# Cape Franklin



## Fairfield

To complement Tanker/s shot of her as VITTORIA GARDELLA,here/s a shot of her in her Lyle Shipping Co.days discharging iron ore at Glasgow/s General Terminus Quay in 1973.I have a picture of her being renamed and will add it on when I find it!
The area where this photo was taken is now a luxury housing development!!


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## tanker

Fairfield said:


> To complement Tanker/s shot of her as VITTORIA GARDELLA,here/s a shot of her in her Lyle Shipping Co.days discharging iron ore at Glasgow/s General Terminus Quay in 1973.I have a picture of her being renamed and will add it on when I find it!
> The area where this photo was taken is now a luxury housing development!!


Thanks Fairfield i am very happy !! Prow of V Gardella and Stern of C Franklin
!!!!


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## Fairfield

Good-that is what we are here for!


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## trotterdotpom

Fairfield said:


> To complement Tanker/s shot of her as VITTORIA GARDELLA,here/s a shot of her in her Lyle Shipping Co.days discharging iron ore at Glasgow/s General Terminus Quay in 1973.I have a picture of her being renamed and will add it on when I find it!
> The area where this photo was taken is now a luxury housing development!!


Is the pedestrian tunnel to Betty's Bar still open? 

I didn't sail on her but went aboard in B.W. Hartlepool to learn the company's paper work prior to sailing as 'RO/Clerk'. Don't recall getting past the bar, oh well.

John T.


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## Fairfield

Betty/s Bar is still there now in a desert of yuppie housing.Pedestrian tunnels long closed and Rotunda entrances used for yuppie restaurants and now one is a casino!
Always remember friends telling me of the young lady,starkers,being ejected from WELSH HERALD at General Terminus and calmly dressing on the quayside after what clothes she had were flung after her down the gangway.


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## trotterdotpom

Fairfield said:


> Betty/s Bar is still there now in a desert of yuppie housing.Pedestrian tunnels long closed and Rotunda entrances used for yuppie restaurants and now one is a casino!
> Always remember friends telling me of the young lady,starkers,being ejected from WELSH HERALD at General Terminus and calmly dressing on the quayside after what clothes she had were flung after her down the gangway.


Thanks Paul. That's progess, I suppose.

That girl must have been rough to get turfed off the 'Welsh Herald', either that or some kind soul was saving her from the road to ruin. A lot of people don't realise how sensitive the ore carrier lads were.

John T.


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## trotterdotpom

DaveM said:


> Hiya John,
> 
> I did a couple of very brief cargo watches on the Manaar but that was all. I paid the crew (handed out the cash) once on the London Splendour but I'm saving that tale for "A Pinch of Salt II". I'd also heard that in Blue Flue the R/O had to double as Purser, though true or false I do not know.
> 
> Did you actually sign on as RO/Clerk or just get officially lumbered with paperwork ?
> 
> And finally to Dudley Fry, the R/O's Tale.
> 
> Dudley was an R/O with LOF and their R.O.U. representative. Captain Blackmore's wife Florrie allegedly went to the Radio Room, arms full of paperwork, dumped it on the desk and said "On the ships I'm on, the sparks does the paperwork" Dudley was quoted as saying "And you can eff off". Florrie left.
> 
> Some brief while later Dudley was summoned down to the Master's cabin and on arrival found that Bartie, the Old Man, was asleep and that Florrie was sitting at his desk. "I'm logging you Sparks", she declared and proceeded to do so, much to Dudley's amusement. It was said that Dudley got a personal letter of apology from Sir Basil Mavroleon himself for that one.
> 
> There was a whole book in itself could have been written about the tales of Florrie and Bartie. I only sailed with him after Florrie had died and he was a very likeable bloke.
> 
> Dave (*))


Hi Dave,

Think in Ocean Fleets the RO did cargo plans - don't know if he had to take his own crayons.

In SSM RO did everything involving paper - articles, wages (including income tax, National Insurance, Allotments, subs, etc) port accounts, etc. Big job at the time - no computers, no photocopiers. Most of my free time, if sober, was spent typing crewlists for the next port. Initially the company paid handsomely for this extra work, but unfortunately didn't keep up, so I moved on.

John T.


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## trotterdotpom

DaveM said:


> That's a real eye opener John, makes me feel all the luckier to have missed it.
> 
> Cheers,
> Dave


At least when the sub money was running out, there was always some for me, and it wasn't as bad as boiling fish livers!

Re cargo work. Discharging general cargo in Barbados, the Mate told me that the RO usually went down the hatch to do a 'security watch'. When I balked at that he said that I received an hourly payment if I did it, he would boost the hours worked on the timesheet and we could split the extra money 50-50! I said thanks, but no thanks and hit the road. No doubt he marked it down anyway and kept the lot.

Re loggings. At anchor at St Vincent, Cape Verde Islands. The 2nd Mate came into breakfast as p***ed as newt and we had an altercation. A few days later the 3rd Mate showed me an entry in the logbook: "On ...... at 0730 I went into the mess room for breakfast and the Radio Officer said: 'F*** off you drunken b******.' For this serious offence against the Liberian Maritime Code he is fined DM200. Signed 2nd Mate." I got a red pen and wrote across it all: 'This is a big fib,' or something like that. A few days later the 3rd Mate showed me the log again and the page had been ripped out!

The worst part about all this, apart from showing monumental disrespect for the logbook, was that he owed me 200 marks and I was wondering how I'd get it back now that he'd 'fined' me that sum.

Eventually we made it up and he repaid the money. Soon afterwards I paid off while the ship was hard aground off Venice and I wondered if, during any inquiry that ensued, the missing page from the logbook was noticed.

Happy days. John T.


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## trotterdotpom

DaveM said:


> John, it appears I get luckier by the day...
> 
> A good friend of mine on one of his earlier voyages was on a ship that had just picked up a new crew, in the West Indies, I think. He was just ambling down the ladder from the bridge to go and get some lunch, when he was met by the crew coming the other way. The leader whacked him over the head with something, fracturing his skull. Another ship I was lucky to have missed!
> 
> Cheers John,
> 
> Dave


On 'Jobst Oldendorff' in Archangel, following copious helpings of homemade vodka and tomato ketchup (tomato juice wasn't an option in the 'Workers' Paradise' - a chap can't live without his 'Bloody Mary' after all), a Spanish sailor was pointing a gun at the Kapitaen's face! We were all in the cross alleyway in the accommodation, right beside the gangway. The ship was low in the water and, after a few raised voices, the ship's armed gangway guard was staring right in at the incident, aghast. He looked about 16 y.o. and took the sensible option - a good impersonation of Dixon of Dock Green ambling towards the bow. The incident is a bit hazy after that, but I remember the sailor got the sack later (on German ships you could get the sack while you were away, even at sea, and then you were charged for your accommodation during the rest of the trip - resulting in a fairly unhealthy payoff!). Just for the record, nobody was shot.

I've made another post about this trip somewhere - almost tipping over at Bremen! Well, it wasn't all beer and skittles, was it?

As a post script, guess who came up the gangway on 'Regina Oldendorff' at Botlek a couple of months later, yes, the Spanish sailor. That showed him!

John T.


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## THE CAPE CRUSADER

Ah Betty's Bar...Dyed blondes with tattoos and black eyes....met a girl there once, she broke ma nose....well i was only a 17 year old first trip country boy at the time. 
PS you got a better class o tart at the Jeannie Deans..Oh and there was a ship as well. the MV CAPE NELSON....Regards to all. Iain


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## CPBLAKE

trotterdotpom said:


> Thanks Paul. That's progess, I suppose.
> 
> That girl must have been rough to get turfed off the 'Welsh Herald', either that or some kind soul was saving her from the road to ruin. A lot of people don't realise how sensitive the ore carrier lads were.
> 
> John T.


I was on the Welsh Herald 7 trips on the trot Seven Islands to Glasgow had three slappers from Bettys Bar get on the ferry accross and up the gangplank they were living in my cabin until we sailed, got smart next time went up to US navy recreation hall the Locarno Ballroom to meet some nice girls copped on asked if I could take her home, got in a Taxi where does she live just round the corner from Bettys Bar, I bit the bullet took the penicillin jabs and became tea total like everyone else after that


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