More Radio Rooms

  Last updated by ROA Administrator on 8th Mar 2012 at 3:36 pm

Radio Room: Cunard cargo liner ss Alaunia/GFQU. R/O Tony Selman hard at work as usual. Photo taken in 1966. Cunard cargo vessels were manned by Brocklebank Line R/O's at this time.
Alaunia/GFQU waiting to depart Huskisson Dock, Liverpool in 1966. Being tossed around like a cork on the North Atlantic run was a radical change from the warmer and generally more tranquil pastures Brock’s men experienced East of Suez. Some loved it, I loathed it.

Radio Room: Brocklebank Line mv Mahsud/GYMT. Photo taken in 1969. Tony Selman still hard at work.

mv Mahsud. My last ship in Brock's and on charter to Mitsui at the time although in this photo she looks fine in original Brocklebank Line colours. Fastest ship in the fleet with a charter speed of 18 knots.

QSO Editor Ian Channing almost unrecognisable in his youth! Taken on board mv Knightsgarth in early 1960's.

mv Knightsgarth/GHHK

mv Gambada/GNOY arriving at Donges, NW France, in 1973

P&O gas tanker mv Gambada/GNOY. Interestingly two ROA members have links to the ship. Tony Selman was the R/O for a long, hairy and happy voyage in 1974 and Archivist Willie Williamson installed the radio equipment when the ship was built at Cammell Lairds. The radio fit was standard for P&O vessels at the time.
The workshop area of mv Gambada. P&O were very generous with the spares and tools on all of their ships but quite rightly expected the R/O’s to fix everything.
Radio Room: Mabel Warwick/ GGZE with ROARS Chairman Tom Frawley, plus hair, seated.

Tom Frawley on board Houlder Bros. mv Mabel Warwick/GGZE in Vitoria, Brazil in 1974

A recent photo of Tom Frawley providing proof that he can certainly fit in his old uniform.
Radio Room: P&O Liner ss Maloja/GFBD built in 1923. An interesting quote from Philip Noel “In September 1939 the P&O liner Maloja was converted to an armed merchant cruiser in Bombay. As part of the conversion the after dummy funnel was removed, the radio room demolished and a new W/T office set up in the space under the bridge. The photo was taken after the conversion. She commissioned as HMS Maloja on 24th November 1939 with me as one of three watchkeepers. We sailed from Bombay on 10th December and by the end of February found ourselves on patrol between the Faeroes and Iceland, not a pleasant area”.

Postcard of Maloja/GFBD in P&O colours.

ROA Secretary Jim Loughlin on board Shell VLCC Mactra/GYKR. Some people change over the years and some do not. Jim looks exactly the same now as he did then!

Jim Loughlin on boardShell VLCC Mactra/GYKR. Jim left in December 1969 and 3 weeks later Mactra exploded whilst tank cleaning. After the BOT enquiry many safety changes were made in respect of tank cleaning on VLCC's.

Radio Room: ss Roatan/ GZPV with R/O Jim Loughlin. Despite being built in 1944 GZPV is shown here with a 1970 IMRC fit with Redifon R408 receiver and STC 1600 main transmitter.

Jim Loughlin inside a Kelvin Hughes photoplot radar. Anyone unfortunate enough to have sailed with one of these beasts will fully understand the "what have I done to deserve this" bemused look on Jim's face.

R/O Doug Howick on duty in Radio Room of mv Port Fairy/GSTP in 1957.

A bird in the Radio Room. Robin Powell and friend on board Haustrum/GRFT in 1963. One wonders how many other members had 'birds' in their Radio Rooms?

Radio Room: Shell tanker Haustrum/GRFT. R/O was Robin Powell. The equipment was from Siemens. Photo taken in 1963.

Shell tanker Haustrum/GRFT

Robin Powell with smoke coming out of his head. A close up view of a DF loop and some aerials for the afficionados of equipment to be found on monkey islands. Vessel is Shell tanker Haustrum/GRFT

Robin Powell on the bridge of Haustrum/GRFT. A plainly obvious location and Robin showing firstly that he was a man of the wavy braid fraternity and secondly he hasn't changed that much over the years.

Radio room: Lincoln/GXND. R/O Roger Hardy says “In the mid 1950’s the P & O Group decided to go into the tanker trade and spread the new tonnage amongst the Companies within the group. New Zealand Shipping/ Federal Steam were given three, the Lincoln/GXND, Derby/GGHN and the Kent/GHJX which, having ‘County’ names, sailed under Federal colours. I was fortunate to join both the Lincoln and the Kent as new ships in John Brown’s yard on Clydebank, and sign their articles for sea trials, before they were handed over to the Company. All the Company’s ships were fitted with Marconi kit and the three tankers were on permanent charter to BP."

Lincoln/GXND in dry dock in Falmouth. Photo: The late John Russell.

 

Radio Room: Kent/GHJX. At 12,780 tons gross the Lincoln was quite small even for those days but was interesting in that, always loading in the Gulf, she took cargoes all over the world whereas the Derby and Kent, at 31,790 tons gross, were on a milk run loading in the Gulf or Banias in Syria for discharge at the Isle of Grain.

ss Derby/GGHN at anchor off The Medway. The radio rooms were spacious and well equipped with workshops and stores leading off and the two larger ones also had glass windowed telephone booths adjacent as they fitted with HF radiotelephone equipment (Worldspan?) the Kent also had what was then the very latest true motion radar.


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