Jamaica by John Ford.
Part 1 Home again.
I made my way to the port of Avonmouth in early July to join a new ship,
the S.S.Chicanoa, one of Elders & Fyffe’s, a skin boat. I signed on as A/Stwd.
That day I would have signed on as anything, because I was returning to my
mother’s home country. All my relatives had organised special visits, all out
to show me around the island.
My Jamaican family have lived there since the time of Henry Morgan the Privateer;
Mum, and aunts insisting we are descendents of Portuguese traders.
Who knows, I do know one of them was hanged as a pirate, it's documented in our family bible, and Port Royal’s archives. My grandfather was a high court
circuit judge, Judge Tucker lived to be 97 yrs old. My grandmother, a retired
Govt officer, lived to be 107 yrs old.
I digress, forgive me, the Chicanoa was a small ship, gross 6,300 tons, 14 passengers, and a crew of 42. Usually she carried bananas from the British Cameroons to Avonmouth, back to West Africa, return to Garston, Liverpool.
The final leg of the triangle back to W. Africa, and return to Avonmouth.
I was lucky in that she was chartered to United Fruit, W. Indies to U.K.
A relative worked in the shipping office in Bristol, and gave me the nod, securing a berth for me. The chief steward came from Southampton, a great guy, the catering staff regarded as his family. So much so, when taking our salt tablets, we washed them down with demerara rum, Four Bells. Still my favourite today.
A ritual we had on the ship was: on pay off day all the local crew came up to
Bristol and met our wives/girlfriends in the Drawbridge pub, adjacent to the
old Marks & Spencers, sadly now long gone, buried under the new Cabot Circus,
the ch/stwd joining us before catching his train down south. The day before signing on again, this was repeated.after our leave was over. She was a happy ship.
We had a wonderful crew, the officers treated us fine. I remember we had a
contingent of nurses, matron, four staff nurses, and the rest S.R.N’s. All the junior
Officers were vying for their attention. I’m too much of a gent to tell stories out of
school, plus as engineer’s steward, I pulled large dropsies to keep quiet, the 2nd
steward did wonder why the engineer’s laundry allowance shot up, but a case of
beer solved that. Orangiboom beer, little stubbies of liquid gold, typing this I had
a flashback, and the taste came to me in a rush. (When asked later, back on shore
did I miss the sea, moments like that always prompted me to say; you bet.)
Another instance arose during the outward bound voyage. Because we had the full complement of passengers, plus one of the company directors on board, the
2nd stwd was busy, so I was tasked being the old man's tiger. So I now had six engs
Chief eng, and skipper to look after. Capt. W. H. Young was fair but a perfectionist,
so fair he surprised me by saying, when we docked at Kingston, I could have the
time ashore off, and rejoin when loading was finished at Ocho Rios, so I could visit with my family.
Please go to page 2.
