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Japan, Pre-Hornby

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Before the trip I had decided that I wasn’t into photography anymore and consequently didn’t bring a camera with me. What a mistake!. However, one of the people that Ron and I signed on with, another lowly decksgutte , did bring a little plastic camera. All of the pictures of the Belnor that I’m posting were shot with this camera.

This is the guy, I don’t remember his name but he was a newbie just like us.

Chaos greeted us. A little man with a red face was gesticulating and yelling in some foreign language at another taller man who had a case of beer tucked under his arm. Ron and I stood aghast as, in a final fit of rage, the little man grabbed the case of beer and threw it overboard! We thought there was going to be a major fight but the big man just walked away muttering oaths in what we learned later was Swedish.

The little man was our captain and the Swede was the Boson (sort of like the foreman in a normal world.) It turns out that this was what was called a “dry ship”, no booze on board. Most Seamen were heavy drinkers and they would stock up their cabins with enough booze to get them to the next port. This ship was a rarity in the seagoing world and the officers tried to make sure that the cabins were well searched and any booze found was held until port or, as in the case of the boson, tossed overboard. The ramifications of this policy were two sided and the dark side didn’t appear until we were well out to sea and the last of the hidden stock began running out.

The second mate signed us aboard and gave us our cabin numbers. We weren’t to be together! The policy was to put the new boys with experienced hands and I was to share a cabin with the ship’s carpenter. Ron went to a cabin with one of the regular deck hands. Of course, we both were forced to take the upper bunks; the lower and more desirable bunks were always allocated to men higher up on the totem pole (which in our case was just about everybody). Two men to a room, two bunks, one couch, one bureau, one tiny porthole which now looked into the dark gloomy world of Port Moody. Some of the crew had been on the Belnor for years and they had managed to claim single cabins for themselves alone. The cabins and hallways were sparkling clean and I was to learn how that came about pretty soon.

to be continued…

 

Japan, Pre-Hornby, writings

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Soon after the trip I enrolled in an English class at University. The professor asked us to write a short essay/story on some past experience. 

Have you ever noticed the way sailors walk, with their hard rolling gate? I did but paid no heed to it. I realized, of course, that their sense of balance was more acclimatized to the sea than the land but that’s as deep as my thoughts on the subject went. I had a chance a year ago to fully explore their wonderful sense of balance.

I had signed on to a merchant ship leaving from Vancouver to Japan. The reason for this was not monetary but for pure adventure. Upon leaving the coast of Vancouver Island the ship began to hit some fair-sized waves and, consequently, began to roll. I noticed that the regular seamen, even those who hadn’t finished their liquor supply, seemed to be able to walk straight and narrow whereas I, completely sober, had trouble staying on one side of the ship, let alone the gangway, when it rolled. However, in time, I began to make reasonable progress and soon told myself that at last I had mastered the art of walking on a ship. What a letdown I had in store!

Five hundred miles off the coast of Japan the ship ran head on into a typhoon that buffeted the ship bow on. Sixty to seventy knot winds screamed through the radio and mast wires and caused huge waves to wash across the deck.

I was told that we were going to work up in the forecastle that day and consequently had to run up the full length of a wet, windy, slippery deck with the ship alternately seeming to roll over to 45 degrees from port to starboard. Well it’s obvious that I made it was, beyond a doubt, the most frightening experience of my life. I was forced to run a few feet when the ship seemed level and then grab frantically onto a hatch when the ship heeled over, tending to throw me over the rail and into the mad sea, and then, when she came back, to rush into the wind swept spray, trying hard to keep my balance on the slippery deck. When I reached the bow I was shaking from head to toe in exhaustion and fright.

It was, what you might call ‘a difficult’ walk, but I gained experience from it and after that I had no trouble with the ship’s roll. I learned how to walk on a ship and I will be the first to say “I learned the hard way.”

1962

I felt kind of ‘grownup’ after that trip and the professor recognized it. He told me that it was a pleasure to have someone in his class experienced in life instead of all the educational newbies that dominated. 

Hornby Island BC

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The Army and Navy store was operating on Main Street and at that time the majority of their goods were surpluses from the various wars Canada had finished. We bought clothes that appeared to belong to the sailor’s life: Thick wool sweaters and shirts, Heavy-duty oil skins and, yes, cute bell-bottom trousers. After we discovered how much moisture these pants could suck up we stuck to blue jeans. We came out of the store with two genuine W.W.II duffel bags stuffed with genuine sailor outfits.

Then, my first passport. I was beginning to feel like a real seagoing swab and my status was growing as more and more of the gang discovered the trip. My girlfriend, Midge, didn’t seem all that excited. She was part of the contingent that believed we were fools.

The Norwegian Consul told us that the ship would dock in Port Moody and we were to join sometime in the beginning of October. We learned that it was a coal carrier and it traveled regularly between Canada and Japan. It was obviously taking part in the re-invention of Japan; on it’s way to becoming a major economic force in the world. The ship, although Norwegian, hadn’t seen Norway in three years and this was the reason that they had to hire Canadians as this was the cheapest way to replace workers. Actually, they had to replace lots of workers every trip and this should have given us a clue. We also learned it’s name; the Belnor.

Finally we were on our way to the great adventure. The truth was that we were two frightened young boys going off into the great unknown. With duffel bags, passports and the heebie-jeebies we were driven out to Port Moody one Sunday afternoon. There was our ship lying alongside the dock. It truly was a coal carrier and, just about fully loaded, it was dark and grime streaked. There was still time to turn back but honour wouldn’t allow that. We said our good-byes and climbed the gangplank to our new home for the next 60 or so days

to be continued…