FIRST SHIP PAGE
A page to reminisce

Write about your first ship - your thoughts at the time -
send  it and a photo or two of the ship, yourself, shipmates to our email address.
*******

 FIRST TRIP TO SEA “MV HUNTSLAND” BY PETER BEARMAN

It all began in May 1955 entering The National Sea Training School `s T.S Vindicatrix in Sharpness.

Ten weeks without Mum`s cooking & without knowing I was never to sample it again (except on special occasions).

The ten weeks seemed like ten years but eventually this, now, "Old Boy" was released to report to Dock Street Pool on a Monday Morning & report to a Mr Ash at 10.00 hrs sharp.
Having never been to the East End of London in my life I wondered how on earth I’d get there, but, with our wonderful tube system it was dead easy, getting past the tramps & bums all wanting a "tanner for some soup mate" was another story.
Well I made it, & here I am at No.12 Dock Street, push open the door & lo & behold I’m in the dirtiest, smoke filled, stale beer smelling, filthiest place I’d ever been to in my life, dog ends strewn all over the floor & some of the scruffiest men I’d seen in my life, these I’m to find out, are actually seamen.

Anyway I find Mr Ash & introduce myself & am told I’m expected & do I like Germans? I reply in the negative & am told it’s a pity because your ship is in Hamburg & that’s where you’re joining it!

Calling a couple of names out I’m introduced to a couple of Abs & am told these lads will look after me. I am given a railway travel warrant which`ll take me all the way to Hamburg, which I thought was very clever, considering we had not long finished battling them.

Anyway was given orders to be at Fenchurch St., station at x hrs & these lads would look after me all the way to Hamburg, & sure they did!
But before I left Mr Ash gave me a bit of fatherly advice & that was " Son, keep your mouth shut, and & your bowels open" & following that advice, was never sea sick.

When we got on the train, I honestly don’t think the last carriage had cleared the platform & they (by now we were 12 strong) had secured a steward, ordered a case of beer, given him a white five-pound note & told him to keep the beer coming all the way to Harwich.

Well as a green 16 year old I thought a piss up was about six of us buying a couple of quarts of brown ale & passing it around  & also buying a packet of woodbines & getting stuck into those too, on a Saturday night, this was nothing like that at all, this was the real man’s world.

I’d had 4 quarts to myself before we’d got to Harwich & now wasn’t feeling any pain whatsoever & what more, wasn’t going to get a bollicking from the old lady in the morning, this is a real man’s world, I could get to like this.

Well in no time at all, here we are in Harwich (hic!) Have to get on a ferryboat er, ship, stagger aboard, guided by my two faithful & still quite seemingly sober A.B.s.

Now apparently there’s a meal awaiting us in the dining room,

I still recall it, it consisted of meat, potatoes, runner beans & carrots & guess what?
Yes, you’ve guessed it, more beer. well, had a couple to be sociable, but now thought I had reached my utmost limits, made my excuses went up on deck for some fresh air, well, arriving on the boat deck I looked around, all around & there was no land in sight I was actually at sea, really at sea,

I sat down on the deck to ponder the turn of events in my life & the next thing I know we’re about to dock at the Hook of Holland & guided by my two faithful A.B.s disembark.

I’m told much later that they took it in turns to keep an eye on me as I was sleeping it off on the boat deck.

After disembarking at the Hook we get a bus to the railway station & get on a train which will take us all the way to Hamburg & guess what?

I swear the last carriage wasn’t clear of the platform, when a steward turned up with a case of Tuborg & a white five pound note passed hands, with the instructions to keep the beer coming until we get to Hamburg.
Well just to be sociable I had a couple or three & landed up in the land of nod again.

Next thing I remember is being woken up & being asked for my passport by a bloke dressed as a feared SS commando, but in fact was a German border guard, we were crossing the border from Holland to Germany.

In no time at all we arrived at Hamburg, after a couple or three bottles of wonderful Tuborg & had to sort out kit bags & get on a coach to get to Bremmerhaven & find this ship called M.V. Huntsland.

We found the coach & climbed aboard for the last leg of our journey when half way there we rounded this bend & were confronted with this horrific accident, which had just happened, a Volkswagen car had tried to overtake a bus in front of us & had hit a brick lorry head on, three people in the car were mangled up in the metal & people were just lifting the driver out but he would not have lasted long anyway, lots of people were being sick around me, but still being a tad pissed held my own.

It was a sight I’ll never forget.

Anyway, we resumed our journey eventually & finally reached Bremmerhaven & the ship, go aboard stow our gear & go to the galley to ask what was for dinner as it was now six bells at night, we were told "scouse" & there was a rush to the side of the ship & a lot spewing going on & I didn’t know why, but soon found out that it looked like the accident we had just witnessed.

So the mess wasn’t used that evening as we all showered & went ashore to the Box Bar in St. Pauli & as funny as it may seem everyone knew where to go, bar yours truly & my memory fades here as the last thing I remember of that night was flaking out unconscious with six glasses of beer in front of me & heaving up meat, potatoes, beans & carrots all over the floor.

When I was dragged back there the next day to apologize, I found out that the place was a brothel & was going to be given a treat, but my behaviour didn’t warrant it, but the madam was very understanding & gave my two faithful A.B.s good telling off for getting me in that state. Anyway it was my 17th birthday.

However, we soon load a cargo of sulphate of ammonia & we find out that we are outward bound for China, via Suez Canal, Colombo, down to Malaysia, up into the South China Sea & up to China.

All this time of course, I am the Peggy & am well into a routine looking after the deck crew & working on deck in the afternoon always learning something new every day & enjoying it especially the lovely weather & calm seas & by this time getting quite a tan.

Well we finally arrive at Canton & pick up the pilot & along with him, seemingly, half the Chinese army, swarming all over the ship, (We had been warned beforehand that all valuables, cameras, pens etc., be locked away in bond) this was communism at work.

As we worked our way up river, every quarter of a mile or so there were pill boxes manned with armed troops & an aldis lamp & every one of them asked who we were & a Chinese officer on the bridge replied to every one of them, we were told afterwards that if we didn’t have the right answer we’d have been blown out of the water.

Very nice on a bloke’s first trip!

Well we finally get to the first bar, where we have to unload half of our cargo & lo  & behold our stevedores are women & the hatchies are men.

Over the next few days, life is rather surprising, as well as having the Chinese Army all over the ship, they are patrolling the river & on the barges & sampans of the workers.

The Canton River is very fast flowing & swimming was not allowed.
One evening after our meal, we were sitting on the poop & the fresh fruit of the day was oranges, we started to peel them & throw the peel over the wall, then there was a commotion going on, on the sampans & there was someone swimming to pick up our orange peel, for what purpose we didn’t know, anyway, when this bloke climbed aboard his sampan, a Chinese guard started rifle-butting him & when we started to show our displeasure our guards came to the poop waving their guns around & shouting at us.

What it was all about we never found out, but suffice it to say, the sampan dwellers got more than their fair share of fresh fruit & what ever we could spare after that, some of the lads even gave the kids the cuddly toys they were taking home for their kids & relations.
The procedure was to go f'rd & make a commotion so all the guards went f`rd & lower all the goodies to the sampans down aft, the people would scurry below & hide the stuff from the guards while they were f`rd.
When they came to work the next day, they would bow & curtsy in appreciation for what we had given them, we did find out, however, that their reward for their work was food & clothing & that was all.
We were all thankful after that experience, of where we were born & we had given them something they would always remember.

Well to cut a long story short we finally got alongside & we got ashore & with a small sub we were only allowed to go to this one little canteen like place, as there were armed guards blocking all other roads that led anywhere else.
In the canteen, one could buy rice beer, rice whiskey, ivory carved souvenirs & that was it!

That was communist China, & we all agreed we didn't want to come back.

Now that we were lightship & ready to leave China, we found out that we were now bound for the Philippines to load copra.

I was surprised to find the morale of all the crew had risen by 500% & I wondered why.
I was soon to find out. It was 1955 & the Yanks were still there, but were not many in number.

Our first port of call was in the south island of Cebu, & to a first tripper from cold damp England, this was Paradise! Warm sunshine, palm trees, the clearest blue water & coral reefs one only saw in the movies & of course the dusky maidens, Er, dusky women, they were beautiful & so attentive.

It came to pass that my two faithful AB's finished the job they had started to do in Hamburg.
This little deck boy had the run of the brothel that night, & what a night that was, how long has this been going on I asked often.

In the morning it seemed all the girls in the place saw us off to the ship to start work.

A few days & nights of all this carrying on takes its toll on the best of blokes & it was time to say farewell to this beautiful island of Cebu & a days steaming to the next island port of Davao & if I thought Cebu was good this was really good.

Whilst all this fantastic time was going on of course, we were actually loading copra & as anyone who has carried copra will know, copra will not travel anywhere without it's friends, the bugs.
There’s the big brown one’s & the little black one’s & to say there’s an infestation is an understatement.
They were everywhere, in the food, milk, cocoa, wheaties, bunks, showers, toilets cabins, galley, all over the ship from stem to stern.
We learnt to walk about with them all over us not even bothering to brush them of, they became a way of life for the next couple of months.

Well, we leave this paradise called the Philippines, after going from island to island we are finally homeward bound.
Apart from calling into Balekpapen, Singapore, for bunkers, and my first stint on the wheel in the Java Straights.

The trip home was uneventful and all routine but for one thing, when we were coming up to Cape Finistere, someone remarked where’s all the bugs, and do you know, apart from a few dead ones in the cocoa, sugar, wheaties etc, etc, there was not one to be seen.

To conclude this little reminiscence of a first trip to sea, apart from the trip to the Greenwich Seamens Hospital to get clearance,

that was a typical trip to sea.

Peter bearman

 
THE 'WELLPARK'
And Sex Education 1950s style

Leaving the Vindi for the last time with other lads of my class we joyously  boarded the train to Bristol. As the train pulled out of Sharpness station we all cheered and hurled our berets along with the now precious cap badges out of the train window!
At Bristol we parted company with the lads heading for other ports, myself and 3 or 4 others making the long journey to Liverpool.
Reporting, I think, first to the shipping office then to the'Pool' where we were told to go home and they would send for us in a few days.