Belgium, Antwerp December 1956 - Death of unknown seaman aboard SS Levenpool

[ShaunJ]

So it's a second-hand hearsay story.

[Tjapaltjarri]

Possibly, but that is not the way it comes across to me.

[ShaunJ]

The sole source for this story appears to be "Captain Kong" on the merchant-navy.net forum, who heard it from a friend:

"I went ashore (in Antwerp) at 1pm and at the first bar stopped for a beer. Inside was a lad I had sailed with on the `Empress of Scotland` 18 months earlier.
He was on a Ropner boat, the `Levenpool`, a Fort boat; they were trying to get paid off. They were on a two-year voyage, coal from the Continent to Buenos Aires and grain back to the Continent.
They had all began to break out in scabs and boils with bad guts. They had complained about the water, which was pumped up from the after peak and told the tank was cleaned and cement washed in dry dock in Glasgow nine months earlier. They had the Union man over from London and eventually got the tank drained and then the manhole cover was unbolted. Inside they found the skeletal remains of a man and some empty whisky bottles. It was presumed that the man who cleaned it also had a few whiskies and flaked out inside. When the men shouted inside if anyone was there, no answer, then they battened down… When it was filled up he must have drowned and they had been drinking this contaminated water for nine months. So they were hoping to get paid off.
My mate was gulping ale down as fast as he could, trying to wash the taste of the ships water away. I was keeping up with him and eventually Oblivion. I remember nothing until I woke up at sea bound for London. Don’t remember going back on board or anything."

https://www.merchant-navy.net/forum/swinging-the-lamp/43993-voyage-dunedin-star.html

[ShaunJ]

The Americans had been worried that the Levenpool had a Russian atom bomb aboard which would be detonated in Honolulu. That made the local newspaper in Tynemouth in December 1956.

https://www.findmypast.co.uk/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0002077%2F19561210&page=11&article=084&stringtohighlight=levenpool

[Tjapaltjarri]

Amazing Shaun. That puts a very different slant on things and makes it even more likely that the skeletal remains were those of my friend's uncle, A young man of just 23 who came from a fishing/crofting family in South Uist. As a child he was caught up in the "salvaging of the SS Politician" that grounded off Eriskay ! The source of the film "Whisky Galore"

There are a number of things that don't match between that account and the one I originally read more than 10 years ago and it raises the question of where the death would have been registered and whether the Glasgow branch of the BSU retains records and correspondence going back that far. If the tank was cleaned and drained in Hull it seems more likely the skeletal remains were discovered there and there may be records from the Port Health Officer. (a former senior colleague of mine back in the early 1980's) Also a post mortem account?

Was it normal for crew to be able to go and come back to a ship without being logged?

If he went missing while on bard someone might have noticed.

Maybe this post should be moved to the board covering the East Riding as Hull was back then.

Did he cache his whisky in the tank so as not to have to share it? (several whisky bottles noted)

Many thanks for this.

Howdie

The sole source for this story appears to be "Captain Kong" on the merchant-navy.net forum, who heard it from a friend:

"I went ashore (in Antwerp) at 1pm and at the first bar stopped for a beer. Inside was a lad I had sailed with on the `Empress of Scotland` 18 months earlier.
He was on a Ropner boat, the `Levenpool`, a Fort boat; they were trying to get paid off. They were on a two-year voyage, coal from the Continent to Buenos Aires and grain back to the Continent.
They had all began to break out in scabs and boils with bad guts. They had complained about the water, which was pumped up from the after peak and told the tank was cleaned and cement washed in dry dock in Glasgow nine months earlier. They had the Union man over from London and eventually got the tank drained and then the manhole cover was unbolted. Inside they found the skeletal remains of a man and some empty whisky bottles. It was presumed that the man who cleaned it also had a few whiskies and flaked out inside. When the men shouted inside if anyone was there, no answer, then they battened down… When it was filled up he must have drowned and they had been drinking this contaminated water for nine months. So they were hoping to get paid off.
My mate was gulping ale down as fast as he could, trying to wash the taste of the ships water away. I was keeping up with him and eventually Oblivion. I remember nothing until I woke up at sea bound for London. Don’t remember going back on board or anything."

https://www.merchant-navy.net/forum/swinging-the-lamp/43993-voyage-dunedin-star.html