The Seven Seas Magazine
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1 THE SEVEN SEAS MAGAZINE The Official Organ of the Seven Seas Club Volume 87, No 2 Autumn 2011 Editorial: Although I was due to take over as magazine editor from this edition anyway it was still very sad to hear about the premature death of our friend Barry Holland who did such a great job of editing the magazine, together with his wife Lynne, since the Summer edition of 2006 when they took over the mantle from Richard Woodman. I hope I can continue to meet the standards set by my predecessors. Our Members are drawn primarily from five walks of life: Merchant Navy, Royal Navy, Royal Marines, small boat Owners and others, like myself, who do not fit easily into one of these categories, in my case being a Naval Architect in the oil and gas industry. It is, therefore, my intention to try and include a cross section of articles covering all the above categories of Members. This edition manages to cover three of the five categories to ensure there is something of interest for everyone. Just a reminder to everyone that we have an archive containing historic information on the club including many magazines dating back to the 1930’s as well as article of interest. The information occupies 2.77GB and can be purchased for £5.00 (to cover costs of the DVD and postage only) from the undersigned. Finally, I would like to appeal to you for articles of interest for inclusion in future editions of this magazine. The wide experience of members is such that there are many stories still to be told and if you would like to make a contribution to your magazine any articles will be gratefully received. David Watson Honorary Magazine Editor 2 President’s Message The honour that you have bestowed on me by electing me as your President is very much appreciated and I will do everything in my power to maintain the high standards set by our previous Presidents. In this I will be greatly assisted by our Committee who work tirelessly to ensure that our Dinners and outside events run smoothly and efficiently. At the present time, when many Clubs and Associations, are suffering from falling membership, our Club is still going from strength to strength. This is due to the friendliness and comradeship engendered at our Dinners by you our Members and long may it continue. I realize that quite a few of you have a fair way to travel but I do look forward to seeing as many as possible at our Dinners. Yours Aye, Len Barlow President 3 Secretary’s Corner Membership: It is usual at this point in the magazine to list members who have joined the Club since the last edition. However, we have just issued a new list of members which is up to date and doing so at this stage would just repeat what has already been published. Suffice to say that membership is very buoyant with a net increase in Membership. The following figures show the trend: March 2010 190 September 2010 190 March 2011 205 October 2011 212 It is not the objective of the Club to increase Membership addinfinitum. In fact there are no stated objectives with regard to Membership numbers. Not only would the atmosphere change, the main reason why Members join in the first place but, certainly for large dinners, we can be almost near capacity at the National Liberal Club. However, it is good to see new Members joining some of whom are already taking an active role in the running of the Club and are on the committee. Unfortunately five of those who have departed the Club in the last year have slipped their cable and others who have also been wonderful members over the years have resigned due to ill health preventing them from attending dinners or have moved away from the area in retirement or for work and have no longer felt able to attend dinners. One final point on Membership is that most Members now receive Club communications by e-mail such as dinner notices. Some, 16%, however, still receive their notices by post, down from 19% two months ago. We are more than happy to continue sending out notices by post, however, if you do have an e-mail address that we don’t know about and would be happy to receive e-mailed notices please advise the Hon. Membership Secretary (e-mail address [email protected]). Change of Hon. Secretary: As John Mankerty said in the last magazine I am currently in the process of taking over as Hon. Secretary. The fact that it is such a long handover is an indication of how much work John does for the Club (and has done for the last 14 to 15 years!) and how much information he has to “download”. I hope I can meet the challenge as he has done so ably. Hon. Almoner The role of our Hon. Almoner, Martin Earp in maintaining contact with our current Members when they become ill or incapacitated and former Members’ Widows goes largely unnoticed by the Club at large. However, the work that Martin is doing is certainly recognised and much appreciated by the Committee and is seen as an important part of the Club’s ethos. Martin telephones Members who are unwell and Widows (of which we currently have 22; 16 of whom Martin is in regular contact and 6 who we have lost contact, with one dying this year). Annual vouchers are also sent to the widows together with seasonal cards. If Members would use the cards sent out earlier this year to inform Martin if they are ill it would be appreciated. The comradeship of the Club extends beyond our monthly dinners. 4 CLUB DATES FOR YOUR DIARY, 2011 - 2012 2011 Sunday 13th November Remembrance Sunday at the Merchant Navy Memorial, Tower Hill Thursday 17th November Mr. Ray Kay ASTO Thursday, 22nd December Christmas Party 2012 Thursday 26th January Det. Ch. Supt. Adrian Tudway (RM ret’d). “Policing/Counter Terrosism” Thursday 23rd February Mr. Louis Roskell. “Ferry to the Falklands” Thursday 29th March Mr Michael St. Clair Hannah MNI. “A Merchant Navy Apprenticeship” Thursday 26th April Mr. Richard Quirk (RM ret’d) (Ladies Night) Thursday 31st May Mr. Shep Woolley and Bill McCinnon (AGM) Tower Church Service Date to be advised President’s cocktail Party Date to be advised Ceremony of the Keys Date to be advised Pimms on the Poopdeck Date to be advised 5 Obituaries: Since the last magazine was published the following members have slipped their cable: Mr Mike Beale Died 30th August, 2010 Mr David Cusden Died 5th April, 2011 Mr Rowley King Died June, 2011 Mr Barry Holland Died 20th September, 2011 Mr Peter Hopton Died 5th August, 2011 Obituaries for members, where possible, are always included in the magazine. In this edition the obituaries for David Cusden and Michael Beale are included. Our other friends will be included in future magazines once information for their biographies have been compiles and a respectful time has passed since they passed away. David Cusden 1936 - 2011 David Cusden, far right, at the Institute of Marine Engineers of which he was once President In 1952 Shell started a Training Scheme to develop seagoing engineers for it’s large fleet and David joined in that inaugural year. I do not know how Shell advertised the Scheme but it caught the imagination of the teenage David Cusdin and sparked an enthusiasm for Marine Engineering which endured all his life. His 5 year apprenticeship comprised study at technical college, work in shipyards and 15 months at sea on the T2 “Tagelus”. In 1957 he joined the SS “Velutina” as a fully-fledged Junior Engineer. David progressed through the ranks in Shell obtaining all his Certificates of Competency at Poplar Technical College culminating in his Extra Chief’s Certificate in 1966. He had been appointed Chief Engineer of MV “Borus” in 1963 at the tender age of 27; the youngest man to reach that position in the Shell fleet at that time. In 1966 he was brought ashore and his first job was to coordinate the re-engining of SS ”Humilaria”. He was then involved in the design of the new breed of Supertankers, the 210,000 ton “M” Class and 6 was appointed to stand by the building of the “Murex” at the Kieler Howaldtswerke shipyard in Germany. There he met Ellen and they were married in May 1969 shortly before David took “Murex” to sea as Chief Engineer. Ellen was able to join him on board later that year and then sailed with David on many Shell ships. David continued as Chief Engineer in many of Shell’s new ships. His last ship was the Liquid Natural Gas Carrier “Gadila”. He took her on her maiden voyage and, by strange coincidence, she discharged her last cargo in the week that he died. By the time he finally came ashore in 1973 he had served on 17 different ships, had sailed 956,348 nautical miles and had experience of all the machinery types in the Shell fleet at that time:- Turbo-Electric (T2s) Triple Expansion Steam Reciprocating Engines Slow Speed Diesels Doxford Double Acting Diesels High Pressure geared Steam Turbines Gas burning LNG tankers. Those who sailed with David describe him as highly competent, unflappable in a crisis (and there were many in those days), and always helpful and encouraging to his apprentices and juniors. This concern to develop new talent was evident in later years when he was part of the Engineering Council Neighbourhood Engineer Scheme at his local secondary school.