Whangarei-Born Marine Engineer Serves Overseas Oil Company

Northern Advocate, 20 April 1945, Page 6

Whangarei-Born Marine Engineer Serves Overseas Oil Company

Recipient of Lloyds War Medal and the M.B.E. (Civil Division) for bravery at sea, Mr. Austin Conway Reynolds, son of Mr and 3 the late Mrs W. Reynolds, has returned to Whangarei after an absence of nearly seven years. Born in, Whangarei, he served his time with the Whangarei Engineering Company after attending the Whangarei High School. Following 18 months with engineering firms in Sydney, he went to sea to gain further engineering knowledge and, at the outbreak of war, was sailing aboard tankers iii the war zones. During the first great blitz on London he was sitting for his second class steam certificate. His rise was rapid and at the age of 27 he gained both the First Steam (Marine) and First Motor certificates, qualifying him to take a position as chief engineer of any vessel afloat.

Originally employed by a shipping firm operating tankers in the Carribean, he later gained a shore position with the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company as assistant marine superintendent engineer and this he has held for nearly two years, his headquarters being situated at the refineries of the company at Abadan in Persia. A big combine, his company, prior to the war had operated 100 tankers in addition to 300 river craft such as freighters, barges, crane barges and dredges. All its ships had to be maintained in good order, and a marine engineering section was attached to the refinery at Abadan.- It was to this organisation that Mr. Reynolds was drafted in June, 1943, from his old position with the British Tanker Company. Oil From Persia I Operations of this company extended principally around Persia, the oil being pumped through a pipeline from the oilfield 200 miles away to the largest refinery in the world operated by the company at Abadan, which, actually was an island separated by a few hundred yards from the mainland. To relieve the situation at the Bombay dry docks, which allow for major repairs to tankers, all above water-line repairs to tankers were carried out at the workshops at Abadan. Inflation was rife in Persia, prices since the war having gone up hundreds per cent, said Mr. Reynolds. Cost of a leg of mutton in New Zealand money would be £l, while a hen or chicken which before the war would be sold for 9d or 1/- now cost 17/6. In 1937 a good Persian carpet would fetch about £l2, but now sold for £SO. An American car, which, before the war, would sell for about £6OO in New Zealand now sold sec-, ond-hand for about £2OOO. A meal in the native bazaar would cost about 50 rials, or approximately 7/6. Wages for natives had increased sky-high since the war. A good native engineer would sometimes receive as much as 60 rials a day. In addition, | be got free accommodation and cer-j tain free rations for himself, his wife and family, and also was given the j opportunity of buying from the company articles which were rationed. A good coolie might earn 20 rials a day, while in addition he also obtained free rations. Many Russians had been seen at Abadan during the past few years. Most of them were members of the Russian Air Force who were sent to i Abadan to unload planes built in America and despatched to Russia under Lend-Lease. They had been well liked in Persia.

Efficient Russians Efficient in everything they did, the Russians had been particularly so in eliminating thieving of stores, being consigned to them on river craft. The practice had been very prevalent, Whole barge-loads of food and stores disappearing at times. However, with the arrival of special Soviet guards and the use of a few bullets, pillaging was eradicated entirely. Although his work had not taken him into contact with the Russians, he had become fairly well acquainted with members of the Inland Water Transport section of the British Army, which had a number of tugs and barges on hire from the company. His acquaintance was destined to be of some use when he received a visit from his brother Captain W. H. Reynolds, who, after serving in Italy, and then bein gtransferred back to Egypt to take a course, visited Abadan be- j fore he returned to Italy. Captain Reynolds had hitch-hiked from Egypt i first riding in a plane from Cairo to ■ Tel Aviv, in another to an airfield near Bagdad, and then from Basra to Abadan by launch operated by the army inland water transport section. After a week in Abadan, he had returned to Cairo in a plane of the American Transport Command. Mr. Reynolds is on leave from the company, and for two months will be staying in New Zealand.