Saguenay Shipping

[Red Lead Ted]

The Sunek was painted green but as a susidiiary of The Aluminum Co. of Canada, the superstructure was
built from unpainted aluminum. Probabley as an advertising gimmick.
I paid off in Kitimat BC, and saved the company my fare home, went to work in the aluminun smelter.
Taught marine engineering in HMCS Quadra 1982-83, designated OI1, Officer in charge Engineering Studies.
Some of my students are probabley retired from the Candian Navy now.

Tom, Here is a great site with lots of pics that will interest you Terry


Canadian Miner, Maplecliffe Hall

[David Rawstron]

Hi Carolyn : I'm not sure exactly when Saguenay closed the Montreal offices (which were at 1060 University incidentally). I was on the "Sunflower" from 1963 to 66 (with a short spell on the "Sunrip" in 1965. Both the "Sunflower" and sister ship "Sunprincess" had accommodation for 12 passengers, which seemed to be either retired people or school teachers most of the time. I left "Sunflower" in 1966 as 1st Officer, travelled to Australia and became an Air Traffic Controller, finally retiring in the UK in 2002. Saggies were the best days of my working life.

[Hubert Desgagnes]

Hubert Desgagnes (somewhere in Quebec)wrote and published, with photographs,an article on this subject0
Hackers destroyed my contact list so I have no means of locating Hubert, who speaks English

Bonjour Tom. I am back!! Hubert

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toujours à la recherches de photos du Lawrencecliffe Hall?

[Hubert Desgagnes]

there is a Facebook page about Saguenay Shipping.

[j.sabourn]

Never go on Facebook.This is only site I go on. That and use for emails. Am not an internet buff. Don’t even have a mobile phone.. cheers JS.

[j.sabourn]

Was on the Sunprincess 67/68 period. Think the other sun ships mentioned were chartered vessels , the Princess was actually owned by Alcoa. Not too sure if Saguenay was just a subsidiary of Alcoa. The other company in Canada that a few British mariners went with was Kent Line. In fact one of my neighbours in the UK went out with his family for a couple of years , as think he went engineering super. But believe they all came back a few years later. JWS

[j.sabourn]

Re #16. Hubert the Sunprincess for the nearly a year I was there had two masters that stick in my mind the first was a gaunt Bluenose from the Maritimes and another was capt Dewar a scot who had lived in Canada for many years , the ch. stwd. Was French Canadian from Quebec.. The crew were. Trinidadian and as far as the deck went there was always 2 on leave in Trinidad , as we had a full complement plus 2 permanent reliefs.2 sets of Articles British and Liberian. One trip I remember the ch, stwd . Was having his 6 weeks off and we had a stand in for him who was off the Sun ship that was on the McKenzie , Chageramus run with bauxite where it was picked up for Port Alfred , he was from Liverpool and had been a POW in Malaya during the war , a down to earth man and not a passenhger type you would expect to meet. Wish my memory for names was better. We carried 2 stewardesses for the passengers , and had a passenger bar built on top of the wheelhouse , I used to if time permitted stand at the top of the gangway with the Ch. Stwd. And stewardess welcoming the mostly as some one said the mostly elderly passengers, the stewardess given to each female a bouquet of flowers , the ch. stwd a flight bag with Saguenay on its side and me with the bar tariffs and a quick one in the same if they so desired. As someone said a very good time of life in the seagoing profession. With all those Islands in the Sun to follow. Regards JS
PS in 1967 the passenger fare was $ 100 US per day all cabins were double berths and if wanted a cabin to oneself was $ 200 a day , you paid for the bunk, and it was said our wages. Much cheaper today and more luxury . JS.

[j.sabourn]

Errata should read “ on top of the wheelhouse a bar had been built “ . 7 days to go to getting one eye fixed hopefully so can see a bit better. JS.

[Colin Watson]

Anybody else sailed with Saguenay? It was great way to save on Income Tax.
I was 4th. eng on the Sunek Sept. 65-Jan. 67, and paid off in Kitimat, and stayed.

Hi Tom,
I sailed as r/o on Sunek 1969.I understand there were 3 Greek engineers that worked with Saguenay.One that was on Sunek,couldnt speak much English but was built like a brick s..house,looked like Adonis,used to go fighting in Kingston.I dont think anybody ever beat him.I coincidentally met him in Amsterdam in 1972/3.The Greeks were army national service dodgers,lived in Rotterdam as the Dutch were happy to have them,save them from the Greek Military Government that was in power at the time.
I hope this reaches you and finds you well.
Cheers
Colin

[j.sabourn]

#19.. still seeing posts I must have missed whilst on my sabbatical. About the same era the chief engineer on the Sunprincess was Danish and had been on the ship for a long time as far as I could gather. He used to look after the bonded stores for the crew and kept seperate from the passengers so was somewhat cheaper. As my cabin was alongside his at the after end of the saloon deck used to do quite a bit of sampling of the bonded stores so got part of his personal life history. He was married in Denmark, and his wife was employed in a government job at the UN in New York. The marriage didn’t last and she wanted a divorce , and his words as far as can remember was “ Ya you want a divorce ok I give you divorce, but we go back to Denmark to get “. He knew which way the monies went in North America on the break up of the matrimonial home. With his share of the estate he bought 3 orange groves in Florida and hired managers to run them . Every. Year he visited the same on business , and some of his stories he really had a ball living the highlife. Anther character of years gone by. Cheers JS

As believe I have said previously maybe a different post, the R/O a little Irishman used to look after The accounts and we were paid cash in hand in US dollars at the end of every month. You could of course leave an allotment but all surpluses were cleared up monthly , I put mine into American Express Travellers Cheque’s and bought a new car for the wife when I got home. No bother with the car salesman grabbing them out of my hand. Was that the same set up on other Sun ships, the princess was actually owned by the American ore company. JS
The Sunprincess went for scrap to Taiwan shortly after I left in 1968.