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Old 31st May 2017, 19:19
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Pat Kennedy Pat Kennedy is offline
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Join Date: Apr 2017
Location: Wirral
Posts: 78
Quote:
Originally Posted by R651400 View Post
Thanks PK for that info on the shore-gangs.
Was it the same for complete Chinese crewed ships that I mainly sailed except my last Adrastus?
Well I remember the departure "bull" inspections and a great story on the school-children nodding knowingly at the sound of those fantastic fog-horns of soon to depart Blueys..
Yes, even if the ship had a Chinese deck crowd, the shore gang still worked aboard them as normal. The ships crew were usually deployed on painting or sugi, while we did the work associated with cargo gear and re-storing.
One large part of the shore gang work in Birkenhead was tomming off and lashing down cargo that was at risk of shifting, like heavy machinery, locomotives and suchlike, and of course all the deck cargo, of which Bluies carried a lot, crammed into every piece of spare space. We sometimes worked all night on this job using miles of wire and loads of 4 x4 timber plus dozens of bottlescrews. none of which ever came back, they were the bosun and chippy's perks out in the Far East.
Regards
Pat
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