2430 Birtles J.A.

our new home which had just completed in Buccleuch - Sandton - We had purchased the ground a long time before and had the house built with Samantha 's arrival in mind . - It was a cosy three bedroomed home of reasonably compact dimensions .

During my first ten years as chief officer many other things happened - My father had passed on between the births of my two children and my mother was getting really frail about two years after Joey was born and we decided to build a flat onto the house with a secondary flat attached with a view to getting live in nursing care.

This made the house a great deal bigger . Just prior to the completion of the project my mother died and we were left with the space unoccupied .

In between times Cheryl had qualified and moved on to work in the J.G.Strydom Hospital and thereafter she was destined to accept a " Part Time " post at Edenvale Hospital in the Surgical Department - This would allow her to work between 8 and 1300 hrs. Monday to Friday ( barring emergencies ) and devote time to the children. To date she maintains the same occupation.

Not too long after completion of the build on - Cheryl's father passed on and after a further period we invited Cheryl 's mom to come and live with us . Grandma now in her 80's still works and is out of the door before 0730 every morning and off into the traffic.

At a later date we added another TV lounge and computer / sewing room ( With more cupboards ) onto the house and now the house is quite a monster.

This year Samantha finishes school and Joey will follow in time - Both of them do well at school and are accomplished gymnasts having achieved gold medals and going to Spain on tour.

Samantha has done piano , ballet and ballroom dancing. - Joey is highly involved in Scouts , having recently done the Sederberg Tour , he plays violin and piano and plays hockey.

Back to the plot - On the 1st July 90 I was appointed to Rowanbank as master and from here I had 10 very successful years as master with no problems or incidents of note. The only really notable occurrences I had revolved around two occasions when people lost the plot entirely - The first was with an Electrical Officer who went unballanced around the Christmas period 95 and had to be repatriated from Japan and the other was with a Second Cook who lost at least 20 cards out of the deck and had to be put ashore in Funchal.

During my period as master - May 96 - I received a request from the office to help out and relieve a Master who had "slipped a disk" on one of the big bulkers and this saw my appointment to the Kalahari and subsequent continued employment aboard these vessels during the change over period when Saf was shedding it's holdings to Maersk and Enterprise Shipping. I ended up on Enterprise Shipping side.

On the 24th June I left the Ferosa in Richards Bay to go on leave and was advised shortly thereafter that I was to be retrenched. This had some positive spin off's - Did my pension the world of good , received a retrenchment package , had a rapid learning experience in CV writing , brushed up on Internet usage , bought an Opel Corsa to go to Durban and attend the STCW95 Course and got away from an employment that I was no longer really happy with .

During this time I applied to agencies all over the world - Mostly on the Internet - and eventually accepted employment as Chief Officer with Safmarine / Maersk. My service was considered to be unbroken . So I must admit that by retrenching me they did me a favour - As can be seen from my record for the past two years I have served as Choff aboard Safmarine ships and have found it to be a really good experience. I have no doubt that promotion awaits me down the line somewhere but I am not concerned as I enjoy being at sea no matter what the situation and can still make the most of it.

As far as hobbies etc - Even on leave I am keen on boating we have a " Gypsy " sail boat , a Bowrider Powerboat complete with 140HP Suzuki engine and two wind surfers - I am OK with the sailing and power

boating but my ability to water ski or wind surf is severely limited . Will have to leave that side of things to the youngsters.


	General Botha - Class of 1973 \| Roll Call 2429 Adam J.C. \| 2430 Birtles J.A. \| 2431 Bradford S.C. \| 2432 Clack G.H. \| 2433 Clayton C.J. \| 2434 Curran J.J. \| 2435 Demont M.C. \| 2436 DeVilliers W.G. \| 2437 Du Preez A. \| 2438 Durell G. \| 2439 Greensmith R.J.T. \| 2440 Hatch V.T. \| 2441 Holmes B.M. \| 2442 Hulley M.E. \| 2443 Logan A.G. \| 2444 McClure T.J.T. \| 2445 McGhee D. \| 2446 Melvin D.G. \| 2447 Merriman I.P.D. \| 2448 Moon P.A. \| 2449 Moran K.A. \| 2450 Nunes F.P. \| 2451 Pelizzari P.D. \| 2452 Potgieter P.A. \| 2453 Proctor S.C. \| 2454 Rapson G.T. \| 2455 Rycroft C.F. \| 2456 Santana F.A.P. \| 2457 Smith J.R. \| 2458 Talbot N.G. \| 2459 Tissink J.C. \| 2460 Theunissen S.P. \| 2461 Van Zyl J.W. \| 2462 Wheeler P.R. \| 2463 Whitehead R. \| 2464 Zwaan B.J.R. 2430 Birtles J.A. Served Sukumbi as temp. 3NO from Oct 74 being promoted to 3NO on joining S.A.Nederburg Oct 75 The next move was to extra 2NO with Roger Pawley as 2NO on the maiden voyage on the S.A.Langeberg sailing from Genoa Jan 77 to 30th Nov 77 - During my leave I married Cheryl - December 77 , had my honeymoon in the Elangeni in Durban (the only place we could get into) and then returned to Johannesburg where I had organised a third floor flat in Orange Grove - This was on Louis Botha Avenue - just below " Death Bend " At this time Cheryl was still at Wits University working on her medical studies. Me being 26 and Cheryl some 5 years younger. Went back to sea as 2NO aboard Langkloof in Feb 78. and stayed in this rank until promotion to CNO aboard SABIE May 80 . The next milestone was the birth of my daughter " Samantha Lee " in June 85 - at this time I was away at sea having joined the Sea Transporter in May 85. About one week after Samantha was born Cheryl moved into our new home which had just completed in Buccleuch - Sandton - We had purchased the ground a long time before and had the house built with Samantha 's arrival in mind . - It was a cosy three bedroomed home of reasonably compact dimensions . Joseph Keith ( Joe junior ) was born April 87 during my period of leave between the Constantia and the Virgo. During my first ten years as chief officer many other things happened - My father had passed on between the births of my two children and my mother was getting really frail about two years after Joey was born and we decided to build a flat onto the house with a secondary flat attached with a view to getting live in nursing care. This made the house a great deal bigger . Just prior to the completion of the project my mother died and we were left with the space unoccupied . In between times Cheryl had qualified and moved on to work in the J.G.Strydom Hospital and thereafter she was destined to accept a " Part Time " post at Edenvale Hospital in the Surgical Department - This would allow her to work between 8 and 1300 hrs. Monday to Friday ( barring emergencies ) and devote time to the children. To date she maintains the same occupation. Not too long after completion of the build on - Cheryl's father passed on and after a further period we invited Cheryl 's mom to come and live with us . Grandma now in her 80's still works and is out of the door before 0730 every morning and off into the traffic. At a later date we added another TV lounge and computer / sewing room ( With more cupboards ) onto the house and now the house is quite a monster. This year Samantha finishes school and Joey will follow in time - Both of them do well at school and are accomplished gymnasts having achieved gold medals and going to Spain on tour. Samantha has done piano , ballet and ballroom dancing. - Joey is highly involved in Scouts , having recently done the Sederberg Tour , he plays violin and piano and plays hockey. Back to the plot - On the 1st July 90 I was appointed to Rowanbank as master and from here I had 10 very successful years as master with no problems or incidents of note. The only really notable occurrences I had revolved around two occasions when people lost the plot entirely - The first was with an Electrical Officer who went unballanced around the Christmas period 95 and had to be repatriated from Japan and the other was with a Second Cook who lost at least 20 cards out of the deck and had to be put ashore in Funchal. During my period as master - May 96 - I received a request from the office to help out and relieve a Master who had "slipped a disk" on one of the big bulkers and this saw my appointment to the Kalahari and subsequent continued employment aboard these vessels during the change over period when Saf was shedding it's holdings to Maersk and Enterprise Shipping. I ended up on Enterprise Shipping side. On the 24th June I left the Ferosa in Richards Bay to go on leave and was advised shortly thereafter that I was to be retrenched. This had some positive spin off's - Did my pension the world of good , received a retrenchment package , had a rapid learning experience in CV writing , brushed up on Internet usage , bought an Opel Corsa to go to Durban and attend the STCW95 Course and got away from an employment that I was no longer really happy with . During this time I applied to agencies all over the world - Mostly on the Internet - and eventually accepted employment as Chief Officer with Safmarine / Maersk. My service was considered to be unbroken . So I must admit that by retrenching me they did me a favour - As can be seen from my record for the past two years I have served as Choff aboard Safmarine ships and have found it to be a really good experience. I have no doubt that promotion awaits me down the line somewhere but I am not concerned as I enjoy being at sea no matter what the situation and can still make the most of it. As far as hobbies etc - Even on leave I am keen on boating we have a " Gypsy " sail boat , a Bowrider Powerboat complete with 140HP Suzuki engine and two wind surfers - I am OK with the sailing and power boating but my ability to water ski or wind surf is severely limited . Will have to leave that side of things to the youngsters.