner / captains made it tru hard times and hung on for dear life, something that I am sure colored their behaviour.
Although I am glad I never worked for one of the "skinflints" or
should it be Capt. Scrooge?
Even Peter Quast would tell war stories at times, some going back to his dad Heinrich, who bought the Egerland new from Sietas in 1939.
Peter eventually in 65 bought a newer Shelterdecker with still 399grt but 600 tdw, which he could still command with his old A3 (?) license.
Unfortunately I forgot the name of her, can't remember if she was named after his dad or his wife, but I am thinking she was xxxx Quast.
Don't quote me on that....