Author & Webmaster

Author & Webmaster - Clive Sharplin

“From a Past Life”
In Transit, Panama Canal, August 1958 
My first deep sea voyage
M.V. Wellington Star (Blue Star Line)
Photo: Sharplin family archive 

Coming from a family where the past four out of five paternal generations together with my father’s elder brother, my mother’s brother-in-law, one of my brothers-in-law and two great uncles all served in the Royal Navy one could reasonably assume that I would follow suit. Certainly I can readily recall that when I was approaching the first point of a career decision with one year remaining I was at Holcombe, Chatham Technical School for Boys, ensconced in the mock Tudor grand house which was its main building and once the home of one of the Kent family Style & Winch brewery owners. I decided to start with an Admiralty Apprenticeship in the Royal Naval Dockyard at Chatham which I entered, aged 16, by way of a written examination as an indentured Marine Engine Fitter for five years.



Auckland Harbour, New Zealand, September 1958
aboard  M.V. Wellington Star (Note 1)
Photo: Sharplin family archive
 

At the second career decision point near the end of those five years, which included studying at The Admiralty’s Chatham Dockyard Technical College, I considered three choices. To enter the Royal Navy in the rank of a Petty Officer Engine Room Artificer, or as an Engineer Officer in either the Royal Fleet Auxiliary which operates the fleet replenishment and support vessels to the Royal Navy under the blue ensign rather than the white, or as an Engineer Officer in the Merchant Navy? For better or worse I chose the latter where I spent my next few years with Blue Star Line, one of the largest British fleets.


It was a choice I have never regretted as it taught me to accept total responsibility, gave me a strong sense of duty and a deep work ethic, all of which still manifest themselves today in my more mature years of retirement.

All through my life the sea has influenced me and since leaving it I have been fortunate that my profession involved me in both national and multinational engineering environments giving me long periods still associated with ships, naval and merchant, and marine engineering. I consider myself doubly fortunate that my service in the British Merchant Navy in the late 50’s and early 60’s was at the period now regarded as to when it was at its zenith in size, quality and prominent place in the global fleet.

So I have moved from the schoolboy in Kent who devoured C.S. Forester’s “Hornblower” novels to now in retirement in Australia impatiently waiting for Julian Stockwin’s next “Thomas Kydd” novel while enjoying my continual research for this website.




 MV Wellington Star (2)   
Outward bound in the English Channel, probably mid 1950’s
Blue Star Line Postcard
(Note 1)
 

Note 1.
            My first ship. Built by John Brown Clydebank in 1952, MV "Wellington Star" had the largest refrigerator space at 594,560 cubic feet of any ship ever owned by Blue Star or of any other ship on the London to New Zealand trade. Her naval architects gave her what was to become recognised as the classic Blue Star Line profile. Of 12,539 grt she was fitted with two John Brown Doxford oil engines.  At this time Blue Star Line with some 40 deep sea ships had one of the largest fleets within the British mercantile marine.

SHIP'S PARTICULARS**
  Builder: John Brown & Co. Ltd., Clydebank, Scotland
  Order No: 184692
  Yard No: 670
  IMO No. 5387439
  Call sign: GNPD
  Keel laid: 31st March 1951
  Launched: 7th May 1952 as "Wellington Star"' for Blue Star Line Ltd.
  Completed: August 1952
  Ran trials: 29th August 1952
  Type: Refrigerated Cargo Liner
  Dimensions: 522.2 x 72.7 x 37.1 feet
  Tonnage: 12,539 gross
  Propulsion: Two 6-Cyl, 2SCSA Doxford oil engines by shipbuilder, driving twin screws developing
           14,700 BHP
  Sold: November 1975 to Broadbay Shipping Co. Ltd., Panama and renamed "Hawkes Bay",             July 1976 completed conversion to a partial livestock carrier by Keppel Tuas Shipyard,  
            Singapore.              
  Fate: Sold and on 14th August 1979 delivered Nan Kwan Steel & Iron Co. Ltd., Taiwan and arrived
           at Kaohsiung  9th August 1979 to be broken up.  

             ** Particulars sourced from (ibid) "Blue Star Line a Fleet History" by Tony Atkinson.
  

Ajax Prints ®

Victoria Australia

www.hmsajaxatcrete.com.au

ABN (Australian Business Number): 53 509 791 496