Cardiff City (1)

Comments from the forum - 3

First trip to sea. Here's my recollections of my first trip, along those lines, off the top of my head.
Master: Idris Williams, C/O: D. C. Griffith-Jones, 2/0: Tim Lawson, 3/0: Dick Sumner, C/E: Len Taylor accompanied by his wife and 18 yr old daughter, (Danny Trigg relieved Len Taylor in Japan when Len paid off with a ulcer), 2/E: Robbie Bell, 3/E: Ken Green, 4/E: Ian "Haggis" Lapsley, R/0: John Matthews. Cadets: Jim Fairclough, Peter Baverstock, and et Mois.
I am working from memory not a diary, as diary and records gone walkabout !!

OK as for the trip, again this is from my memory not a diary. I joined March 1965 Sunderland, Greenwells drydock, then round to Glasgow to take up Clan line charter (including Clan Line funnel colours) general cargo, then Swansea, Birkenhead, Dakar, Lobito, Luanda, Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth, East London, Durban, Mauritius (here finished charter) ( as an aside I was tasked to look after a deck cargo of some 4 valuable horses on the 5 day run from Durban to Mauritius, feeding and mucking out etc!!), then Lourenco Margues load iron ore for Japan, calling at Colombo and Singapore for bunkers, Fushiki Japan for discharge, then ballast to Fremantle, load Grain for Kobe, Nagoya Osaka, etc then ballast to Guaymas ( load gypsum) then Manzanillo, Mazatlan for cotton top load ( one of the first TMM runs, I think) then San Francisco for deck cargo of US army trucks and other gear (then under States Marine Charter and funnel colours, obviously for political reasons) then Okinawa, (for discharge of the US army deck cargo) Yokohama, Nagoya and other Japanese ports for the cotton, Pusan ( for discharge of gypsum, then back to Kobe and other Japanese ports for loading general cargo, including CKD's for Los Angeles, Long Beach, Mazatlan (?) and then through the Panama to US east coast ports Philadelphia and New York. Then very quick and very busy ballast trip (washing down and fitting of shifting boards etc) up to Baiecomaeu in St Lawrence estuary to load Grain for home arriving in KG V dock in early May 1966. I've unfortunately missed out a few ports but I seem to remember all told it was something like 45 or so ports in 14.5 months. And for a young 16 yr old when we set off, what an introduction and what a way to see the world...and looking back I would'nt have missed it for the world.. and to paraphrase Kipling,..I went away a boy and (hopefully) came back a man ! Good memories and proud of it. Graham Mapplebeck. Posted on forum 4th March 2010.

Thought you might be able to use this picture of the Alpac Asia, which I had the dubious pleasure of handing over to John McRink  in Genoa. She was also my last ship as Master when she was SARA LUPE ,….Happy Days ! Keith Fulker. Sent by email 16th September 2011.

I commenced my service as a J/E on Cardiff City, joining in April 1970 in LA and paying off 15 months later in LA in June 1971. It was a great ship on a TMM charter and I recall that it was a mainly unchanged engine room staff, we just did not want to pay offf! I can recall the 3rd engineer being Ken Green and the 2nd 0fficer George Parker, maybe others can recall their service aboard during that time, the old memory is not as good as it used to be! Micheal Burt. Posted on forum 23 January 2011.

Greetings John Hughes from your old shipmate and joint "churchgoer" in Oz
I remember very well our trip together on the Cardiff City from March 1964 to March 1965, Idris Williams in command, Dan John was Mate and me as Second Mate. You were apprentice although you with the heavy abundant face fungus and me with the pink cheeked boyish look, our ranks were often reversed by our friends ashore
The Cardiff City,(1) built 1962 at Doxfords in Sunderland. The main engine was the relatively new Doxford 'P' engine. I think Len Taylor was the long suffering Chief. We had already spent about 6 weeks at anchor off Yokosuka japan with engine trouble _ the cross head bearings if I remember correctly and Arthur Thompson as super attending.
Once fixed, we proceeded to Geelong in Oz to load grain and do you remember as we came out of the channel from Geelong into Port Philip Bay, Chiefy called the bridge with the news that the cross heads were damaged and we could not proceed further. The pilot and port authorities arranged for the ship to dock at the Royal Australian Navy pier at Williamstown, in the Bay west of Melbourne.
We were there another 6 weeks or so while further repairs were carried out.
Now you had already been sought out by the Baptist church people in Geelong as your Dad was a Baptist minister of some fame in the Baptist world. I was included in our many invites to the good folk from Geelong, Williamstown and latterly "Galloping" Jack Dowell the Flying Angel padre from the Melbourne Mission. What a social whirl it was! Only drawback was the Baptists were all temperance. Charlie Boyer. Posted on forum 23 January 2011.

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.

Cardiff City. Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9]
Memories from RSL staff. Page No. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]