# A True Sad Story



## Ian (Mar 27, 2004)

Not being a tanker man, I had only taken the ship because the clerk in the pool office said it was only going to Curacao and home but imagine my delight when I discovered that an AB and a greaser were, not only from my home town Herne Bay, but two lads who had been in the same class as me at Herne Bay Council School in the thirties. Freddy Pressley was the AB and Vernon Stroud was the greaser.
It had been a long trip so far and no knowing when it would end. A Shell tanker, we had been around the West Indies, Venezuela, up and down the west coast of South America, to the Mediterranean, the Persian Giulf and now we were in France. A small port called Petit Couronne on the River Seine discharging crude for the local refinery..
Up to this point it had been a very interesting trip and we had had many adventures. Any way, this particular day Freddy and I were painting the draught figures at the stern; at least Freddy was. He was in a bosun’s chair and I was lowering him down and pulling him up. Luckily he was quite light and luckily I was quite strong.
All was going well. He was painting away and I was smoking away when suddenly there was a muffled, kind of bang. The ship shook. 
The motor ship had an auxiliary steam, oil-fired boiler and for some reason the forced draught had been shut down. I don’t know the exact story but the three greasers who had been in the engine room were caught in a blow back.
The three men were brought up and taken to hospital. They were shiny, jet black. Vernon lost an ear and one man died in hospital. I can’t remember what happened to the third fellow. I have forgotten much of what happened next but we were soon at sea again and back to the Gulf for more crude..


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