Eastern City (2)

Comments from the forum - 1

Mr. Albert Williams from Radyr Cardiff, our 89 year old member writes another story about an incident which happened on one of his voyages which reads as follows.
Quote:-
"After one more voyage on the "Buchanness" I joined the "Eastern City"(2) at Barry Docks on the 8th September 1930, under the command of Captain H.R.Thomas. I must say he was a fine captain.
My first shock on this vessel was when I went down to the engineroom. In addition to the piston rod on the L.P. cylinder she had what was called a tail-rod coming out of the top of the cylinder. It was a bit strange at first but I got used to it except now and again the vacuum gauge started to fall and then I had to rush up and tighten the nuts on the tail-rod gland.
We then proceeded on voyage to Cape Town to load maize for the continent, but when off the Gold Coast, in West Africa tragedy struck. The Chief Mate was supervising the erection of the "Shifting Boards" to stop the cargo moving in rough weather. He was near the top of the hold when one bell struck at a quarter to four and it was time for his watch on the bridge.
He then made a move but suddenly he was crashing to the bottom of the hold.
The next hour was terrible we had to get a stretcher down to him. Captain Thomas went straight down to him to see what he could do. After making sure the ropes were safe, we started to haul him up on deck. The Captain stayed with him on the stretcher so we had to be very' careful or we would have had more trouble, the poor fellow was in terrible state.
The only thing we could do was to ask by radio if there was a ship with a doctor on board. The ship that replied was the S.S."Ascanius" a Blue Funnel Liner bound for Australia with 400 emigrants on board. She altered course and steamed towards us and we did the same she was 100 miles away. They decided to send their lifeboat with a doctor who happened to be a passenger on board the "Ascanius" It was quite calm when we got them aboard except for a bad swell, which made it difficult.
They examined the Chief Mate and decided the only chance of saving his life was to take him back on board the S.S. "Ascanius". This was another difficult operation but we managed to do it. Sadly this was the last time we saw the mate as about four hours later we received a radio message to say that he had died and in the morning we received a radio message from the Captain of the S.S."Ascanius" to say they had buried him. He also said it had caused quite a gloom over the passengers.

On the next voyage I was promoted from assistant Engineer to 4th Engineer so I enjoyed this "Eastern City"(2)." Unquote.

This article first appeared in Shipmates issue No.15.

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.

Eastern City. Page [1]
Memories from RSL staff. Page No. [1]