By Brian Ingpen
MARITIME MEMORIES
Clockwise from bottom left: Riebeeck Castle in Cape Town circa 1950. She and her sistership Rustenburg Castle entered service in 1946 and were slightly larger than their earlier consorts. Both vessels were scrapped in 1971. Photograph: Brian Ingpen/George Young Collection In the 1930s, Union-Castle chartered five sisterships from the Lamport & Holt group to carry South African fruit to Britain. One of these was the 1917-built Millais, seen arriving in Cape Town circa 1934. She was sold to Blue Star Line in 1938 and renamed Scottish Star under which name she was sunk in February 1942. Her sisterships that were also used on the South African fruit run. Photograph: Brian Ingpen/George Young Collection Completed in January 1945 as a replacement for her earlier namesake that had been sunk in World War 2, Roxburgh Castle sails from Cape Town in about 1946. She was scrapped in 1971. Photograph: Brian Ingpen/George Young Collection
Safmarine modernised its fleet in the ‘eighties and, after operational restructuring, the reefers traded further afield in the off-season. That part of Safmarine’s operation ceased when it was purchased by the Restis Group in 1999, leaving chartered ships to carry South African bulk fruit exports.
Out of season lay ups In the South African off-season, some of the fruit ships that moved our fruit, mostly British vessels in the 1950s, went into layup in various locations prior to pre-season refits and drydocking. One lay-up anchorage was the River Blackwater in Essex, north-east of London. The sheltered estuary became a popular lay-up because it was closer to London than another good lay-up, the River Fal in Cornwall. The sheltered Scottish sea lochs were used by some companies to lay up their vessels, as is happening in the current downturn in the North Sea oil industry, resulting in dozens of rigs and oil platforms laying idle in those calm waters. For most large British companies, however, the lochs were simply too far from the London or Liverpool head offices for regular use as lay-ups. As larger tankers came into service, dozens of smaller, obsolete tankers, including some of Shell’s famous H-class and N-class, steamed slowly up the river to anchor among the growing fleet that eventually topped 40 vessels late in the 1950s. Most of these went prematurely to the breakers. Even Shaw Savill’s passenger steamer Gothic came up the river in the late 1950s, a rather ignominious voyage following her earlier service as the Royal Yacht for the Royal Family’s Australasian tour in 1953.
Although she returned to service later, she and two sisterships, Athenic and Corinthic, also spent time in the gloomy anchorage in 1968. Vessels in Blackwater represented a wide cross-section of British shipping lines of the time. Locals would have spotted Union-Castle’s intermediate liners Rhodesia Castle and Kenya Castle in Blackwater in 1967. All the Union-Castle fruit ships, such familiar callers at South African fruit terminals, spent several off-seasons in the Blackwater anchorage.
Economic opportunities Many folks living near the river gained employment, sometimes only temporarily, from the presence of these ships. As each ship arrived, her anchors were laid out on the seabed. Connected to the anchor chains, a swivel allowed her to swing with the tide and wind. Local fishing boat owners supplemented their declining catch earnings by helping with the anchor work, or ferrying crewmembers to and from the laid-up ships. Instead of retiring to an off-season layup, some fruit ships were pressed into the West Indian banana and pineapple trades, joining vessels from renowned companies such as Fyffes or Geest on fast services from the Caribbean to Britain and Europe. Other reefer ships were used for their owners’ dry cargo services in the off-season. A seasoned salt who served in the Union-Castle reefer ships remembers his ship loading steel plates in Middlesborough for South Africa, but the damage caused to the insulation inside the holds was such that the cost of repairs must have consumed most of the profit on the cargo.
A good life aboard and ashore Most who served on the old Union-Castle reefers thoroughly enjoyed their time aboard. Shipboard life in those days was characterised by large homogeneous crews; elegant dining with white-jacketed stewards bringing meat on silver platters and a range of the best wines; scratched 16mm films that were screened several times during a voyage (and then shown backwards for a laugh); a genial saloon spirit that included the regular darts competitions; the voyage general knowledge quiz, and lengthy spells in port. Loading in South African ports took about five days; the usual discharge ports in northwest Europe worked cargo only during daylight hours and not at all at weekends, leaving much time for runs ashore to the benefit of the largely British crews. “That was a civilised way of seafaring,” chuckled my old salt acquaintance, as he contrasted his more leisurely life at sea to the twenty-first century’s high-pressure containership operations that benefit shipowners and shippers, but make sea-going careers less attractive.
Fruit shipment today Fruit shipment technology has changed. Thousands of refrigerated containers now carry the majority of South African fruit exports. The larger containerships on the South African service have about 1,000 reefer spaces that are full on most northbound voyages during the season. But I still remember those Union-Castle R-boats, with their derricks swung outboard, loading boxes of apples brought by steam trains from the Elgin orchards. Maritime Review Africa JULY / AUGUST 2016
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