Flint Terence

Terence Flint

Job Description
Fireman, Donkeyman

Period
1969 - 1973

Terence flint was born in England and worked for British Rail driving steam locomotives. He then worked for four years in a post office before coming to Australia in April 1967. He worked in the post office for 18 months and from there went to Cheynes Beach Whaling Company in January 1969 as a Fireman (3 years) and then Donkeyman for 2 years. (A Donkeyman looks after all the auxiliary engines). He worked on Cheynes III and Cheynes IV as relief but his main job was on the Gascoyne and Cheynes II. When the ship went to Fremantle to go onto the slips, she was sailed around the coast, which took about 36 hours. They were in Fremantle from about two weeks to about eight weeks and sometimes slept on the boat and other times at the Mission for Seamen.

Some of the names remembered from that time are Bob Wych (Chief Engineer), (always got sick on his first day out but after that was okay), Tom Kennedy (Sonar), Alan de Jong (Boiler and Winches), Paul Jones (Meal Processing and Bagging), Stewart Clements (Donkeyman, Fireman), Len Guppy (Cheynes III) – he was swept from the gun deck on Cheynes III – he was coiling up the forerunner a- the gun wasn’t in the safety position – it swung around and the next thing Len was in the water (Len almost walked on the water because of the fear of sharks!!)

Terence remembers the boilers on the ship would be started at about 2 or 3 am and the ship sailed at 4 am. Five whales per side was the maximum number of whales the ship could tow back.