Port Line

[Roger Brown]

He used to sit on the bollards on the forward well deck of 'Port Invercargill" muttering "Santiago bastards' with a fag in his mouth with ash hanging 3 inches while watching us holy stoning the deck. We used to keep in with him cos he had the only radio onboard that could get football results. Great ship. great crew.

[Doc Vernon]

Hello Roger B
Rather a different first up post but nevertheless one which starts you off here on this great site!
Thank you for joining and hope you enjoy what we have here
Cheers

[raymond]

did you sail on any other port boats roger p/s port Invercargill was my first ship 1959 ray

[Red Lead Ted]

He used to sit on the bollards on the forward well deck of 'Port Invercargill" muttering "Santiago bastards' with a fag in his mouth with ash hanging 3 inches while watching us holy stoning the deck. We used to keep in with him cos he had the only radio onboard that could get football results. Great ship. great crew.

Who did Rog,

[John Robey]

Hi all shipmates, from the happy days when when the 'Port Boats' were on the high seas my first trip in August 1967 was aboard the Port Launceston. I got the berth direct from TS Indefatigable via Dock Street and joined the ship and signed on in King George V dock in London in August 1967. This is over 50 years ago and I cannot recall who any of the crew were. There was three or four deck boys of which I was the first tripper and got the 'Peggy' duties. We sailed a couple days later and as the Suez Canal was closed we sailed to Oz via Capetown for bunkers. One of the first things we did after sailing was to dump all the rubbish from drums hanging from the aft rails that had collected whilst in port and we collected all the old dunnage, that had been removed from the hatches, into save-alls and deposited the lot into the English Channel. Don't think that would happen today!
Days on deck were spent holy-stoning from 7 am to 8 am then the mixture of either soogie-ing bulkheads, deckheads and anything else that took the bosun's fancy chipping and painting. Peggy duties mean't I spent a good deal of time in the accomodation looking after the bosuns cabin and making sure the ratings mess was clean and ready for meals etc. First call in Oz was Adelaide and so began a series of runs ashore in what in those days were 'exotic' places. Pubs served beer in middy's or schooners. Does anyone remember Montgomery's and the Lord Nelson in Sydney. We sailed around Australia calling at Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Port Townsville before sailing to New Zealand to load apples and lamb bound for London. On one occasion in Wellington we, the deckhands were cajoled into loading the ship with frozen lamb carcasses because the Kiwi dockers were on strike. and so it went on. What a life I had though and would not have changed one bit.

[John Gill]

Did a trip on the Port Huon of which I have no recollection at all, apart from sign on/sign sign off dates late fifties.

[Frank Carson]

hello John
i did 3trips on the launceston and i was a/s on the trip you were on great trip who was old man on that trip was it cpt chapman memory not so good now.
cheers Frank Carson

[John Robey]

Hi Frank thanks for the contact it is good to hear from you. It was a long, long time ago!! But looking at my discharge book (I know very sad.. kept them all) it looks as though the Capt. was G Clarke (or similar); Chief Officer was R.Riley, its very difficult to make the names out. Did you sail on any other Port boats? What was an a/s? I'm thinking assistant steward?
We did have some fun in those days and nights in the rec,room bar) and the crews were always up for a laugh, well most of them anyway, always the odd one. I remember getting our beer ration from 2nd steward and saving it up for the weekend. Fags were 5 shillings (25p in today's petty cash) for 200. Movies on the aft passenger deck.

[j.sabourn]

#8.. John Port line must have been a companys bond , the ships I was on were nearly always the masters bonds, and in 1953 I was already a heavy smoker and paying mostly abut 12/- a carton (200) In 1983 ,30 years later and buying my own bond in Rotterdam they were 38/- a thousand that would have been approx. 7/6d a carton , so if you were getting a carton for 5 bob , Port line were very good to you, and I must have sailed with some questionable characters, I always wondered how they managed to live in big houses and have big motor cars. I can just imagine some of the ex chief stewards ears on site going red. Me I’m as innocent as a new born babe as sold them for what I paid . Mind the spirits was a different proposition. As had to charge extra to put some off buying too much as was a definite health hazard . How times changed , now the health hazard is cigarettes and the alcohol is banned . Cheers JS.

[cappy]

#8.. John Port line must have been a companys bond , the ships I was on were nearly always the masters bonds, and in 1953 I was already a heavy smoker and paying mostly abut 12/- a carton (200) In 1983 ,30 years later and buying my own bond in Rotterdam they were 38/- a thousand that would have been approx. 7/6d a carton , so if you were getting a carton for 5 bob , Port line were very good to you, and I must have sailed with some questionable characters, I always wondered how they managed to live in big houses and have big motor cars. I can just imagine some of the ex chief stewards ears on site going red. Me I’m as innocent as a new born babe as sold them for what I paid . Mind the spirits was a different proposition. As had to charge extra to put some off buying too much as was a definite health hazard . How times changed , now the health hazard is cigarettes and the alcohol is banned . Cheers JS.

still owe me one shilling and twopence