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Chapter three - page 7
Gladys
and Rufus
When I first knew my uncle Rufus, he was then on the farm at Prixford, he was a shortish, round rubicund man, always cheerful with always the quick rejoinder. I recall him usually singing, if not then whistling as he busied himself about the farm, he was the quintessential figure of ‘John Bull’, the British farmer although alas not himself at all cut out for that walk of life. Rufus had a heart of gold, he could no more send an animal to slaughter than do anyone a disservice. Was it my father who told Rufus and Gladys about East Africa and Uganda? I cannot say because Rufus himself was at the time at sea and may well have also been to East African ports. In fact Rufus came home only days before his marriage to Gladys and within days of that they were at sea on their way to Uganda. It was not then a common destination for those seeking better prospects than the mother country could give and to be honest I don’t think their going there was all that successful for within ten years they had returned to England.
Claude’s sister Gladys in East Africa. I think Gladys enjoyed her life in Uganda more than Rufus for my recollections are always of Gladys telling of their days in East Africa, not Rufus. |
Most of us base our ideas of a life at sea upon a cruise made on one of today’s plush liners. For Claude it could hardly have been more different. The most obvious contrasts were those of accommodation and food, no panelled stateroom, bathroom with fresh water, wide comfortable bed for Claude. Whilst on the large ocean liners passengers and the ships senior officers dined in style, the officers and crew of the same company’s cargo vessels dined on less sumptuous fair. The British Board of Trade laid down a basic food ration ‘per man per day’, most shipping companies kept rigidly to this on their cargo ships although I have to say that by the time I joined Union-Castle Line as a cadet in 1953 they had augmented the Board of Trade rations in respect of eggs from one per man per week to two. Usually the Captain purchased the food, money saved was money in his pocket so the quality and quantity of the food very largely depended upon the Master’s honesty. Fresh water was of course at a premium, ship’s with crews of about forty men had at most something I the region of one hundred tons of water, this to last anything up to 21 days.
Most washing was done in salt water; there would be one fresh water shower for the deck crew and another for the engine room stokers, similarly one for deck and one for engine room officers. It was not uncommon when on an extended passage for water rationing to be imposed, at such times the showers would be turned off. The lower deck crew lived in a communal dormitory, on many vessels still in the foc’stle but by the 1920’s ships were being built where the ratings lived right aft in the poop house. Officers usually but not always had their own private cabin, a small cheerless room in which you sweltered in heat and froze in colder climates. Lit by a single lamp, with normally only one porthole for ventilation the cabin would be equipped with a narrow bunk seaman’s bunk beneath which were draws, a writing table, chair and narrow horse hair stuffed bench along one bulkhead. As on most ships watches were kept on open bridges with little or no shelter from the elements after two or so days everything would be damp. In this the engineers were perhaps better off in colder weather, their cabins being situated around the engine room casing giving them warmth and a handy drying surface for clothes. In the tropics you could fry an egg on the bulkheads.
Most ships by necessity had at least one cat; on one ship I sailed on we had fourteen. These cats were necessary to keep in check the rat population; although ships would be fumigated regularly rats came on in cargo and simply hopping over the rail. Then there were the cockroaches and weevils; pantries, galleys and cabins were full of them.
The hours worked at sea were by today’s standards impossibly long, on many ships there being only two watchkeeping officers they would do ‘four on, four off’. Even on those with three watchkeepers other duties such as chart correcting, checking lifeboats and so forth made certain that a minimum of twelve hours a day was worked. It was not a healthy life, tuberculosis was rife and, without a doctor on board medical attention was minimal and in the care of the Second Officer who was in charge of the medical stores. For as long as you were signed on the ship’s articles it was seven days a week, no overtime paid for work at weekends and a few days leave for each month spent at sea. But Claude would have counted himself amongst the luckier ones,
for at least he had a ship and continuous employment, for many once they had signed off their current ship there was no promise of another and no money being earned.
Although the ‘Hunslet’ signed off articles on the 5th of April 1921 from the Master’s letter of reference d it is seen that Claude only left the ship 0n the 25th April, presumably the ship was discharging her cargo during this time in Greenock. Claude would not be joining another vessel until the 17th of June 1921 when he signed on the ‘Walmer Castle’, again as Fourth Officer. It is difficult to say what Claude was doing for these three months, but in all probability he was doing duty as ‘ship-keeper’ to a vessel in port although it is possible that I was incorrect in saying he sat for his Mates Certificate in 1920 after leaving the ‘Ipu’. I think my former supposition to be correct because I do not think Claude would have been signed on the ‘Hunslet’ as Second Officer had he only held a Second Mates.
d) It is curious that this is the only letter of reference Claude kept for he must have had a certificate of reference for each vessel he served on, it being a requirement when calculating sea and watch keeping service before sitting for a certificate. It is just a possibility but unlikely that Claude may have thought of joining a ship belonging to another company hence the last remark. The curious feature of this reference is that it is hand written, those for James Morris R.N. and my own at a later date are on a printed form, I am sure Claude’s were normally on such a form.
Claude was again being sent out to Cape Town to join another vessel, the ‘York Castle’ as Second Officer, exchanging the relative comfort of the ‘Walmer Castle’ for the basic necessities of life on the ‘York Castle’ on the 5th of July 1921.
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