on the four to eight watch. I was
with the fourth engineer on the
eight to twelve whilst we were at
sea doing the Far Eastern coast and
together with the third engineer on
the twelve to four on our way home.
The watches were hard on the body
as you were in fact going to work
twice in every twenty-four hours
and sleep patterns were such that you
had two sessions of sleep during the
twenty-four hours.
Whilst in port, you were put on
port watches that were different from
seagoing watches and were designed
so that each officer had a similar
chance of some time ashore.
THE BLUE FUNNEL
LINE OPERATED FOUR
PORT WATCHES:
12noon to 17-00pm
5 hr on duty
17-00pm to 02-00am
9 hours on duty
02-00am to 08-00am
6 hours on duty
08-00am to 12-00 noon
4 hours on duty
How it worked was, you did one
watch and then skipped two but
it meant that your two co lleagues
were either on watch or sleeping
when you were off duty. Time ashore
generally meant going without sleep
because each day and every day,
whether the ship was at sea or in
port, you had to do your eight hours
watch duty. Standby duties were
additional to watch keeping and if
there was a breakdown, you would
by called upon for as long as it took.
Time off with sickness was not an
option, I remember having a tooth
extracted whilst in Singapore and
it was a very unpleasant experience
leaving me feeling very sore with a
gum infection. No excuses, I had to
keep my watches even though I was
totally exhausted.
Times were equally tough when
the ship was in heavy weather, with
no stabilisers the ship could role up
to thirty degrees and pitch like a
roller coaster when heading
into huge waves. We faced
waves up to sixty feet high
off the Cape of Good Hope,
which was quite scary. Sleep
deprivation took its toll and
at times we were seriously
exhausted. Fortunately, bad
weather didn’t occur that
often and for me, I was
lucky that I didn’t suffer
from seasickness. A lot of
it was common sense and
those that were regularly
sick, used to eat unwisely.
In really bad weather the galley was
closed and they provided us with a
French bread stick and a piece of
cheese to munch on.
I lost about two stones and my
weight stabilised at about ten stones.
My weight loss was not due to a lack
of food it was down to the excessive
heat in the engine room and the
constant running up a down steep
ladders within the engine room.
The temperature on the
manoeuvring platform was always
around 123 varying only slightly
with the external ambient air
temperature. There was no such thing
as air conditioning on a Victory ship,
instead air was drawn down from the
deck by large fans that distributed it
around the ship, including the engine
room. Once I had lost my excess
weight, I felt very fit except in bad
weather when everyone, whether
you were seasick or not felt very
tired and generally woozy.
Noise was a problem within
the engine room mainly coming
from the ships engine which was
a Westinghouse triple expansion
steam turbine, generating 6,000
horse power, with the high speed
shaft rotating at 15,000rpm. When
steaming full ahead, it was almost
impossible to hold a conversation
without shouting into each other’s
ears. We had no ear protection
whatsoever so I guess many crew
members would suffer from deafness
later on in their lives.
Ship Layout
Health and safety was very limited
on board and as well as no ear
protection, there were no hard hats
to protect your head from falling
objects or breathing masks to filter
out air borne asbestos from the
extensive insulation and lagging
which covered all the steam pipes
and valves.
I’ve already referred to the
main engine, which was fed with
superheated steam from twin boilers
built by Babcock and Wilcox,
providing steam at an operating
pressure of 465psi.
Electrical power was produced
by turbo generators, of which the
turbines were manufactured by
Joshua Hendy Iron Works, of San
Francisco. The coupled generators
had been designed and built by Allis
Chalmers of Milwaukee and they
produced 300kw of three wire DC
electricity.
The propulsion shaft, which
connected the main engine gearbox
to the ships propeller, was 16 inches
in diameter and rotated at 100 rpm.
This speed and power gave the ship
a top speed of 15 knots. Because
Talthybius was a relatively old lady
and heavily corroded around the
deck plates, we ran the prop shaft
at 90rpm, which gave us a normal
cruising speed of 11 knots. As well
as for safety reasons, it was also more
economical and efficient to run at
this slower speed. The ships propeller
was a four bladed bronze type,
weighing 29,765lbs (13.3tons) with