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    San Gaspar (1) - Anthony William Baldwin

    This anecdote is about the tanker San Gaspar (1) and is written by Anthony William Baldwin.

    I joined the San Gaspar at Punta Cardon in December 1953. I had been transferred from the San Valeno which was birthed next to the Gaspar. They had no apprentices and needed some cheap labour. It turned this was a stroke of good fortune as the Gaspar, old slow and leaking oil, had been sold to the Japanese for scrap. We now had a long voyage to Japan at a top speed of 7 knots. During the voyage and to make it as pleasant as possible the 1st mate allowed us to cut up the windsails and chippy constructed a canvas swimming pool on the foredeck. Many hours were spent messing around in our new found, somewhat leaky, pool. As maintenance of the ship was pointless we also spent time playing deck cricket. Eventually arriving in Osaka in February of '54. Here a bit of class distinction appeared as the ship's officers were assigned to western style hotels in downtown Osaka. The sailors and firemen went to Japanese style hotels a bit further out. After a few days Eagle Oil made some novel travel arrangements for us all. It was decided that we would all fly home on a Dokata Flymaster owned and staffed by KLM. The aircraft would stop each night at a convenient location and the whole journey would take 4 days. I can still remember my amazement at the hustle and bustle of Calcutta as we made our way to the Grand Hotel. The waiters treated us all like lords and I gained a lifelong love of curry! My memories of the crew have faded with the years but I do remember Geoffory Shakespear, the 2nd mate, who kept a fatherly eye on me among the fleshpots of Osaka! If anybody out there was on the ship I would love to hear from them.

    Translate to English translate | Sunday, February 28th 2010, 15:50 | San Gaspar (1) | Anthony William Baldwin

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