The Picture:
   This picture of the Nolisement is in peace-time colours. The hull was black to the water line, and red anti-fouling below that. The superstructure was buff around the hatch areas,  with the living quarters, including the centre-castle and the two blocks of cabins abaft that, on each side, being white. The funnel was black, with a wide white band almost at the top, upon which were two red bands with a red globe between them, on each side.  The ship is high out of the water (light ship) indicating that the cargo had been discharged.
    In war time, the whole ship was painted grey, and the ship's name painted over. There was a 4 in. gun mounted aft, on the poop deck, two columns built on the afterdeck for anti-aircraft guns, one each side, and two A.A. guns on the bridge, one each side. There was also a thick armour covering, built on the forepart of the bridge for protection. Two quick release floats were mounted against the mast stays, both forward and aft, one on each side. A few other modifications were built on for war-time use.
    The ship owners were from the Island of Jersey, and the ship's name is from the French, meaning 'freighting or shipping'  as in, 'to ship something'. They also had a ship named Jersey . Their other ships were named after places in Wales, Pontypridd, Allende, etc. seeing as they operated from Cardiff, exporting Welsh coal and importing iron ore. In the early 1900's they were the largest fleet owners, having 32 ships. The owner, Sir Thomas Morel, was knighted for his efforts. By the start of the depression 1928/29, the company had whittled down their fleet to seven ships, and all tramping around the world.
    The Nolisement was built in 1928, survived the war, was sold twice to other owners and eventually broken up at Split (Adriatic) in 1950.

Prewar days:

One important piece of information passed on to me by two apprentices who were leaving the ship, was that the only source to earn extra money was the Donkeyman. In port, he was responsible to keeping the Donkey boiler going. The 3 main propulsion boilers would be shut down and the Donkey boiler provided steam to the winches on deck to handle cargo, run the various pumps in the engine room and run the generator.  Keeping the fires burning used up a lot of coal and a large chute from the tween deck to the stokehold holding about 10 tons had to be kept filled. In port, the Donkeyman managed to get a supply of his favourite beverage, which occasionally got the better of him, when he was disinclined to fill the bunker himself. He would prevail on the apprentices to fill it for the sum of 10/-, payable only at the time of pay off when the ship returned home.
The apprentices assured me that he was a man of honour and I should have no fear of ever being paid, if ever I was called upon to do this service.  He was one of the weirdest characters I had ever met.  His cabin was as black as the ace of spades, as was his person. I did see him paint his room once. He didn't bother to remove his hat from the peg on the bulkhead.  He just painted around it. It was kind of tricky to outline his bunk blankets, but a few blobs of paint were hardly noticed.  Our voyage was for 12 months, and during that time I filled the bunker 3 times. The morning after each service he would seek me out, and pointing his black finger at me he would state that he  owed me so much, which was rather reassuring really seeing as I was in doubt as to whether he was aware of anything of the previous evening. Anyway, it came time when we returned back to England and all the crew were called to the shipping office to pay off. I was left on board, not being required to pay off or on articles. I was sure I had seen the last of the Donkeyman, and somewhat crestfallen as he went ashore, washed up to almost a pale grey, and in his civvy suit of crinkled, paint splattered blue. It could have been brown. After a couple of hours a taxi arrived at the gangplank and who should step out but the donkeyman. This time the pale grey was tinged with a little red, as he had stopped at the nearest watering hole after getting his money. He made toward me and said, "I owe you 30/-" and peeled off the notes. Dirty though he was, he was indeed a man of honour.

My Experience:
    This ship was owned by Morels of Cardiff, and tramped around the world. I joined her as an apprentice on 19 Nov. 1936 at the age of 15 yrs, completed four trips around the world, three East to West, and one West to East, over a four year period.  We were in Japan at the outbreak of WW.2 after discharging a cargo of salt. We proceeded to the Fijian Islands to load sugar, in bags, and a small parcel of tinned pineapple. The Japanese steward we had, jumped ship (A.W.O.L.) in Fiji, and I was directed to take over his job. One of the responsibilities of steward on a tramp vessel at that time was to administer to the sick and injured, and as we were traveling around the islands, loading cargo at the various ports we carried the native stevedores with us. I had to attend to their aches, pains and minor injuries. Remembering from my school days a teacher who had mentioned that a favourite remedy in the British Army, for all ailments, including coughs, colds and broken limbs, was pill number 9, which was a purge to the system, I incorporated this wisdom substituting 'black draft', seeing as we had no No.9's on hand. They ate and slept on board, and also had their wives with them. In the evening, when the day's work was over and the hatches closed, they gathered on the hatches around kerosene lanterns. We had five hatches, and there was about 30 men and women at each one. They chanted in harmony, which was quite pleasant. Some would sit on the edge of the hatch and others would dance around the lantern. This festivity was enriched by imbibing copious quantities of Kava, their native drink. Fermentation is not involved, it just contains a drug that makes the drinker quite heady.  I might mention that this potent beverage was made by them chewing the root to soften it up and placing it in a muslin cloth, then pouring water over it. Making Kava in that fashion was quite illegal at that time, but as there were no police on board, the procedure went undetected. I did taste some, seeing as my curiosity was aroused. It tasted like epsom salts, made my head quite dizzy and disrupted my leg functions. And that was just a mouthful drank from a half a coconut shell.
    We left Suva on the 29 Oct. 1939 and arrived in Panama on 1 Dec. From there we were ordered to Kingston, Jamaica, for routing instructions, and from there we were sent independently on our way to Liverpool. Somewhere in the Atlantic we encountered boiler trouble and for 10 days we were adrift while the engineers did the necessary repairs. They had to wait a couple of days for the boilers to cool down even before they could get to them. This extra time had a negative effect with  my victualling calculations, and although the cook did manage to catch a large shark to supplement our rations, we had a lot of salt beef and hard biscuits, very little tea or coffee to go with the sugar (Our cargo must have consisted of about 8,000 tons of it) , and certainly no cream to go with the pineapple. (The rest of our cargo was made of it) There was very little complaint about the shortage of food, and I was not lynched. We were all thankful to escapethe hazards of submarine attack, although at that time, seeing as the war had just started, danger from that quarter was minimal. When the ship paid off the crew in Liverpool on the 5 Jan. 1940 the Captain gave me £5 for my efforts. Seeing as my year's pay as an apprentice was £18, it represented an additional 3 1/2 month's bonus, not only that, the Captain recommended me to the new Captain taking over the ship, as a jolly good chap, which resulted in me being promoted to acting 3rd Officer for the last year of my apprenticeship with a corresponding raise of pay. This wealth enabled me to buy a civy suit of clothing, and accessories.  During the year 1940 we were in the trans-Atlantic conveys going across to Canada and the U.S.A. for grain. In July we were dispatched to Hampton Roads, Chesapeake Bay, for orders, and while we were at anchor just off the naval station a storm came up, causing us to drag anchor and swipe the dock with our stern. We bent the rudder and had to go to Capastrella for repairs.
This was a nice easy month in August for the all hands, much better than running the Atlantic gauntlet. From there, we went up to Baltimore and loaded grain, and thence to Halifax for convoy.
    We were about to leave the harbour to join the ill-fated convoy HX 72 when were ordered to return to Bedford Basin. Three members of the crew had had to be hospitalized on arrival, and it appeared they  had typhoid. Germs had been found in the drinking water, attributed to an act of sabotage whilst we were in Baltimore. Our drinking water tank was scoured and cleaned, and we left with convoy HX 75 about 5 days later.
    Whereas convoy HX 72 got really clobbered, we got through unscathed. (Its an ill-wind etc.) We went to Loch Ewe to join a convoy going down the east coast, to our destination at Hull with our cargo of grain. This was Oct 1940, and when I had completed my apprenticeship, and paid off the s/s Nolisement.
   The Nolisement was a steamship, and the boilers were fired by either coal or oil, depending on the availability and economics wherever she was. The 'Black Gang', named because of the dirty job, could have been any nationality, and were there to fire the boilers, trim the coal or oil the engines, under the general name of Firemen. Their immediate supervisor was the Donkeyman who in turn acted under the orders of the 2 nd Engineer. There were 3 watches, 12 to 4, 4 to 8 and 8 to 12. In each watch there were 2 stokers who kept the boilers going, 1 trimmer, who kept the coal moved to the chutes leading to the stokehold, and 1 oiler, who kept the moving mechanism oiled and kept the self oiling boxes, located at critical areas, filled. If we happened to be using oil for the furnaces, then the trimmers would be on day work, 7 am to 5 pm, cleaning, painting or other maintenance around the engine room. Their accommodation was in the fo'c's'le (forecastle) on the Starboard side. Sailors were on the Port side. When walking along the deck,
sailors would usually keep to the Port side, and the 'Black Gang' would keep to the Starboard side. The exception was at the time of foul weather, when rope life lines were strung along the side of the deck on the lee side, when both crews would use that side. The Sailors and the Firemen (Another general name for the 'Black Gang') did not socialize, and very few even exchanged the usual civilities when passing each other.
    In 1937 we happened to have a crew of West African firemen. They were moslem by religion, and their names appeared to me, to be various combinations of Abdul, Ahammed, Hammed, Mohammed,  and Ali. Ali (I really do not remember his name) was a big strapping fellow of  6 ft. odd, and just as broad.  He always had a smile on his face, and would laugh and joke with anybody.  Whenever he would rise to the main deck for a breather he would usually be speaking to one of the boys (There were 4 of us on the ship), and he was very popular with all.
    One day, I must have got a cinder in my eye---there were always tons pouring from the funnel. It was very sore, and impeded my vision. Both the Carpenter and the Bosun searched my eye, in vain, and this persisted for a couple of days. Eventually the Bosun advised me to go forward and see Ali. It appeared that Ali had a reputation for removing foreign matter from eyes, which I did not know about at the time. So I ambled forward into the fo'c's'le and there were 4 firemen seated at a table playing poker. Ali being one of them.
    " Ali", I said, " I've got something in my eye". Ali was not in his usual happy mood, for he had been losing at cards, but he turned to the fellow on his left and requested that he play out his hand, and indicated to me that we go out on deck. He had me sit on a bollard while he held my face between his two large hands. "Sit still", he said, which was needless to say, as he held my face like a vice, and I wouldn't have been able to move a millimeter in either direction. He looked intently into my eye for a long time, as he held my eyelid up with his thumb, and slowly his face came closer, still looking intently. His tongue shot out, and the tip of it circled around my eyeball a few times, scaring the living daylights out of me. I managed to break away and scoot amidships where I met the Bosun, and with considerable trepidation and halting words, relayed my fearful experience. The Bosun was unmoved, and seemed to discount all my fear.  "Yes",  he said, "but how does your eye feel now ?". I hadn't thought about my eye for the last ten minutes. "Does it still hurt ? Can you see all right ?" He kept on about my eye, when the trauma of the operation was all I could think about. As my fears subsided, and with his continual questioning I at last managed to orient my thoughts to the condition of my eye. Yes, my sight was quite normal, and the pain had dispersed, which hastened to repair my shattered nerves. "Did you thank him ?" the boson wanted to know. Thoughts of gratitude were light years away. The Boson continued to nag, "You've been moaning and groaning about your eye for a couple of days, and now you say it is perfectly all right you might at least have thanked him." On and on he went, with no understanding of the terrible ordeal I had suffered at the hands of Ali.  However, as time went on, I began to realize that I did owe Ali a word of gratitude, and so I sauntered forward again, checking my eye every few
seconds to be sure my 'thanks' wouldn't be premature.
When I entered the firemen's domain, the four were still playing poker, but now Ali was quite elated. It appears that the hand he had left to be played out had won, which was the first winning hand he had had for two weeks, and he considered my intervention as being the omen which had changed his luck. He asked that I come over and stand by his side and advise what cards to throw away. I never did get to thanking him. We were now off on an entirely different tack. Tins of fifty cigarettes were on the table, and a small pile of loose ones. The loose ones were much the worse for wear, quite dirty and with much of the tobacco missing.
    Anyone was allowed to take one from the kitty to smoke. I quickly learned that the cigarettes represented money, and that Ali was about two weeks pay in debt. I didn't know a thing about poker, but it didn't take a mental giant to know that Aces and Pictures were good ones to have, and others should be thrown away.  I think they played about once or twice a week, and quite often I was there to support Ali, and within a few weeks he had recovered his loses. The other players did not appear to resent my presence.
    There was an alleyway that ran about 25 ft between the sailors quarters on the Port side and the Firemen's quarters on the Port side. The after end had a door leading to the deck, and the forward end led to a small hatch which gave access to the chain locker (anchor cable) and storage space for hawsers, ropes, canvas and other gear. On one occasion, as I was leaving, along the alley, a sailor entered, and seeing me, he gave a wry look whilst removing his belt. "I thought I told you not to go in there," he said, referring of course to the firemen's quarters. It was quite obvious he meant to give me a hiding, and I retreated backward to the dead end, as he advanced toward me. I thought that I would retreat as far as possible, and then make a rush passed him, giving the maximum time for me to open the door and get out on deck before he could deliver a blow. As he was about to strike, the door opened and in stepped Hammed (I really do not recall his name). Hammed was a short fellow, about my own height--5 ft 9".  He was a retiring sort of chap, and all his shipmates would make fun of him. Hammed however, was no shrinking violet. I had seen him in the stokehold where his word was law, even though he spoke in a soft voice. He took in the scene and stated, " You put your hands on that boy and I'll throw you over the side".  I had no doubts about his ability to do so, as he was all muscle, whereas the sailor was on the portly side, and the sailor must have thought the same thing because he seemed to disappear like lightning. I entered the Firemen's quarters followed by Hammed, and Hammed quickly related the scene he had come across. Ali was furious, and rose from the card table declaring to one and all, that he would show Hammed how to deal with people like that. He bellowed and swore as he made for the door, quickly followed by his pals who were anxious to quieten him down. Ali burst open the door to the sailors' quarters demanding, where is the hero that wants to beat up the boys. "I'm his boy," Ali roared, "and as soon as I get my hands on him, I'm throwing him over the side". He searched the messroom, then went out on deck to search the washhouse and toilets (The heads). Sailors and Firemen alike were trying to quieten Ali down, but Ali appeared not to move from his declared intent. The Sailor wasn't to be found, and Ali returned to his game.
    The next day, Ali was proceeding forward with the evening meal, contained in mess tins for all the Firemen, so his hands were full. At No.2 hatch, on the foredeck, he espied his quarry working, so laid down his mess tins on the hatch to give chase, but the quarry had seen Ali at the same time and took off aft. Ali did not find him, so returned to the hatch and picked up the mess tins.  About an hour later I was summoned to the Saloon, and when I got there, Ali, Hammed,  and the Sailor were already there and the Captain was lacing into them. He was addressing Hammed, seeing as Hammed and the Captain were about the same height (5' 9" about), where the Captain could easily face him eyeball to eyeball, whereas Ali being over 6' could only be addressed directly when the Captain tilted his head back, which must have been somewhat demeaning, so Hammed had to bear the brunt of it all. The tirade went on for some considerable time, but it ended up with the Captain looking up to Ali roaring," You aren't going to throw anybody over the side. Is that clear ?" "Yes sir." came the reply. Then looking at Hammed, "And you are not going to throw anybody over the side. Is that clear ?" "Yes sir." replied Hammed. "If anything like this ever happens again you come and see me. Is that clear ?" continues the Captain, "And I'll throw him over the side." Ali and Hammed were dismissed. The Captain asked me to get the Bosun, which I did do, and returned to the Saloon. The Captain ruled that the Sailor was not to approach any boy (There were four of us on board) closer than 10', and instructed the Bosun not to let this sailor and I,  to be left alone at anytime during working hours. And so it was for the rest of the voyage.