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With Dr. Reuben Goossens
Maritime
Historian – Cruise Reviewer in the Passenger Shipping
Industry since 1960
Shaw Savill
&
The Corinthic
Class Liners
The
Rob Wilson Story - 9th.Engineer on S.S. Corinthic 1961/62
SS Corinthic
was the first of the series of four ships to be completed in
April 1947
Form the
author’s private collection
Please
note: Images on this page, except for those marked otherwise,
have been provided by Robert Wilson and these must not be copied
by any media for private use or any other purposes, without
having requested permission from the author and Mr. Wilson!
Introduction:
I received the following story and documentation from Robert Cole
Wilson in the
*****************************************
I
joined the British Merchant Navy on September 20, 1961 and my
first ship was the Shaw Savill liner SS Corinthic on October 31,
1961. I had completed my apprenticeship as a Fitter at C. A.
Parsons Ltd, in
This is a
rather rare photo of me in full uniform taken on Main Deck
In
all I did three round trips from England to New Zealand, sailing
via the Panama Canal earning in the process the total sum of
£719.88 sterling. Each voyage took around three and a half
months, and included five to six weeks on the
One
of my reasons for joining the Merchant Navy was I thought, as it
has to be sai I was still very naive and a bit of a greenhorn,
and not as yet a 22 year old, that I would be having a wonderful
time and living in the lap of luxury, eating wonderful food and
perhaps spending my free time keeping fit running millions of
laps around the deck. Well the food on board was very good, no
complaints there, but as far as accommodations is concerned, for
the most Junior of Junior Engineers, my cabin although
satisfactory, it could be better described as being very basic.
In addition I was assigned to the 12 to 4 watch and the
combination of these very unsociable hours and the gruelling heat
of the Engine Room meant that the shock to my system was such
that it was all I could do to stay awake for my meals. However, I
soon got used to it and by the time I left the Corinthic at the
end of my third round voyage on the November 27, 1962 to gain
further experience with another company on a new ship, I had
thoroughly enjoyed my time with the Shaw Savill Albion Line.
One of the pleasant and memorable experiences for me was to be able to watch the latest movies at night out on the open deck while the ship glided her way through the South Pacific, and all this in complete comfort. The projector and large screen were usually rigged up by the seamen. This was all done under the supervision of the Chief Electrician and Bosun and it was always performed without a hitch.
Here is
my Seaman’s Record Book, showing all my voyages:
As
for a few anecdotes here are a few that I can remember quite
vividly:
The
first deals with the patterns and standards of behaviour that
were observed while on board the Corinthic. As Engineers we were
officially Officers, but most sea going engineers will tell you
that we always had the feeling that the Deck Officers regarded us
as a little below their status in life. This caused quite a lot
of friendly “horseplay” and chat between the two
factions and it was the case that while we had passengers on
board the Engineers were required to take their meals in a Dining
Room, which was separate from the Dining Room where the
passengers and the Deck Officers took theirs. However, whilst we
were along the
The second story deals with what might be termed typical Engine Room humour, but first you have to have a little understanding of the workings of Steam Turbines and Oil Fired Main Boilers. When a ship is manoeuvring into or out of a port there are a lot of Engine movements to comply with i.e., half ahead port, half astern starboard, slow ahead both etc., etc. This makes for fluctuating demands for steam from the boilers requiring changes in settings on both the boilers and engines. If this is not done quickly and accurately then the end result is lots of thick black smoke coming from the funnel and this is not good when you have a shipload of first class passengers on board and they are all out on deck watching what is going on as we are leaving port. On one such occasion when we were required to cope with an unusual amount of engine movements in very quick succession, we were all running about like idiots when the telephone from the Bridge went and the Second Engineer, who was well known for his colourful use of the English language, snatched it off it’s cradle and in a bit of a temper and yelled “WHAT NOW?” The next thing we heard him say was “Well what the (bleep) hell do you expect, (bleeping) ICE CREAM?” This of course was in response to being told by the hapless mate up on the Bridge that “there was far too much smoke coming out of the Funnel!”
The next images cover my “Engineer’s Certificate of Service & Character” and three Wages Slips:
Photograph
© Dave Edge –
Above
you see the SS Corinthic arriving in Lyttleton and I was on board
at the time and it was my second voyage on her. At the time her
Captain was: Captain A. C. Jones, the Chief Engineer being Frank Papworth,
the Second Engineer was Tony Goodman, and the Fourth Engineer was
Doug (Duggie) Reed.
The
Corinthic was without a doubt a wonderful ship and my time on her
provided some wonderful days, and now aged 70 she certainly has
provided me with so many great memories. In addition, she gave me
a good start in the industry!
Return
to: SS Corinthic Class Liners – The history
page of all four ships
Over
the years Reuben has received thousands of Dear Dr. Goossens emails of thanks
and on this page there are just some of them.
The
following are all my Shaw Savill features on ssMaritime.com
1...
SS Athenic Class Ships:
These three fine liners built in 1902/03 introduced two of
the names on this page
2… QSMV Dominion Monarch: She was Shaw Savill’s the ultimate Super Luxury Liner.
3…
SS Corinthic Class Liners:
Four fine Luxury Passenger Cargo ships built in
1947/48.
4…
SS
Corinthic Part Two:
The
story by S.S. Corinthic’s Engineer by the man himself
being Rob Wilson who served onboard from 1961 to 1962.
5…
Royal Yacht “R.Y. Gothic:
Currently being up dated, back online soon.
6…
SS
Southern Cross:
A 23 webpage feature on a revolutionary passenger liner!
***********************************
“Blue
Water Liners sailing to the distant shores.
I watched them come, I watched them go and I watched them die.”
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Last
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of reading!
**************************
The
Author has been in Passenger Shipping & the Cruise Industry
since 1960.
“Managing
Director”, and “Owned a Cruise Company”
In
addition he was founder of “Save the Classic Liners
Campaign” in 1990.
Please
Note: ssmaritime and associated sites are 100% non-commercial
and the author seeks no funding of any shape or form,
never have and never will!
Photographs
on ssmaritime and associate pages are by; the author
or from the author’s private collection. In addition there
are some images that have been provided by Shipping Companies and
private photographers or collectors. Credit is given to all
contributors. However, there are some photographs provided to me
without details regarding the photographer/owner concerned, so
sorry if this is the case.
This
notice covers all pages; although, and I have done my best
to ensure that all photographs are duly credited and that this
notice is displaced on each page, that is, when a page is
updated!
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Copyright by Reuben Goossens - All Rights
Reserved.