Josefa

She was a Liberty ship replacement design from AG Weser, never as sucessful as the SD14 from Sunderland. Think there were about 12 built. Visited a couple of the others, disguised as a MAN engineer, when we were fitting new cylinder blocks to the Josefa's main engine at MAN's yard in Hamburg.All had similar problems. David Harrison was C/E at that time I believe.
There had been a cotton fire in one of the cargo holds shortly before, Le Havre?, and repairs as a result were also carried out then. Have a mental picture of John Lee spraying the tween deck with some weird mixture of all the old paint from the paint locker.

Visited her many times after this but the last one will always be the worst.
Sale docking in Brazil, Santos to start with and then Rio for final cargo discharge and dry dock. British ratings on strike from arrival Santos until British Consul read the riot act in Rio. Nightmare.
Master was Andy Crawford.
Thankfully buyers, Greeks, were most patient and understanding, think they had some similar experiences.
Best picture of Josefa/Trajen? From the window of the BCal flight home from Rio as she lay at anchor in Rio bay. David Litson. Posted on forum 12th November 2009.

Hi all, I read David's recall of the Josefa and the Le Havre fire. I was on the ship shortly after the fire had been discovered and it was a Chinese Fire Drill. Not because of those onboard, but due to the local Fire Department.
First they would not allow the use of CO2 and insisted on using water. Which resulted in a list The Mate Bonso Jones ended up by cutting the fire department hoses to get their attention and to stop flooding the hold.
In the mean time the port authority had move all other ships off of the Quay to other berths, it was to put it politely a fiasco.

If the Josefa did not have bad luck it would have had no luck.

During repairs the the Main Engine and Hull at MAN Hamburg the painters decided to paint in strong winds, the result being a very large number of cars in MAN's car park ended up looking like spotted dick, the P&I thankfully stepped in and prevented the ship from being detained. MAN eventually paid the bill to have the cars detailed or repainted. Douglas Granger. Posted on forum 13th November 2009.

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.

Josefa. Page [1] [2] [3]
Memories from RSL staff. Page No. [1] [2]