St Helena, SS Ohio

[pete grahamParticipant @petegraham99294]

Hi Bob, I have been interested in reading all the various posts on St Helena herein and also in the MN forum. where a member, Bryan Postwig has posted a couple of photos of the ship, which show two large white structures on the foredeck. I have never seen this sort of gear before and assume it is some form of advanced heavy lift cargo handling equipment, but which I note is not included in your line drawing of the ship introducing modelling notes.

With reference to the Falklands , was she recruited as a fleet auxiliary.. She is /was a fascinating ship and I can understand how your long service ion her is so memorable to you.

The OHIO. Cannot remember where I obtained them many years ago but I have copy of full size (42" x28&quot GA drawings dated 10th Sept. 1942 of Ohio at 1/16 th inches to the foot. . Full details of superstructure and oil- tank layout …..but sadly no deck top pipeline system shown. I noted your comments about not proceeding with a model owing to lack of this information……but nevertheless if these drawings are of any use to you I will gladly let you have them..

Pete.

[pete grahamParticipant @petegraham99294]

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Hi Pete,

Just been directed to the above via your post in the 900-ton barque. I am not sure what you mean by two large white strutures on deck. There were two St. Helenas, and I sailed in both of them. The old one had no advanced cargo-handling equipment, just derricks. The new ship had two cranes, but I have never done a line drawing of the new one. Have you a link to the image you mean?

Bob

[pete grahamParticipant @petegraham99294]

Hi Bob

thanks for your immediate reply….. I'll be back on forum later today. Family duties!

Pete

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Maybe you are talking about this ship, the second RMS St Helena. I sailed in this ship, but did not build this model. It was owned by the company, and someone dropped it, and I got the job of repairing it. Those two white things on the foredeck are just cargo cranes, nothing special about them. This ship was not requisitioned for anythin, she was only completed in 1989, and came off the St Helena run two years ago, but is still sailing elsewhere under the same name. I have never done a line drawing of this ship! It was the first St Helena (1978 – 1990 that was requisitioned for the Falklands.   The two white blocks in front of the bridge are cargo containers. 

Bob

 

Edited By Bob Wilson on 07/05/2020 15:13:45

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

This is the St Helena drawing that I did of the first one – 1978 – 1990 –

Bob

[pete grahamParticipant @petegraham99294]

Hi Bob,

Yes, the image in the MN forum is the 2nd St Helena….with the legend "EXTREME" plastered across its flanks.

I had a much better squint at the picture and the cranes are obvious now but nevertheless very robust with what appear to be heavy duty topping lifts. . A nice looking ship but quite unusual.

Incidentally, I found a 3rd St Helena a liberty ship , originally "Samloyal".

I have taken up a bit of your time on this…thank you.

With Regards

Pete.

Oh, by the way, I gather that you are not interested in the Ohio drawings. I think that if the 42 in. sheet wasn't showing so many creases and folds I would consider framing it. Would make a decent wall covering. but I can guess what my wife would have to say…

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Hi Pete,

That explains it. The image you have seen with "Extreme" painted on it shows the ship in her new role as a floating paddock to carry Extreme racing cars and their drivers to race in various parts of the world where the conditions are extreme. All the cars will, of course, be carried on board, so maybe they have altered the cranes, I must have a look. I knew about St Helena, ex Samloyal, and have built a model of it – see below. I have basic plans of Ohio, and considered building it in the past, but no pipe layout shown. But if I had built it, it would have been in Texaco colours. I don't have any particular dislike for war scenes and warships, but I find the grey colour rather drab and boring. I even dislike grey merchant ships. Also the modelling world is absolutely dominated by warships and I find that reading about one sea battle is pretty much like the rest of them, and probably not very pleasant to take part in either. I have built a couple of warships, HMS Dreadnought (Battleships) and HMS Norfolk (heavy cruiser). Also Louisiana, a Texaco oil tanker very similar to Ohio –

Bob

Edited By Bob Wilson on 07/05/2020 17:55:01

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Lousiana

Bob

[pete grahamParticipant @petegraham99294]

Hi Bob,

Thanks for reply.

Even by a wildest guess I would never have thought of a customised racing car transporter. Never! ..

It was going to be a bit awkward securing a link from the MN forum so I aborted the idea. but hopefully you will find a picture elsewhere.

Pete

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

All the cars will be electric as well! Here is a short movie of it. **LINK**

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

And here is a 48 minutes one of the final departure from St Helena – **LINK**

[pete grahamParticipant @petegraham99294]

Hi Bob,

What a very emotional send off which obviously affected everyone both on the island and on the ship…the end of an era and very sad for many.

The actual filming of the event was done so well too.

It must have taken a long while for you and all your shipboard colleagues,as well as the islanders to come to terms with this event

With Regards

Pete

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Hi Pete,

It didn't bother me all that much. I was only there for about two years from 1990 to October 1992 when I left the sea, having got fed up of the whole show. (After 31 years!). The ship was more comfortable than the old one, but for me was a technological nightmare. My best years were spent on the 1st St. Helena where I was from 1979 to 1990. My decision to leave was taken because despite having to work harder than I ever had done before with all the latest electronic systems, an international decision had ben taken to dispense with the services of radio officers on a world-wide scale before the year 2000 – which they did. The work we used to do, was shared on between heads of departments and the electrical officers. I have kept in touch with a lot of old shipmates both UK and St Helena based,, many of whom left about the time that I did. The airport has not been all that much of a success, and many wish they had got a new ship instead of an airport. My association with the island began in 1973, when I was chief radio officer of the Union-Castle liner Good Hope Castle. When they sold that, I was fortunate enough to get asked to join the St Helena..

Bob

[pete grahamParticipant @petegraham99294]

Hi Bob, I obviously have not kept in touch with matters marine as much as I though I had t because I had absolutely no idea that radio officers, as such were dispensed with in , or before 2000.

I bet that there were some panicky moments when Ship masters suddenly realized that they could no longer rely on a specialst RO. Was the morse code system also abandoned then also in favour of speech.

Pete.

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Morse was maintained right until the end of the R/O era, but after that, it finished and it was all satellite phone calls in excess of £3.50 a minute, teleprinter messages, e-mails and fax. All the main radio stations around the world closed down, Portishead, New York, Halfiax, Vancouver, Sydney,Mauritius Nordeich, Scheveningen, Roma etc, hundreds of them in fact. I was glad to go. At least eight hours a day in the radio room typing and sending telex messages, making phone calls etc. Then when supposed to be off duty, working in other parts of the ship from engine room to bridge repairing computers, videos, fire alarm systems, public address systems, satellite communications, radar installations, internal telephone system, automatic steering computers etc as well as all the transmitters and receivers in the radio office, and I was the only R/O aboard. In Good Hope Castle, there were two of us and in Windsor Castle, four or five! My wife and I visited the ship some time after I had left (wife had sailed with me for a number of years in both ships), and what I once did was shared out amongst the other officers. Another thing that helped me to leave was that in 1992, the whole lot of us from captain down, were made redundant and received redundancy pay, and then offered our jobs back at a 30% pay cut! – No chance as far as I was concerned! I took up writing and model shipbuilding full time after I left that saw me through from age 48 to age 62 when I was able to take my pension. I would, however, do it all again if I was leaving school again in 1959, but if I was leaving school today, I would not even consider going to sea! I haven't the slightest interest in modern ships. Here I am in my last few days at sea, repairing a telephone handset . A passenger took when I wasn't looking, and sent it to me later!

Bob

Edited By Bob Wilson on 09/05/2020 13:09:39

Edited By Bob Wilson on 09/05/2020 13:11:34

Edited By Bob Wilson on 09/05/2020 13:12:24

[pete grahamParticipant @petegraham99294]

Hi Bob,

That is a very interesting summary of your final few years as RO and I can well understand your reaction to all the extra responsibilities you were saddled with outside your watch. Was this obligatory ?. I don't suppose it stopped either when ship was in port . In the 50s and 60s I was with BP and Esso tankers and the ROs ( Marconi men) would be completely off watch for the duration of loading or discharging and that could sometimes be quite a number of days. There was sometimes a bit of good natured teasing about this as we mates set to with our 6 0n 6 0ff cargo watches.

You mentioned that the ROs duties are now shared with other officers. Anthony Clare , a journalist , wrote a very good account of life on a couple of Maersk container ships …..he doesn;t specifically mention the radio dept. but I was astonished to read that the functions of deck and engine room are being combined into one as far as examinations are concerned. The engine room now is all push button and the bridge is all satellite positioning. And the morse code is gone and so have the sextants..

I have no interest at all in the modern ships either….in fact, they don't look like ships any more.!! I had a great time away at sea in the 50s /60s but, like you, wouldn't venture forth now.

Pete

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Hi Pete,

It was not exactly compulsory, but someone had to do it, and we all worked pretty hard in the new ship. I rememebr one afternoon taking some telexes down to the captain and he jokingly asked me why I didn't get a wheelbarrow. I asked why, and he said "so you can bring all the messages down together!" But it really was that bad. I could get ashore in Cape Town, because if the captain went off, which he often did, he wouldn't see any messages until he got back anyway. In fact when my wife was travelling, he often asked why we didn't stay in a hotel in Cape Town for the week like the doctor and his wife, but I always felt that the office would moan if messages were missed on account of me not being there. The captain got fed up of it all before me, and left before I did, but we still keep in touch. Whilst we were on mine clearance support in the Falklands in 1982/83, most of the time we were anchored in the mined areas with our two RN minehunters, HMS Brecon and HMS Ledbury, coming and going and dealing with the mines and unexploded bombs, So I did an anchor watch in rotation with the three mates and an RN Fleet Chief and we each did 4 on, 16 off, so I had plenty to do. I had no radio duties at all because it was radio silence on HF and MF, and we had two extra radio rooms fitted and staffed by 11 RN operators and their CPO using the satellite communications for everything . In my last cargo ship, the log carrier Bandama between Union-Castle and St Helena, I worked six on six off in port when required, supervising the stowage of a full hold of coffee in number one, with the 2nd R/O, whilst the 2nd and 3rd mates did 6 on, six off on deck with the logs and that was really hard going in the heat of West Africa where we could be in the river at Abidjan for over a month, followed by two more weeks in the lagoon at San Pedro, a few miles up the coast. But generally, I found the life very satisfying. What company were you in?

Bob

[pete grahamParticipant @petegraham99294]

Hi Bob, I did a four year deck apprenticeship with British Tankers as the Co. was then and another 3 years with Esso, as 3rd Mate. If I had stayed put I would hopefully have elevated to 2nd Mate but came ashore shortly after getting my mates ticket and joined a firm in the field of marine thermal and acoustic insulation, which kept me in very close physical contact with the shipping world through owners and shipbuilders which was very satisfying.

So, nothing really particular about my sea time but I did enjoy it immensely, made some good friends, sadly mostly departed now. I was lucky enough to make a complete round the world voyage on my first ship. Went shark fishing in the Pacific and got chased by a salt water crocodile in Australia.

I am now coming up to my 87th , very deaf, , have one good eye and poor legs but a wonderful family, 2 dogs , a damn nice garden. and a consuming interest in miniature ship models.

Pete.. .,

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Hi Pete,

Thanks for info. I was only in one tanker, and didn't like it. Main reason, we spent six months lightering at Galveston Bar taking 55,000 tons a time from VLCCs and taking it to the Houston refinery a mere 5 hours away, with one voyage to the Bahamas or Mexico every month because of US rules, but only got ashore for 2 or 3 hours on one occasion in the whole six months. That was between Union-Castle ending, and getting in St Helena two years later. But St Helena was the best, as a lot of us had been sailing together since the mid 60s in the Castles. Here is my tanker, Algol, where I spent three months standing by the building in Cammell Lairds, then 6 months off Houston. Fortunately, most of my 31 years was spent in passenger liners, and it was even better when my wife could travel free of charge as well in both St Helenas. – Bob

[pete grahamParticipant @petegraham99294]

Hi Bob

Six months lightering at Galveston would be enough to drive most people to despair…..were you keeping normal watches. And the mates , were they on 6 on/off schedule.. The monthly voyage to Mexico or Bahamas would be a bit of a rellief perhaps but wondered if this US rule was out of consideration for the crew. Couldn't be!

You will remember the term " The Abadans" which referred to crews stuck on ships anchored off the bar at Shatt al Arab river in Iraq, awaiting berths and / or off loading into lighters., sometimes for a long time. Mainly dry cargo ships, I believe, and Strick boats seemed to be the main victims. I had a friend with Stricks and I don't know how he stuck it out.

Interesting name for a ship, Algol ( ghoul from Arabic) , dubbed the demon star and represents the head of the gorgon in the constellation Perseus.

Pete

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Hi Pete,

I did normal radio watches and the three mates did 4 hours on, 8 hours off. Although I couldn't use the main transmitter whilst we were pumping oil, VHF phone calls to and from our charterers, Atlantic Ritchfield, were pretty continuous, so we were all kept very busy. The US rule did not allow foreign ships to remain permanently coastal, hence a short deep sea voyage once a month, but we couldn't get ashore in the Bahamas because it was an oil jetty, and the same if we went to Philadelphia. In Coatzacoalcos, Mexico, there was nothing on the shore anyway. We spent two weeks in a backwater in Houston following a boiler explosion that took two weeks to repair. That is when I got ashore for a couple of hours, but nothing worth going ashore for anyway in that location. We knew about the name Algol. Not long after I left, a bad accommodation fire killed three of the officers, including the radio officer. The company had asked me if I wanted to go back after my first six months, but I declined, and asked for the brand new Silveravon instead, and got it. Initially it was a 16,000 ton container ship, but after one voyage to Jeddah and various Mediterranean ports, they sold it to West Africa and renamed it Bandama and converted it to a general cargo/log carrier., with us still manning it. Very good ship, numerous good Mediterranean ports to discharge logs and coffee, then load general in Marseilles (about a week to load), then off to the the river in Abidjan to spend at least a month at a time loading logs and coffee. Six hours up the coast to San Pedro and another two weeks loading logs on deck then back to the Mediterranean. As we came out of San Pedro one night, we spoke to the St Helena on her first voyage on the Cape Mail run, and speaking to old friends aboard, the captain phoned their head office next morning and said I would be happey to join as they only had a temporary R/O. They agreed, I resigned from Silver Line, and flew home from the Mediterranean and spent my final 13 years at sea in both St. Helenas.

Bob

[pete grahamParticipant @petegraham99294]

Hi Bob

The tanker trade certainly did have a reputation for unflavoursome loading and discharging ports. I can certainly imagine your thoughts on Algol with only one visit ashore for a couple of hours. It is a bit soul destroying. I think I was a very lucky guy as out of the 9 tankers I served on only one, British Skill was on the constant and unremitting Gulf Uk run. Other ships made the odd, one off run to the Gulf but for the most part we were on refined products and mostly ended up discharging in decent accessible locations.,,,,both here in the UK and on the continent.

I wondered whether your contact with St Helena was accidental ….a very fortuitous event anyhow and I suppose you wonder where life may have led if you had not rejoined her.. Obviously a very special ship and Company to spend 13 years with. Did you take leave perhaps annually when the ships were in dry dock.

Pete.

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Hi Pete,

Plenty of leave. When I first joined, I did two trips together (four months). After that it was one voyage on, one voyage off, leaving and joining in Avomouth, until 1982 when the MOD grabbed us for the South Atlantic in 1982. I had just done two months, but went south with the ship, as my opposite number was from New Zealand, so couldn't go. I had very little leave until the summer of 1983 when we were released, although I did get flown home twice for a few weeks break . Then back to one on one off until Halloween night 1984 when we caught fire on the way back from Cape Town. Drifted for a week with tanker Oversea Argonaut standing by in case we had to abandon. Picked up by salvage tug after a week and towed to Dakar where it took one month to repair us, and then back to Cape Town again. So by the time I got home, I had done four months, but then got four months off. No more dramas until 1990 when one of the new ship's engines (twin screw) destroyed itself off Lisbon on the way back from the maiden voyage. My first two months were spent aboard in Falmouth drydock whilst they cut the side out of the ship and put a new engine in. Then my wife joined, and we both sailed in the ship togehter for voyage two. Then one on, one off again after that until I left in late 1992. I had been going to St Helena since 1973 in Good Hope Castle. When we met St. Helena, the 3rd mate was talking to them on the VHF and mentioned that I had been in Union-Castle. He phoned down to the bar, and I went up and found a load of old friends there, and the offer of employment as well.

Bob

[pete grahamParticipant @petegraham99294]

Hi Bob,

I just haven't been keeping in touch with the personnel side of seafaring for some time …years obviously , and am staggered at the leave arrangements which you enjoyed in the 80s. I cannot remember at all what our leave entitlement was in the 50/ 60s but it might have been of the order of 1 week for each month served. An uncle of mine was at sea before the 1920s ……leave entitlement was very grim indeed. His ship was discharging in the Tyne and he was given local leave to get married. During the wedding ceremony he received a telegram telling him to rejoin immediately ….which he did but didn't see his new bride for over a year. An old bride by then.

Out of action and drifting for a week in the Atlantic and then an engine blowing up 6 years later sounds like high adventure…but not the sort you need…….I hope that there were no casualties.

There are a lot worse places to be than Falmouth, I enjoyed some time there in drydock. A great place.

You have mentioned a few times that your wife was able to join you . Skippers and Ch.engineers were allowed this privilege but I was only on one ship where this happened. And I have to say that it did make for a very pleasant on board atmosphere .

Pete

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