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Indo China Steam Navigation

130K views 445 replies 56 participants last post by  BTZ 
#1 ·
Is their anyone out there ex Eastern Ships
 
#341 ·
I note this goes back to 2009. I'm not too clever on getting around this site. If you are still there Garry I was 3/E on Loksang, 1948 to 1951.

Eastern Saga was in the fleet, then Queen and Glory came before I left.
Hi
I know this thread is old but I’ve just found this site. My father Wesley Bartlett was c/O on the Loksang 47-48 and then again 55-56 as master. I’m also trying to track down Laurie C Cox, Master and Ron Le Royd.
I am trying to find out a bit more about Wesley. I know he was on “sick leave”a lot, which was probably alcohol related. I’ve got his “resignation” acceptance letter from ICSN with all his ships and dates.
Hope you can throw some light!
Caroline
Born HK 1950
 
#5 ·
I was 3/E on Eastern Saga from July '84 to Jan '85. It was quite a wreck then but the run was good.[/QUOTE

I sailed with Jardines (ISNC) from 1980 to 1984.

I was onboard the Tsuru Arrow, Malahat, Eastern Moon, Mountain Thistle and Eastern Saga.

The Saga was a bit decrepit right enough but as you say, she was always on a good run.

The Eastern Moon was my favorite, Vancouver to Eastern seaboard of the states with lumber.
 
#9 ·
The Eastern Moon was a one of a number of Jardines ships who were chartered to a company called Seaboard who shipped lumber from Vancouver to numerous ports around the world. Whilst on the Moon in 1982 we did 3 trips to the Eastern Seaboard of the States before taking a cargo to Tilbury where I paid off.

My trip before that was on a Jardines ship called the Malahat and she too ran out of Vancouver to either the States or Japan.

I know the Eagle Arrow was also chartered to Seaboard in and around that time.
 
#10 · (Edited)
#11 ·
Thanks for clearing that up ! Something didn't quite make sense ! Just checked your pic links and yes the first one is the ship that has many good memories for me, the second one is one of the 'lumps' that were just appearing as I left (No offence meant Kurnow Jim !)

Mike
 
#15 · (Edited)
Served with Indo China from 1960 4/O to Master.
Favourite ship was EASTERN STAR on which I sailed as 4/O,3/0,2/O and C/O. Another favorite ship was EASTERN MOON was C/O on her in the Shanghai attack by Red Guards in 1966.

There is a suberb painting of Easter Star at Old Ship Pictures web site at www.photship.co.uk

This site has lots of other IC ships of that era.
Hi, we must have just missed each other as I had just gone on leave when it happened. Seem to recall stories about pictures of HMS Bulwark being stuck into the side of a Mao portrait that they had put on the bridge and some other disfiguration of a Mao picture ? Also a good friend 'Sexy' Sid (Ferguson ?) getting a good kicking on the boat deck by the donkeyman, egged on by the red guard mob.
I believe it was fun confined in the Seamens' Club reading the little red book every day ! Not the best time to be visiting Shanghai.

I am getting the name Tommy Marr in my head, was he there, or is it another sign of things muddling up between the ears ?

regards

Mike
 
#17 ·
Eastern Moon at Shanghai

For MikeK

Tommy Marr was indeed on Eastern Moon at time. Only he and the Sparks were not lugged off to shore.

The picture on Bridge was a poster of Mao which 2/O Greg Bannatyne was using as a dart board prior to being carted off.

Sexy Sid was carted off for insunuatiions of what Mao did to cats.

I seem to remember the day the Moon was attacked the Red Guards also sacked the British Consulate in Shanghai.

Greg and I spent nearly 3 weeks in the Shanghai Prison then went on trial in a big stadium and sentenced to being deported for Obstructing the Great Proletarian Revolution

Was back in Shanghai in 2001 on E&A containership ARAFURA
but I guess all traces of MAO MADNESS had long gone.
 
#19 ·
For MikeK

Tommy Marr was indeed on Eastern Moon at time. Only he and the Sparks were not lugged off to shore.

The picture on Bridge was a poster of Mao which 2/O Greg Bannatyne was using as a dart board prior to being carted off.

Sexy Sid was carted off for insunuatiions of what Mao did to cats.

I seem to remember the day the Moon was attacked the Red Guards also sacked the British Consulate in Shanghai.

Greg and I spent nearly 3 weeks in the Shanghai Prison then went on trial in a big stadium and sentenced to being deported for Obstructing the Great Proletarian Revolution

Was back in Shanghai in 2001 on E&A containership ARAFURA
but I guess all traces of MAO MADNESS had long gone.
Thanks for replying Robert and letting us know what did actually happen, not too far from the tales doing the rounds afterwards ! Was it also true about being made to kneel on pallets next to the ship, then wrapping a torn up ensign around everyone's necks and being led down the other ships or was that also a bit of enriched gossip ?

Either way you certainly have something to tell the grandchildren but I sure as hell don't envy your experiences !

I believe Sid said if he ever came across that donkeyman in Hong Kong he would not be answerable on what he would do to him !

regards

Mike
 
#18 ·
Sailed with Jardines from 1983 to 1997. First ship Malahat on the Seaboard timber run from BC to Tilbury, return via Jacksonville or Tampa to load phosrock for VanBC. Last ship was City of New Westminster of Canadian Transport BC & West Coast to NW Europe run. Left at Nanaimo, my last ship as a real crew member. Lots of Gearbulkers inbetween. There are quite a few friends from the Jardine ships still here in Hong Kong.
 
#20 ·
Eastern Moon at Shanghai

AS far as I can remember Mike after we were taken off the ship by hystericak Red Guards we were made to kneel on pallets in front of ship wearing cardboard dunces caps, can’t remember any torn Red Ensign though. After half an hour in blazing sun we were carted of by lorry presumably to a Police Station. We all spent a few days there before Greg and I got carted off to the Prison which was run by PLA who seemed almost apologetic foe Red Guard Madness.

Sid and the others spent a few more days at Police Station being indoctrinated with Mao’s Little Red Book – fiendish oriental torture indeed !! before being returned to Honkong.

Greg and I went by rail from Shanghai to Hongkong with PLA escort. At Liwo bridge we were met by John Gibson the then Shipping Manager and whisked away in a darkened car and taken to his flat and cleaned up. Spent rest of day dodging press and then whisked away on darkened car to Kai Tak and smuggled on to Qantas flight to Sydney.

Press tried to ambush us at Sydney Airport but Greg’s father who met us tipped us off and we dodged them.

As I was currently then an RAN Reserve officer I had a somewhat amusing debrief in a seedy Kings Cross hotel by a Navy spook.

I caught up with Tommy Marr a couple of times when he was Master on Eastern Queen just before he retired. Sid I met in Yokohma in 1971 when I was joining a new ship, and again in Hongkong when he was Engineer Super.. Was back in Hongkong a few times from 1986-90 when I was on E&A containerships Asian Jade and Arafura. We only had a few hours in port so usually only had time to catch up with my old shipmate from Eastern Star days David Cauvin.

Regards
 
#229 ·
AS far as I can remember Mike after we were taken off the ship by hystericak Red Guards we were made to kneel on pallets in front of ship wearing cardboard dunces caps, can’t remember any torn Red Ensign though. After half an hour in blazing sun we were carted of by lorry presumably to a Police Station. We all spent a few days there before Greg and I got carted off to the Prison which was run by PLA who seemed almost apologetic foe Red Guard Madness.

Sid and the others spent a few more days at Police Station being indoctrinated with Mao’s Little Red Book – fiendish oriental torture indeed !! before being returned to Honkong.

Greg and I went by rail from Shanghai to Hongkong with PLA escort. At Liwo bridge we were met by John Gibson the then Shipping Manager and whisked away in a darkened car and taken to his flat and cleaned up. Spent rest of day dodging press and then whisked away on darkened car to Kai Tak and smuggled on to Qantas flight to Sydney.

Press tried to ambush us at Sydney Airport but Greg’s father who met us tipped us off and we dodged them.

As I was currently then an RAN Reserve officer I had a somewhat amusing debrief in a seedy Kings Cross hotel by a Navy spook.

I caught up with Tommy Marr a couple of times when he was Master on Eastern Queen just before he retired. Sid I met in Yokohma in 1971 when I was joining a new ship, and again in Hongkong when he was Engineer Super.. Was back in Hongkong a few times from 1986-90 when I was on E&A containerships Asian Jade and Arafura. We only had a few hours in port so usually only had time to catch up with my old shipmate from Eastern Star days David Cauvin.

Regards
I just picked up on this interesting thread I had to go by rail from Shanghai to Hong Kong in February 1962 I have still got my rice paper visa and train tickets best regards Dave
 
#21 ·
The Not so Noble House

The Not so Noble House

For those old IC hands familiar with James Clavell’s Noble House written in 1981 set in 1963 Hongkong the real tale was somewhat more tawdry. Noble House has a power struggle to oust the Taipan, I always though it was to oust Michael Herries but it was in fact to oust David Newbigging who clashed with the Keswicks over concentrating on making Jardines a real estate empire. Both Herries and Newbigging were honourable types whilst the Keswicks would have been at home in the Borgia family.

Down stairs in Indo China Office the real tawdry power struggle occurred, the Shipping Manager John Gibson had just shot through leaving his resignation on his desk and flow to Australia where he mysteriously disappeared from a hotel a few days later. Gibson apparently fed up with the petty goings on in Jardine House. The power struggle for his job was initially between Queeg Parish and the Jardine Agency Manager who threatened a bit of ethnic cleansing of IC management and supers if he gained office. The IC Management rivals made a security pact to defeat Agency Manager and managed to get their candidate Colin Hardy into the job.

I later heard they wouldn’t let Queeeg stay on as Marine Super after he was 55 and a further ignominy was he lost all his loot and pension on a stockmarket fraud engineered by Jardines. The Keswicks wanted to raise money to take over a big real estate outfit in London so they stoked the stock market in Hongkong to where it was like a casino withy every man and his dog [and Queeg] gambled their all, then lost all when Keswicks took their money and ran. Complaints to Hongkong Financial secretary only got the laconic comment that “you can’t protect people from their own greed”

Although Indo China soldiered on in bulk shipping and tanker management the liner trades slowly faded. Their venture into containerisation was to say the least half baked with the Flinders Shipping venture ill thought and basically wrong ships. Swires by comparison were innovative although they too have vastly changed post 2000
 
#308 ·
The Not so Noble House

For those old IC hands familiar with James Clavell’s Noble House written in 1981 set in 1963 Hongkong the real tale was somewhat more tawdry. Noble House has a power struggle to oust the Taipan, I always though it was to oust Michael Herries but it was in fact to oust David Newbigging who clashed with the Keswicks over concentrating on making Jardines a real estate empire. Both Herries and Newbigging were honourable types whilst the Keswicks would have been at home in the Borgia family.

Down stairs in Indo China Office the real tawdry power struggle occurred, the Shipping Manager John Gibson had just shot through leaving his resignation on his desk and flow to Australia where he mysteriously disappeared from a hotel a few days later. Gibson apparently fed up with the petty goings on in Jardine House. The power struggle for his job was initially between Queeg Parish and the Jardine Agency Manager who threatened a bit of ethnic cleansing of IC management and supers if he gained office. The IC Management rivals made a security pact to defeat Agency Manager and managed to get their candidate Colin Hardy into the job.

I later heard they wouldn’t let Queeeg stay on as Marine Super after he was 55 and a further ignominy was he lost all his loot and pension on a stockmarket fraud engineered by Jardines. The Keswicks wanted to raise money to take over a big real estate outfit in London so they stoked the stock market in Hongkong to where it was like a casino withy every man and his dog [and Queeg] gambled their all, then lost all when Keswicks took their money and ran. Complaints to Hongkong Financial secretary only got the laconic comment that “you can’t protect people from their own greed”

Although Indo China soldiered on in bulk shipping and tanker management the liner trades slowly faded. Their venture into containerisation was to say the least half baked with the Flinders Shipping venture ill thought and basically wrong ships. Swires by comparison were innovative although they too have vastly changed post 2000
"How unlike the home life of our own dear Queen!"

(as my avatar shows, I had the good fortune to be with Swires. No such excitements!)
 
#22 · (Edited)
All fascinating stuff Robert. The Shanghai incident was certainly embellished by the time I heard it, but I say again- I'm sure as hell glad I missed it ! Never realized Sid ended up as engineering super, good on him !

I was totally oblivious to the power struggle and shenanigans that was going on with the Keswicks and the rest, although I have memories of some stock market madness in the newspapers of the time. Shame about poor old Captain Parrish. I don't suppose many of us minions would have any idea.

I don't know if your are still interested in those days, but I have I think 3 copies of the Ewo Log news sheets hidden somewhere in the bottom of a drawer at home (I'm away at my son's at the mo helping out) Without being too gloomy I am sure come the day when they are tidying up my bits and pieces, the likes of these will be consigned to a big black plastic bin bag which would be a shame, there can't be many knocking about by now ! I don't suppose there is a ex ICSN club or similar somewhere that would be interested ?

regards

Mike
 
#24 · (Edited)
Garry Norton, before the fur starts flying, sorry that the crowd from a previous era have hijacked your posting a little bit, still its nice to see some of us are still ticking along !

Teb, to be fair Robert was talking about the early sixties which would appear to be a little later than your time with Jardines ?

regards

Mike
 
#25 ·
Mike I was in Jardines 1962 to 1964, I remember the girls from the BMH used to come down in Singapore and the girls from the British Embassy also in Rangoon. The parties on the Australian coast were also good.In Shanghai we used to put our tape recorders up to the porthole windows and play Rule Britannia loudly to watch the red guards come running and then stop playing before they reached the gangway. Luckly they did not catch anyone.
 
#26 ·
Sorry Gary, I should have read your posting properly ! It was the replies you got that were from a later period, it sounds as though we were on the same runs but different ships. We also used to play silly buggers with the Red Guards but eventually they would wear us down, what with the non stop snake of chanting guards all day interspersed every few yards with trishaws with the drums and a couple of cymbals boom, boom, chinging away. Then with hardly a pause the big old white salvage tugs covered with the night shift guards blasting away all night through loud speakers on the other side ! Mind you after reading what happened to Robert Macdonald, we were lucky to have got away with our little gestures of defiance !

regards

Mike
 
#28 ·
Hello Teb, please don't think I am trying to be smarta-se or anything it was just that your active service statement on the left said 43 to 52 and Robert was referring to something that occurred in the early 60's.
I count my time with Jardines as the best period of my career, but that was down to sailing with a great bunch of blokes on some nice ships. I wouldn't consider any shipowner to be above reproach and any or all of them would crap on the sea staff without a second thought if it would save a few pounds !

regards

Mike
 
#29 ·
I-C Days

Like Mike-K I regard my time with IC as best years of my time at sea sailing on nice ships and with great bunch of guys.

The rot started with retirement of Herries as Taipan and George Lawson as Shipping Manager.

My disillusionment started with the way 3 Masters who I had sailed with and respected were forced out rather shabbily.

Bartlett was forced to retire because when he was on Eastern Queen he got on the wrong side of old Puritan Hamilton Sleigh who was half owner of the Queen.
Bartlett I regarded as the best Master I had ever sailed.

Maxie Groundwater was retired after the grounding of Eastern Argosy in Barrier Reef. I had just left Argosy 10 days before and all the Deck Officers except the Mate Ken Millar were replaced, none of the replacements had been through the Reef before and 2 had never sailed with radar. The Gyro was dead as IC had decided not to spend any more money on repairs. Pressure was being put on Masters to do their own pilotage through the Reef and Groundwater was to be first. In a way like Titanic it was an accident waiting to happen.

Terry Nicholls I had sailed with on Eastern Maid and liked. For some offence unknown he was banished to the H boats and relived me as Master of Ho Sang and I went into IC office, Jack Marshall was acting Marine Super but I was directly answerable to Herries. Next call in Hongkong when Ho Sang was ready to sail Terry was missing and mate phoned me up and asked where Terry could be but phoning around regular watering holes failed to find him. Apparent fell under the spell of a nubile Sabra from Tel Aviv and slept in. I got a phone call from Marshall telling me to go on board and take the ship to sea. I was just changing into uniform ready to go on Bridge when Terry reappeared, I told him I would slipped into boat and go ashore and say I had arrived too late but one of the spies How had already reported my comming aboard and although I spoke To Jack Marshall and pleaded with him to let Terry take the ship he said the order to relieve Nicholls came from Newbigging and was not negotiable. I personally liked Terry, Marshall and Newbigging so it was not a situation I liked being put on.

David Newbigging was joint Taipan with Henry Keswick after Herries retired but was forced out after a rather tawdry power struggle with the Keswicks.

The Keswicks bitterly opposed the handing back of Hongkong to China and feuded with Chris Patten the last Governor.

One of the subjects the Red Guards repeatedly brought up was Jardines involvement in the drug trade and Opium Wars as did the negotiators for the handover in 1997.

After the Opium War the Great White Queen decreed no Taipan of Jardines be knighted whilst in office, this held true till handover. John Keswick was knighted but he worked all his like in Matheson & Co in London. Henry Keswick was knighted when he left and worked in London as were Herries and Newbigging.

Swires had kept clear of dealing in foreign mud so the Swire brothers John and Adrian were knighted whilst heading Swires in Hongkong before they retired.

Interestingly through his father PM David Cameron was employed for three months in Hong Kong by Jardine Matheson as a 'ship jumper', an administrative post.

Like Cameron Harries and the Keswicks had all gone to Eton although at different times.

On my second ship as a Cadet in BI the NOWSHERA we had an Eton old boy. a newphew of P&O Chairman Lord Innchcape, George was an affable like guy, his mater decided Eton life didn't really equip one for life outside the Classics and there was no Empire left to build. The Mate under dire threat of hell and brimstone warned us not to corrupt George but alas he fell to sins of the flesh on the Continent. Met George a couple of years later in Prospect of Whitby watering hole, he was by then in P&O Office and on arm of Sloane Ranger mistress
and by then a polished man of the world.

Like Mike I endorese his remarks re shipowners. My last few years at sea were spent with P&O subsiduary E&A and P&O did several dishonouarble deeds to sea staff without btting an eyelid.
 
#31 · (Edited)
Ken Millar - the Oxford Don

I sailed with Ken [the Oxford Don !!] twice on Eastern Star and Eastern Argosy. Last time I saw Ken was at Jardines famous New Year Party. We were standing with George Lawson and Parish when a very drunk Lenny Burn passed with a strikingly good looking Yankee lass in tow propping him up and with an equally drunk Peter Ballantyne. Lawson enquired whether Lenny was sea staff which Parish vehemently denied although Parish had told me the day before that Lenny was joining me on Eastern Rover. The highlight of the party was the firing of the noon day gun at midnight, the Chairman of Swire’s wife was to have the honour of firing the gun which she did to accompaniment of Lenny passing out over the gun barrel. Ken I last heard of had joined Sanko Line. Peter Ballantyne became a Queensland pilot and then a Melbourne pilot.
 
#32 · (Edited)
The moral bankruptcy of shipowners

Mike’s remarks about shipowners brought to mind that in early 1960s Jardines wanted to gain 100% control of Indo-China and a widow in UK held a parcel of shares they wanted. As she had been left them by her husband she refused to sell them. Jardines inferred they were worthless claiming I-C profits for the year were only £1 despite the ships mostly being full and down in most trades. I-C had a likeable Irish rake as an accountant who was a wizard at cooking books, his penchant for being face down in Wanchai gutters led to his being banished to Jardines in Japan where he was given a suitable bride. Once a year he was dusted off and brought to Hongkong to work his magic with the book cooking. The widow’s lawyers smelt a rat and took up the case with London Stock Exchange who demanded to see the books. Not sure what the outcome was probably had to cough up a decent sum for the shares.

For those interested in Jardines history Maggie Keswick wrote a great book THE THISTLE AND THE JADE, David Newbigging kindly sent me a copy when I had suggested a history of Indo-China itself along the lines of E&A’s history LION OF THE CHINA SEA. It is lavishly produced with pictures and has about a dozen pages on Indo-China. Wikipedia has also got a good history of the Noble House.

Sir Henry Keswick
Tony Keswick's son, Young Henry, born 1938 as Henry Neville Lindley Keswick, joined Jardine's in 1961 and was assigned to the firm's offices in Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia. He was made a Director in 1967, Senior Managing Director in 1970 and Chairman in 1972. He retired as Senior Managing Director and Chairman in 1975. He returned to London and is the current chairman of Jardine Matheson.

Sir John Chippendale Keswick
Sir Chips Keswick, Tony Keswick's second son who was born in 1940, was not associated with Jardine Matheson but instead with the London merchant bank, Hambros.

Simon Keswick
Young Henry's youngest brother, Simon Keswick, born 1942, also joined the firm in 1962 and a Director in 1972 but left Jardine's in 1977 to join his brother at Matheson & Co. He returned to join Jardine's again in 1983 as Senior Managing Director and then Chairman after his father managed to remove the former managing director David Newbigging. Simon Keswick started the restructuring of the company becoming more international rather than tied to Hong Kong.
Simon Keswick retired as Tai-pan in 1988 after seeing the firm's holding office redomiciled to Bermuda and restructuring the firm's senior management organization.

David Newbigging
Joined Jardines in 1954 and was MD from 1970 to 1985. His father had been a Director from 1938

The Hon. Sir John "The Younger" Keswick (1906–1982)
John followed his brother to the far east in 1929, and replaced him in Shanghai after the shooting incident. He fled the city when the Japanese took the city. He escaped to Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and served during the war with Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten's staff. John Keswick returned to Shanghai after the war to organize in the rebuilding of Jardine's office and to reestablish the firm's trading links throughout China and Asia. In 1949, after the communist party's takeover of China. Jardine's head office was moved to Hong Kong. Despite attempting to work with the communists business conditions became worse. Operations were closed in 1954 with the effective nationalisation of the company's interests and a $20m loss.
John Keswick became a member of the Hong Kong Executive Council in 1952. He retired as Tai-pan in 1953 and joined Matheson & Co in 1956. He returned temporarily as non-executive Chairman of Jardine Matheson in Hong Kong in 1970 to 1972. While in England he and his brother financed the buy-out and then public flotation of Jardine Matheson.
This Keswick managed to gain the release of Eastern Moon’s officers through Chou En Lai. They had become friends during War and he got Chou to tell doddery old Mao mugging British ships wasn’t exactly a good idea.
 
#34 ·
Dale Cole

Garry Dale Cole became a Queensland pilot in Bundaberg and probably harbour Master too. Apparently ran foul of Queensland Premier Bjelke Petersen as his wife Edith ran a clamerous anti Joh campaign from the Harbour Master's office.

Dale had been groomed to replace Parish when he retired but Edith's somewhat virulent socialist ideas didn't sit well with Jardine hierarchy and the job went to George Colbeck.

Dale refused to move from Bundaberg to Brisbane and left Queensland and moved to Melbourne where he worked for Howard Smith's towage division. Not sure whether he retired ther or went back to New Zealand. His daughter Moana made the news for climbing the fence at a US Airforce base in California and whacking jets with a sledgehammer in an violent anti-war protest, remember Edith was on TV violently denouncing Gareth Evans the Australian Foreign Minister of day as a lackey of the US for letting Moana being tossed in the slammer to cool off

If you were on Glory with Ken and Dale then you would have been with my good friend David Cauvin.

Dave fell foul of Parish and left after being C/O on Easter Ranger.
He then was Master on a South African ship running coal from Lourenco Marques tio Capetown. Dave was born in Capetown his father was Harbour Master there. He was aiming to settle there and was taking his Japanese wife Ayako there and she was in LM awaiting permision to take her to South Africa where Goverment had promised Dave she would be treated as an honourary white. Unfortunately the government reneged on rather petty grounds that Dave had become a British citizen when South Africa left the Commonwealth, he had done this because he had to be a British citizen to sit for his Masters ticket.

David and Ayako returned to Hongkong where David worked for a Yacht Consultants. David's ambuition was to sail the world and whilst getting the yacht ready Ayako was killed by a gas bottle exploding in yacht cabin. I saw David regularly in 197O-80s. Sadly he died of cancer at his sisters in Hobart in 1988.

Regards
 
#51 ·
If you were on Glory with Ken and Dale then you would have been with my good friend David Cauvin.

Dave fell foul of Parish and left after being C/O on Easter Ranger.
He then was Master on a South African ship running coal from Lourenco Marques tio Capetown. Dave was born in Capetown his father was Harbour Master there. He was aiming to settle there and was taking his Japanese wife Ayako there and she was in LM awaiting permision to take her to South Africa where Goverment had promised Dave she would be treated as an honourary white. Unfortunately the government reneged on rather petty grounds that Dave had become a British citizen when South Africa left the Commonwealth, he had done this because he had to be a British citizen to sit for his Masters ticket.

David and Ayako returned to Hongkong where David worked for a Yacht Consultants. David's ambuition was to sail the world and whilst getting the yacht ready Ayako was killed by a gas bottle exploding in yacht cabin. I saw David regularly in 197O-80s. Sadly he died of cancer at his sisters in Hobart in 1988.
What a small world it is. I have often wondered what happened to Dave Cauvin and now, thanks to you, I know. Dave and I sailed together on Blue Flue's Stentor to Aussie in 1956. He left at the end of the voyage to join the Mayflower for her Atlantic crossing. We met a few times when he was with Jardines and our ships were in port together, usually in Bangkok for some reason, but in time our paths diverged and we lost touch. Sad to see that he died so young. One thing, though, I'm sure that Dave told us that he had been born in the Seychelles. (Not important!) I'll attach a picture of us at a noon ceremony on the Stentor. Dave is on the extreme left and I am next to Fred Edwards on the extreme right. Sad to reflect that, with the possible exception of the young middy in the lineup, I am the last one standing.
Cheers, John
 

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