Service Record

From

To

Clan Matheson

Cadet

1/1974

6/1974

Good Hope Castle

Cadet

7/1974

1/1975

Clan Ramsay

Cadet

2/1975

4/1975

Clan MacInnes

Cadet

9/1975

9/1975

Clan MacIntosh

Cadet

9/1975

10/1975

RRS Bransfield

Cadet

10/1975

7/1976

Clan Graham

Cadet

4/1977

5/1977

Clan MacIlwraith

Cadet

5/1977

6/1977

Clan Menzies

Cadet

8/1977

9/1977

Dover Castle

3rd Officer

10/1977

3/1978

Clan MacIver

3rd Officer

5/1978

12/1978

Clan MacNair

2nd Officer

2/1980

6/1980

Clan MacGregor

2nd Officer

8/1980

11/1980

Clan Graham

2nd Officer

1/1981

4/1981

Left

Company

1981


Mark P Stevens

Leaving B&C in 1981, I passed selection to become an RAF Officer on the high speed rescue craft only for that service to be disbanded prior to my first appointment.

I subsequently re-joined British Antarctic Survey instead.

In the Spring of 1982, and aboard the Royal Research Ship Bransfield as 4th Mate, I was tasked to take the Island Governor Sir Rex Hunt and his wife back to Government house using our ships launch. This was in the early hours of 2nd April.  Having dropped them off, a couple of hours later we departed Port Stanley at 0300 …. only to miss the Argentinian invasion which took place five hours later.

Further in 1985 I worked at 1st Mate on the supply ship ITM seafarer and in addition to regular North Sea work, was engaged in towing a crane barge from Harland and Wolff, again down to the Falklands. This to assist in building the new port which allowed materials to be offloaded in order to construct the new airport there. This enabled me to “experience” the Air Bridge a couple of times which involved leaving Ascension Island by Hercules and flying over the very anchorage I once occupied on the Good Hope Castle some 9 or 10 years earlier.

Finally, with all British fleets “shrinking”, I decided it was time to give up the sea.  I took myself back to University to train as a Chartered Surveyor but this at least enabled me to enjoy bouts of summer holiday work at 1st Mate with Sealink ferries, before finally swallowing the anchor in 1987.    

Thank you B&C.  For all the life experiences you enabled.

Joined the Southampton School of Navigation apprenticeship scheme at Warsash on 13th  September 1973 and after pre sea was appointed to the Clan Matheson and the cadet unit in 1974 leaving Hull, and then King Georges dock in London heading for South and East Africa and Mauritius.

Following several Cape voyages subsequently on the Good Hope Castle I was seconded to British Antarctic Survey for an extended Falkland Islands and Antarctic voyage, with stops at  Florida, Uruguay and Chile and onwards to supply and relieve all the British bases thereupon. We even managed to fit in a cocktail party with Chilean Air Force Officers at one of their bases where none of us spoke Spanish and none of them spoke English!

My return to B &C from 1977 to 1981 saw service continuing from Cadet to 2nd Officer in the then sadly declining B&C fleet, and I was 2nd Mate on the last voyages of Clan MacGregor and Clan Graham when both vessels were left in Mombasa after handing them over to foreign interests.

Apart from obvious shipmate camaraderie, notable career “highlights” included entering and then leaving very quickly the port of Lourenco Marques on Clan MacIntosh whilst hearing the machine guns of Frelimo in the streets during the ejection of the governing Portuguese in 1975.

Cadet on RRS Bransfield,

secondment from Clan Line to British Antarctic Survey in 1975

3rd Officer on Dover Castle in 1978

These days…. On holiday in Scotland, home of The Clan Line

Cadet on Clan Matheson

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