Prince Rupert City (2)

Comments from the forum - 4

Prince Rupert City 12TH September 1977 – January 1978
Joined Tilbury, depart 19th Sept arr Brake 20th Sept, depart Brake 22nd Apr arr Rotterdam 23rd Sept, depart 27th Sept, arr Antwerp 29th Sept, depart 4th Oct (delayed by pilot shortage!), 5th Oct arr Middlesbrough, very slow loading, hired car and visited Jack & Margaret Ross for a couple of days, depart 14th Apr, 30/31st Panama transit, weather extremely hot, nearly 100 degrees in Radio Room, my youngest daughter Carrie had heat stroke – I remember Tony Lightfoot (who was very good with her), holding her up on the bridge wing to try to cool her down…..,
10th Nov arr Long Beach, Do you remember ‘our man on the West Coast’? Flanagan? 12th/13th Nov depart and arrive Oakland, 16th Nov depart, rough wx, 18th Nov arr Portland, sail 21st Nov, arr New Westminster 22nd Nov, very cold and plenty of snow, 29th Nov sail and arr Nanaimo, depart 30th and arr Eureka 3rd Dec wx still bad, 7th Dec arr Coos Bay, depart 11th Dec wx still awful, cargo shifted, 13th Dec arr Crofton 16th Dec arr Vancouver, prepare for Xmas Tony, Dana & Noel investigated how much rum was required for the brandy butter! Hic! 20th Dec my birthday pass the aspirin! 22nd Dec depart Vancouver. 23rd Dec hear the Fresno City in trouble crossing the Gulf of Tehuantepec and came close to foundering, evidently took a 25 degree list in bad wx and lost power, I believe they had to dump the deck cargo overboard in awful conditions and crept into Balboa for repairs where we passed her on 3rd Jan. We cleared Cristobal on 4th and 16th Jan ran into bad wx, hove to for 18 hours in the Bay of Biscay, arr Tilbury 20th Jan, paid of 23rd Jan to join Welsh City.

During the trip when the wx was awful and in mid Atlantic we got Archie Lightfoot out in the rain to turn the TV aerial on the monkey island so that we could get a picture on the TV, after about 20 minutes we took pity on him and slipped a Benny Hill video in the player, after he finished admiring the picture someone said hey we’ve watched this video before and the penny finally dropped that maybe there were no TV signals in the middle of the ocean.

Captain: A. D. Lightfoot, C/O: T. J. Hunter, 2/O: J. R. Ashley & Jennie, 3/O: D. P. Kirley, R/O: G. P. S. Watts & family, C/E: C. E. Hayles, 2/E: C. J. Morris, 3/E: A. C. Coombes (Jumbo), 4/E: R. M. B. Jenkins (Monty from Ponty), J/E: D. Wright (Flo), J/E: P. Curran, Elect: K. F. Bean, Cat/O: Noel Hartigan (Dublin Coddle yum yum), Deck Cadets: M. S. Morgan (Steve), & J. D. Smith (PJ), Supernumery: Archie Lightfoot. Garry Watts. Posted on Forum 31st January 2013.

I often tell the tale about Archie and the TV aerial - a classic. It was a really good trip - lots of happy memories. Pity RSL went to the wall. Terry Hunter. Posted on Forum 1st February 2013.

I had the pleasure to be sent to UCS Govan in January 1970 to act as Alec's assistant during the time that the Vancouver City was nearing completion and the first job that he entrusted to me was to supervise a team of workers from UCS who were having to hand hone the surfaces of the bearing pins that had been damaged by the condensation that had built up during the time that the engine had been stored in a shed alongside the river in what had previously been Alexander Stephens yard this engine was originally intended to be installed in the Vancouver City but when the state of the bearing
pins was discovered it was decided to fit the engine that was originally designated to be fitted in the Prince Rupert City which had at the time just been completed by Kincaids so once the honing process had been completed the engine was loaded on to a low loader for transportation up to the UCS Yard in Govan for installation into the Prince Rupert City which was still on the stocks at this time. Gerry Hughes. Posted on Forum 20th January 2015.

Disclaimer: The statements on this page are the views of the person who posted them on the forum. The events took place many years ago and in most cases rely on those people's memories, and so we cannot guarantee the accuracy although every effort is made to check it.

Prince Rupert City. Page No. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11]
Memories from RSL staff. Page No. [1] [2] [3] [4]