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John Hawes - I was aboard the Port Wyndham from 1950
to 1953 doing various voyages to Australia, New Zealand U.S.A and
Canada plus many small ports in between. She was a happy ship and we
all welded together. Left her in 1952 for the Port Fairy (wonder
what became of her?) and her Chief Steward Harvey with his brother
Ted Harvey as second steward.
Phil Gorman - I was 1st trip deck apprentice on MV Port
Wyndham from 25th April 1963 t0 6th March 1964, on a MANZ run (London, Newcastle UK, Australia, USA, Canada, Australia,
NZ, Tasmania, London).
The master was "Plonky" Cloke, Mate Dave Kilner, 2nd Norm Sinclair, 3rd
Les Carmen, 4O Gordon May
Apps: senior: Tim Watkins, Dave Desborough, John Blaney 1st trip and me.
On the night of 25th or 26th April whilst alongside at KG5 there was an
explosion in the Co2 room, directly beneath our accommodation. Somehow one or more banks of bottles blew
during maintenance. There were at least 2 men in the compartment. I believe there were two deaths but can't recall
whether they were maintenance crew or rescue party. This was the first untoward incident of an eventful voyage
which proved one of the great experiences of my life.
Barry Roughton - We did an around
the world voyage starting at Rotterdam, where she had more repairs
done, breakdowns became the norm in our seven and a half months at
sea. The photo at the top of the page is mine and of us going
under the Sydney harbour bridge in 1962 with the 'Gretal' as deck
cargo. We ended up back in KGV with 3 different shades of grey paint
on her hull as we seem to have acquired it from dockyards around the
world with slightly different shades. Last I remember as I left her
was of some official from head office screaming to the new deckhands
to get painting. The Skipper was Jack Hawkins (Snowy).
Denis Gore
- I was in Port Wyndham from August 1944 (Liverpool) until she was
torpedoed off Dungeness in April 1945. We were towed stern first to
KG5 drydock in Southampton and subsequently 5 drydock there, the
ship being repaired by Thorneycrofts over a period of 15 months.
Meanwhile I was transferred to Port Sydney (an old tub) and then to
Port Dunedin before returning to Wyndham for her maiden post war
sailing from Southampton to New York, Savanah, Panama, Australia and
New Zealand. I gave up the sea after that and have remained in
Southampton for the rest of my life. Port Wyndham was always a very
happy ship - though her last skipper (in my time in her), Captain
Steele, a man who suffered the indignities of the Japanese as their
prisoner of war, was a dreadful tyrant! On that (my) last trip her,
the Mate was Frank Moat, a lovely man who was always most kind to us
all and proved a marvellous buffer between us and the Master.
Russ
Beaumont (steward) I too did the 1962 trip on the Wyndham along
with Barry Rougham who I remember. We sailed from Rotterdam to NY
where we underwent engine repairs, it was by 1962 a tired old ship
and it showed. We finally took on a few passengers and loaded 2
ocean going yachts as deck cargo they were called Gretel and Vim. We
then sailed for a southern port perhaps Savannah. It was the height
of the Cuban missile crises and American spotter planes were flying
at bridge level they must have thought those yachts were missiles
for Castro. Some weeks later we arrived at Sydney. After nearly 50
years I cant quite recall which other ports we went to except maybe
Brisbane. We then sailed for NZ before heading home I do remember
calling at Aqaba in Jordan where we all sold cartons of cigarettes
and got drunk after finding the only bar in the town. We finally
paid off in London. I cant say it was the happiest ship I sailed on
there seemed a lot of differences of opinions but that's life. I
think the C/ stewards name was West the cooks Freddy, another
steward was Arthur Burgess I last saw the assistant cook in 1965
working on a building site in Essex
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