Leaving port

 It’s 19:30 and it’s raining, no not raining, teeming down. The sort of rain that comes at you at an angle and you are wet overall. Well, well a good start to my first action on the ship. Report to stations for leaving port and my station is aft, apparently called the poop deck!

I stepped outside and down the ladder to the after deck trying to avoid all the rubbish and dunnage still lying on deck. As it was dark, and the deck lights were somewhat dim it was not easy.

I am glad Colin told me to put on my oilskins on over my uniform to protect it. So, with these sticky oiled cloth waterproofs I gently steered along the after deck.

Suddenly I tripped over a wire and went “arse over tit” careering along the oily wet deck on my stomach. My brand-new uniform cap with its white cover went spinning into the darkness. What a start.

Then I heard a voice, “Here it is sahib” and there in front of me grinning from ear to ear was an Indian man with bright white teeth! What is this. So, I retrieved my cap, now somewhat less than white and accompanied this person to the poop deck. There were more Indian crew. They were chattering away in a language I could not apprehend. How an earth am I going to cope as a junior officer and communicate with them.

On the poop deck I searched for the Second Officer who was in charge of the after end of the ship.

“Oh nae, not another snot nosed new apprentice, just my luck”, said the officer in a strong Glaswegian accent. Well, it looks as though my luck is out, not only Indian languages but also a Scottish accent to deal with. Oh well.

“See that silver-coloured telephone on the bulkhead over there? That is your station to relay messages to and from the bridge, understand”? Yes sir, I replied eying a box on a wall. So, bulkhead is a wall, I must remember these terms.

Open it, you idiot! Oh, I see there was a clip holding the lid on revealing a telephone handset and a big silver button. “If it rings, you pick it up and repeat the message and then relay it to me. To ring, you press the button and then speak into the handset, OK”?

Yes sir, I replied, somewhat awed by the responsibility placed on my shoulders. Nothing compared with this, being rugby captain in the under 16 team was not a patch on being part of a communication team moving a 10,000-ton ship out of a dock into a river at night. Very exciting!

Water started to seep down inside the neck of my oilskins but what could I do about it?

Eyed the telephone and as though I had wished it, it rang. I picked up the handset and voice that appeared to come from another world, much worse than those train station announcements said; “Single up”. What an earth does that mean but dutifully I repeated it to the caller who then hung up. “Single Up” I shouted to make myself heard to the Second Officer in the rain and wind. OK, he said, then complete turmoil it seemed to me as the crew ran here and there as ropes were moved to the steam winch which let out great clouds of steam before gathering speed and making any conversation impossible! After been slacked off the ropes were hauled in dripping wet and coiled down on deck. Finally, the noise abated, and I noticed that we had only one rope over the stern to the shore and on the main deck one wire leading forward to a bollard on the quay. So, this what singled up means.

“Singled up aft”, shouted the Second Officer. I lifted the phone and repeated the message. No reply! What did they say, said the Scottish second officer? Nothing, I replied. “Did you press the button first”? Sorry sir, I forgot. “Jesus Christ, well do it”. Dutifully followed orders and received acknowledgement of our status aft.

A tug appeared on the starboard side and the crew secured a wire rope to a set of bitts on the main deck. What is this for I wondered?

I did not know was that the ship was in the Vittoria dock in Birkenhead and needed to navigate through the dock and out through a lock into the river Mersey. The Vittoria dock was built in the first part of the 1900’s as part of the larger Birkenhead dock system. The dock was named after the Battle of Vittoria in 1813 when Wellington led an army to take back the Spanish peninsula. However there has always been confusion over the name and many calls it the Victoria dock in reference to Queen Victoria.

All the major liner services from Liverpool used the dock including, Blue Funnel, Clan Line, City Line and Brocklebanks.

The Vittoria dock was one of the innermost docks in the Birkenhead dock system and required the ship to pass through other docks before reaching the lock into the river Mersey. It was going to be a long and wet evening!

Then the telephone rang again. “Let go everything” from this ethereal voice so I relayed it to the Second Officer. Frantic activity with the steam winches clunking away bellowing steam until finally the stern rope and the main deck spring wire were on board.

“All gone aft”, bellowed the second officer a few minutes later. After having confirmation of the message from the bridge the whole stern of the ship started to vibrate and over the side the dirty dock water was churned up into a frothy stream. The propeller was turning, and the tug gave a single blast on its whistle and started to pull us from the dockside.

Wow I am on first voyage, what next? Well, I was soon to find out!

For a period of about an hour we were pulled and pushed gently down through the dock to the lock separating the dock system from the river. We entered the lock without our tug, the inner lock gates closed, and the ship descended as water was pumped out of the lock. Once we reached the same water level as the river the outer lock gates opened and a new river tug connected to our bow to assist us in turning in the river.

The rain continued to sluice down and by now not only was I wet through, but I was shivering from the cold. Not liking this at all, I thought.

Once in the river and the ships bow turned seawards, we let go the tug, disembarked the dock pilot, and took on a river pilot. This all happened with the use of a ladder made of rope with wooden steps that was slung over the side of the ship from the main deck. So climbing and descending rope ladders down a ships side looks like being a new experience!

The telephone rang. Finished with stations aft was the message and the Second Mate shouted that we were finished with our work on leaving port. Turing to me he said, “laddie, get back to your cabin, dry yourself off and have a nap because in an hour and half you start watches with me on the bridge”. Sounded like good advice as I scurried forward to our cabin on the boat deck.