Bertie Lester
Captain Griffith Jones has had news that retired Chief Engineer Berty Lester "Crossed the Bar" in January 1999. Berty joined the Reardon Smith Line in 1930 and remained with them until his retirement in the late 1960's. For the last five years or more Berty was deaf and blind. He sailed on many RSL ships as Chief Engineer. He was on the Homer City (2) in 1947, and was Chief Engineer on the Welsh City (2) when she broke her main engine crankshaft in the Pacific Ocean got to Japan then steamed back to the United Kingdom on three cylinders.
This article appeared in Shipmates Issue 10 on February 1999.