Page 31 - D:\AA Warsash Association\Journals\2020\AH2020-1\DEK\

All Hands 2020-1 (UK Spring) P a g e 29

I went on vacation shortly after our arrival in San Francisco and the next time I saw Captain Olsen was a couple of years
later at a Matson stockholders’ meeting; he had retired, was married to Lotta, and living happily down on the Peninsula.
th
On July 25 , twelve days from Pago Pago, we arrived in San Francisco Bay. As we passed Pier 45 on a slow bell, the
Marine Exchange launch, Jerry Daily, came alongside and the operator passed up our mail, Company and personal,
and docking instructions. We called down the name of our Master, where we were arriving from and the general nature
of our cargo. This information was for the newspapers, which included it in their daily ship movement report. In the
early ’30s, when shipping rather than tourism was a major element in city life, the newspapers often devoted a full
page to shipping news. This has gradually been whittled down until today when shipping rates a one-column, three or
four-inch notice.
After clearing immigration (who took charge of our stowaway) and Customs, we docked at Pier 32 where the gold was
loaded into a Brinks truck, the passengers disembarked, the ex-Sydney and Melbourne general cargo discharged, the
crew paid off Foreign Articles, and the ship’s license changed to coastwise enrolment. We then shifted to the Pacific
Vegetable dock in the Oakland estuary for one night where the copra was vacuumed out (like magic the bugs disappeared)
then moved up to Selby, up in San Pablo Bay and discharged the Burnie ore.
At midnight, all homeward cargo out, voyage number four ended and voyage number five commenced.

**A few years earlier there had been three Captains in Matson Line with the name of Olsen. In conversation they were
referred to by nicknames derived from vessels they had been Masters of in the old ‘Oceanic and Oriental Line’. Captain
Eugene Olsen was known as Bear from the Golden Bear, Captain Carl Olsen was known as Eagle from the Golden Eagle.
The third, Captain William Olsen, was just plain Bill.
See Matson Line History.
8.4 Origin of Some Seafaring Words - The Bumph, Captain David Whitaker

By kind permission of The Bumph January 2020 Vancouver Conway Club - Secretary: David Whitaker (52-54),
originally in Fairplay Magazine. January 3rd 1991
The origin of seafaring words: From building castles to building ships was but a step, and so it is not exactly
surprising that a term like “bulwark” transferred so easily from one to the other. It probably derives from “bole”,
a tree trunk, and “work”, both good old Anglo-Saxon (Old English) words. Many languages have taken over this
word to mean ramparts including, would you believe, Russian, but have coined their own words for the nautical
meaning.
One curious variant of this is the French boulevard. Apparently, when castle bulwarks crumbled and were no
longer needed, a promenade was often laid out for the enjoyment and pleasant exercise of one and all. Above the
bulwarks of a sturdy fighting ship, medieval commanders had the bright idea of building a high part at front and
back to gain extra height when tackling the enemy. One was the forecastle and the other the aftercastle; very
logical. What is not so logical is the English spelling and pronunciation - “fo'c'sle”. Only the Spanish out of the
main European languages keep this derivation in their “castillo de proa”.

Off the fo'c'sle jutted the “beakhead”, later shortened to “heads”, with regular automatic flushing by the waves.
The name stuck, even when officers acquired their own facilities towards the stern. These old wooden ships were
often adorned with intricate carving of superb craftsmanship. It was known as gingerbread-work, for gingerbread
was highly coloured and often gilt (hence “take the gilt off the gingerbread”.
Besides carving there were quantities of beautiful brass work. This was laboriously cleaned by teams of two who
kept their polishing rags in the same bag. If they quarrelled they would, in the phrase seen in older fiction, “part
brass rags”.
8.5 The Glory of the Old Ocean Liners – The Bumph, Captain David Whitaker
Walter Meredith. Remembering the glory days of old ocean liners. (THIS ENGLAND Magazine. Winter 2003).
Extracted from The Bumph. January 2020 Vancouver Conway Club - Secretary: David Whitaker (52-54).
Taking a sea cruise is now a popular way of spending a holiday, but the days of the true ocean liner have long
since gone. A thin black or red line always indicated passenger routes on old globes, and the ships that followed
them were known as “liners”, their journeys being referred to “line voyages”. It was a tremendous experience for
those fortunate enough to enjoy one, but their days were numbered in 1958 when, for the first time, more people
crossed the North Atlantic Ocean by plane than by ship.