Sophomore
year (3rd Class year) was Sea Year. Cadets sailed on commercial
merchant ships for the entire academic year. My first ship was the
African Meteor,
a Farrell Lines C-4 (C4-S-58a, 575 feet long, built at Ingalls
Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, MS). I could not have asked for a better
ship on which to start my Sea Year. Built in 1962, she was in excellent
condition and her crew was outstanding. Capt. George R. Hickey was the
Commodore of the Farrell Lines fleet and as such had the ability to
hand-pick his officers. He chose wisely. Chief Mate Gerry Purslow,
Second Mate John Finley, and Third Mates Dave Hutchins and Doug Torborg
were all very good tutors. I was assigned to the 4 to 8 watch with John
Finley. He could navigate with the best of them and taught me an
efficient and accurate way to take stars. Celestial navigation using a
sextant was the primary means of ocean navigation in those days.
American ships were commonly fitted with LORAN but the range and
coverage were limited so once a ship got a couple of days offshore, the
only reliable navigation instrument available was the sextant, weather
permitting. I really enjoyed celestial navigation, especially taking
the "noon" sight. Most landlubbers think noon is 12:00. It is not.
Noon is when the sun reaches its highest point at your location so the
clock time is different depending on where you are. On ships, the time
of LAN (Local Apparent Noon) is calculated to the second for your
position. At that immediate time, the sun will either be exactly north
or south of you. By using a sextant to measure the angle of the sun,
you can accurately determine your latitude. Working the LAN sunline
formula backward prior to noon allows you to pre-calculate the
approximate angle of the sun. The sextant can then be set to this
angle. When taking the sight, you can watch the sun move through the
shaded and magnified telescope and it is easy to tell when it has
reached its apex. At that instant,
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| The Sextant |
|
you click a stopwatch and head for the chart room to
check the chronometer time. The stopwatch time is applied to the
chronometer time to calculate the exact second the noon sight was
taken. By doing the necessary pre-calculations ahead of time, a good
navigator can determine the noon latitude in only a few minutes. On the
African Meteor, Captain Hickey had a contest every day to see
who could do it the fastest. It was not uncommon for there to be four
of us taking the noon sight simultaneously. The winner was usually the
one who reached the chronometer first.
Our
first port of call was Mocamedes, a port in southwest Angola. The ship
had never called at this port before. The cargo to be discharged
included three locomotives. Good thing the ship was fitted with a heavy
lift cargo boom because the locomotives weighed 55 tons each. Mocamedes
was not a well-protected port. It was a bay open to the ocean swell
which caused the ship to surge up and down the dock, making it very
difficult to line up the locomotives with the railroad tracks on the
shore. When the ship's crane lifted up the locomotives and swung them
outboard, the ship would list to starboard with the heavy off-center
weight. Many times as the locomotives were lowered toward the tracks
the ship would move and throw off the alignment. Many of our mooring
lines broke under the strain. On the stern, ships carry an emergency
towing wire approximately 3 inches in diameter. We deployed this wire
to the dock to help stabilize the ship. It worked. The ship's motion
alongside was reduced and the three locomotives were able to be
successfully landed. This entire operation lasted around 24 hours. In
all my later years at sea, this was the only time I ever saw the
emergency towing wire used.
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| S/S African Meteor |
Other cargo for discharge at Mocamedes included bales
of used clothing. The longshoremen were imported from inland tribes,
were very poor and came aboard in tattered clothing. They broke open a
few bales and when they left were all wearing several layers of "used
but good" clothes. Containerization was only in its infancy and the
Meteor
carried none so cargo pilfering was expected. It just had to be kept
to a minimum. One longshoreman came up to me wringing his hands. I
didn't understand what he wanted and thought he needed work gloves. I
gave him mine which brought a huge smile to his face. I figured out
later that he was probably just asking for a bar of soap.
After
departing from Mocamedes, we headed south for Cape Town. It was
springtime in the Southern Hemisphere and the weather was good. The
gentle pitching of the ship caused by the Benguela Current was not at
all unpleasant. Cape Town, South Africa, is one of the most picturesque
cities I have ever seen. It's a small city dwarfed by Table Mountain.
It was not too long a walk to the cable car station but it wasn't
running either time we went so I never made it to the top. Apartheid was
in effect in South Africa during the 60's. It was common to see public
signs for white and non-white access. We only spent one day in
Capetown. One day was not long enough.
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| Cape Town Cable Car Station 1967 |
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| Aerial View of the Cape Peninsula 1967 |
The Cape of Good Hope is commonly thought to be the
southernmost point in Africa. Actually, Cape Agulhas, located about 100
miles southeast of Cape Town, is the southernmost point. It is the
meeting point of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. The confluence of
their currents, Benguela and Agulhas respectively, can cause dangerous
sea conditions. Luckily, due to the time of the year, the Cape Rollers,
as they are called, were not bad during our transit of the area. Our
second port of call in South Africa was Port Elizabeth. We were only in
for a day but it was long enough to go make a quick trip ashore.
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| Port Elizabeth 1967 |
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| Downtown East London 1967 |
East
London was our third port in South Africa. There was a cove within
walking distance of the dock and the surf was perfect. The Engine
Cadet, Denny Gross, and I spent the afternoon body surfing. A few of
the locals came out to watch but we were the only ones in the water. We
found out later that it was not a good idea to swim there because there
were no shark nets protecting the area. We had such a good time, even
if we'd known about the sharks we probably would have still done it.
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| Ships docked along the Durban waterfront - African Meteor in the middle |
Our last port of call in South Africa was Durban. We
spent 4 or 5 days there. Durban was a good-sized city with a bustling
port. In addition to being a busy port cargo-wise, it was also a port
where ships came to take on bunker fuel. Doug Torborg, one of our Third
Mates, was engaged to a girl from South Africa. She had cousins who
lived in Durban. Doug arranged for Denny Gross and I to spend a day at
the beach with his fiance's cousin and her friends. I don't remember
the cousin's first name but her last name was Wilson. She and her
friends were nurses at the Entabeni Nursing Home. One of her friends,
Jean Scott, and I hit it off together. We went to dinner at the
Wilson's and then took in a movie. Mr. and Mrs. Wilson were very nice.
He invited me to play golf at the Royal Durban course during the ship's
return stop. Unfortunately the ship fell behind schedule later in the
voyage and on the westbound leg we only stayed overnight in Durban so
the golf outing never happened. I was disappointed. Denny and I made
one more trip to the beach during the eastbound voyage. The beach had
shark nets but the waves were not as good as those in East London. We
walked down the beach to a nearby snake farm. The outdoor portion
consisted of a grassy area surrounded by a moat and a four foot wall.
It was loaded with snakes. Many were so well camouflaged they could
only be seen when they moved.
If it seems
like cadets had nothing to do in port but go ashore, that's not true.
Most of the shore excursions happened on weekends when we were not
expected to work. In port, during the week, we worked 8 to 5 assisting
the mates and engineers on watch. The
Meteor had seven cargo
holds, not all of which were opened at any one time. Usually three or
four holds were worked simultaneously. Ships' holds customarily
consisted of three compartments, the upper tween deck, lower tween deck
and lower hold. There were two means of access to these holds, a ladder
over the hatch coaming and a ladder in the mast house. Because mast
houses were normally kept locked, the access ladders most frequently
used were the ones over the coaming. A coaming is the vertical steel
plating around the perimeter of a cargo hatch opening. Four or five
feet in height, the coaming prevents the ingress of water and also
serves as framework on which the hatch cover rests. Climbing over the
coaming on the
Meteor was an adventure because when you looked
into the open hatch, it was a three deck drop to the bottom. The ladder
started straight until just below the level of the main deck, then it
angled outboard toward the ship's side meaning you had to hang over the
open hold while you fished for the next set of steps with your feet,
then climb a few angled steps still suspended over the hold before
reaching the next vertical ladder section. Climbing up the ladder
wasn't so bad but going down from the main deck to the upper tween deck
took some getting used to. On the
Meteor, the hatches were
served by port and starboard cargo booms fixed to the top of the mast
houses. Number four hold, located just forward of the superstructure,
was also served by a jumbo (heavy lift) boom.
After
Durban, we headed for Lorenco Marques, now known as Maputo,
Mozambique. We anchored off shore for a day awaiting berth.
Communication with the port was done by signal light, proficiency in
Morse Code being a required skill in those days. We docked at berth #1,
literally 100 yards from town. Going ashore couldn't have been more
convenient. In fact, we usually went ashore for lunch. There was a bar
right outside the gate where we'd have a sandwich and beer. Drinking
was not a problem on the
Meteor. In fact, it was common to have
beer for coffee time. It was sold onboard for $0.15 a bottle. The
fridge in the coffee room was kept well-stocked and there was a list you
checked off every time you took one. Everyone settled up at the end of
the voyage. Denny Gross and I had been warned about the "working"
girls in Lorenco Marques. They were brought in from nearby Swaziland
and hung out in the bars near the port. We were able to
fend off their advances and enjoy our beer in peace. Because the
Meteor called there every
voyage, the bar girls knew many of the officers and had pet names for
them. In particular, the First Engineer, a very heavy man, was called
Mafuta, which, in tribal language, meant "large."
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| Hotel des Voyageurs nightclub - Tamatave |
We
spent 3 or 4 days in Lorenco Marques, then headed across the Mozambique
Straits to the island of Madagascar. We called at three ports in
Madagascar, Tamatave, Manakara, and Mananjary, none of which was on our
original schedule. Farrell Lines had just begun service to Madagascar.
As such, the Tamatave port officials were wined and dined onboard. The
next day, they returned the favor by taking several of us out to lunch
at a nearby beach. One thing I have not yet mentioned about the
African Meteor is that she carried twelve passengers.
There
was a large passenger lounge on board and they dined in the Officers'
Dining Room. Most of the passengers were elderly. One passenger, Mrs.
Hickey, was making her third voyage on the ship. She was a widow and
was not related to Captain Hickey. She was a character and got along
well with everyone. Every evening at sea, there was a cocktail party
for the passengers in the Captain's day room. We cadets acted as
bartenders. Captain Hickey loved his martinis and we were taught how to
make them his way, a glass of gin hit with a quick burst from a spray
can of vermouth, so basically he drank straight gin. Even with his
appetite for liquor, I never saw Captain Hickey impaired. He could
handle his booze. One thing I remember well were his instructions on
how to sign one's name to any official document, make the signature
illegible. He claimed that if you signed that way when you were sober,
no one would be able to tell when you were drunk. Another of the
passengers was know as "the Major," which apparently had been his
military rank. He could not hold his liquor. The Major was lazy. He
used to pay one of the seamen to shave him every day. The only other
remarkable passengers were a mother and daughter. They were elderly and
very elderly and were given the cruel nicknames of "Walking Death" and
"Death," respectively. Their cat also made the voyage.
Anyway,
back to Madagascar. Prior to entering Tamatave, we anchored for
several days. There were a couple of other ships anchored there as
well. During our stay at anchor, a sailor from one of the neighboring
ships was killed by a shark when he decided to go for a swim in the
anchorage. One other note about Tamatave, after my Sea Year ended, I
decided to go through all my National Geographic magazines to see if I
could find articles on any of the ports I had visited. Darned if there
wasn't a very informative article on Tamatave. After leaving Tamatave,
we called at Manakara and Mananjary. I wouldn't call them ports. They
were more like coastal villages. We had to anchor off shore and
discharge our cargo into barges which were then towed ashore.
Our
next port was Dar Es Salaam, Tanganyika. Tanganyika and Zanzibar
eventually became one country, Tanzania. When passing by the island of
Zanzabar, the smell of spice was clearly evident. Dar Es Salaam was a
decent sized port. On arrival, we anchored in the harbor. There was
another Farrell Lines freighter already anchored there, the
Australian Reef,
a World War II era C-2. One night, the two crews got together at the
local seaman's club and tried to out-drink each other. One of the
officers on the
Australian Reef must have been named Darrell
because after we got back to the ship, one of our guys took the bullhorn
from the navigating bridge and shouted "Darrell is sterile" many times
across the harbor.
Occasionally vendors were allowed on
board the ship to sell their wares. Dar Es Salaam was the best place
to buy native crafts. Cadets only earned $115 a month and I spent most
of mine buying hand-made ebony wood carvings of African animals. One of the vendors offered to take a few of us to
his factory so we could see how they were made. The workmanship was
incredible. The workers sat on the ground with logs between their legs
and, using only crude hatchets, hacked out amazing works of art. Among
my purchases were a 3 foot lion with a red tongue and a 15 pound
elephant. I still have them today although I have lost the elephant's ivory
tusks and a few of the lion's ivory toes. Another of my purchases was a
three foot tall ebony statue of a bare-breasted tribal woman. I gave
it to my brother Rob. He once told me he had to hide the statue in the
closet when guests came over because his young son used to call the
statue "mommy."
Our
next port was Mombasa, Kenya. This was where our real adventure was
supposed to begin. The Captain had always wanted a crew member to climb
Mount Kilimanjaro. The officers had taken up a collection and were
sending Denny and I to do the deed. The ship routinely spent 4 or 5
days in Mombasa and 4 days was what we needed. Wouldn't you know that
because of the unscheduled time spent in Madagascar, the ship's time in
Mombasa was reduced. Instead of climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, we were sent
on a 2 day safari to Tsavo National Park. In all, four of us went, Mrs.
Hickey, the Radio Officer, Denny and myself. The tour vehicle was a Volkswagen bus type van painted with zebra stripes. The roof opened for
better viewing. We toured both Tsavo East and Tsavo West, One of the
first stops was Mzima Springs. This is where I learned what a pain in
the butt monkeys can be. They jumped all over the van looking for food
and wouldn't leave us alone.
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| Tsavo Inn |
We spent the night at the Tsavo Inn in the park. The
beds had mosquito netting covers. The second day we drove through
much of the park. Our driver liked to drag race the water buffalo and
they seemed to like it too. One of the more interesting sights were the
red termite mounds. I'd never seen anything like them. Tsavo is best
known for its elephant population and there were plenty of them. Along
with the other game animals one would expect to see, we saw a couple of
rare black rhinos. We did not, however, see any lions.
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| Mombasa Bathing Beauty |
After
our return, we spent one more day back-loading in Mombasa before
beginning the westbound leg of the voyage. Our cargo consisted mainly of
coffee and tobacco. I remember three things about Mombasa. First,
there were giant artificial elephant tusks spanning the road at the
entrance to the city. Second, the people were an attractive lot, many
having come from the Seychelles Islands. They had caucasian features
and were very tan. Lastly, they had music videos long before we did.
The jukeboxes didn't just play music, they had built-in video screens.
They were 10 years ahead of MTV.
One thing we started
to notice in the East African ports was evidence of prior visits by
Kings Point cadets. It was common to see "KPS" (Kings Point Sucks)
scrawled on the men's rooms walls. This was later seen, and re-written,
in many ports throughout the world. KPS is actually found in the
Urban Dictionary where it is explained as "while KPS is often what
students feel during bad
times at the Academy, it is the tying factor for all students, past
and present. The brotherhood of KPS is something no other college in the
world can make a claim to. It is
written in bars and common port areas all over the world. Most
students, during their allotted time at sea will carve KPS somewhere
they have been." It was a King Point cadet's personalization of the
popular graffiti expression "Kilroy was here."
We
picked up an English family in Mombasa. They were moving from Kenya to
South Africa and were only on board as far as Durban. I remember them
because they had their pet dog with them, a beautiful Alsatian.
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| Walvis Bay sand dunes |
On
the return voyage, we stopped again at Lorenco Marques, Durban, Cape
Town, Walvis Bay in South West Africa (now Namibia), and Luanda, Angola.
Walvis Bay lies on what has been called the "skeleton coast" due to the
many bones washed up there from the whaling industry as well as the
skeletons of ships that had run aground. The sand dunes just outside
the port were immense.
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| Luanda freighter docks |
Luanda
was our last African port and my least favorite. It was a large city
and you could see that parts had once been nice. It wasn't nice in
1967. The city felt like it was under martial law. There were armed
troops everywhere and they didn't appear to be friendly. I went ashore
for a short while but didn't stay long. The ship was at anchor and it
was necessary to take a launch back and forth. Unfortunately for me,
the launch broke down and I wound up having to spend the night on the
docks, sleeping on some burlap bags full of coffee beans. The ocean
crossing back to the States was uneventful with the exception of me
turning 21. It wasn't that big of a deal because I lived in New York
where the drinking age was 18.
I had joined the
Meteor
in Brooklyn and we had sailed directly to foreign shores. Freighters
routinely made coastwise US trips in between their foreign voyages. Our
first port after Luanda was Savannah, Georgia. It was also common for a
replacement Chief Mate to take over for the regular Chief Mate to let
him get some well-earned time off. Our new Mate, a Kings Pointer himself, had a
whole different routine for me. No more watch standing, I was now a
deck worker. It was a disappointing end to what had been a fantastic
voyage. After having experienced almost three months of exceptional
professional development, I spent my last week on the
Meteor
sweeping out cargo holds. I think this Mate must have been given a hard
time during his own Sea Year because he went out of his way to make
things difficult for me. By the time we returned to Brooklyn, I was
ready for another ship.
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| Somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean 1967 |
I gained seventeen pounds during my three months on the
Meteor.
The food was excellent, especially breakfast. I'm partial to hash and
eggs and ordered it frequently. Chris, the waiter in the Officer's mess, seemed to be able to
read my mind and would order for me. Whenever I'd walk in to the mess
hall, he'd call down to the galley and say "Send up the Deck Cadet's."
Had I wanted to sail on freighters instead of oil tankers, I would have
chosen the Farrell Lines South African run.
The
African Meteor was "mothballed" to the Ready Reserve Fleet in 1980 and is currently scheduled for scrapping. She remains one of the finest ships on which I was privileged to sail.
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| Farrell Lines logo |
The Panama Canal connects the Atlantic Ocean (Caribbean Sea) and the Pacific Ocean. Therefore, common belief is that the canal runs East and West. It actually runs closer to North and South. The canal is 51 miles long and consists of 6 pairs of locks, 3 up and 3 down. Usually ships don't transit the canal immediately on arrival; it is common to anchor and wait to join a convoy. Uninterrupted canal transit takes about 8 hours. The 3 locks on the Atlantic ocean side are the Gatun Locks. These 3 locks are in a row and lift ships up to the level of the Gatun Lake. After the lake, ships must go through the Gamboa Cut to reach the Pedro Miguel Locks. There is one pair of locks at Pedro Miguel. The final two pairs of locks are the Miraflores Locks. Highly trained Panama Canal pilots guide ships through the canal. When the US ran the canal, the job of Panama Canal pilot was considered one of the premier jobs in the maritime industry. To make lock transit, ships are hooked up to "mules" both port and starboard and fore and aft. "Mules" are locomotives fitted with constant-tension mooring wires that hold ships in place as water is pumped in and out of the lock chambers. Panama Canal workers board the ships during lock transit to handle the mule wires.
From Manila we went to Hong Kong. Hong Kong ranks 3rd on my list of most scenic ports. Prior to the China regaining sovereignty in 1997, Hong Kong consisted of Hong Kong Island and the New Territories. Kowloon, located just across the harbor from Hong Kong Island, is usually considered an extension of the city. We docked on Hong Kong Island, not far from the Wanchai district, made famous by the 1960 movie The World of Suzie Wong. The city streets were very crowded, especially in the market place. I found a music store that would put any of their albums on tape for a reasonable price. One of the albums I had them tape for me was "Pet Sounds" by the Beach Boys. In my opinion, it's one of the best albums ever recorded and one that I still listen to today. We only stayed 2 days in Hong Kong. The only sightseeing I did was to ride the peak tram to the top of Victoria Peak, the highest point in Hong Kong. There's a great view of the city from there. Unfortunately, I remember it being very hazy the day I was there. 
