J W Stanworth - Memoirs part 1

This is my Granfathers story written in 1980, with the help of mainly my Family we have been able to get his story to a wider audience.

I was born in Birkenhead, near Liverpool, on 29th April 1913, no more than 200 yards from the merchant ships which traded to all parts of the world, and being one of four brothers who heard ships’ sirens and watched the tops of ships’ masts and funnels over the dock warehouses every day, it was quite natural that the four of us would one day wish to go to sea.

When I was about eight years old, my younger brother Ernest and I hardly ever missed going to the dock entrance from the River Mersey, and with note books and pencils took note of ships names and the company owning them and from our records we worked out how long it had been away. Some had been gone for four or five months, others for as long as ten or twelve months.

My father was a police sergeant on the Birkenhead dock estate and kept us informed of the high tide times so we always knew the time the ships would be due to dock.

The Blue Funnel Line, Clan Line, Brocklebank Line and City Line ships, usually left Glasgow on Saturday to arrive for the tide at the Mersey on Sunday and then sailed fully loaded the following Saturday.

Unfortunately, in 1924 after about six months of illness, my father died at the early age of 39.

My mother received a pension of 12/6d. per week and 2/6d. weekly for each child under 16 years. The rent for the house was 12/4d. so it was impossible to clothe and feed five children on the remaining 12/8d.

Ernest, myself and my younger sister had to go to the Liverpool and District Police Orphanage in Woolton, Liverpool. Looking back on life it was an excellent place. We attended the village church school and being a rather small number of children, averaging between 35 and 45 children at any one time, discipline was high but restrictions were at a minimum.

Thomas, my elder brother, had gone away to sea in 1921 at the age of 14, and he came to visit us at Woolton each time he was on leave.

Fate was to deal my mother another cruel blow. In September 1926 she was informed that Thomas was in hospital in Singapore with Typhoid Fever and one week later she was informed of his death at the age of 19 years.

I left the orphanage in Woolton at 14 and worked as a van boy at a baker until, at the age of 15, the urge to become a seaman gripped me again.

I was very disappointed that the doctor turned me down because of my eyesight, which I always thought was good, but he said that I would be able to join the Catering Department. So in May 1928 at the manly age of 15 years and two weeks old, I joined the s.s. “Phemius” as a Junior Assistant Steward, at two pound per month (of which I left my mother half). At last I had fulfilled my ambition to go away to sea.

The voyage was to last eleven months, so it really was a great way to start my sea career.

It was a double trip to the Far East and back via Suez, but instead of coming back to England we went across to the United States and back across the Atlantic to the Far East and Philippine Islands returning to London in April 1929.

Whilst going to New York, Boston, Baltimore and Philadelphia from China via Suez on the “Phemius” on my first trip, my ship was 120 miles from the Lamport & Holt passenger liner “Vestris” when she foundered in a gale five days after leaving New York with much loss of life. We did not go to her assistance as our ship was damaged and there were several ships much nearer to her. Our ship had half the bridge washed away and two lifeboats stoved in by one sea.

My life was very interesting, visiting many countries during the next five years, but most of the trips were to China, Japan, the Philippines, Java, Sumatra, Straits Settlements and Ceylon.

On three occasions we carried between 1500 and 1800 Mohammedan pilgrims from Java and Sumatra to Jeddah in the Red Sea on their way to visit Mecca. They were accommodated in the ‘Tween decks and slept on straw mats. They had their own cooks and carried enough live goats to be slaughtered to last them for their three to four weeks on board. Water had to be rationed to them as the ship, whilst carrying the maximum capacity her tanks could hold, would soon run out of water if the taps were left unlocked and after all, the ships were built to carry cargo and the more water carried, the less cargo would be needed to load the ship to her plimsoll line.

Although there were many thousands of straw mats down each hatch (a great fire hazard), I don’t know of any ship having a fire because of this. Seamen patrolled continually 24 hours a day, walking through each ‘Tween deck watching that nobody was smoking. Anyone wishing to smoke had to go up on deck. Good wide companion ladders made of stout timber and strong hand rails each side of the steps led down each hatchway and great canvas awnings completely covered the area over each hatch.

I think all members of the crew learned a little of the Malay language as notices were placed outside toilets etc. I still remember some of them — “DJAMBAN DAN CAMA MANDY PREMPOAN” “This toilet for Ladies only” and for the Gents, the same again only the last word was “LELAKI”. “AWAS AWAS TJAT MIRA” “Beware, Beware Wet Paint”.

During the monsoon season in the Indian Ocean we often had some nasty weather and the ship would roll and pitch. This added great discomfort to the pilgrims. Occasionally shoals of flying fish would land on the decks and these would be quickly dispatched to the frying pan. They were very tasty, similar to herring — and they couldn’t be any fresher!

Portable cooking facilities were taken aboard and lashed to the bulwarks so that they would not move during bad weather; they were wood burning stoves so a stock of logs also had to be carried. During my three voyages carrying pilgrims, an average of between 30 and 40 died during each passage. They were mainly the more elderly of the group. Their family washed the body and rolled it up in white linen. The body was then laid on a hatch board and a short prayer was said by a Moslem Priest. Our seamen would then fasten an old fire bar, or any piece of old iron available, to the body and stitch it up in a canvas cover. The ship stopped for about five minutes, the hatch board was lifted on top of the bulwark and tilted until the body slipped into the sea.

Whole families from grandparents down to grandchildren and in-laws, saved for years to make this pilgrimage to Mecca. I was told that as long as they are on the way to Mecca they qualify to add the name Hadji in front of their name. Hadji means they have visited Mecca. Therefore some of the elderly, who might have been taken ill during the voyage, lost their will to live knowing that they had achieved their life long goals to become Hadji’s.

This period was in the early 1930’s so I imagine these hardships are only memories now with far superior transport available.

A shop was open on board the ship twice daily for the sale of extra luxuries to the pilgrims, such as condensed milk, cigarettes, tobacco and Indonesian sweetmeats. The ship’s crew organised races along the deck for the children and prizes were given, but once they won a prize they could not compete again that day, in order to give others a chance.

The ship arrived at the port of Kamaran in the Red Sea at daylight. The speed was arranged so that by arriving early morning the vessel would be able to leave before dark in order to arrive at Jeddah the next morning. The Arab Pilot would board the ship to pilot the vessel through dangerous reefs which were clearly visible through the crystal clear water. After anchoring, barges came alongside the ship and took all the pilgrims ashore to see a doctor, returning around tea time. Next morning we arrived at Jeddah and all our passengers left us for the final part of their journey to Mecca.

In 1935 I was earning the princely sum of just over four pounds per month after seven years at sea.

The depression was bad and many ships were laid up. Lots of the crews stayed in their ships for voyage after voyage, knowing that if they left they could be unemployed for long periods. This meant that there was no chance of promotion and at this time, in the Blue Funnel line, the catering department was non-union. Therefore even through I was at sea for seven years I was still on boy’s wages. I was fed up and decided to leave my ship and try another company.

Jobs in the catering department in the Blue Funnel Line ships became even rarer because out of their 84 ships only the passenger and intermediate ships had British cooks and stewards. All of the ships that carried cargo only had Chinese crews. The t.s.s. “Talthybius” was moored in Birkenhead for a couple of years and acted as a floating hotel for Chinese crews. Ships returning from the Far East brought Chinamen from Hong Kong and as British crews were paid off on return home, they were replaced by men from the “Talthybius”. They were paid less than half the British crews wages.

After walking the docks for six months, I eventually found a job on one of the Shaw Saville & Albion ships, the “Pakeha ”, an old emigrant ship built in 1904 but still a fine vessel, carrying about 12,000 tons of frozen food from Australia and New Zealand. She still kept a speed of 12.5 to 13 knots, burning about 120 tons of coal every 24 hours.

I had sailed with the Chief Cook in the Blue Funnel Line when he was 2nd Cook and Baker, and he had left that company to become Chief Cook in another company, promotion being almost extinct, so now I was 2nd Cook and Baker for a crew of 84 and 6 passengers. Bread was all made by hand in those days, quite a tough job I can assure you. Today most ships have a “Hobart” mixer.

I was quite happy now, my wages were 10 guineas monthly.

Unfortunately, after four voyages to Australasia, out via the Cape of Good Hope and home via Cape Horn on two trips, the “Pakeha” had to lay up so I was out of a ship once more, but only for about a month.

Whilst walking along the dock road in Birkenhead, I met an old gent who was an old shipmate of one of my brothers. He said “I’d like you to do me a favour Jim, I have had a postcard from the Seaman’s Union asking me to work for 5 days as Chief Cook on a ship at the Flour Mills”. He had a job as Cook on a fishing trawler from Fleetwood and had a couple of days off while the trawler had some repairs carried out. So, rather than let anybody down, he gave me the postcard. I went on board and met the cook who informed me that his mother had recently died and he was anxious to get home for a few days. The Captain told him “If you get someone to relieve you for a few days you can go, but I cannot pay you off till we get to Cardiff”.

She was a tramp steamer and I was a bit reluctant to take the job as Chief Cook but I soon found it was a lot easier than 2nd Cook and Baker in my previous ship. The Captain would come in the galley and nurse the cat and chat away like old mates, something I had never experienced before in the so-called better class ships.

The Cook returned and he wasn’t sure if he would be signing on for the next voyage after being paid off in Cardiff. The captain told me he would send for me if the Cook didn’t sign on for the next voyage as he was very pleased with me, but failing that, he would recommend me to his company as a suitable person for one of their 26 ships.

I thought that was the end of that, as promises are soon forgotten, but, sure enough, a week later, I received a letter from the company, J & C Harrison of London, saying that I had been recommended by the Captain for one of their ships and they would inform me as soon as a vacancy occurred.

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