Blue Star's M.V. "Newcastle Star"

Blue Star's M.V. "Montevideo Star"

The third of five ships built in Germany, of which the Canberra Star , Hobart Star  & Newcastle Star were sisters. The Gladstone Star and Townsville Star differed slightly in design. The building of these vessels in foreign yards caused some adverse comment at the time. The name Newcastle Star refers to Newcastle, N.S.W., not the the one on the River Tyne.

The last photograph has a story - while in Liverpool we were told that we were to load radioactive material. Remembering this was a mystical substance at the time it caused great excitement. The whole of the Liverpool Docks around us and the Dock Road was closed to traffic, the shipment arriving on a covered lorry under police escort. Written instructions to the vessel from the Atomic Energy Commission, was should there be a fire onboard, the container was to be thrown over the side. A bit of a tall order as it weighed some 10 tons. One would have thought it was an Atomic Bomb, which at the time during the Cold War, were much on peoples minds. It turned out to be a consignment of the Radioisotope Cobalt 90 (a highly unpleasant substance) for the rather more mundane use of irradiating animal hides, by Axeminster Carpets in Australia to kill any (much in the news these days) anthrax spores! Apart from causing the ship to have to dock on the explosives berth in Capetown, miles from anywhere it had an uneventful voyage.

It was during that voyage in 1965 that the Company decided that ships could have bars. So under the enthusiastic  command of Don MacKillop (Chief Officer), all the cadets were set to work constructing a bar in the Officer's Lounge. From what I remember, the cabinet work was a bit rough, but the beers tasted that much better, with a bar top to lean on!

Robert T. Megginson wrote about the Maiden Voyage of the Newcastle Star:

The Newcastle Star!  I have a profound sentimental attachment: her maiden voyage was also mine.

I sailed as a deckhand (Junior Ordinary Seaman) - a terrified youngster on his first sea trip.  We embarked from London - I forget from which dock (King George, perhaps?) bound for the coastal run around Australia.  After the perfectly normal (I was assured by older hands) foul weather crossing of Biscay, our first landfall was Las Palmas for some minor cargo exchange and refuelling, then into the Med.  Then the fun really began.  We were almost at Port Said - I think just a few hours shy of entering the Suez Canal when Nasser seized it.   We made a quick U-turn and, if memory serves, refuelled at Genoa for the run out of the Med and down to Capetown.
(Those were interesting times - throughout most of the voyage, the Sparks posted a nightly news update on the Suez Crisis and that other minor event happening simultaneously, the Hungarian Uprising.)
Capetown was meant to be an overnight refuelling; it wasn't.  While coming about to leave the next day, a harbour tug - that was the excuse given - ran our stern up on to the refuelling quay and caved it in somewhat - the stern, not the quay.  (Am I right in remembering she had a cruiser stern?)   I wasn't a complete novice at harbour man oeuvres - I had done a year's training on board harbour tugs in Aberdeen - and I reluctantly admit I sensed we didn't have enough room to make the 180, but I take no credit or blame for the incident - I was but a lowly deckhand, my station was forward; and like the rest of the for'ard crew was confused when all of a sudden we were tying up again back at the fuelling pier.

The memories are selective, but I have a clear one, later on the quay, of three men surveying the damage - the skipper, the pilot and the first mate (whose station had been aft) muttering in black-faced fury at each other.
Cut to the chase as we say in these parts - we wound up spending about six weeks in drydock, before resuming our illustrious maiden voyage.

Robert T. Megginson
Hollywood, California

Peter Stacey also wrote:

She was my first ship, joining her as a 17 year old  in Oct 1965 at Liverpool. Fond memories indeed.
A month or so ago Fraser  ( who put the BSL site together and also sailed on the Newcastle Star the trip before me)  sent me a photograph of a ship to ID that had been sent to him. I had no problem in identifying her as the "Newcastle Star" having spent 10 months on deck looking after her every need. I could even identify some of my handy work ( the mate had me paint blue star on a white disc on all the lifebuoys, these could be clearly seen. As it was, I was on the ship in Liverpool doing my second voyage, the photographer had his slide developed in May 66, we were there in April. Great to discover these little things.
(The photograph referred to is Philip Parkers above).

With the withdrawal and scrapping of the three remaining passenger ships on the South America run, namely the Argentina , Brasil & Uruguay Stars in 1972, she was placed on the run in a non-passenger carrying capacity and renamed Montevideo Star.

The final chapter: