Across the Atlantic to Santo Domingo

Saturday 18th October 1975

No 4 to 8 this morning as we were having the weekend off before starting day work on Monday. I spent most of the day practicing splicing and doing correspondence work. At night there was a barbeque on the after deck with mountains of food. It was really first class but for a bit of wind. For the first time I had a conversation with the Captain who wanted to know how I was settling down and liking the ship etc. but also warned us of the dangers of the tropical sun and also the light fingered locals in Bolivar who will steal anything, so everything must be locked up.

Sunday 19th October 1975

The only thing worth noting today was being caught out on the Church Service routine where the crew wage a service in the bar at 6.30 wearing full blues etc. but only the cadets turn up. It was a good laugh though and the 3rd officer told us of a time when on a passenger ship the Captain told him to be at the certain at a certain time, and being wise didn’t go. Later he was reprimanded and asked why he didn’t turn up, and although he explained he was a Buddhist (Ho ho) had to go next time.

Monday 20th October 1975

Today we started off by greasing the pulleys, blocks and hinges on the Macgregor hatches on the tween decks. Later I was given one of the emergency lights to clean, which was in an incredibly bad state. After much hard work, which lasted for the better part of the day, it still wasn’t finished. The Bosun’s Mate also showed us how to take soundings of the various bilges. At 1.30 I was shown where the bilge hatch covers were and removed them. Two were in the engine room and I was so hot the sweat ran off in buckets. I did an hour on the wheel.

Tuesday 21st October 1975

In the morning the Bosun’s Mate taught me how to rig splice wire. The rest of the day I spent practising, only doing two which turned out right (but were very neat). With one of them he showed Billy and me how to serve it. At 4.30 there was a practice lifeboat drill and fire muster stations. As before I am in lifeboat no. 1 and my other duties are messenger boy on the bridge.

Wednesday 22nd October 1975

 Started by taking all the soundings with the sounding line. The technique being to mark the chains with chalk so as the depth can be read off the calibrations. One lowers the line down the appropriate pipe until a “ding” is heard and then haul it up coiling the line. Once done I started to clean another emergency oil lamp (masthead). Before dinner I had to climb into no. 3 bilge and first after bailing out the water, scrape the remnants of festering wheat, horse urine (crystalised) and rust. It was fantastically hot down there and being tall I was extremely cramped and found it very hard work. I had sweated so much that my boiler suit could be rung out, needless to say I never want to go down again! In the afternoon I bolted on the plates of both no. 3 and no. 4 bilges and then the job of cleaning the emergency navigation lamps seemed like an easy number despite the ingrained corrosion. The film tonight was “Bandoleros”, western. ETA Santo Domingo 18.00 Thursday.

Thursday 23rd October 1975

Sailed into the Caribbean at about 08.00 this morning. I went for’d and helped the crew coil the mooring lines ready for tying up. Then with a bucket of paraffin and a handful of rags I had to scrub all the oil and grease off the deck where the crew had been overhauling the blocks before. It was a slow job and took me 2 ½ hours to do the area around no. 1 hold and aft of no. 2. After dinner we were nearing Santo Domingo and I went on the bridge. I did an hour at the wheel and then Billy took over. The Captain radioed for a pilot and I helped rig the pilot ladder. Santo Domingo port was along a river which the pilot directed us up and we berthed at about 17.30. There were palm trees everywhere and an ancient fort like structure splattered with bullet holes about 50 yards from the ship. Once we were cleared quarantine wise the stevedores all came rushing on and apart from a few stops due to torrential rain, all was unloaded by 00.35.