40s and 50s Memories
36
unpacked cars and crates of CKDs outwards.
Homeward cargoes were lamb, mutton, beef,
dairy products, wool and apples and pears.
Thus, most of the ships carried refrigerated
cargo with wool in the upper decks and
sometimes as deck cargo. These were not old
rust buckets, some of which plied the oceans
looking for loads of cargo available at market
freight rates to be carried often to uncertain
destinations.
In 1951 New Zealand had a dock strike that
lasted nine months. This meant that many
of our ships were lying at anchor waiting to
load or discharge cargo and the training ship,
Rakaia, which I was due to join took a long time
returning to UK. Rakaia was, in every respect,
a cargo liner, the main difference between that
and other ships of the fleet being that apart
from P.O.s the deck crew were all apprentices
in various stages of training.
The dock strike was solved in the end by all the
wharfies having their employment terminated.
I sailed as a first tripper on m.v. Rakaia under
indentures of four years on Oct. 3 1951. Each
apprentice was required to do about three and
a half years sea time before being allowed
to sit for his Second Mate's Certificate. (or
ticket, as it was generally called). My salary
was £6 a month and all found. Going to sea
was an exciting and fulfilling experience: one
could visit many parts of the world that would
not otherwise, at that time, been possible.
Additionally, the food provided was of a much
higher standard than I had been used to. My
first voyage was to Sydney via Curacao and the
Panama Canal. The usual procedure for our
vessels whose voyage took them across the
Pacific was to bunker at Curacao and take on
fresh water at Colon or Balboa.
Transiting the Panama Canal for the first time
was a fascinating experience, first rising up to
the main level through three chambers of the
Gatun Locks then steaming through the lakes
and the Gaillard Cut down to the Pacific end by
way of two sets of locks, the Pedro Miguel and
the Miraflores.
The Pacific Ocean was always very appealing.
The sky was usually about 2/8 cumulus and the
temperature remained moderate because of
the effect of the cool Humboldt current flowing
up the West Coast of S. America before veering
to a West Sou'westerly direction. By contrast,
the Indian Ocean could be overcast for days
on end. Soon after leaving Panama on this
voyage we were overtaken by my father's ship,
Ruahine, the newest passenger vessel of the
fleet, on her way to NZ.
Life as an apprentice was quite tough but on the
whole enjoyable. There were three apprentices
to a cabin, a senior, intermediate and junior.
While at sea all apprentices had "school", being
taught practical seamanship and more formal
schoolroom lessons covering, navigation, cargo
work, naval architecture, maths, chartwork,
stability and signalling by morse and semaphore.
The seniors spent a week of watches as junior
officers while the juniors did spells of steering
and lookout. The way we were taught however
did not compare favourably with the approach
we were accustomed to at King's!
Day workers started at 0600 with half an
hour's PT, then an hour's work washing down
and other tasks before breakfast. "Turn to"
started again at 0900 when the Bosun would
allocate jobs in accordance with the Chief