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I was promoted to Master on 26th July 1960, and sailed out of Manchester for Dublin. I was 22 years of age, which is extremely rare, for a British ship, to have a
captain so young. My ship was the
m.v.'Auspicity', and I was the youngest person on board. Normally it would be
about your mid 30s before you would expect such promotion. I had gone from 3rd
Mate to Captain in 13 months. I could hardly believe my luck.
This ship was one of a group built by the Government, for the Normandy Landings in
1944, in WWII. They were literally built for the one voyage. They were all named CHANT then a
number, e.g. "CHANT.179". The letters stood for Coastal and Harbour Auxilliary Naval Transport. If they reached their destination and delivered their cargos without sinking they had done their job. Anything more was a bonus.
However many of them survived into the sixties, and they continued to trade for many years, and were still affectionately referred to as 'The Chants', although they were, by then, renamed. There were two versions, Tankers and Bulk or Dry Cargo ships and all were the same tonnage and dimensions. F.T.Everard had both types, and in keeping with the company's policy they were all
'itys'. The Tankers had grey hulls and the Dry Bulkers had black hulls. The Tankers names commenced with 'A', and the Dry Bulk ships were all 'F', as in Frivolity
Fortuneity, etc.
They were all constructed using flat plates, to keep building costs low and
quick, so the bows were quite complicated. The stern as can be seen, was completely flat, and as nowadays, almost every new ship has a flat stern, so they were, in a way, ahead of their time.
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