Ships gallery

[captain kong]

Here is a photo taken in the fifties of the QUEEN ELIZABETH approaching Pier 90 in New York.
By the gasometer, [not there now,] is the UNITED STATES and the other one is the INDEPENDENCE

Again the world will not see these ships again.

[captain kong]

Here is one with a differenc.
I made this one of the grandchildren

It is called.

"I SEE NO SHARKS, NAOMI"

[18stanley]

Fascinating pictures all, not to mention the accompanying info from time
to time. Apropos, has anyone got photos of a ship that intrigued me in the
30's and I've never forgotten since. During my frequent meanderings along
the Dock Road I often wondered whether I was going to see it - and
frequently did. Name El Uruguayo and always berthed close to the entrance
of Brocklebank/Canada if memory serves me right, so you could get a good
view of it through the gates. Apart from the romantic name I was always
impressed by rhe funnel with its Maltese Cross. Any info about it would also
be welcome, especially about what happened to it laterwhen I should imagine
it had to play its part in the war effort like so many others of its ilk that plied
their trade from Liverpool in those long ago days.
There was also I think a sister ship, El Parugayo. I looked and looked
for it to no avail.Was it also based in Liverpool but in another part of the
Docks? If so, does anyone also remember it? And know what happened to it?
Many thanks Stan H.
PS - hope you have a wonderful holiday, Cap'n!

[captain kong]

Here we are, the ships themselves. `El Paraguaya `and the `El Uruguaya `
They were owned by Houlder Brothers for the meat and grain trade with South America. I cannot find any information of these two ships, or their fate.
Photos courtesey of
www.photoship.co.uk/Ship List/index.html
Thank you

[Waterways]

`El Paraguaya`and the `El Uruguaya and in the ship list as `El Paraguayo`and the `El Uruguayo`. Sister ships built 1912 and scrapped 1937. Houlder Line disappeared in 1947.

http://www.theshipslist.com/ships/lines/houlder.htm

[captain kong]

OK so I get 8 out of 10 for spelling

[18stanley]

Thanks Waterways for that extra info. Their demise coincided with "my
leaving of Liverpool"! And the Houlder Line has also gone! Sic transit...
Stan H.

[brian daley]

I am not sure of which thread to put this post as it kind of crosses boundaries,however!. Last week I was invited to dinner with a lot of gentlemen from similar backgrounds ,but of varying ages, from sixty up into the eighties. By serendipity I found myself supping aperitfs with with a fellow emigre. He was in his eighties and had led a fairly colourful life. From Robey, he left college and became an engineering cadet with Houlder Bros. In 1936 he met one of the Houlder Brothers,John, who offered him some advice. Remember this was before World War Two,war was'nt in the offing and Britain was in a recession then. John Houlder told this young man to leave the Merchant Navy because British shipowners would have to start "Flagging Out",that is to say ,moving their ships out of Britain and registering in places like Panama. He told the young cadet that they would be employing people from third world countries to save money. Stan left the Merchant Navy upon John Houlders advice and got a position in the City Engineers Department,and this is where the crossover comes in. He rose rapidly through the the ranks and soon became a young "Blocker" I should say that the young mans full name was Stanley Butterworth, for those of you who like to ferret through the archives.
Stan and I spoke of the religious divide that used to be strong in our old home. He told me that some of the council depots where totally Orange whilst others where totally green. There was one Depot manager by the name of Duffy who had all his men in the same Orange Lodge as he was in.
If a protestant depot manager found a left wing trouble maker in his employ( and that person would have been a protestant to have got a job there) he would get Stan to transfer the individual to a catholic depot where he would last just a few days before asking for his cards.The catholics did vice versa manitaining a kind of balance. Stan left Liverpool after the war to settle for the City Engineers job in Birmingham.
John Houlders advice was precipitate,had not the war intervened we would have lost our fleet a lot earlier.

[Waterways]

One of the prime means of the city's decline was flags of convenience. The governments should never have gone along with it. To save money the shipowners would have modernised their fleets to the the most state-of-the-art and innovative around. Instead they used cheap labour and created unemployment at home. British ship design post war was old hat and never progressed much at all.

The shipping industry had far too much influence in government circles.

What is a "blocker".

[brian daley]

Have I been away from Liverpool "that long"?. A blocker was a name given to any one in a supervisory or managerial position. To emphasise their status,these people would wear Bowler hats ,or Homburgs, which were known as "Blockers". A hat was shaped by "blocking" and the term somehow was transferred to people who could afford to buy them i.e. the bosses.
I am sad to hear the sobriquet has been lost ,especially as I have got the "blockers" job at last!

[backsplice]

'Blocker' is still in use in Cammell Lairds, where a mate of mine is a foreman plater. Although the bowler hats went out of the window back in the sixties to be replaced with hard hats, currently colour coded to denote trade etc.
Backsplice

[brian daley]

For tonights delectation we have the Pacific Steam Navigation Co,'s "Panama" 0f 1902 ,she is shown here in her WW1 dazzle camouflage when she was acting as an Auxilliary Transport vessel,she then became a Hospital ship and after the war she was bought by the Admiralty and used in that capacity right up until 1948 when she was scrapped.
Then we have the fabulous Mauretania ,a product of Cammell Lairds in 1939 .She is shown here in that short period before the outbreak of WW11,during which she helped the war effort as a troopship. She became the Grand Old Lady of the Atlantic and gave sterling service until she was broken up in 1965.

[brian daley]

The turret steamship Mersario was built in 1906 by Doxfords of Sunderland. Maclay and McIntyre of glasgow owned her and she is shown here in the Grand Harbour of Valetta in a painting by the Maltese Artist Gaetano d'Esposito one of the foremost ship artists at that time

[brian daley]

The freighter Chinese Prince was built in 1926 by the Deutsche Werk A.G. of Hamburg for the Rio Cape line,a subsidiary of Furness Withy's Groups Prince Line,of which she was the third of what would eventually be four succesive ships to bear that name. Her end came at the hands of the Germans when she was torpedoed in the Mediterranean in June !941 by the U-552. A total of 45 people were slain out of a crew of 64.
This picture was painted by the Japanese artist H. Shimidzu showing Mount Fujiyama in the background

[brian daley]

Here for you ship lovers are two more classic pics. First we have an oil tanker ,the British Councillor ,built in 1922 for the British Tanker Co.
She met her end in 1940 when she was sank by a torpedo from an E-boat off Spurn Head.
The second picture shows the Cunard liners Aquitania and Queen Mary,camouflaged in their wartime grey ,in the Clyde Anchorage Emergency Port, getting ready to undertake troopship duties during WW11.