The speaker at a recent meeting of Large Probus Club had the members all at sea with his experiences as a Master on the Stena Line. Captain Murray Paterson gained his Master’s Certificate on the 8th of May 1978 and had a season on the Waverley before joining Sea Link on the Stranraer to Larne route.
He served on the Ailsa Princess, a mail and freight ship which would carry 1200 passengers 300 first class and 900 Second Class. His next ship was the Galloway Princess,
one of four “Saint Class” ships designed and built by Harland & Wolf in Belfast along with St David, St Anselm and Saint Christopher.
He became Senior Master on the Stena Caledonia, formerly the St David which was bought by Stena Line in 1990 and renamed.
He had the role of holding the budget for the ship as well as producing Standing Orders for the ship. This took responsibility away from the Company Board. He advised that Senior Masters were introduced after the Herald of Free Enterprise had sunk on 6th March 1987 when the bow door hadn’t been shut, and this had not been noticed from the Bridge. This led to water flooding onto the car deck, destroying the ship’s stability and leading to it sinking in shallow water with the loss of 155 passengers and 38 crew,
Murray spoke about several other ships including the very successful HSS Stena Line ships which operated very successfully between Belfast and Stranraer from 1996 until 2011, when Stena Line moved their operation from Stranraer to Loch Ryan Port, Cairnryan. The site had previously been used to construct Mulberry Harbours and was closer to the motorway system. The Senior Masters had an input into the design of the Port and suggestions, such as rounding the end of the pier, were taken onboard.
He also referred to the dry docking and several refits of the Stena Caledonia and the importance of cleaning the hull to remove marine growth, shot blasting and painting, with the removal of old paint particularly important to help keep the speed of the ship up. His job in dry dock was to walk around the ship morning and evening to check on works undertaken that day. Whilst refits and dry docking were necessary, Murray always welcomed getting the ship back to normal and back at sea.
The Stena Caledonia’s last day in service on the Stranraer to Belfast route was on 20th November 2011. Murray attended the last sailing and pressed the button to shut it down. He arranged for the Red Ensign from the ship to be laid up in the High Kirk in Stranraer. The Stena Caledonia was sold to Indonesia in 2012, renamed Port Link and it now provides a ferry service between Jakarta and Merak.
For more photos see the NI Ferry Site.
Probus member Captain Bill Gillespie thanked Murray for his humorous delivery of a very interesting subject. This brought back memories to Bill who spoke on several incidents he had been involved in during his time at sea.
New members are always welcomed at the Club. If you are 50 or over, retired, or nearing retirement, (men only, I’m afraid) you can attend three meetings as a guest and find out what a relaxed and friendly time we have. That’s plenty of time to decide whether to become a Club member or not. Please check out our programme and then use our Contact Form if you wish to attend as a guest, or to enquire about joining.
Largs Probus Club will next meet on Wednesday 19th March at 10:00am within the Willowbank Hotel when Heather Kerr will speak about Out of Africa.