# Stowaways



## johnvvc (Feb 8, 2008)

Stowaways

I wonder how many of you picked up a stowaway(s) and what happened to him/them. Presumably it must have been a fairly common occurrence.

We found one on board a few hours after we’d left Monrovia. The ship was an ore carrier and I was R/O. The Old Man contacted the Agents who proved rather unhelpful – probably the conversation would have revolved around ‘can you prove you picked him up in Monrovia?’ – which of course we couldn’t really. As it appeared that the Liberians might not have allowed him to land because he had no papers the Old Man decided to take him with us. The Third Mate was all for strapping him onto a 40 gallon drum and throwing him over the wall. Luckily (well for him anyway) common sense prevailed and we continued on to the UK to discharge. He was a nice guy and was immediately put to work to earn his keep.

When we arrived in the UK he couldn’t go ashore so an apprentice was given the job of looking after him and making sure he didn’t escape. I suppose that with no papers you could be classed as stateless and not be able to land anyway. Presumably there must have been some scheme whereby a stowaway could eventually be allowed to leave the ship. I paid off shortly afterwards and often wonder what happened to him.


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## Neil Mant (Sep 11, 2005)

it was a regular occurance on Cunards Fruit Boats when loading bananas from central america, they found one lad dead under the hatch boards been there nearly 2 weeks in the cold, few others were taken to europe then taken back and usually dropped off in panama


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## tiachapman (Mar 25, 2008)

there was one on the Stanrealm put in durham prison while the ship was in smiths dock , he was brought back on sailing day. skined out in the states/there was hell on


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## Lurch (Jul 29, 2011)

Had several from South Africa, all got returned and repatriated to Rwanda / Tanzania depending on whose consulate the P & I could get papers for - most of them were from that part of Africa and worked thir way down.

The most memorable one wasfrom Rio Haina (Dominican Replublic)

We were on a reefer/container service for Velleman & Tas (Fyffes Dutch subsudary) - 4 ships on a 28 day schedule - Antwerp - Rio Haina - Cartagena - Santa Marta - Turbo - Cartagena - Antwerp.

We duly sailed after discharging containers & cars in Rio Haina, for the passage to Cartagena. On arriving on the container terminal the following night the officials and wharfmen started pointing tothe rear of the vessel, followed by boats with flashing blue lights turning up.

Turns out that we had a stowaway standing on the top of the rudder, gazing at the gantries and imagining he is in Miami, not Colombia. He had swum across the river and hid in the rudder well for the ride over - the fact he survived the crossing of the Caribbean as the weather was poor was remarkable.

What was moore remarkable was that he turned out to be a deaf dumbe mute - the P & I arranged for signing translators from the convent in Santa Marta to interview and then process him ashore.

On the second voyage after this we found out they made a TV do***entary about him and he was a local celebrity!


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## E.Martin (Sep 6, 2008)

Was on a ship Federal Voyager for 8 months we had been running iron ore from Sept Isles to Montreal,we had a refit in Montreal before leaving
for Hull,by the time we reached Quebec 6 stowaways had been found
and put ashore,another one gave himself up after we were well into the Atlantic,the authorities took him ashore when we docked at Hull.


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## tom roberts (May 4, 2008)

Most pitifull stowaway I ever came across was a deserter who got aboard the Anglian we think in Lisbon or the last Spanish port before that.He was on the run from the Spanish Legion so he said,all he had on was a tatty t.shirt and shorts, he had been eating melons for days and by golly he smelt bad.Me being the smallest in the crew we rigged him out in my old gear,he was put ashore in Liverpool I never knew what became of him ,he was terrified of going back to Spain as he said he would be shot for desertion.Another stowaway was on the Tilapa a skin boat,he was an arrogant b***ard,the Bosun put him to work cleaning the winch beds he gave me a shovel and told me to bang the deck behind him every time he stopped,he said that if he was sent back to Jamaica he would look out for me and that I would never leave there alive,he had no papers as the Bosun had gone down the hatch and found his bag and thrown it over the side.I don't think he was sent back as dear old Bessie Bradock took care of any body in such cir***stances but she would do sod all for any of us .but that's another story.


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## China hand (Sep 11, 2008)

We had three from (we think) Dar on the way down to Durban. They said they were Ghanian and got thrown off a Greek. Arrival in Durban, the trio, dressed in handout gear, were marched ashore after being questioned by the Immigration officer. Usual thing, want to find work, looking for liberty, etc. As they reached the gangway, one turned around to the escort, a rather large Transvaaler, and asked where his new clothes were, accompanied by "you white barsteward" or words to that effect. The escort didn't say anything, but China, who was mate in that ship thought "you silly black man, you. This is not the way to talk to Yarpies in Aparthied SA."
Found out later that the driver, after delivering the trio to the pokey, went to the Sally Anne or some such body, picked up a bunch of clothes and took it to them.
They were subsequently put on board a northbound Bank boat to be hopefully landed at Dar.


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## jimg0nxx (Sep 1, 2005)

Loaded Phosphate in Casablanca for Whampoa/China via Suez in Runciman's Glenmoor. The day after sailing two stowaways made themselves known. Some shore wallah had told them we were bound for France (land of opportunity for Morrocans at that time) - big shock! They turned out to be good workers and everyone on board got on well with them. The authorities in Port Said would not let them land and they were locked up for the Canal transit. They were eventually landed at Aden (still a British Protectorate). We had a whip round for them and the Chief Steward gave them a pile of grub to take with them. Ship's owners had to pay for the repatriation.


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## richardwakeley (Jan 4, 2010)

Had stowaways on two Gearbulkers I was on in the 1980s, both Europeans.
The first was a British guy on Falcon Arrow, stowed away in Durban by hiding in the hatch access tunnel and came out a few hours after departure. I seem to remember he said he had originally jumped ship in SA many years before, but had fallen on hard times and thought our British (Hong Kong) flag was a good opportunity to get back to the UK. But we were bound for Japan. He was an ex engine room hand and a very willing unpaid crew member, but we had to keep him in his cabin in Japan, with a shoreside security guard, until the P&I club arranged repatriation with the British Consul.
The second was a young Frenchman trying to do a free tour around the world. He stowed away in Vancouver BC when we left for Japan. He said he had reached the US (or Canada) by stowing away from Europe and had been accepted for entry there, spending a couple of months roaming around. He was very upset when we reached Japan and found the immigration wouldn't entertain him - the same story as above, confined to his cabin until P&I and the French consul aranged a direct flight to France, upsetting his holiday plans.


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## GW3OQK (Jun 10, 2010)

At the gangway of one ship which never had stoways was the sailing board.
Sailing: 1900
For: Lagos

A


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## Hugh Ferguson (Sep 4, 2006)

A Stowaway in the Port Phillip some 50 years ago! Ron King was the c/o.

The name and Durban address of this stowaway appeared at the bottom of Andy's log but was missed when I scanned the page: he was a W.Watt and his address gave the name of a "home" which leads me to think that it may have been a home for the mentally afflicted.
(If you wonder how I came to have Andy's log, of his entire sea-going career, it was on account of having a neighbour who was a niece of his and she, having no other relative, offered it to me! See more pages in the Port Line file.)


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## ernhelenbarrett (Sep 7, 2006)

On the Tauloto/2 registered Tonga on the Fiji/Samoa/Tonga/Sydney run we always had stowaways on board, they used to burrow into the copra in Nuka
and only surfaced when we arrived in Sydney harbour, must have lived by eating the copra too, its a wonder the bugs didn't suffocate them,when we anchored awaiting a berth they thought we were alongside and always surfaced so we managed to round them up and they were sent ashore and returned to Nuka, usually with us on our next trip.
Ern Barrett


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## Aberdonian (Apr 7, 2011)

*Iranian Stowaways*

In the 80’s Iran-Iraq War, an old rust bucket came alongside at Dammam with two Iranian stowaways on board who were escaping military service. 
It was their bad luck they had chosen a ship bound for Saudi Arabia, but even greater misfortune was that the vessel was scheduled to return to the Islamic Republic after Dammam. 

Held under guard in a locked cabin, they smashed a deckhead light and cut their wrists using pieces of glass but were found in time and their wounds treated. In addition to the danger of being executed for desertion during the war, Iranian deserters also could face lengthy imprisonment.

Keith


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## ART6 (Sep 14, 2010)

Stowaway!

Oil was discovered in Nigeria, and in 1956 Shell and BP were running the show. The Oiliobiri oilfield in the Niger delta was in production in 1958, the black gold rush started, and ships were needed to get it. The UK company, Tankships UK Ltd., saw the opportunity and ordered Nigerian trader, a 36,000 tonne tanker, to be built in Glasgow in something of a hurry to avail of the lucrative charter rates offered by BP and Shell. She was a steamship, with Babcock boilers and Parsons turbines, and she had an unexpected crewmember.

That crewmember was not apparent until after the sea trails and the first trip to Nigeria when on odd occasions the junior engineer of the twelve to four watch, when sounding the double bottoms, found someone in black overalls watching him with what almost seemed like an appeal to communicate without the ability to do so. Reporting the his third engineer watch keeper that there might be a stowaway on board, he was almost laughed off the control platform. “This is a bloody tanker!” The three-oh managed at last. “Where do you think a stowaway could hide out in this job?”
“Well, there’s someone down there in the shaft tunnel, and he isn’t on our watch or any of the others.” The junior sulked.
“Did you speak to him?”
“Well….No. He just…sort of…disappeared.”
The third engineer moved under the nearest vent chute and opened the front of his boiler suit to let the cool air provide temporary relief from the sweat running down his chest. His blonde hair drifted into his eyes to be wiped away with a fuel oil stained hand from cleaning burner tips. “Right then. The ghost of the twelve to four. That should be worth a laugh and a few cans of Tennants in the saloon!”

Predictably, the matter was raised in the saloon the next afternoon to the chagrin of the junior engineer, and everyone enjoyed a laugh and a few beers on the strength of it, even the mates who, as officers, were supposed to be above such things. The three-oh ruffled his junior’s ginger curly hair, laughing as Sam O’Hara ducked with a grimace. “No worries mate. It’s the live ones that’s dangerous, not the dead ones!” He said in his pronounced New Zealand accent.

The only one that wasn’t laughing was the fourth engineer. “I don’t know…” He said quietly. The junior sec’s junior reckoned he saw the bloke too on the four-to–eight. And he didn’t get to talk to him either.”
“In the tunnel?” the third mate asked.
“Yup.”
The third engineer snorted “Sam and him are both Irish, and they see ghosts everywhere. Probably the ghost of Brian Buru or something.”
“In a boiler suit?” The RO asked absently as he opened another can.
“Well, maybe he’s moved with the times?” 
“Right,” the chief engineer said, having just entered the saloon and taken an unopened can from the nearest junior engineer as was his right, “Then tomorrow you juniors can all do field days and search the tunnel and flush out this ghost.”

The trouble was that the search revealed nothing, even if it did massively improve the knowledge of the tunnel and its pipework among the junior engineers. Yet this mysterious figure continued to plague them to the extent that finally Ian Young, the senior second engineer and a Geordie from the Tyne shipyards whose bones were reputed to be made of iron, and whose five-foot seven frame made up for his lack of height by his width, decided that he would spend the night watches in the shaft tunnel and put this nonsense to bed for once and for all. Unfortunately it didn’t. “Well then Sec, have you chased the bastard out?” the chief engineer asked when the second reported to him the next morning.

Ian Young was uncharacteristically silent for a minute as he wandered over to a porthole in the chief’s day cabin and frowned out at the maindeck. “There’s someone there alright Chief, although I dinnae see who it was. I saw him a couple of times out of the corner of me eye, but when I turned to him he was gone.”
“Gone where? Did you look for him?” The chief asked, puzzled by the apparent discomfort of his usually unimaginative second engineer.
“It was in the bloody shaft tunnel Chief. Nowhere for him to go!”
“Ducked under the shaft? No, forget I said that. He would have ended up on the tank tops.”
“Aye. Well, at least whoever or whatever he is, he isn’t a stowaway. No-one could just vanish like that.”
“In a black boiler suit though?” The chief asked.
Ian Young shook his head slowly. “Dinnae think so. The glimpse I got looked like he was a sort of misty dark black colour all over. I only saw him because he stood out a bit against the yellow paint on one of the shaft bearings. I shouted at him to stay put, but then he just wasn’t there any more.”

So the mystery deepened. The master, captain Chamberlain, was informed as he had to be before the story started to run like wildfire through the crew and having half of them refusing to go near the tunnel. Both the chief mate and the senior second engineer spent a sleepless night together in the shaft tunnel which, upon his own admission, was the last place in the world that the mate wanted to be, but no more sightings of the strange figure. In fact the only useful thing that came out of the exercise was that, in boredom, the senior second spent an hour measuring shaft deflections with the new dial gauge that had found its way into the engineers store via a bit of pilfering before the ship left the builders yard. Number two bearing was displaying a significantly higher off-centre movement than the others, suggesting that the white metal shells might have wiped a little, allowing the shaft to transmit prop vibrations through it by running uncontained. Ian Young scheduled the bearing to be opened up for investigation when they reached Nigeria, told the watches to keep an eye on it, and stop pratting about seeing ghosts.

That, of course, did not put the matter to bed. Instead, speculation ran rife in the saloon and down in the crews quarters. In the former, it was only a matter of time before someone mentioned the story of the Great Eastern, where years after her build a skeleton had been discovered in a double bottom tank, apparently trapped there during construction. Perhaps, somewhere under the shaft tunnel tank tops, there were the remains of some poor sod sloshing about, rotting fingers worn to the bone as he had frantically tried to claw his way through eight millimetres of steel plate. The chief engineer, a product of the Clyde shipyards and something of a scholar of maritime history, stated bluntly that the story was a load of ******** and never happened. In any case, he insisted, no-one had gone missing when Nigerian trader was building, and such was his authority that everyone agreed while secretly wondering uneasily. Meanwhile the misty figure continued to appear at random in the tunnel, and it began to seem that he or it was always around the number two bearing immediately before he or it vanished.

By the time Trader arrived in Port Harcourt to load from the new pipelines from Oiliobiri the number two shaft bearing was displaying all of the symptoms of one that was on its way out, particularly since a storm in the Gulf of Guinea had not done it any favours. The chief engineer was adamant that his men could fix it in the time available, but Captain Chamberlain was equally adamant that Trader had ten hours to load and must be gone by then or the owners would be looking for blood. It was finally agreed that a shore crew would be brought in the provide the muscle while the ships engineers would provide the expertise. Ian Young, the senior second engineer, surveyed the press-ganged new arrivals with some unease, all of them dressed in black overalls that seemed to blend into the complexion of their faces to the extent that it was difficult to see where the body ended and the heads commenced. It was, to him, a pleasant surprise to find that they actually seemed to know what they were doing, although some of their procedures left something to be desired on the safety front.

The shore crew bought with them a selection of chain blocks and wire bonds, which was fortunate because Trader was a little limited in that respect, and with them work progressed well. The bearing casing bolts were driven open with flogging spanners and fourteen pound hammers, and two hundred weights of top casing were lifted clear and pulled to one side by the shore crew. The bearing shells were extracted and carefully scraped by the ships engineers, with liberal applications of lead wire and engineers blue until they fitted perfectly and then, with time in hand, reassembly. That was where the job went wrong.

The shore crew was swinging the top casing over with the application of wire ropes, and one of their number was guiding them because he was the only one who could speak both English and Yoruba. The third engineer was motioning to him to swing the casing aft a little to get the bolt holes to line up, and he motioned to him to wipe the locating pins to ensure that they were clean. The interpreter leaned his head in between the two casings with a piece of cotton waste in his hand and started to wipe the pins. It was at that point that the wire bonds holding the casing broke, and two hundredweights of steel and white metal fell on the interpreters head.

There was, of course, an enquiry, but the whole thing was put down to an unfortunate industrial accident particularly because neither the owners nor the Nigerian authorities wanted to make too much of it. Nigerian trader’s owners paid a one hundred pounds to the deceased’s family, and Nigerian trader went on to carry oil around half the globe for twenty years without the shaft tunnel ghost ever being seen again.

So now. The thought that pursued those who were in the shaft tunnel that day for the rest of their lives, something that none of them could ever talk about in ships saloons again without being laughed at,: is there some sort of strange parallel universe where the future can overlap with the present? Was there something of a warning of what was to come? Could there be such a thing as the ghost of someone who had yet to die? Who knows? But the third engineer paid off on return to the UK and never sailed on a ship again. When he died in New Zealand, in his eightieth year, his last words were “I killed that poor black bastard God help me. Tell him to stop watching me!.”

Apologies to SN members for departing from the serious thread, but some posts just do stimulate my uncontrolled imagination! I'll get my coat!


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## Graham P Powell (Jun 2, 2007)

With depressing regularity we used to find stowaways on Royal Mail ships. Usually from Brazil. They were kept in a DBS cabin on the foredeck and put to work with the crew. Not sure what happened to them on arrival in European waters.
I did here a story of stowaways on a Greek ship being put on a raft off the African coast with 5 gallons of water and told that Africa was "over there".
rgds
Graham Powell


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## Troppo (Feb 18, 2010)

A ripper yarn!

Thanks.


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## Pompeyfan (Aug 9, 2005)

We had a stowaway on Canberra once, a Fijian. He was kept in the Lock Up cabin of my Crew & Isolation Hospital until handing him over to the police in Sydney. When feeding him, or needing to go in one of the European deck crew would come down. I got to know this man quite well working with people from Fiji when I lived in New Zealand. Anyway, when we were coming alongside in Sydney, he pushed his bell. I had a masterboard in my cabin so if anybody pushed the bell from the wards or indeed the Lock Up, it came up in my cabin. I asked from outside what he wanted, and he said he wanted a drink. They were all busy on the bridge, so like a fool I went in on my own. He was a big man, overpowered me, and fled to my outside Hospital Deck, and dived into Sydney Harbour opposite the Opera House. A police launch following us in picked him up, and brought him back to me dripping wet. Not long after that they came back to take him ashore. The 'Old Man' was not very pleased, neither was my boss the Surgeon. It was not funny at the time, but I often laugh about it now!.


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## R737447 (Apr 15, 2013)

On Brocklebank ships in the 60's, the Red Sea and Arabian Sea coasts were the worst for stowaways. It was always the apprentice's job to do the final check before the last hatch board was closed. I never felt comfortable doing this as potential stowaways were sometimes found and put ashore. I was hit by one as I approached him, and ever after I always carried a piece if dunnage, and was quite prepared to use it !!


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## stan mayes (Jul 22, 2006)

I made the final voyage in an old tanker San Roberto -it was elven months-
1948/49... We carried 28 cargoes of fuel oil from Curacao to various ports -
most of them in the Caribbean.
After leaving Cape Verde Islands on 16th March 1948 we found two young 
stowaways and they would be with us for the next 196 days..
Their names were Fonto Marcello and Jose Lino and one worked on deck and the other in engine room..The Chief Steward gave them a mattress and blankets and they slept in the storeroom alleyway aft.
We paid them to do our dobhi and they came ashore with us many times.
New York was the only time when they were taken off the ship by Immigration Officers and returned when we sailed...It was mid July 1948.
Nearing the end of the voyage we loaded at Aruba for Belgium and Captain Wigham asked them to leave the ship as they would cause problems for him in the UK .They agreed and after a whipround for them they left. 
San Roberto discharged cargo at Ghent then we took her to the breakers in Blyth and paid off on 15th november 1949.
Stan


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## Farmer John (Feb 22, 2012)

Thank you for that Art6, quite a tale! A pre-haunting, so to speak. Don't get your coat.


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## alan ward (Jul 20, 2009)

On the Orchidea we picked up three in Mombasa,I don`t know why they chose us because we were going on to Davao in the Phillipines to load bananas for Japan ad infinitum.They were called Joseph,Moses and Charles each department got one but quickly we lost ours for some reason so I didn`t have much to do with them until sailing day from Davao.The OM called me to his office where a large,imposing,matronly Filipina sat.I was introduced to Mrs.Alice Gestopa proprietress of the Volare Beer Garden and Hotel.She was clutching a sheaf of invoices that our bold marineros had convinced her were as good as gold,each one had their name on the top and underneath Girl and Hotel 150 pesos,3 men,3 invoices each,450 pesos.1350 pesos in total,about £150 if I remember correctly.Now remember these blokes weren`t on pay,how did they convince the hard hearted Mrs.Gestopa to give them fanny on credit? The OM paid her bill with good grace,we had a whip to pay for their romantic adventure and i can`t remember how we got rid of them.I have the receipts still in my bedside drawer,someone one day will find them and wonder what connection I once had to Charles,Joseph,Moses and Mrs.Alice Gestopa.


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## TOM ALEXANDER (Dec 24, 2008)

Glad we never found one -- twice in Bone, Algeria though on the Sagamore, an ore carrier, I, at the time a 20 year old apprentice, was tasked with searching the fore-peak for escaped or deserting French Foreign Legionnaires. Long way down in the dark, vertical ladder, flashlight in mouth hoping there wasn't any. Always wondered what would have happened if there had have been. (Ouch)


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## spongebob (Dec 11, 2007)

My father was a one time stowaway, he finished his training as a dental mechanic in 1920 and set out from his London home to see the world. He worked his passage to Australia as a galley hand aboard SS Euripides (later named Akaroa) and after two years in North Queensland he became home sick but as he was near broke stowing away seemed the only option for getting home.
SS Javis Bay was berthed in the Brisbane River loading cargo and passengers for Britain so he boarded the ship along with a clutch of cargo workers on sailing day, hid himself in a rope and fire hose locker at the base of the funnel and all was well.
After a night and almost another full day at sea he had eaten his cheese sandwiches and had quaffed his bottle of water so out he came and faced the music.
After that he was quartered in a very basic steerage class cabin and made to work daily as directed by the bosun which mainly involved chipping rust and scrubbing canvas hatch covers for the rest of the voyage to arrive back in London fit as a fiddle and brown as a berry.
This story was told more than once during my childhood but I took little notice until it was too late to ask more searching questions when he died suddenly at age 62.
My mother did tell me in later years that he was quite upset when Javis Bay was sunk in that battle with the German battle Cruiser during WW2.
I have often wondered in recent years that he might have jumped ship on arrival in Australia as coming off the street and sailing one way did not seem to be an option in those days. I also wished I had asked him about his encounter with the ship's Captain or other Officers when he gave himself up.
The final outcome was that the return to depressing London after those carefree years in Queensland saw him apply for an assisted passage to NZ aboard the SS Pakeha about 1924 and that was the end of his wandering.


Bob


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## niggle (Aug 24, 2005)

I recall in 1979 on the MV Troutbank during her maiden voyage we picked up a Chinese national in Whampoa. We had been anchored mid river for a week or so discharging 15000 tons of bagged urea (fertilizer) before sailing light ship to Japan. We sailed about a week before Christmas so the sea was pretty cold, some three days later when we reached Japan. The pilot boat came out but then diverted under our stern only to report that there was a man sitting on top of the rudder, he was whisked to hospital suffering from exposure but was quickly returned to the ship after docking. This Chinese man had swum out in the river and climbed the rudder stock and had wedged himself in the void astern of the stock which should have had a plate across it but either it was missed during building or come away earlier in the voyage. As he was stateless the Japanese authorities would have nothing to do with him so he was kept locked in owners cabin whilst we coasted loading steel and cement products for Saudia Arabia, Turkey and Algeria. As per earlier stowaways he was put to work with the Indian crew whilst at sea and on one occasion the 3rd mate and I one morning smoko watched from the bridge as he walked up forward via the port deck with two knives for sharpening from the Indian galley when he me the Serang (Indian bosun) coming the other way. The Chinese man by this time known as Desmond (despondent Desmond) by the officers held both knives up in an x in front of the Serang who immediately turned and ran back for'd locking himself in the paint locker until the Ch Off persuaded him to come out. Whilst in Saudi, Turkey and Algeria he was confined to a cabin and when all the officers were relieved in Gibraltar he was still onboard some 3 months after arriving aboard so nver did find out his fate.


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## endure (Apr 16, 2007)

Not stowaways but we picked two blokes up in a liferaft while we were transiting the Florida Straits on the way to Houston. They said their boat had sunk under them. The OM told the agents and we were told to take them to Houston with us. Turns out they were running drugs from the Bahamas in one of those monster powered twin outboard launches. When we got to Houston the law came on board and took them away.


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## tom roberts (May 4, 2008)

The story goes around there were regular stowaways on the Cunard passenger ships from New York to Liverpool but these were paying for their trip,they were looked after in the crews accommodation and did the return trips the same way as the stowaways were living in the states.It was said to be exposed when one guy who was from a well known Birkenhead family was picked up by the New York police who were watching his car that had been parked in a lot,it seems that a man had been murdered close by,the cops wanted to know where he had been for the last three weeks ,he told them he had been back to the U.K.and as he had no proof of travel he had to tell them how he had done it and exposed the racket.How true ?maybe someone can fill us in ,or is it another old salts tale?.


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## Pat Kennedy (Apr 14, 2007)

tom roberts said:


> The story goes around there were regular stowaways on the Cunard passenger ships from New York to Liverpool but these were paying for their trip,they were looked after in the crews accommodation and did the return trips the same way as the stowaways were living in the states.It was said to be exposed when one guy who was from a well known Birkenhead family was picked up by the New York police who were watching his car that had been parked in a lot,it seems that a man had been murdered close by,the cops wanted to know where he had been for the last three weeks ,he told them he had been back to the U.K.and as he had no proof of travel he had to tell them how he had done it and exposed the racket.How true ?maybe someone can fill us in ,or is it another old salts tale?.


Tom, there was certainly illicit traffic in stoways between New York and Liverpool on Cunard ships. 
When I was on the Ivernia, we had three English girls who were working in NY as nannies, and who wanted to go home. 
They were got on board somehow and made their home in the sailor's recreation room which was rarely used on that ship. The cook, who was in on the plot, provided their meals and they were allowed use of the sailor's bathroom during the night to get showers etc. They were not discovered and arrived safely in Huskisson Dock eight days later. How they got ashore, I dont know, but apparently they did without incident. 
I suppose these three were not really stowaways, but ringbolts, although they were all respectable girls and were treated as such by the lads.
Pat(Thumb)


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## Troppo (Feb 18, 2010)

Stories of ringbolters on the Aussie coast are legion...especially across Bass Strait from Melbourne to Devonport.


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