South Shields Sanddancers Forum

As far as I know there is a ferry going to Sweden from the Tyne. Some friends of mine went on a mini cruise where they had one night in port at a hotel in I think Gothenberg while the ferry made other ports of call. They were then picked up on the return journey to the Tyne. I think something similar operates to Norway no doubt the experts will let you know.

They do operate to Oslo, Norway. One of my neighbours has done it several times as they have relatives there. I think it was called the Bergen Line. Come on all you ex-mariners put us in the picture.

Talking about ferrys how about this one:-

http://www.virtualworlddirect.com/affil ... 1/boat.wmv

Scotland to Orkney Isles the guy says..

Difficult to keep the owld breakfast down on that un I think

That's the ferry that Jarrow Pete took this morning on his way to the Orkneys.

Hope he enjoyed it, he did say that he was not looking forward to the trip.

Axeman.Baldy, yes that is the ferry I was on last week, thankfully the crossings were not too bad. I have had some rough crossings across the Pentland Firth over the years. Worst ones are the Aberdeen to Shetland trips, they usually take 14 hours but two years ago come January was on one that took 26 hours because of storms. When I arrived at Lerwick it was 2 days before I felt well enough to do any work.Am off to Outer Hebrides tomorrow 5.30 pm sailing from Ullapool to Stornoway, returning on Wedensday from Tarbet to Uig on Skye, job at Portree on Skye and then down to Glasgow Airport via Fort William and Loch Lomond hopefully back for Friday night. My sadist wife informed me this afternoon that she has booked us a 3 day trip to Amsterdam next Wedensday to Saturday on the ferry from North Shields, she cannot understand why I twisted my face when she told me of this surprise.

brian c wrote:I can also remember the big whaling factory ships that used to be tied up near,I think, Redheads yard.

My dad used to work on them, both the "Harvester" and thr "Venturer." Both owned and run by Christian Salvesen & Co of Leith, and sold onto the Japanese iirc.

They used to leave the Tyne and head across to Stavanger in Norway, and it is on one of the two that I have my first real memory. My dad managed, after their refit at Middle Docks, to take mum & I across to Stavanger for the chandlers to work their magic, (don't know why they didn't use the chandlers at the Mill Dam (Pattersons or Pearsons or somesuch)), before the factory ships headed South for the 18 month journey.

As we were heading across the North Sea, he took me out on deck, and the smell of whales got everywhere, and I was feeling a little queesy, so he takes me into the top of the engineroom, and, with the heat and smell of the oil and all that, I threw up on one of the engineers who was working below the gantry we were on.

I got to know a lot of the old time whalers who retired to Shields, who all became good friends of the family. I have a photo of my baby-like self playing in a garden overlooking the fjord at stavanger with the two factory ships tethered up in the background.

My dad retired after many years working for Salvesens with a do at Brighams iirc, (I wasn't invited). He still smelt of the whalers for many years after he last set foot on them.

Norm, the chandlers at the Mill Dam were Peterson Brothers, my brother in law worked for them for many years. Also a lot of seamen on the catcher boats that accompnied the whalers came from Shetland, remember years ago drinking in the legion club in Lerwick and when they found out I was from Shields I was invited to join the company of some of these old timers. Sadly over the years most of them have passed away, though I still have a drink with one or two on my six monthly trips to Shetland. Also my grandfather was a watchman at Middle Docks and when the whalers were in for the annual overhaul he would often take me on board to show me round.

Jarrow Pete wrote:Norm, the chandlers at the Mill Dam were Peterson Brothers, my brother in law worked for them for many years. Also a lot of seamen on the catcher boats that accompnied the whalers came from Shetland, remember years ago drinking in the legion club in Lerwick and when they found out I was from Shields I was invited to join the company of some of these old timers. Sadly over the years most of them have passed away, though I still have a drink with one or two on my six monthly trips to Shetland. Also my grandfather was a watchman at Middle Docks and when the whalers were in for the annual overhaul he would often take me on board to show me round.

Superb Pete. Next time you're up there drop the name "Sinbad" real name Gilbert Logan, and see if anyone remembers him. Originally from Leith himself, he was with Salvesens for over half a century. He smashed his shoulder when out in Japan, apparently a steel hawser snapped, and knowing what I do now I'm surprised it didn't cut him in half, but it hit him hard enough to shatter his shoulder blade, and that is what did for his working career in the end. He was eventually retired from the coasters - the "Head" boats - Fort, Barra, Sumborough, Dunstanburgh and Rora are the ones I can remember off the top of my head.

One other head boat I can think of is the Todd Head, the Fort you mentioned is the Fort Point I think and I don't recall a Dunstanburgh Head.

I think it was the Dunstanburgh Castle,Pilot.

No mention of the Crown Prince Frederick, it used to sail newcastle to Esjberg in Denmark, it had no stabilisers when it was rough it was the ride of a lifetime beats the big one in Blackpool

Norm or anyone else there - I am doing research on the Peterson Brothers that were a shipping butcher company at 10 East Holborn in 1939 and I think many other things. Does anyone know the names of the Peterson Brothers or their children?

Hi, All this talk about ferries makes me sea sick, what about all the British Tankers on the tyne, I used to go down the Mill Dam before school after my paper round at the Hill to watch the ship. I finished up doing 42 years at sea, grand days they were.