Report on board S.S. Mahout 1400 GMT Birkenhead Friday latest.

I don’t remember much about the journey to Birkenhead except it was raining.

It would have been one of my first train journey’s alone as a sixteen-year-old boy off to sea.

In 1957 the options for getting across the river Mersey were by ferry or by the tunnel. Probably used a taxi and the tunnel to arrive at Birkenhead docks.

The ship was berthed in the Vittoria docks, the main dock for ships trading with the Far East. Clan Line, Blue Funnel and Brocklebanks all used this dock.

The entrance to the quay where the ship was moored was through a warehouse so I gingerly went through a large door into a world of noise and apparent chaos. Stack of boxes, steel pipes, tractors, cement blocks all lay around in this vast space. There were dockworkers everywhere loading tractors with goods and driving them out to the quay. “Get out of the way, you stupid sod”, shouted a man by the door to the quayside. “You will get killed if you do not watch where you are going!”. So I dragged my suitcase and duffle bag after me, dodged around a pile of sacks about to be lifted by crane and stood at the side of this high black steel hull. I noticed that the side of the ship was newly painted in black and rather than a smooth surface to the steel it was pitted and rough from many years of being at sea, I thought. There was also a little dent right in front of me, so the ship must have been in contact with something hard.

Then from way up in the sky I heard this voice. “Laddie, if you are coming on board, move it and get your arse to the gangway!” Turning to my right I saw a steel gangway supported by ropes coming down from somewhere at the top of this menacing hull. So, in my brand-new uniform I stepped onto to a sort of platform at the bottom of some steps and picked up my kit, already I was moving from a land crab to a seafarers language, kit not luggage! Immediately the whole platform and gangway started to sway and I had to grab hold of the manropes to save myself from falling. Nevertheless I was determined to board my first ship in style so throwing my duffle bag over my shoulder and carrying my suitcase in my right hand a hauled myself up to the top and stepped onto the deck.

“And who might you be laddie”, came a voice from an enormous tall and broad man with a distinct highland accent. I thought it should be obvious from my brand-new uniform but seeing the twinkle in the quartermasters’ eyes I replied, Apprentice John Douglas, reporting for duty, Sir. “Ah, you do not call me sir, only senior officers, he replied, laughing and taking my arm. “Go through this door, turn to your right and go up two sets of stairs and find the Chief Officers cabin. Report to him, he is your boss”, he replied chuckling as he steered me over the threshold into the ship. So started my career as a seafarer.