Lakercapt
I've searched my memory and re-read my diaries and my experience of Hogarth's seems completely removed from your description. This was my first ever trip to sea as a sparkie and I had no idea what to expect. I'd sailed as a steward on a Danish ship while at college but that had been more of a cruise with the Captain making sure I didn't come to any harm.
I'd left home in July '66 expecting to join the Bendoran and was "Shanghaied" on to the Baron Wemyss when I got to Marconi's depot in East Ham. My mother kept my first ever letter and according to that my impression after my first night on board was that she wasn't too bad but a little on the small side. My first chief RO refused to sail but his replacement wasn't much older than me and not one for the usual practical jokes or a hard taskmaster. A very good teacher instilling me with habits I used all through my career as a sparkie.
My letter home suggests that the Mate was promotoed to captain while the regular one went on leave. I can't remember him clearly at all, obviously didn't leave much impression. The regular captain rejoined in Christobal in August. Captain Minnards was a bit of a tyrant in some ways but very fair and appeared to know how to handle a ship. We managed to drop a lifeboat in the Gulf of Carpentaria at lifeboat drill when the falls parted company with the boat because of rotten wood. The move to pick it up again seemed so effortless. We just went around in a circle, stopped with it alongside at number 2 hatch and hoisted it onboard with the derricks. Funny how you remember some things clearly even though they're not written down whereas my diary reminds me of things I just can't remember at all.
He had a policy of no spirits except for senior officers and special celebrations and only 6 beers per man per week. I think this was possibly the cause of some strife. His other annoying habits were that he had to have noon when the sun was overhead so the clocks were advanced or retarted in multiples of 3 minutes (3 watches) which was hell for someone having to start watch on GMT. The other was lecturing us poor sparkies on our morals while sitting on top of the broadcast receiver in the radio room. Woe betide me if I scraped my chair across the deck after he'd gone to bed. Lovely choice of language, wishing to see targets on the radar stand out like "red hot pr**ks"!
There's a thread going on about favourite watering holes at the moment and I can never remember the names. I have a note in this diary about the "Plains" in Lyttleton. Also the "Broadway" and "Gresham" in Dunedin. If anybody reads this far and remembers these places I'd love some memory jogging. The only thing I remember is "Knock three times and ask for Mary". Because of the Kiwi licensing hours most drinking was done after hours by special invitation. It was also pre-decimal. I'd fallen in love in Dunedin so I was happy as a lark.
So far I don't remember anything untoward. She shook like mad when empty so that it was almost impossible to write or drink from a glass. The food was nondescript but edible. We had a pair of Maltese cooks who could work wonders. It's the first time I'd seen an omelette made from dried eggs. They seemed to make the meagre rations go a long way.
We appear to have sunk two beacons and gone aground while leaving Bundaberg. So much for ship handling although that was probably the pilot's fault. I don't think I was very impressed with Queensland having walked to somewhere called Burnett Heads and found even less. Mackay appears to have been a lot better with swimming and lots of "birds" on the beach.
We seem to have broken down a few times crossing back across the Pacific judging by the number of sharks caught. We'd set out for Japan, which I was looking forward to, and ended up in St.John, NB. There's another one "The Centennial" in St John which I vaguely remember because of a certain waitress.
This appears to be where the trouble has started. I got on well with most of the crew and they seemed OK but they must have taken extreme exception to the beer quota. The first jumpers were the 2nd/Stwd "Bootsie" and a donkey greaser, in St John. We'd also had a change of 3rd mate in the same place. An AB had been signed off in Mackay but I think he was an Aussie working his passage home. There had been some empty beer bottles thrown at a tug as we passed through Panama on the way to Canada which had caused a visit by the Canal police.
An EDH was paid off in Tampa and the crew left the ship refusing to sail. I remember that we officers singled up and were ready to cast off when they decided to rejoin us as the accomodation ladder was about to be raised. I think this may have been caused by us either running out of beer altogether or the rationing having been introduced.
While bunkering in Christobal we were tied up in front of the Huntsfield who were only too happy to sell our crew all the beer they could carry. During transit one of the helmsman didn't turn up for his trick so the Mate was sent to get him. He got thumped for his trouble so they persuaded the current helmsman to continue. The relief helmsman then turned up on the bridge just a little worse for wear and thumped the mate again. Before he could be restrained he then thumped the Old Man. That was too much for even his drunken mates so they removed him forcibly. It couldn't go unpunished so the Canal police were called and he was taken off in handcuffs at Miguel lock. I got a chewing from the Old Man because I'd shaken the bloke's hand as he left. He thought I'd agreed with what the bloke had done but the fact was he was from Hull like me and it was just a courtesy.
We appeared to have relieved Kiwi of a few jumpers because all the missing crew was replaced when we arrived at Bluff just before Christmas. Although we also lost an AB who jumped here. We had problems with a derrick when the gooseneck collapsed under load and it punched a hole in the deck. Nobody was hurt but it was close.
Luckily we managed to get back to Dunedin and true love on Christmas Eve. There's yet another one "The Ravensbourne Harbour View Hotel" I do remember this and gallon jugs of beer and "schooner" glasses. I've still got a seven ounce HANZ beer glass.
On New Year's Day the sport seems to have been throw sparklette over the side according to my scribblings. All in fun of course! What happened later wasn't in fun. An example of British seaman's justice. One of the new crew members that had joined in Bluff had an appetite for very young girls from what I remember. Something to do with the Harbour View Hotel which didn't go down well so he was shown the error of his ways by his shipmates and then paid off.
This was one of the few places I thought of jumping. We were both offered jobs TV servicing but decided we'd rather come back home and go out legally than live expecting the "knock".
The bosun was paid off in Dunedin after suffering a nervous breakdown and a DBS was taken on board and locked up in a spare cadet's cabin. We finally left Dunedin on January 5th 1967 and went to load sugar at Mourilyan.
We only had one apprentice and he was an Aussie from Melbourne. He was paid off in Mourilyan and flown home. We signed on a new bosun, an AB and a DHU before sailing for Singapore.
Nothing much more seems to have happened. Probably because we were on our way home relieved that we weren't going to have to complete the full two years of our articles. We docked in Huskisson, Liverpool on February 26th.
Because I was an extra sparkie my cabin was on the boat deck in the cadet's accomodation just aft of the funnel. We only had one cadet and there were about 4 cabins. I think the arrangement was peculiar to Baron boats although I seem to remember reading in a thread that Blue Flue or someone had something similar.
I just seem to have accepted that the crew were a rough lot, that the food wasn't much good, that the lifeboats were rotten, that ships broke down a lot, that water rationing was normal, that my sink would regurgitate the contents of the waste pipes in rough weather and that if you played poker with your shipmates for long enough you would end up all evens again no matter how many beans you got up to.
And very lastly the Old Man asked me to come back! I have not recorded my reply! (LOL)