Volume Eight - Pre-Victorian to the present day - more aspects - Sea Breezes Article 1989 - 'Boyhood Days on the Bristol Channel' . . .

The coal was trundled aboard in large barrows and dumped into the bunkers by a gang of tippers but it seemed to me that most of the coal was deposited on deck and had to be hand-trimmed below by our none-too-amused firemen. With bunkering finished the screens would be unrigged and for the next few hours the wash-deck hose and buckets of soogee would be in evidence. Even the mate used to get stuck-in and lend a hand with these big clean-ups.

It was during bunkering one day that a note arrived at the ship asking me to report to the Cardiff office of the Hain Steamship Co. Surprisingly, in view of my grubby appearance, my interview with Capt. Roach, Hain's marine superintendent, went all right and I was told to re-apply for an apprenticeship when I was nearer 16. (Clive adds a handwritten note to my copy of the article at this point to say 'I had just turned 15!') I'd had to say that I was 16 already in order to get my job in the 'Ravenswood', so full credit to Capt. Roach for not telling my employer otherwise!

The 'Ravenswood' leaving Weston on a day with epitomises the weather of the 1950 season states the caption in the great book 'P & A Campbell Pleasure Steamers from 1946' compiled by Chris Collard. [306]