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[Jimbo]

Laugh? I nearly bought a round!!

Now you are in the realms of fiction Jim B. The only naturalised Scottish Aussie I have known :)

[David Fox]

I think this sums it up, sent to me by another Bluey.

"The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed, lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work instead of living on public assistance.


- Cicero , 55 BC



So, evidently we've learned nothing in the past 2,067 years. !!!

[Fraser Darrah]

Tony Turvill’s brief wartime experience as a Merchant Navy Cadet ~ 1944 to 1946.

In 1943, when I was 15 years old, I worked in the drawing office of the Union Cold Storage Co. in Smithfield, London. The Blue Star Line shipping company had an office in the same building and in my lunch hour I used to visit them and talk to the staff and at the same time studied drawings of various ships owned by Blue Star.

This got me very interested in going to sea so I applied to Blue Star for a cadetship and to my surprise was accepted; shortly after I received a letter from Blue Star containing a railway ticket to Cardiff to join the Royal Star. After kitting myself out with the necessary uniform etc, in January 1944, at the tender age of 16, I joined the Royal Star.

On my first trip we sailed in convoy to Freetown, West Africa and from there, unescorted, to Buenos Aires, where the ship was loaded with frozen meat, for the return journey England, via West Africa. The Royal Star had done this trip since the beginning of the war. As we were approaching West Africa the ship was diverted to Dakar, and from there we were instructed to sail to Gibraltar, discharging meat for our troops. Our next port of call was Algiers, where we joined an American convoy bound for Malta.

On the 19th April 1944, 30 miles off Algiers, the convoy was attacked by German planes and unfortunately the Royal Star was hit by an aerial torpedo in the engine room. She did not sink immediately, but listed 30 to 40 degrees, the frozen cargo keeping it afloat. However, in the middle of the night the cargo moved and we had to abandon ship.
As we had lost two lifeboats when the torpedo struck, the remaining two, together with some rafts, were very overcrowded. After several hours an American Destroyer picked us up, after having capsized our lifeboats and we managed to clamber up the nets and board the ship.

The Royal Star was still afloat the next morning and a Royal Navy tug came out to try and beach the ship and save the cargo, but the tug moved very slowly at 2 knots, and at 11 am on the 20th April the Royal Star sank. The American destroyer returned us to Algiers where we boarded a troopship which returned us to England.

After kitting myself out again, I joined a new ship in Greenock, Scotland, which was called the Empire Talisman (later renamed the Tacoma Star). Her maiden voyage was to Montreal, Canada, where we had the hatches insulated for frozen cargo, this being done in Canada due to the shortage of timber in England.

I did a further three trips to Canada, and then, whilst on leave in September 1945, I was taken ill with kidney trouble and spent four months in hospital, after which I was discharged physically unfit for service at sea.

© Tony Turvill 2012

See:
Royal Star 1 and Tony's model of the Tacoma Star

[Fraser Darrah]

Phoebe Darrah & Caracal in Namibia

Phoebe Darrah who is graduated this week, with a Bsc in Zoology with honours, is running in the Great North Run, for the Alzheimer's Society which is a great charity who provide support for families with a member suffering from dementia, and funds research towards finding new medicines and potentially a cure for the disease. If any of you have a family member or friend suffering with the disease, you'll understand how sad it is to see loved ones going through it, and also how hard it can be for the people around them to cope with these changes. Thats why she wants to raise lots of coin for this charity!

She is running the 13.1 miles on the 16th of September 2012, and would really appriciate any donation you can make (even 50p!). She has never done anything like this before and is training hard, so she needs all the support she can get!

To Sponser her, with all donations going to the Alzheimer's Society click here
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

[Mike Vallance]

Hello, I recently found out that my father worked and died on the Dilkara in 1975. His name was Colin Vallance and all I know is that he died on the 24th March 1975 on route to Honolulu. He was a Senior Mechanic and the Captain at the time was N.B. Airey. If anyone remembers Colin or knows anyone that may have some information can you please let me know.

[ajb]

Ian MacKillop might be your man with some information. AJB

[A.D.Frost]

Photograph © Peter Stacey
http://www.bluestarline.org/act/act3.html

Can anybody advise the details of the ACT 3 / America Star 2 engines after she was converted in 1987? Where, Builder, Make, Model, HP etc. Fraser

IHI-Sulzer 8RTA68 (Yokohama)17,100 bhp

[Fraser Darrah]

Seajacks Zaratan at IJmuiden (Courtesy Marinetraffic.com)

Just for your interest this is a new vessel, Seajacks Zaratan I am working on the maintenance database for. Built in Sharjah she has recently arrived piggy-back on the XIANG RUI KOU in Holland to complete and for trials. Designed for the construction of offshore windfarms she may not be a beauty but is some vessel! ~ Fraser Seajacks Zaratan Brochure

[PeterStacey]

I see from a recent newspaper article that the “Rolling Stones” have now been playing together for the last 50 years. Unfortunately my father is no longer around to comment on this achievement – not one of his favourite groups.
This reminded me, does anybody remember Mick Jagger, Keith Richards with partners Marianne Faithfull and Anita Pallenberg travelling from Lisbon to Rio in December 1968 on one of the “A” Boats. I have a vague recollection of been told about it a few months later when I sailed on the Brasil Star.
Keith Richards writes about the voyage in his book Life, “This was a refrigeration ship, but it had passengers as well. And it was very ‘30’s - you would expect Noel Coward to walk in”. He writes about a woman they call Spiderwoman - “Fascinating, darling”. One day she asked “What are you trying to do? Do try to explain to us what this thing is about” They never replied but Spiderwoman asked “Oh, do give us a hint, just give us a glimmer” Mick turned to Keith and said “We are the Glimmer Twins”. The Glimmer twins was a name they used later as producers of their own records - Born on the Equator at sea. Does anyone remember this? Apparently he has 8mm footage of the voyage.
Peter Stacey

[A.D.Frost]

Nautical Terms and Slang;(engineering terms)Steam Queen; qualified Steam Engineer. Double Barreled; qualified in Steam& Motor.Legged; No.of cylinders eg.3 legged Doxford; Top Hat; Doxford upper piston cover.Sticks; main engine controls.Boiler Suite;engineers pyjarmas.Fort Knox;seconds tool store.
Freezer/Frosty;Refidgerating engineer.
J.B.(Jungle Bunnie);A coloured girl of disrepute.
Boat; a ship eg.Star Boat.(can only be used by seafarers)
Blues;Red Sea rig;Whites;uniform.
Jumbo;heavy lift derrick.