Bonzer Words!: My First Ship
Rodney Gascoyne recalls joining the crew of the liner Stirling Castle.
Rodney writes for Bonzer! magazine. Please visit www.bonzer.org.au
I joined the RMMV Stirling Castle on a Tuesday to start signing on the crew. My cabin was just forward of the Bureau in First Class and overlooked a well-deck (or sunken deck) under the foredeck of the ship but with openings to the sea on each side, allowing daylight into the cabin. It was a converted first class cabin with a sink and a full bunk, together with a desk, a day bed and wardrobes, built in teak.
She was mainly powered by two large diesel engines, one for each propeller and thus was a Royal Mail Motor Vessel, with a gross tonnage of about 25,500 tons. The massive engines, with 10 cylinders each, were powered by a low-grade heavy oil that needed to be super heated to make it combustible. There were also separate generators to produce electricity when the main engines were not running. Union-Castle had built motor vessels during the interwar years but reverted to steam driven ships thereafter.
Rod Macaskill recently wrote the following: I joined Union Castle as a junior engineer officer in '59. I sailed on the Stirling Castle and the CapeTown Castle. They were both motor ships (diesel, with huge piston engines) and absolute nightmares to work on. I clearly remember coming out of the generator room (where juniors worked, outward bound) to cool off under the blowers in the main engine room where it was only 105degF. In the generator room it sometimes touched 140deg! Homeward bound we worked on the freezers. All Mailboats carried a large amount of chilled fruit and frozen meat back from the Cape. This was much better!
In 1960 I was one of a party of engineers and deck officers who were sent to Camell Laird at Birkenhead for the final fitting out and sea trials of the Windsor Castle. That was really great and we all had a marvellous time. We stayed at a hotel for a couple of weeks and then on the ship. We took it out for the sea trials and the proving runs up and down the measured mile, off the Clyde. There were lots of 'big-wigs' on board and the food was unbelievable. I was having pheasant and caviar (for the first time) every day until I got sick of it!
The plan was to return to Mersey to pick up more knobs and then have a 'shakedown' cruise around the British Isles and finish up at Southampton. This was abandoned as there was a union dispute in the docks and they didn't want the ship to get trapped there and miss its maiden departure date. We left Southampton, as always, at 4pm on Thursday. The maiden voyage was fantastic, especially when we reached the Cape. Partying all the way. And how!
Nearly 750 feet long, Stirling Castle had a breadth of about 84 feet and went into service first in 1936. All the ships had lavender coloured hulls with white superstructure, and a red funnel with a black top. The two-class ship carried a maximum of about 125 First Class passengers, 500 Tourist Class passengers and had a crew just under 500. Some earlier ships had three classes and the Cabin class was later renamed Tourist.
She was nearing the end of her economic life but had been well maintained over the years and still looked clean and tidy. One of the nicest features was a large expanse of teak veneered, inlaid panelling, particularly in First Class passenger areas. Two negatives were that she mostly sailed in the tropics but had no air conditioning nor did she have stabilizers, a post-war invention. Each ship was like a floating village when at sea, completely self-contained. We had a Printer, a Baker, a Butcher, many Chefs, Storemen, Barmen and Stewards to look after the passengers, a Laundry, Able Seamen under the Bo's'un (Boatswain) to maintain the outside of the ship, Engineers, Radio Officers and even a Carpenter and a Lamptrimmer (usually called Chips and Lamps respectively).
© Rodney Gascoyne
