John "Sharkey" Keen
Some of the gallant crew at base. X=me!
John "Sharkey" Keen served as crewmember aboard the barque James Craig in the year 1920. His fascinating memoirs have been included as a special part of our web site.
The photographs used to highlight the text are from his own album, for the 1920's saw the dawning of the age of the mass-produced camera, and Sharkey was quick to record his experiences using this medium.
Featured as one of the more colourful characters in Alan Villiers book "The Set of the Sails" (see the extract, Keen was born in 1900 and died in October 1981. Aware of the resurrection of his former ship, he sat down in the months preceding his death, to pen his recollections of life on board.
These memoirs reveal a man of lively intelligence, who wrote with a descriptive ease and a natural flair for storytelling...
I had spent a few years in steamships before deciding to go elsewhere--life in the Island Steamers of Burns Philp Company seemed too easy and monotonous. Much was happening in the world--territories were changing hands due to the defeat of Germany after the wind-up of the Great War to end wars (we were told); the Samoan group of Islands was put under control of the New Zealand Government and the many islands of the Marshall and Caroline Islands were given to the Japanese to govern.
They had entered the war on our side but this proved to be a short-sighted exercise as we found out later.
As there were still a few sailing ships being operated by various owners and under several flags, I decided there would be a more interesting life in sail. so after looking around for what I thought might suit me I joined James Craig (ex Clan Macleod) in Newcastle, New South Wales.
Captain Murchison's young son Jock at the wheel!
Captain Murdo Murchison was the Master--a very able man in his profession, blunt and forthright, a real man's man with the ability to command respect and to get things done. He had served in the Royal Navy during the war in command of an armed merchant ship, a small sailing craft armed and manned by the naval crew with which he distinguished himself by sinking a German submarine in the North Sea.
The War ended and he was demobilised from the Navy and came back to his family. His wife Fannie had three children when they joined the James Craig in Hobart. Kathie was a beautiful little girl about seven, little Jock was nearly two years old and the baby was only a few weeks old.
In Newcastle a cargo of coal was loaded for Hobart. The ship was not in good repair as it turned out very soon; she had been a hulk for many years and had been used to store copra at Port Moresby, Papua.
The rigging was all new, masts and yards renewed where necessary so everything aloft was in first class order. All the sails were new, made of good white cotton canvas by the leading sailmakers Brett of Balmain. But we found as the ship was being loaded she settled deeper in the water, weeps showed up that unfortunately did not take up. However, the ship left Newcastle and for the first few days the weather was favourable. We were helped by the south flowing East Australian current but as we got further south towards Bass Strait the weather deteriorated and gave us the usual Gabo Island dusting.
This is the way the James Craig takes a lee-railer. There is no sky in this. It is all foam and heaving water-salt water and some roll.
It was during this spasm of bad weather that we found the ship was making considerable water. There was ten feet of water in the fore-peak and quite a depth in the hold so it was all hands to the pumps. We worked in relays; that way the water level was reduced in good time but it was a different matter with the fore-peak--there was no pump so we had to bale it out with a bucket on the end of a piece of rope.
The weather did not improve so Captain Murchison decided to try and make the run back to Sydney as it was feared the ship might founder. With constant use of the pumps and baling the fore-peak we managed to keep the water down. We were lucky to get away from the boisterous weather and make fair progress north towards Sydney, the light south westerly giving us a good slant.
Just north of Port Kembla the tug Hero hailed us and after some bargaining between Captain Murchison and the skipper of the tug we were taken in tow and towed to an anchorage in Johnsons Bay in sight of the Rob Roy Hotel at Balmain, a famous haunt of sailors at that time. We were all paid off.
I was the only one of the original crew to rejoin; all the others said they had had enough but the cook stayed for a few days.
Surveyors came aboard and after tarpaulins and hatches had been removed they went below to see what had to be done in the way of repairs. After lengthy discussions between the surveyors, owners representatives, and Captain Murchison it was decided that before any repairs could be carried out, some of the cargo would have to be discharged. So two men were engaged to give me a hand to rig gear to do the discharging.
In these ships there were not any derricks and steam winces as there are in a steamer so a span had to be rigged between the fore and main masts with a gin block centred over the middle of the hatch. the main yard was swung out of the way, the two topsail yards lashed together and a block fastened to the lower topsail yard through which a bullrope is rove. This gear was used to discharge some 300 tons of coal into a hulk that was brought alongside.
The hulk happened to be Daniel, put out of service some months previously and in sailors language "rigged down", (ie. all the yards are sent down, the top gallant masts and topmasts struck and as the Daniel was of wooden construction the jib boom was also "sent-in"). Built in Denmark in the last century the owners had decided it was no longer economical to try and compete against steamers so she was "hulked", as many other sailing craft had been after they had outlived their usefulness. There were many in Australian ports, in fact in many ports worldwide.
The work of discharging was done by waterside workers and a gang of shipyard workers came aboard and effected repairs where necessary; caulking seams, removing and renewing concrete in the waterways on both sides of the ship. When all the repairs had been completed and passed by the surveyor, the coal was reloaded from Daniel. It took some days as this method of loading and discharging was slow. We did have a winch run by petrol engine but the load capacity was not great hence the slow rate of loading and discharge.
Taking in the mainsail X=me!
When this was completed a full crew was engaged. There were 10 of us and we were kept busy making preparations for sea. The first job was to wash down. This is done by drawing water from over the side with a "draw-bucket" a specially made one consisting of well sewn canvas with an iron ring at the mouth for tipping and flat sennit sewn on the sides connecting the handle part of the bucket. Then a light strut is lashed fast to the bulwarks, a block at the top end of the strut has a rope rove through it and hitched to the "draw-bucket". This is the way water was hoisted up for "washing down decks", the water being tipped into a bucket for the second mate to slosh on deck, the men in the meantime keeping busy with their brooms and so in this manner the process of washing decks was done.
Then we come to the job of cleaning the paintwork. Men are given a bucket of fresh water and a "soojee wad", a big piece of cloth and told where to clean the paint. So before long all hands are busy round the ship restoring her to a state of cleanliness. James Craig being a comparatively small ship this job did not take long. It was all done in one day.
The following day, all hands turned to after breakfast and proceeded to prepare running gear, send down cargo gear, unlash top sail yards and bring the main yard back into position and shackle on lower topsail sheets and see that everything is in order. Hatches on and tarpaulins battened down, all ready for another attempt to reach Hobart.
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Last modified on Thursday, 19-Aug-2010 15:17:52 EST
