Josefa

I remember the trip on the Josefa when we sailed into Liverpool, as one of our ports of call while on the North European Service, when all hell was let loose as we had to change the crew to a full British Crew, or we could not sail from Liverpool.
The crews accommodation was gutted and all new beds,wardrobes and desks were fitted over night. New toilets and showers, and then carpeted throughout the cabins and crews mess.
The next morning the crew arrived, Catering crew were Liverpool Chinese, the Deck and Engine crew were a bit of a mix.I remember the Boatswain came from South Africa and he made me look like twiggy and that's going some. I called the Boatswain,2nd Steward (Chinese) and the Engine room store keeper (Arab) to my office and said to them "there are two ways we can run this ship! your way or the RSL way, and while I am on this ship we will run it the RSL way. From that meeting on I had no problems with the crew. I was a Ch Cook myself so I new the score. I only had one problem, the Ch Cook could not speak any English I had to speak to the 2nd Steward to tell him what I wanted (we had some great Chinese dishes) the lads used to come up to the dining room and shout out two number 22's with fried rice ha! ha!. Leighton Seabrooke. Posted on forum 11th January 2013.

I was 2/E on the Josefa on her first trip with RSL. Quite an eventful trip. We had a full British crew. The deck crew were Somalis, the engine crew Yemenis and the Catering Staff were British. They were a Chief Cook, Second Cook, a Second Steward and two Catering Boys.
The officer complement as I remember were Mike Jones master, George Parker mate then Ivor Bolton, John Andrews second mate, Mike Fraser third mate, Sparkie Reg Smith, Chief Steward Bob Pierce, Ch. Eng Bill Gill, 2/E Tex Graham-Russell, 3/E Al Doubler, 4/E Steve Ward, J4/E Can't remember, Lecky Jeff Shaddock. T Graham Russell. Posted on forum 11th January 2013.

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

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