RMS Windsor Castle

[Brett Hayes]

I did one voyage on her in the late sixties as a DHU. I cannot recall the job-title of the petty officer who used to give out ship’s cleaning/ painting gear to the deck-ratings from his locker below deck. It wasn’t the bosun or the bosun’s mates. He might have been the sailmaker or lamp-trimmer or store-keeper, or perhaps a combination of some of these. Can anybody help? (I am writing an article about a sea-burial that took place on this voyage, and would like to get the facts that I can remember as accurate as possible.)

Brett Hayes
(R863743)

[Captain Kong]

On every ship I sailed on for 45 years it was always the Lamp-trimmer who gave out the paint , soogie etc etc,
deck stores.usually in the focsle.

[Doc Vernon]

Is the Petty Officer one of these i am not sure

Voyage 31st January 1963

• Chief Officer H. Charnley
• First Officer
  G Beaumont
• Second Officer R Olden
• Third Officer R Hellyer
• Junior Second Officer J Gamble
• Fourth Officer R Stack
• Junior Fourth Officer D Flude

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Hi Brett.
On the smaller cargo boats and tankers that I was on the Bosun, or, if they carried one the lamp-trimmer would give out the buckets and cotton wool or rags, but as Brian pointed out, a passenger boat would have had many more POs so it would have been the Lamp trimmer.
Cheers Des

[happy daze john in oz]

Is the Petty Officer one of these i am not sure

Voyage 31st January 1963

• Chief Officer H. Charnley
• First Officer
  G Beaumont
• Second Officer R Olden
• Third Officer R Hellyer
• Junior Second Officer J Gamble
• Fourth Officer R Stack
• Junior Fourth Officer D Flude

Knew them all apart from Hellyer.
It could well have been the 'chippie' who did the job of giving out such jobs and materials.
But with sea burials, and I saw three on her, it was the 'chippie' who provided the cloth for the shroud.
Bosun was at all sea funerals in charge of seeing the board tipped to send the departed into the deep.

That raises another interesting point.
A weight of some sort was always put at the foot of the shroud to take it down.
But how far down would it go before water pressure prevented it going any further?
Tide would take it in any direction.
How long before the shroud began to open up, and would the body float or be eaten first by sharks or fish?

[Keith Tindell]

I posted some time back John, if the body is not weighted down enough, it will float away, and eventually come ashore, dependent of where it was buried of course. There is an area off the Isle of Wight that is licensed for burins at sea, and Nicholas Monserrat, him of the cruel sea book, was buried there at sea, but came ashore a few days later on the Island, and had to be re weighted and taken back out for a second service, kt

[Bryan Portwig]

it is interesting to read of burials at sea from the past - i pose one question or rather two - is and if not - when was the practice of burials at se sea aborted - which prompts my second question - at the time of my first cruise in 1989 the french cruise ship mermoz - docked in durban south africa - to off load a passenger who had crossed the bar so to speak - and having an avid interest in classic passenger and ocean liners - i know for a fact that the ships of that era did have mortuaries on board - for what other purposes than to off load passengers if they had sadly passed on during a cruise and or voyage - thank you for an interesting post

[Howard Wallace-Sims]

My experience of a death at sea (actually ashore in Gibraltar) is that we took the body back to the UK in the ice cream room, having first emptied the original contents into the freezer room.

[keith sweetland]

Knew them all apart from Hellyer.
.


How long before the shroud began to open up, and would the body float or be eaten first by sharks or fish?

i had to polish the board they put the body on and ring the bell as the body was dropped into the sea on the S A ORANJE ex Pretoria castle

[Gareth Morgan]

I did one voyage on her in the late sixties as a DHU. I cannot recall the job-title of the petty officer who used to give out ship’s cleaning/ painting gear to the deck-ratings from his locker below deck. It wasn’t the bosun or the bosun’s mates. He might have been the sailmaker or lamp-trimmer or store-keeper, or perhaps a combination of some of these. Can anybody help? (I am writing an article about a sea-burial that took place on this voyage, and would like to get the facts that I can remember as accurate as possible.)

Brett Hayes
(R863743)

Brett,

I can't help with that as I sailed on Bulk carriers and general cargo tramps and we only had a bosun and a carpenter (although the carpenter didn't do much woodworking!).

What I do remember as a 10 year old in 1966 was going to Southampton with my mam and dad to meet my brother who was coming home from South Africa after a contract working for Roberts construction.

I will never forget the sight of the Windsor Castle appearing out of the mist, it seemed to be huge and was the most impressive thing I had ever seen, I thought it would be the best thing in the world to "drive" something like that!

From that moment all I wanted was to go to sea, I ended up as a decky.

Years later when I had left the sea I had offices in Union Castle House, everybody got time off to watch the ships come in!

Union castle house is now a swish flat complex - times change!

I love this site for bringing back old memories - sorry I couldn't help with the definition.