Cargo and deck work…in the old days





My first ship as apprentice 1977. Joined Middlesbrough. Loading around Europe for the Persian Gulf, then Australia & New Zealand for East Coast United States Flew home from New York after 6 months. Great start to my seagoing career.
My first trip as Engine Cadet, joined East London, South Africa and did South Africa – Far East for 6 months great times and memories for a Liverpool lad who’d never been out of the UK
William petch8 hours agoUser InfoCLYDEBANK
JOINED Clydebank on a floating drydock in Hamburg in early 1985, loaded around Europe, then off on the Sopac service. On our rundown to New Guinea, the captain asked us if we could build a wooden bar outside on the aft accomadation deck as we were expecting to have several ship board social events with shoreside guests, as the captain was C B Davies, NO sooner said than done was the order of the day .WE all devoted our spare time to the task & a very impressive wooden structure including a fine display of imaginitve lighting, provided by the electrian Steve Davies !!! Needless to say the bar was a roaring sucess around the islands ,even the superintendent John Mackenzie was impressed.!!!! ON the voyage back to Europe we had acummulated so much beer ,wine & spirits as all excess bar stock had been acquired by us .& the superintendent put the cost of all socialising6 down to ships account for entertaining clients.!!!! Fine Fellow Sir.So all the way home it was a free bar for all on board.!!!Unfortunately on arrival in Europe we heard that passenger accommodation was to beadded to the after structure so our deck bar had to be
removed !!!! That’s life I suppose !!!!
I served on Eskbank for 20 months as App and 3rd Mate in 1955/56, The Masters were Capt Eadie making his last trip prior Promotion to Marine Supt in Calcutta. He was followed by Capt Henry Allan.
I can honestly say that this vessel was maintained to a very high standard and I enjoyed my time there.
We went to many interesting places from New Orleans to Buenos Aires. Our cargoes were Sulphur and Cargo Black . Cotton and tractors. Gunney bags, jute and tea. Bagged and bulk grain.
We also went to Tristan du Cuna with part cargo of supplies plus a hut to be used by the Duke of Edinburgh when he visited the island in 1956.
I left her in Hamburg to obtain my 2nd Mates Certificate.
“
ARUNBANK
John Stewart’s marine painting shows her in the early days of her career with the crew trying to barter a tow from the crew of the steam paddle tug in the foreground
John Stewart is a marine painter of outstanding talent, who became interested in the sea and things nautical from an early age. After school, he travelled the length and breadth of the British Isles, exploring and studying the coastline which has so inspired his work over the years. He went to sea to gain further first-hand experience before travelling on to the Middle East. Returning to England he studied at the Liverpool College of Art, and it was here that he became fascinated by Liverpool’s River Mersey. He subsequently studied at the Brighton College of Art, thereby gaining a first class degree.
John Stewart’s deep understanding of the sea has enabled him to portray so brilliantly the vagaries and dramatic impacts of sea, wind and sky. He is a total perfectionist with the minutest eye for detail and accuracy, each work taking many hours to complete to his total satisfaction. His work is today represented in many private art collections worldwide.
Built in the Kingston Yard of Russell & Co, Port Glasgow, Scotland as Yard No.246 and completed on 26th December 1890, the four-masted steel barque Thistlebank sailed with the Bank Line, owned by Andrew Weir. Of 2431 grt displacement and a length of 284 feet she is typical of the last sailing ships to be produced in the late-19th and early 20th century. As an example of her prowess, between the 11th May and the 7th August 1897 she sailed from Lizard to Calcutta in 88 days, racing the four-masted barque Drumrock (which had sailed from Liverpool 6 days later on May 17th and reached Calcutta on August 10th after 85 days out).
Her main trade was on the Pacific grain route where she joined two other ships, the Gowanbank and Ashbank. Having proven her worth during 14 years sailing she was purchased in 1914 by the Norwegian shipping company A/S Olivebank (E. Monsen & Co.), Tvedestrand and then served through the opening months of WWI.
On the 30th June 1915 the Thistlebank, en route from Bahia Blanca, Argentina to Queenstown (CobH), Ireland for orders with a full cargo of grain was just 25 nautical miles (46 km) south west of the Fastnet Rock (51°09′N 9°50′W) when she was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-24. Her crew took to the lifeboats and managed to row to the safety of Cork harbour. All survived.
On 26 October, 1914 U-24 was the first U-Boat to attack an unarmed merchant ship without warning, the SS Admiral Ganteaume which was torpedoed but was able to be towed to port.
In seven patrols, U-24 sank a total of 34 ships totalling 106,103 GRT, damaged three more for 14,318 tons, and took one prize of 1,925 tons.
Her second kill (six months before sinking the Thistlebank) was the most significant. The victim was the battleship HMS Formidable, torpedoed 30 nautical miles (56 km; 35 mi) south of Lyme Regis, at 50°13′N 03°04′W. She was hit in the number one boiler room on the port side. In gale-force winds, rain and hail, with swells running to nine metres high, as Formidable leaned twenty degrees to starboard the crew struggled to get their boats away. Some hit the water upside down, some were smashed as they fell, others were swamped. U24’s second torpedo struck the ship’s port side.
The battleship capsized, rolling over men in the water as she sank. Out of a crew of approximately 711 men, five hundred and forty seven died, including the Captain.
On the 22nd November 1918 U-24 surrendered and was later broken up at Swansea in 1922.