[BITList] 2012 Calendaer

[Ronald Thomas]

Tony
Many thanks an I would love anther of your calendars. Very special they are too..

I have a photo, one of many of  peculiar and special ship on which I sailed, in full BI colours, for nearly 2 years as 3/O & 2/O.

 m.v. " Resurgent" was a class "C" China Nav. ship- possibly "Changsha", which, somehow or other ended up as an RFA. She was,apparently chartered to Messagegie Maritimes of France, to replace one of their older vessels which was buing built to relieve the older vessel which they were rebuilding that they ran on the Med/S.Pacific run to Australia.

In Sept/Oct 1955 she was re-charted to BI and had a full Chinese crew, French MM saloon and catering( Brilliant) staff, and full BI officers on deck and E/R/ 
i.e. Rodney Stone, HHB Cray and J.Smail. All fabulous Commanders whose edict was, "OK lads we are not on the Coast and the rules will be relaxed, however, ANY intransigences and ALL perks will be discontinued" or words to that very effect. In the near 2 years that I sailed on her, Very many of the strict BI rules re passenger contacts were broken, and were tacitly acknowledged by the top brass, but we upheld a code which meant, that ,whilst we recognised (all and junior), the latitude that we had been allowed, no one broke the unspoken rules to the detriment of BI or MM. Looking back on those sentiments, to me ,now very nearly 80 years old ,I feel represents a society which has or is fast disappearing from the world in which we currently inhabit.So much for the worse too.

I Joined in Calcutta on 12 /10/55 from actng 2/O "Garbeta" as 3/O with Rodney Stone, Alan Stephens C/O, Mike Bateman 2/O, me, Gerry Ralph ex3/O.  Charles Henley Spoors CE/O (wet blanket), Slim Sommerville "2E/O, super chap as was "Dirkie" Macdonald from Urquhart,4(3?) EO. . I replaced Mike on Xmas Eve as 2/O in Sydney. What a night that was.! He being flown home to be C/O on an "O" on the coast.IIRMC  "Butch " Weaver. Gates and a very senior Purser,(whose name |I cannot recall, unfortunately). All super chaps. I think that I am the ONLY survivor of those times. Certainly on the Deck and Purser side.
They having started the trip some two month before in Glasgow, Pernambuco,Brazil (where I had spent my apprenticeship with Booth Line up to 2/O with them before being accepted and joining BI!) hey called into Cape Town before arriving Calcutta.(where I Joined). From Calcutta we went to Saigon to help with the French remnant evacuation following the debacle of Dien Bien Phu.. "Resurgent" could ( and did(), carry some 300 passengers +- 10,000 tons @ some 13/15 knots. Lovely ship.Super cameraderie on deck and engine. Whe we took over the proper MM run this was Marseille (Home Port), Algiers ( very troubled area indeed as there was a virtual civil war and  where passengers were expressly told not to vist the Casbah and ,where some Aussies decided that they would and  were killed by  a Muslim fanatic who threw a bomb into their coffee shop. this circa 56).
>From Algiers we went to the French WI Guadeloupe and Martinique, thence to Curacao'Aruba for bunkers, Panama Canal transit and then some 11 days cross Pacific to Papeete, Thahiti. (In 55/6 this was the Tahiti of the time of Cook and Gaugin!, only one Catalina service from Fiji. the odd sailor or tramp from whereever, and the regular MM sailing every 6 weeks or so from Europe/ Australia. We, with the other 2 French MM vessels, were the only way that the French could, and did, replenish their  personnel in their dominating part of the world..With The relaxed rules in play and being a French speaker anyway, we exploited this to our advantage. We ALL recognised that the next "Spell" , in BI propper would not be the same and that this was to be a chance and memory to be savoured for a lifetime.Which is what I am trying to do with this precis. Shortly after we we decommissioned, The South Pacicic, unde r the Frnche became a Nuclear testing zone
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