J W Stanworth - Memoirs part 3

These are my Grandfathers memoirs part 3

In January 1939 I thought I could manage a Chief Steward’s job alright so I asked if that would be possible. I was appointed shortly afterwards so the s.s. “Harberton” in South Shields. I had never been on a ship without a refrigerator before, but was assured that an ice box was quite easily managed and in any case the two previous voyages had only been about six weeks in duration. Coal to Italy and cotton seed from Alexandria, Egypt, to Hull, so it is quite easy to manage an ice box and become accustomed to its use on a six week voyage. We discharged our cargo of coal in Savona in Italy in14 hours — talk about speed — and proceeded towards Alexandria. The weather turned very nasty and being a light ship (no cargo) we were tossed about like a cork. I wasn’t aware that the weather could be so bad in the Mediterranean Sea, but believe me, it certainly can.

On nearing Alexandria, we received a radio message to cancel our previous orders and proceed to Port Said to load bulk salt for Calcutta. We took fresh meat and vegetables and two tons of ice on board, but by the time we sailed down the Red Sea and across the Indian Ocean, the ice had all melted and the little remaining meat had to be put in brine with saltpetre to pickle it. Ships with no refrigeration usually carry more canned foods and all the butter is canned. It was around the hottest part of the year in those parts and I cannot imagine anything more insipid than tinned boiled mutton, or tinned corned beef spooned out of the time because it was so hot. The butter was just oil and tasted more like swede. The crew were very good and didn’t complain, but, of course, they knew that we could not do anything about it and most of the men had been on ice box ships previously. I swore many times it would be my one and only experience.

We lay at anchor in the River Hoogly at Calcutta for 28 days discharging the salt and every ounce of it had to be weighed on board before it was loaded into barges to be towed away. Apparently there is a Customs Duty levied on all salt in India so that is why they were so keen on weights.

The crew asked if there was any chance of some nice fresh fish so I asked the ship’s chandler for some. It must have been fresh water river fish; it had long tentacles like feelers and a head bigger than its body and was the colour of mud. I let the crew see it and all agreed what we should do with it, give it back to the ship’s chandler!

When the salt was all discharged we went into Kidderpore Dock to load 10,000 tons of coal for Shanghai. This was all loaded by hand. Long planks of timber were placed from the quay to the deck of the ship and an endless belt of human misery ran up one plank with a basket of coal, threw the coal down the ships hold and ran down the other plank. Some people were filling the baskets and partners of two lifted the baskets on the shoulders of the endless belt of men. It was stifling hot on the ship as the port holes had to be closed to keep the coal dust out as much as possible. No one could sleep as the coal was being loaded 24 hours a day, non-stop, so after consultation we were taken to the Seamen’s Club where we could bath and sleep in cool rooms. After discharging our coal in Shanghai, there were all kinds of suggestions as to where we would be going next, but eventually the Captain returned from the agent’s office with our orders. We were on a two year charter trading between Haiphong and Kam Fah to Japan, carrying maize and rice from French Indo China to Japan and anything we could get on the return journey.

On the way back to Indo China we were to call at Shanghai for coal bunkers, sufficient to last till we were on the way back to Indo China on the next trip. Coal could only be bought in Japan sufficient to take a ship to another port, so they were conserving all fuel even in June 1939.

Whilst we were in two ports in Japan, a full scale practice black out was enforced. A gun would be fired at 8 p.m. and in seconds there was total blackness except for the flashing navigation lights on the breakwater.

We did two round trips between Indo China and Japan and were taking bunkers in Shanghai on September 3rd 1939, when we heard war had been declared between Britain and Germany. The agent came to the ship with orders to cancel our charter, load maximum bunkers and proceed non-stop to Vancouver (some six weeks trip). Arriving there about 40 days later we loaded a full cargo of timber for Hull, England. The timber was packed on deck, after the holds were full, level with the lifeboat deck and chains were fitted across the timber to make it secure in bad weather.

We arrived at Panama safely and I was the only man to receive a letter from home to tell me that I was now a father. My wife had sent the letter c/o the Company’s office and marked it URGENT, so the office forwarded it to Panama. I was overjoyed to know I had a son.

We had orders to proceed to Port Royal in Jamaica to join a convoy to England but after a couple of days waiting they found we were too slow for the convoy and told us to go to Halifax, Nova Scotia, to join another convoy. After waiting three days there we were too slow for that convoy too, so we proceeded home unescorted, and down-hearted, feeling like a sitting duck waiting to be used as target practice. We had no defence at all, not even a rifle on board. We made it, but only just, as the ship was almost lost on the last night of the voyage.

There are some sandbanks in the North Sea known as the Haisboro Sands, off the Norfolk coast. There is a lightship anchored a mile west of the sands leaving a channel a mile wide. Our Captain thought he was in the middle of the channel passing the lightship about half a mile to his port side and at 2 am we hit the sand bank. He found out later that our chart was out of date and the channel had been narrowed by half a mile to make the channel easier for mine sweeping. Fortunately the tide was rising and after three or four hours of putting the engines ahead and astern repeatedly, we eventually wriggled clear of the sand bank and proceeded to Hull, arriving a couple of days before Christmas. Soundings were taken after the impact with the sand bank and the depth of the water for’ad was 25 feet, 12 feet amidships and 18 feet at the stern, so we were well and truly aground. Had the tide been falling the ship must surely have broken her back.

I read a few years after the war that the s.s. “Meriones” which belonged to the Blue Funnel Line ran onto the Haisboro Sands and sent out an S.O.S. message which was answered by German bombers who made sure that she stayed on the sands forever.

As I mentioned earlier, my ship had no refrigerator and out of the almost 12 month’s voyage, eight months must have been in tropical weather. I was anxious to leave the ship and go back to one with a fridge. I felt that I was far happier as a ships’ cook than as a Chief Steward. Eventually I was relieved by another chap and arrived home in the first week of January 1940 when I saw my son for the first time — by now he was three months old.

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