It was fifty years ago 1958 and I was a steward serving on the “ASIA”, one of Cunard’s fleet of cargo vessels running from London to the Canadian ports of Quebec and Montreal during the open season on the St Lawrence river, which lasted roughly from March to early December each year. The St Lawrence Seaway opening was still a year away when access to Montreal and the Great Lakes would be open all year round. In 1958 and before the winter closing of the river due to weather conditions meant that freight shippers and companies were faced with much longer distances and expense to transport their products overland to St Johns, New Brunswick or Halifax, Nova Scotia. Therefore, all the shippers tried to get as much as possible shipped from Montreal before the port closure for this winter period.

Obviously, all shipping companies vied with competition from other flags to obtain as much of this trade as possible, sometimes delaying departure to receive profitable amounts of cargo. Cunard and the “ASIA” were no exception! The “ASIA” had left London KGV docks on November and had a typically rough North Atlantic winter voyage of approximately ten/eleven days, rolling and pitching all the time. We were glad to reach the shelter of the long, huge St Lawrence River but the weather was bitterly cold with seasonal snow. We crew members, however, were in good spirits as according to normal schedules we should be back in London before CHRISTMAS and for most of us, home with our loved ones and families for the festivities, not always the case for seamen I might add.

Snow and ice dominated the loading of cargo in Montreal and as we left on December 13th the river was already full of pack ice and two icebreaking tugs assisted us from the berth into the river and under the large road bridge. The grating of the ice along the ship’s side was very noisy and I thought the Bosun would be concerned about his paintwork on the ship’s side. However, he and his Abs were too busy chopping away ice forming on the ship’s upper works and shovelling deep snow from the decks to keep the ship’s stability. However, we were all glad to be homeward bound after the delays in port and looking to be in London for the 23rd December. Other ships were underway too, both before and after us. A few hours later we ground to a halt at a bend on the great river near the town of Sorel. The broken ice and floes had jammed on the bend of the river which became impassable. A Canadian newspaper report I read later gave the depth of the ice jam as 25 feet thick. Around us, other ships were also halted and urgent radio calls were sent to the Canadian coastguard icebreakers and, of course, Cunard.

I heard that four huge icebreakers were working flat out to try to extradite the trapped convoy of ships. One of the D’Iberville arrived near us on the far side of the jam and worked day and night attempting to clear it. Despite the tremendous power of the D’Iberville, it finally took explosives to clear our way of passage. Our river pilot told us that the local inhabitants thereabouts often drove across the frozen river in the winter months to go from the south to north banks saving many, many miles. Ice hole fishing was another activity. We were marooned there seven days and there were some concerns of shortages of fuel, water and food. Christmas was spent on the same wild Atlantic Ocean with more delay by fog and even iceberg sightings when out on the Newfoundland Banks. We had enough to eat and something besides water to drink

Finally, we arrived London about the 30th December if I recall correctly, and I personally was at least able to celebrate Hogmanay in a true seafaring tradition by downing a dram or three.