Washington Star

[COLINCOLLIER]

My first trip to sea was on the Washington Star as a junior engineer in 1956 to the west coast of USA.The chief engineer was George King, George was 2 nd eng on the SS Doric Star when sunk by the Graf Spee in the South Atlantic and taken prisoner, eventually transferred to the Altmark and finally released by HMS Cossack in Norway.
George was a lovely man who kept a close eye on me suffering sea sickness for two weeks sailing from Glasgow to Curacao in February, when we got into the Pacific being a day engineer George and I walked the aft deck after dinner. He would not talk about the incident but did let me read his complimentary copy of the book " The Navy Is Here " which is very descriptive and in some detail of the exploits of the Graf Spee. I am very pleased to have just purchased a good hard back copy.
It mentioned George and lists the members of the crew of the Doric Star, I also met Mr Ray whilst standing by in London around 1957, he was chief eng of the Doric Star.
The book makes good reading.