Seadogs Index K-L

Katie Chester (on the left) is the daughter of the lovely Celia Chester (nee Cowan ex WAP - on the right) and Peter Chester (ex Engineer). Katie followed her parent's footsteps and ventured away to Sea. She's sailed on the Pacific Princess, Grand Princess and Dawn Princess that I know about but maybe others as well. The picture above was taken on the Dawn Princess and the handsome gentleman in between both stunningly beautiful ladies is my old mate David Thomas (aka Dai) whom I had the pleasure of sailing with on Nevasa some 33 years ago. Katie is the modern day equivalent of a WAP but I'm not sure of the exact title.

Mother, Daughter and the Dawn Princess. Great Picture!

There's some more recent photos of Katie and Celia in the latest addition to the Reunion section here.

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Steve Borrill © Amberfluid Web Design

Keith Radford (aka Splitpin)

Keith’s been a tremendous help to me with encouragement and information and is responsible for sending all the material for the new Oronsay section.

Above is Keith with Mrs Betty M Cunningham who unofficially adopted him as her English son. Keith believes he looks as if he'd just escaped from Alcatraz in this shot which can be seen in the background.

Keith again but with Betty Cunningham's daughter Tana. Betty & Tana came to Australia for a sabbatical for 6 months and Tana did some design work for the Adelaide Festival, she returned to San Francisco, married Paul Curtis and now if you look on the IMDB (Internet Movie Data Base) for Tana Cunningham-Curtis you'll find her listed as Set Design and Dresser on the movie "The Attic" made in 1980.

This is a good shot of a typical Island Night.

L-R:

Jon Harvey, A Passenger, John Thow, Keith’s wife, Keith.

The photo was taken in 1973 and he’s told me they were married in 1975 but hasn’t told me the lovely lady’s name but going by their email address I deduce it’s Lyn.

The following history is written by Keith.

‘In my listing you rightly assume that my wife's name is Lynne, we met about 3 days out from Fremantle on a "Homeward Bound" voyage. We later sailed from Southampton to Sydney via the Cape. On arrival in Sydney we did a two week Christmas cruise around the South Pacific, then turned for home and sailed back to Southampton. Although we were a Passenger ship, as most dogs would know, originally Oronsay was a Cargo/Passenger vessel and we carried a cargo of wool from Adelaide to Lisbon (enough to fill one hold). We were told the cartage of the wool paid for the whole trip so P&O, in their wisdom, launched a "Seaconomy fare" to the UK hence we had over 300 single girls on the homeward bound trip.

Lynne still has her Passenger ticket and the fare was something like $333.00. On arrival in Southampton I was asked by dear Mr Hewitt to take leave as I’d been at sea continuously since joining the company. I did but only on the condition that I was assigned back to Oronsay on her return from her Hawaiian cruising. Hewitt was as good as his word and I rejoined Oronsay. Lynne also booked her trip back home as she could see no sense in staying in the UK whist I was in Aus swanning around the South Pacific having a good time. Once we arrived back in Sydney in September the ship’s sailing schedule consisted of 12 months Aussie cruising and Lynne again joined me on the Christmas Cruise and eventually had more sea time than most of the crew. She was constantly being asked where various rooms were on the ship as she’d spent so much time on board.

Lynne and I regard this as our Engagement Photo taken on the "Deep-sea" voyage back to Australia obviously on "Island Night".....

Lynne made a lot of friends with other Officers on board, not just the Engineers. Most of whom we’re still in contact with but would love to know what happened to other shipmates from those halcyon days sailing the oceans of the World. People like Wendy and Beverley (Bendy & Swivelly) the Steiner girls, Jeff Galan (Sir John/Surgeon), Margaret Collins-Williams (Maggie with 2 dads) WAP. Chester Hudson (Asst Purser), Ralph Godfrey (Rafe the Nafe) Deck Officer, Di Tolhurst (Nurse), Paul ?? (Baby Doc).’

If anyone knows anything about any of those people please drop Keith & Lynne an email.

Gareth Jones recalls this story about Keith;

‘I was about eight weeks into my first trip to sea on Oronsay, and I was just learning the difference between a boiler and a turbine. On this particular day the 12-4 watch noted that there was sea water pouring into the bilge underneath the port condenser. They did not trust me on watches at this point, so I was part off the day work team that went to have a look and identify the problem. What had happened was that the 4" pipe that took sea water from the bottom of the condenser to the lube oil cooler had cracked right on the flange where it connected to the bottom of the condenser. Even I knew that this was not good.

John Englefield (the bopper) was called and we knew we could not try and braze the leak because there was too much water coming from the crack, so as a temporary measure we decided to chock the pipe from underneath by hammering in wooden wedges between the tank top and the pipe. There was about four feet clearance between the bilge and the bottom of the condenser, Bopper was in the bilge, bent double holding the wooden chock in place and Keith Radford was swinging a sledge hammer that weighed about twice as much as he did. Both of them were getting absolutely soaking wet with the water coming from the pipe. After about two hits on the wedges, Keith swung the hammer for the third hit and missed. He hit Boppers watch, which unfortunately was still on his left wrist, the watch did little to soften the blow and Bopper flew out of the bilge screaming expletives at Keith about how he was going to kill him and then throw his puny body overboard.

It turned out that Keith had broken Bopper's wrist with the sledge hammer. Those people that knew Bopper were aware how volatile he could sometimes be, but at this point I’m sure Keith was going to be keel hauled at the very least. We finished hammering the chocks in, I think somebody rescued the sledge hammer from Keith who at this time was back on the plates, soaking wet and probably wondering how the company was going to explain his mysterious disappearance to his parents, when Bopper threw him overboard.

The next time I saw Bopper was later that evening with his arm in a sling, I really did think that Keith's life was over, but Bopper apologised to him and said that if Keith ever broke his wrist again he would follow up on his earlier threats. After about three days Keith was a folk hero on board, as the man that broke Bopper's wrist. Because I was a witness to the whole thing I also attained folk hero status, by relaying the whole incident to everybody on board that wanted to listen, of course the story was embellished every time it was repeated, but as I write this I cannot wipe the smile off my face. KEITH RADFORD … THE MAN THAT BROKE THE BOPPERS WRIST.

These shots were taken on the 23rd August 2006 at a family dinner at the Bavarian Bier Cafe on Manly Wharf to celebrate the occasion of Keith & Lynne’s eldest son’s 29th birthday. The shot above shows, from the left, Lynne, Nathan (29), Jacqueline (18), Andrew (26), Dave (22) and Keith.

Here’s the Birthday Boy Nathan & Jacqueline with their drinks. Nathan with a 1 litre Stein of Lowenbrau original and Jacqueline with 300mls of Lowenbrau Dunkel (and yes she did drink it all).

Andrew and Dave.

This was at the end of the night when they bring round glasses of iced water with a slice of lemon in them.

Keith sent in the above 2 shots of Dakar Dockside traders. They'll bring back memories for most of us but not for buying stuff ... selling it!

Keith explains;

Who would have thought 30 years ago when sailing from Pyrmont 13 under the Sydney Harbour Bridge, that one day I would stand at the top of the old coat hanger. The weather was absolutely abominable but what an experience. Will do it again in fine weather later on. In the photo is myself, son Nathan and daughter Jacqueline crossing from the eastern arch across to the western arch about 3/4 of the way across before descending. I can thoroughly recommend this as a "must do" if visiting Sydney not just for seadogs but for anyone.

If you're going to do it again Keith I'm coming over to do it with you ... brilliant!

Keith’s email address is keilyn03@tpg.com.au

There’s more photos of Keith in the Oronsay Groups section.

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Steve Borrill © Amberfluid Web Design

Ken Ellis

A bit early for a beer at the Plough Tavern on Oriana Ken

Ken was a lecky with P&O from 1980 till 1994. He started on Canberra (drydock - Southampton - November .... welcome to the world of cruising!), then moved to the big 'O' in (82-84), Royal Princess (84), Sea Princess (85-88), and finished back on the Royal. He then transferred to P&O Ferries on the Irish Sea until 2001 when an argument with a lorry on the vehicle deck resulted in his medical discharge in 2003. He’s now self employed and does some technical writing for the same company as some the other ex-P&O guys - Ken Miller, Graeme Hayes and Neil Lindfield. It was Ken Miller who put me onto this site and he’s since spent many an enjoyable working hour looking through the site and seeing what old pals are up to. Welcome aboard Ken.

The photo above is a gathering of 4 of the more handsome members of the Oriana Eng dept of the day! Says Ken.

L-R:

Paul Mommatt (aka Two Dogs - A/E/O), Ken Ellis (A/EL/O), Duncan Hall (aka Trog - 4/E/O) and Joe Scaramuzza (aka Scary Joe - 4/E/O).

Royal Princess Karaoke: The ships answer to the Four Tops.

L-R

Ian MacIntosh (4/ETO), Rob MacBrayne (4/ETO), Don Millar (1/ETO) and Ken Ellis (2/ETO)

Ken’s email address is ellis0@tiscali.co.uk

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Steve Borrill © Amberfluid Web Design

Ken Miller (aka Windy)

I know this is a bad photo but I had to cut it from the large Canberra Group shot, I needed a photo to add Ken here so I had a place to put his fantastic movie. All I know about Ken is he was 4th Engineer on Canberra.

Check out Ken's brilliant movie (with sound) of Canberra's Engine Room here.

Ken's email address is jkmiller@btinternet.com

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Steve Borrill © Amberfluid Web Design

Ken Worsfold

Ken was a quiet kind of guy. An excellent Engineer and well respected. I guess the best way I could describe Ken is that he didn’t suffer fools gladly. He loved the odd cabin piss up but did a fantastic job of avoiding the cameras. He couldn’t avoid this one though. That’s Ken 4th from the right in the seated group sitting next to Glyn Dodson and just behind John Thow.

Here’s a much better shot of Ken thanks to Mark Sawyer. That’s Ken on the left with Mark.

Thanks to Dave Jewkes we know that Ken is alive and well and lives in the Sydney Area.

I’m very pleased to say that Ken has emailed me and he works for Caltex at the Kurnell refinery, and has done so for the last 19 years. Other P&O names working there are Jim Taylor, Phil Cable (another split pin), Jon Guy and Gary Prescott. He also keeps in touch with Andy Jackson and Terry Bartholomew (now retired) and has always stayed more or less up to date with what P&O are up to.

Here’s what he looks like now

I’m pleased he’s another, like me, who doesn’t look like he did 30 years ago unlike Mark, Speedy & Charlie who always make me feel so old when we get together, not that I’m saying you look old Ken, we’ve just done it tougher than the others, and proud of it :)

Ken’s email address is worsfolk@hotmail.com

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Steve Borrill © Amberfluid Web Design

Kevin Mountney

Kevin worked in the galley on the Sun Princess in 1980. The above picture was cut from a great photo of the entire Galley Staff of 1980 that Kevin sent in and it can be seen in the Sun Princess Groups section here.

Kevin's email address is kjmountney@yahoo.co.uk

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Kevin O’Connor (aka Taffy)

Kevin sailed on the Orsova and Himalaya as A/E and 4/E from 72 to 74. He finishing up on the Himalaya scrap run in 74.

Kevin has sent in some great photos but with little detail so if anyone can help put names to faces please do.

Kevin with an unnamed passenger.

I'm told by Andy Westwood that the girl in this photo is Valerie whom Kevin went on to marry.

Here's Kevin with another unnamed passenger and he tells me the officer on the right is Jimmy Hill (Leckie).

Here's a group shot taken on Himalaya in 1973.

L-R:

Kevin O'Connor, Passenger, Stan Steers A/El, ??, Colin Thomas A/El, Paul Talarico A/Eng.

Here's another group shot taken on Orsova in 72/73. I recognise Kevin with another passenger on his knee, getting a bit of a reputation here Kev!

L-R:

?? (AP), ?? (Baby Doc), Kevin O'Connor, ?? (Nursing Sister), ?? (WAP), Mike ? (The Bean), Margaret ? (Chili Ho), Marty Elliot, ??, John “Snoopy” Gray (he came from the Orkneys), ?? (Junior Freezer).

I've got no idea who the girl is but she's well worth including and it's a nice shot of the ships :)

All I can tell you about this one is that's Rob ? (AEO) on the left, Kevin on the right and Orsova berthed at Circular Quay, Sydney taken in 1972.

Here's a better shot of Orsova taken the same day.

This is Tom Sheridan & John Stephenson taken on Orsova 1972.

And finally this handsome couple ... unknown!

Hopefully Kevin or someone in the Seadog community will come up with the names. Thanks for your contribution Kevin.

There's a previous shot of Kevin on this site here

Kevin's email address is koconnor@tempo.com.au

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Kevin Timms

Kevin was a great guy, intelligent, funny, friendly … I could go on. He was always happy and smiling with a great positive attitude. He was a real pleasure to be around. That’s Kevin with TT in a headlock and that’s Mick Everson laying about on the left.

Me & Kevin

Kevin dreaming about his girlfriend across the sea in Sydney

Here’s one of him not smiling. It was obviously a staged shot not his natural self.

The funniest story about Kevin, although not funny at the time, was when he resigned and left the ship in Sydney to be with his girlfriend and he desperately wanted to take his beloved Budgie with him that he’s bought in Madeira so he coerced a couple of us to help him with his plan. First he put the bird in his jacket pocket and kept his hand in his pocket holding onto it and off he went ashore. Accomplice number one was Mark Sawyer who 10 minutes later walked off down the gang plank carrying Kevin’s toolbox stuffed with cat litter and Budgie food. Accomplice number two, yours truly, followed 10 minutes later trying nonchalantly to walk off the ship with a bloody empty Budgie cage. Fortunately for Australia the customs officers weren’t that easily fooled and I was met by one who said “you’re just the man we’re looking for … follow me”. I was led into a room with Kevin, Mark and a customs guy holding a budgie looking for a cage to put it in. Fortunately for me there’s no law against bringing a Budgie cage into the country so I was let off and told to go away. Mark was also let off and that was the last time I ever saw Kevin. I’d love to know what happened to him and the Budgie.

Here’s Kevin taken very recently with his gorgeous wife Lois and their 1 year old Luka. Currently they’re living in a renovated workers cottage in Birkdale (Brisbane) on the beautiful Moreton Bay area. They’ve been married for 2½ years now and Kevin claims Lois was a beautiful "Angel That Fell To Earth". I can’t disagree with that Kev, how romantic is that folks :)

He’s currently the I.T. Manager for ACL (Automotive Components Limited). Lois manages her time between being a Mother and a Marketing Manager for an IT firm in Brisbane. Life, at the moment, for them is wonderful.

Kevin recalls;

‘I officially left the Big 'O' in Fremantle and stayed on as a passenger through to Sydney - then just walked off the ship to start a new life with Margaret (former passenger) in Penrith (Lower Blue Mountains) NSW. We got married 1 year (to the day) after we met - in Dorrigo and Geordie John was our Best Man. I also attended Geordie's wedding in Sydney (can't remember if I was Best Man or not) - haven't heard from him for years.

Margaret and I were married for nearly 20 years before we decided to call it a day. We have 2 marvellous "kids", Indya (24) currently in London working as Alan Bond's P.A. - and Bede (21 next month) who is in I.T. with the Environmental Protection Agency - he still lives with Margaret in Carindale (about 15 minute drive from where we live). Still good friends with Margaret and we see Indya and Bede when time and circumstance permit (21 is a very busy time of life and London is not exactly round the corner).

Amongst my career moves I worked with IBM for 12 years – 3½ of them in Dubbo - finishing up as a Large Systems Manager in Brisbane. I’ve since worked in a multimedia company that produced Touch-screen kiosks (you may have seen the ones we did for Perth City Council about 5 years ago). Oh yeah - just remembered, I did a stint as an electrical fitter with a company called Gilbarco in Ryde very early in the piece with a certain Gavin Ash (the Leckie that I replaced when I joined Big 'O').

I had a few visits to Oriana shortly after leaving her including the famous Budgie Rustling incident - which resulted in me going to court and getting

a fine, a criminal record and a deceased budgie - never did get to thank you Steve for your help in the attempted "breakout".’

And here’s the great new section called Kevin’s Memories with the first movie footage posted on this site.

There’s more photos of Kevin here, here,

Kevin’s email address is ktimms@bigpond.net.au

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Kirstine Mayall

Kirstine was with P&O from 1977 to 1982 on Uganda and PP. The shot above was cut from the Uganda Silly Hat Party in the Groups section. Now that’s my kind of girl J When I cut the photo I just had to include that beautiful elegant foot in the shot. What a stunning lady.

Kirstine now runs a business organising Golf Cruises. What a brilliant idea. Check out her fabulous Business Website at http://www.fairwaves.co.uk

Kirstine’s email address is kirstine.mayall@ntlworld.com

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Kit Williams

WOW!

Kit was a shop girl, spending the years '79 through '81, mostly on board Sun Princess with a few months on Island Princess as well.

Kit says;

‘I was lucky to have begun my relationship with P&O/Princess at a very young age as my dad was Maritime Counsel on cases for both companies so he was bringing officers and crew home to meet the family, most memorable being Gerry McGowan, Malcolm Rushan, Ian Gibb and Brian MacDonald.’

This photo is a rare one of three surgeons together (with a shop girl thrown in for good measure). Richard Webster being hugged, John Evans on the right and Frank Zaniewski in the cool shades. It was taken on the Sea Princess in Los Angeles in May of 1980. The Island Princess in port at the same time and they were changing surgeons on one of the ships so the three of them had a drink in the Surgeon's cabin on the Sun Princess.

Kit Says;

‘Above is Paddy Clare (Black), VO (ah, but he is missed) and Richard Webster, (Pink) Surgeon, in their kit for the Dying Swan, Paddy being the star of the Sea Princess version. Don't know if you knew Paddy (didn't everyone know Paddy Clare????), but he died in London in 1994.’

You never know what life has in store for you, do you? Live for the moment!

Above is David Hannah on the bridge wing of Royal Princess in Glacier Bay.

Kit’s email address is bakerlouline@charter.net

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