My late Father Ernest Sidney Lawbuary worked for G.S.N.C. (1824) during the late 40's until 1960. He was employed as a Bo'sun with the company until the summer months when he crewed TQOTC as an A/B. We lived in Ramsgate, Bright's Place, so for a 3-4 month period the old man could go home every night as opposed to the rest of the year when he travelled mainly on the European routes where GSNC's cargo fleet operated. If memory serves GSNC's fleet was named after birds, i.e Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Auk etc.
When I was 12 years of age during the summer school holidays I was also 'employed' as a deckboy (supernumerary) unpaid. I worked 4 consecutive summers aboard her. My uniform consisted of a sailors white flat cap with the tally G.S.N.C. thereon in gold. Also was a seaman's blue jersey with G.S.N.C. picked out in red on the chest, black trousers and shoes completed the 'uniform'. I performed a whole spectrum of duties, I was taught how to 'box' the compass and allowed to take the wheel to steer the ship (under supervision at first). Taught how to splice ropes and make tiddly rope work, Turk's heads for heaving lines, coach-whipping for bell ropes, how to 'serve' a rope, etc. Rope-work fascinated me. I became quite adept working with it. Other duties were the usual scrubbing of decks (wooden) and endlessly polishing brightwork. As the sprog of the crew I assisted the Purser during embarkation time, taking head-counts with a mechanical numerator to establish the number of passengers. We usually tallied. Then there was the Deck-Chair distribution. Although they were free for the passengers an upturned cap was placed strategically with some loose change therein, the majority of passengers would throw some coins into it. A fair sum was divvied out at the end of each trip..!
Our usual ports of call from Ramsgate were to Calais and Boulogne, sometimes taking passengers from Margate pier too. Two trips stand out: One going up to Southend pier where we embarked the Dagenham Girl Pipers and factory workers from Burroughs Welcome. That trip was quite a knees up..!
The other was visiting the new Deal pier on its opening day,We were its first visitor. Also taking aboard passengers although this visit was a one off. The date escapes me but I believe there is a plaque at the shore end of the pier outlaying this information.
The skipper of TQOTC was Captain Peter Stoddard. A Taciturn, kindly and very competent man. The Mate a Mr Mann. The Bo'sun Ted Jenkins who later took a pub on the West-Cliff. I can't recall other crew members, the mists of time are at work..!
The Cannon family have been mentioned somewhere in this thread. They too lived In Bright's Place. Bob was the Ramsgate Lifeboat's Engineer, his Son Ron later became the Cox'n and served with distinction for many years being awarded bravery medals on at least a couple of occasions.
I thoroughly enjoyed my time aboard the 'Old Queen'. Was taught and learnt a lot which gave me a good grounding over other new-entrants when I joined The Royal Navy in Chatham. (another story) The year was 1960. My Dad then 'swallowed the anchor' and came ashore permanently. He worked nearly right up to his death in '91 aged 84.
