Alcoa Steamship Corporation C2 freighter

The SS Alcoa Trader, A C2 freighter owned by the Alcoa Steamship corporation. This was my first trip sailing as an AB (Able Bodied seaman). I shipped on this job from the Mobile , Al. union hall. Most of the crew was from the gulf region.

We loaded 10,000 tons of fertilizer in Bayou Casotte and finished our load in New Orleans. Our destination was Bhavnagar, India. At the time we did not have a full complement of crew and were missing a 2nd engineer. The Coast Guard will not allow a vessel to depart without most of the required crew and the missing engineer was such a position. As we waited for a full billet the ship was docked at the foot of canal Street which is only a short walk to the French Quarter. This delay lasted for about 10 or more days as I recall. Needless to say, we spent too much of our time and money waiting for our departure. We finally signed on an engineer who was from Holland as I recall.

When the ship left New Orleans we were a little short on fuel and stopped in Port-of-Spain Trinidad to top off fuel. The refueling and topping off fuel in Trinidad allowed the ship to have the maximum amount of cargo loaded and additional amounts of fuel would have made the ship too low in the water for Coast Guard clearance to leave New Orleans.

Our transit to India was by way of Cape Town South Africa. at the time the Suez canal was blocked due to war time activity that left sunken ships blocking the canal. This of course added more than a couple of week's transit time. After a couple of weeks in route and on a very calm day, the ship suddenly seemed to have a large 'bump' and then started a strange oscillation, something I had never experienced before. A quick check to determine that we were not taking on water eased the tensions. However, the uneven warbling as we continued on. The determination was that we must have hit a whale and the blades of the screw (propeller) were in some way damaged. As the uneven movement placed strain on the main shaft bearings, the ship was slowed to about 4 knots or so. This is extremely slow as a typical C2 freighter has a typical speed of around 15 knots.

When we arrived at Cape Town, which was supposed to be a refuel stop, we had the screw inspected and it was discovered that one of the four blades had a broken piece of the tip missing. The solution was to measure the broken piece and then cutting a duplicate on the opposite blade. This allowed the ship to operate at the normal speed and RPM's.

The side effect to this was a nice extra week or so in Cape Town. We all enjoyed the port and I do have fond memories of one night spot, the Navigators Den. Excellent music and some really good smoke there.

After arriving at Bhavnagar, we anchored several miles from the port. The port was old and the dock was inside a lock. There was only dock space for one ship at a time and were in line after a Russian ship. We went in at high tide and once inside the lock gate is closed. The lock leaked and during low tide the ship was practically sitting in the mud.

The cranes were old steam powered equipment that was installed by the British. It was quite a different country and my first and only trip to India.

Much could be said concerning the quality of the crew. We were all hard working, competent in our ratings and had no real personal issues.

I was on the 8-12 watch as AB. There are two AB's per watch and on OS (ordinary seaman). The other AB named Jim was an older shipmate them myself or the OS.
The OS was named Victor Nell as I recall. He was a medical student and working  during a summer break.

The officer of the 8-12 watch, Bob Smith was a big influence on me later attending Navigation school. It was later reported that the third mate Bob had passed away while aboard another ship. I was sorry to hear this and I will always remember him as a person of honest character and always positive to the possibilities that life could offer.

Over the years I have made efforts to locate Victor but have not had any results. Would love to touch base and see if he continued his medical education and should by now be a doctor.