My
next sea trip was on the Cambus Nethen, a big bark of 1367
tons. We sailed from Cardiff in Wales to Buenos Aires in Argentina
with a cargo of coal. We made no stops in between and the
round trip took seven months. On the way back we carried a
cargo of wheat, linseed, and cotton, which we took to Bremerhaven
in Germany.
We had to lay in Buenos Aires for a month while waiting for
cargo. The River Plate down there is a fresh-water river but
we did not drink from it. We bought water on shore.
I shipped on the next voyage
of the Cambus Nethen which left Bremerhaven (August 1893)
on a very long trip which eventually took us to the Far East.
This voyage lasted two years. The Captain was a man named
Hughes. He was a Welshman, and rather portly. The crew was
of various nationalities, such as English, Swedes, and Norwegians.
They ranged in age from 17 to 40.
We left Bremerhaven for New
York in ballast; this ballast consisting of stone blocks and
gravel. It took us 56 days to get to New York and when we
got there we came up the East River to Hunters Point in Long
Island City. A steam tug had taken us from outside Sandy Hook
all the way to Hunters Point. Here some of our crew from Germany
jumped ship. We took on cargo at Hunters Point. It consisted
of kerosene oil in cans; packed two 5 gallon cans to a case."
After our cargo was loaded,
our ship went to Quarantine Station down in the Narrows. While
we were there a launch came to us with about a dozen drunken
men who had been shanghaied from some boarding house. These
men were of different nationalities. When they came to their
senses they grumbled a lot but there was nothing they could
do. They were paid for the voyage with us but had signed away
for four months' wages which went to the boarding house master.
When we left New York we sailed across the Atlantic and went
around the Cape of Good Hope and then to Anjer in Java for
orders; and then we sailed to Batavia, Samarang and Joana;
all in Java. We discharged kerosene in each of these three
ports. We then went up to Bangkok in Siam but I did not go
ashore. We lost a man at Bangkok. He slipped and fell off
the ship. We got his body three days later and buried him
there.
The Cambus Nethen, being a
bark, was much like the Firth of Forth. She had the same three
masts: the first or foremast, the second or main mast, and
the third or mizzenmast; this last being rigged fore-and-aft,
the other two being square-rigged. Incidentally, on a clipper
ship all the masts were square-rigged.
I must tell you something about
our life on the ship. Our basic food was salt pork and salt
beef that was brought aboard ship in barrels. Also there was
hard tack which is a kind of biscuit and similar to a very
hard cracker. This hard tack often got wormy but we had it
anyway, even when it was wormy. Our ration of hard-tack per
man was one pound (equal to three biscuits) a day.
Each sailor was allotted a
certain amount of food per day and the allotrnent went like
this:
1 lb. of hard-tack per day
1/4 lb. of pork per day
1/2 lb. of beef per day
1/8 oz. of tea per day
1/4oz. of coffee per day
2 oz. of sugar per day
3 qts. of water per day
Every week a man got 1/2 pound
of flour and which was made into bread by the cook. For this,
the cook took off 1/4 pound of pork and 1/2 pound of beef
which were given up for the 1/2 pound of flour given in its
place. There were no refrigerators on board ship and to avoid
scurvy, each man got a glass of lime juice a day.
We had meals at different hours.
In the forecastle there was one long room and we slept here;
one bunk being on top of another. You could also use a hammock
if you wanted to. Heavy lanterns were hung from the ceiling.
They contained coal oil which is a kind of thick oil like
crude oil - and there was just a wick in it.
From Bankgok we went to Leith,
England with a cargo of rice. 1 do not remember the route.
I'm sure it was not through the Red Sea as sailing ships avoided
that route because of the Suez Canal.
Dugald Roberts taken in 1945 in Baldwin, New York.
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