TRIGONOSEMUS

About

Completed 1944 as Tuolumne Meadows for U.S.M.C. 1947 purchased by STUK and renamed "TRIGONOSEMUS". 7-1960 laid-up Lough Swilly. 2-3-1961 arrived Port Glasgow for scrap.

Also known as
Tuolumne Meadows
IMO number
2245611
Call sign
GDSR
Construction number
63
Tonnage
16.478 ton
Beam
21m
Length overall
169m
Year of construction
1944
Year of renaming/broken up
1961
Service for Shell
1947 to 1961
Cargo
Class
Flag state
Home port
Manager
Shipyard
Status
Photo(s)

Comments

Sailors

Anecdotes

Date Visitor Anecdote
05/04/2013 - 13:25 Philip Norris

Having completed my OND at Poplar Technical College I joined my first ship at Cardiff Docks with three of my classmates - Alan Turner, Rick Williams and Spencer Morrison.
We four aspprentices were assigned two 2-berth cabins at the rear of the after boat deck. It came as quite a shock to leave the comforts of home and having to learn how to make the bunk, keep the cabin tidy, polish the brass portholes, washing, ironing etc. For our laundry we had an old 5-gallon drum with it's top cut off and a small steam pipe connected to it. We boiled our clothes up with a mixture of soft soap and grated Sunlight Soap, our clothes tended to get greyer and greyer as the voyage progressed. To clean a boilersuit we would tie it with a rope and cast it over the stern, retrieving it a few hours later a bit salty but clean.

I remember being very seasick for the first three days sailing down the Bristol Channel into the Atlantic, then recovering as we approached the Azores seeing the sunshine and flying fish on our way to Curacao.

I was rather naive then and fell for all the tricks my seniors played, including searching the boiler tops for the valve supplyiong steam to the organ for the captain's Sunday church service or going to the 3rd. Engineer to get a box of short circuits!
The ship used to load fuel oil at Curacao or at Bachaquero in Lake Maracaibo, transport it to various ports along the North American seaboard and then return with freshwater back to Curacao.
On a visit to New York I was very impressed with the Empire State Building, Times Square, etc., what amazed me most were, however, the wonderful icfe cream sundaes and milk shakes available at drug stores. (not seen in UK until many years later).

09/24/2010 - 11:56 Stanley Algar

My father, Stanley Algar, was master of the Trigonosemus between November 1948 and May 1950. My book, GOODBYE OLD CHAP, A LIFE AT SEA IN PEACE AND WAR, (ISBN 978-1-907219-04-7) recounts his life story and is based in part on his diaries, written in a POW camp and hidden from the Germans. My royalties are being given to the Red Cross without whose food parcels he and many other prisoners might have starved.

He wrote about my mother making a voyage with him. Ships without a passenger certificate were not allowed to carry passengers so any non-crew member was signed on ship's articles as a supernumerary, at a wage of one shilling a month. My father noted "before my wife signed on, I explained the consequences of any dereliction of duty, including drunkenness, insolence to the capain, refusal to obey orders etc. I think she was so tired that she would have signed on without the financial incentive." Later, he noted that he withdrew his remarks about her apparent insolence lest sanctions be imposed on him during his next leave.

In the last few weeks, John Poole, of Sidmouth in Devon, has contacted me to say that he was on the Trigonosemus as an apprentice when my father was in command. Thanks to the internet, I have found not only a very interesting former colleague of my father, despite the age difference, but a real gentleman.

04/29/2010 - 15:52 James Obrien

I joined Trigonosemus on my 1st trip straight from the Vindi training school..Sailed 19th Sept 1957 from Tiger Bay, Cardiff. Two other boys from the Vindi joined with me,We were all 16 or 17, we complained that we were shanghied, as we were not able to refuse on our 1st trip & had to take what we were given.We wanted a Cunarder or a Union Castle Liner but got this rather decepit old war torn tanker.We were signed on as Catering Boys, cleaning cabins, serving the food, washing up &,cleaning toilets etc,. We headed for Curacao in the West Indies in ballast. We ran into an almighty hurricane called I believe Hurricane Kirrey. As first trippers we were seasick anyway, but the ship was almost totally unstable for a week as she was light, we boys were honking up day & night & I can remember we were all very unhappy & depressed as all our illusions about going to sea & seeing the world were shattered.The senior hands laughed at us, the cook would call me into the galley & put a handful of chicken gibblets in my hand & think it great fun when I vomited yet again.The voyage got slighly happier as the weather improved & later on we witnessed Sputnick the first satellite over the West Indies. During the voyage I cant remember the date but a German sail training ship called the Pamir(?) was sunk during the appalling weather with all hands.Luckily for us lads the trip was a fairly short one & we paid off at Tilbury on the 13th Nov 1957.