# Ships cargo



## Dannemois (May 21, 2008)

Details on the Gilcruix when launched give her tonnage as 2230.

The South Wales Echo 2 July 1892 show she cleared Cardiff for San Francisco with 800 coal, 850 iron, 1500 coke. Adding those figures together calculates to 3150? 

Am I reading this right; was this permissible?

Regards, Roy


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## Stephen J. Card (Nov 5, 2006)

Dannemois said:


> Details on the Gilcruix when launched give her tonnage as 2230.
> 
> The South Wales Echo 2 July 1892 show she cleared Cardiff for San Francisco with 800 coal, 850 iron, 1500 coke. Adding those figures together calculates to 3150?
> 
> ...



I would say so. The 2230 would be her Gross Net Tonnage. The 3,150 would be the Deadweight.

Stephen


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## Dannemois (May 21, 2008)

Thanks Stephen


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## david freeman (Jan 26, 2006)

*modified*



Dannemois said:


> Details on the Gilcruix when launched give her tonnage as 2230.
> 
> The South Wales Echo 2 July 1892 show she cleared Cardiff for San Francisco with 800 coal, 850 iron, 1500 coke. Adding those figures together calculates to 3150?
> 
> ...


Hello is this connected to the blog in this file/page understanding Maritime Intelilgence on this site


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## eddyw (Nov 6, 2007)

"Gilcruix" (1886) was an iron four masted, ship rigged sailing vessel. Her 'net register tonnage' was given as 2239 in the Mercantile Navy List for 1890. "Net tonnage" here refers to the volume of enclosed space in the hull used for cargo carrying, 1 'ton' being equal to 100 cu ft. This was used to calculate port canal and other dues and charges. The 3150 figure is the actual weight of cargo loaded. It would be permissable as long as the cargo, stores, water etc did not cause her draught to exceed the maximum indicated by the relevant plimsoll mark.


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## harry t. (Oct 25, 2008)

*long tons and cu.ft.*

Very roughly

800 tons coal @ 48 cu.ft. per ton = 38,400 cu.ft.
850 tons iron @ 28 cu.ft. per ton = 23,800 cu.ft.
1500 tons coke @100 cu.ft. per ton =150,000 cu.ft.

Total cargo capacity =212,200 cu.ft. plus space for stores and FW.


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## Stephen J. Card (Nov 5, 2006)

harry t. said:


> Very roughly
> 
> 800 tons coal @ 48 cu.ft. per ton = 38,400 cu.ft.
> 850 tons iron @ 28 cu.ft. per ton = 23,800 cu.ft.
> ...




Thomas' 'Stowage'

Depends on, Lancashire coal, North Country, Scotch, Welsh. C.F. per ton Welsh 43 - 44. Small 40 - 41. Coke 70 - 100.

My copy was a Third Edition, reprinted 1945.

Not bad for a book that is 75 years old!  Good friend Russel Southern gave me his technical books from his study days... late 1940s. My own are from the 70s but the old copies come useful... especially in everything in Imperial!



Stephen


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## Dannemois (May 21, 2008)

Hi David
Regarding your question "is this connected to the blog in this file/page understanding Maritime Intelilgence on this site" Yes, it is regarding the ship Gilcruix. I replied to your email but received notification this morning that it was not delivered so apologies for that.


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## Engine Serang (Oct 15, 2012)

Stephen J. Card said:


> My copy was a Third Edition, reprinted 1945.
> 
> Not bad for a book that is 75 years old!
> 
> ...


The book is 75 years old but the coal was laid down towards the end of the Carboniferous Period about 300 million years ago.


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## Stephen J. Card (Nov 5, 2006)

Engine Serang said:


> The book is 75 years old but the coal was laid down towards the end of the Carboniferous Period about 300 million years ago.



Then some engineers found how to take 300 million old coal and burn it up in boiler furnace and up the flue!


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## Engine Serang (Oct 15, 2012)

My bottle of Irish Spring Water tells me that the water was naturally filtered through the rocks as it trickled down over 5 million years.
And its Best Before Date is November 2020.


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## spongebob (Dec 11, 2007)

Engine Serang said:


> My bottle of Irish Spring Water tells me that the water was naturally filtered through the rocks as it trickled down over 5 million years.
> And its Best Before Date is November 2020.


ER, I imagine that after you have passed the ancient liquid through your system it will take all of those millions of years to get back in the bottle !

Bob


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## stein (Nov 4, 2006)

My copy of "Stevens on Stowage" is dated 1867, and that is the fourth edition. It gives you a lot of particular experiences in different specific ships, but there was no four masted ships at that time. 

The Gilcruix was built in 1886 at Whitehaven for Imrie & Co, Liverpool. Went to Knohr & Burchard of Hamburg as Barmbek in 1895, and was seized and delivered to France in 1914. In 1916 she received the name Pacifique by the Cie. Navale de l'Oceanie in Brest. How long she survived after that my sources do not tell. There are pictures in Longitude 23 p. 11, Sea Breezes vol. 11 p. 94, and in Shipping Wonders of the World p 1369.

Just a propos: If anyone should like a gripping story on stowage, Conrad had one in "Twixt land and Sea". No shipwreck or shifted ballast or self combusting humid coal or anything, just a young mate having been dealt the responsibility of distributing the cargo being loaded and waiting for the master to arrive and give judgement. But Conrad could make a story out of that.


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## harry t. (Oct 25, 2008)

stein said:


> But Conrad could make a story out of that.


I don't doubt that man, Conrad, could write a book on how to fill a bucket with sea water.

Bone, writing the ‘Brassbounder’ when apprentice on the Springbank, describes an incident how on arrival in San Francisco with her cargo of coal smouldering away on one side, burning off the ships side paintwork, the captain manoeuvred his ‘good side’ to the tug when negotiating the tow job.

I don't believe I've ever read a better description (Bone's) of the hardships encountered rounding the 'Horn' on sailing vessels.


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## stein (Nov 4, 2006)

I have read that story, but I have no remembrance of anyone or anything called the "Brassbounder." Therefore, I looked up the title, and found it was fiction. So then I must have read a similar story or the same story as reminiscences. I have read another book btw, that received a lot of stick in the old Sea Breezes for presenting itself as genuine reminiscences, when it, according to the editors, were nothing of the sort. Namely Frank Hubert Shaw's "White Sails and Spindrift." I have no qualms recommending that one, the man could write, and obviously had enough experience to make it sound like real experience. For hardship and pure relentless misery though, few books wil beat A. A. Bestic's "Kicking Canvas." I have had it recommended to me a number of times, but will do so myself only with severe reservations. When things are really bad, and then gets worse, people will usually joke about it. Captain Bestic is unable to do that, there is no trace of humour in the book, no letup from the wet and the cold and the tiredness, not the faintest glimmer of prelusive light. Having turned the last page, you will be glad you went to sea only after the "romance of white sails" had passed though.


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## Frank P (Mar 13, 2005)

Stein, the Brassbounder is a novel by David William Bone..

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2683307-the-brassbounder

Frank


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## stein (Nov 4, 2006)

Yes, I found that out, on the same page as you have provided a link to Thanks anyway.


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## holland25 (Nov 21, 2007)

Its also on Project Gutenberg at 

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/31497/31497-h/31497-h.htm


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## Stephen J. Card (Nov 5, 2006)

Here is a great book. Great author too!


Here is a link for Free Download.


A Sailor S Life : Jan De Hartog : Free Download, Borrow, and ...

archive.org › details › sailorslife012837mbp


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## harry t. (Oct 25, 2008)

stein; "Captain Bestic is unable to do that, there is no trace of humour in the book".

if possible, read Bone's account one voyage how the old man kept sailing southerly and refused to make a 'westing' around the Horn until he sold off the contents of the slop chest, or to anchor to bury his wife, refused a tug on the Thames, drifting up on the tides, knowing some of the crew would jump ship and forfiet wages. etc.etc. Factual accounts, Bone's other brother was a highly decorated RN officer. 

Undoudtedly, there were very many humorless masters sailing then. 

I could relate a number of incidents wereby the pen wasn't put to paper. One such, other than a brief account in the Admirally Sailing Directions of an incident on Socotra Island around 1911, another Bank Line ship had ran aground. Followed by a brief discription of the crew being attacked and some eaten, by the lighthouse keepers. I went to school and later sailed for a number of years with the grandson of one of the surviving crew, you can guess there are a number of good jokes still doing the round, but, a very true incident nonetheless.

Indeed Stephen, Jan de Hartog's timeless observations captures the mood of the men, seas, foreign parts and ships, better than most.


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## stein (Nov 4, 2006)

Stephen J. Card said:


> Here is a great book. Great author too!
> 
> 
> Here is a link for Free Download.
> ...


I think I have got a book by De Hartog in a Norwegian translation, one titled "Stella"- But what interests me now is another of your recommendations, one that just came in the door, "Histoire de la Marine." Since it is old enough to be out of copyright I might post a few pictures from it today - if I can make it fit in my scanner.


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## Stephen J. Card (Nov 5, 2006)

The original engraving chart for Socotra Island was done in 1835. The chart number in the Admiralty Catalogue is very low... about 8 or 12 I think. The work was done by Lt. Hurd. Notes one the chart, 'numerous dwellings on this hill' and 'Lt Hurd's track through the mountains'.

When doing chart corrections, bring out the chart and read the comments. I thought one day I would get the chart and then it make it into a coffee table.

Stephen


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## Stephen J. Card (Nov 5, 2006)

stein said:


> I think I have got a book by De Hartog in a Norwegian translation, one titled "Stella"- But what interests me now is another of your recommendations, one that just came in the door, "Histoire de la Marine." Since it is old enough to be out of copyright I might post a few pictures from it today - if I can make it fit in my scanner.


'Stella'! Never read it, but I know the film... too well! 'The Key'. Stars Raquel Welch, Holden. WW2 with excellent footage of salvage tugs... well, that is what it is all about. Excellent. Might be on You Tube.

Another pair from de Hartog, ' The Captain' and 'Captain Jan' Ah, I need to go back to the titles. One of the best about an atheist 'dwarf' captain. He has a small cargo ship running through Indonesia at the start of WW2. The Japanese are heading and he taking some people trying to flee. Then a priest and some nuns try to board, the captain says he will only bring them on board of they recant! The captain's dog growls at Christians! The dwarf captain, his booze and prostitutes on board make a for a great story.

Congratulations with your Histoire de la Marine! Bravo!

Stephen


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## stein (Nov 4, 2006)

harry t. said:


> stein; "Captain Bestic is unable to do that, there is no trace of humour in the book".
> 
> if possible, read Bone's account one voyage how the old man kept sailing southerly and refused to make a 'westing' around the Horn until he sold off the contents of the slop chest, or to anchor to bury his wife, refused a tug on the Thames, drifting up on the tides, knowing some of the crew would jump ship and forfiet wages. etc.etc. Factual accounts, Bone's other brother was a highly decorated RN officer.
> 
> ...


Anthropophagous light-house keepers, that is something that so far has stayed outside all of my readings. One can indeed see the possibility of some macabre jokes emerging from it. I think i faintly remember Jack London's Wolf Larsen eating his brother though, this in a late stage of his whaling career. But I think that was after a shipwreck, and that the man was described as quite hungry.


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## Stephen J. Card (Nov 5, 2006)

Here is what I have found...

"When the colonial Dutch survivors of the Japanese capture of Indonesia in 1941 petition the captain of a World War I salvage ship to rescue them, the captain, a hunchbacked atheist, demands that the priests and nuns among them renounce God."

I read it year ago. It was loaned. I wish I had bought a copy. Time to find one.

Stephen


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## harry t. (Oct 25, 2008)

Stephen; "Time to find one".

https://booksyouread.com/1/?a=2&cli...e Serpent: A Novel - Scholar's Choice Edition - read or download - a genuine site checking your not a robot.

THE TRAIL OF THE SERPENT


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## Stephen J. Card (Nov 5, 2006)

harry t. said:


> Stephen; "Time to find one".
> 
> [ read or download - a genuine site checking your not a robot.
> 
> THE TRAIL OF THE SERPENT


Bravo! I think this week I will be reading The Tail of the Serpent and then also Sailor's Life.

Thanks and best health to you!

Stephen


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