OH2634/9: Transcript. Interview with Andrew Gordon Cruickshank, whaler interviewed by Yvonne Choules

Summary

Andrew Gordon Cruickshank was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, on the 8th October, 1925 to a seafaring family. He worked on casual jobs in Aberdeen then joined the Royal Navy in 1942 at the age of seventeen and trained as a gunner on landing craft. Mr Cruickshank took part in the transportation of American troops at the Normandy landings during the Allied invasion of Europe in 1943. He was serving aboard the LCT 1002 (Landing Craft Tank) when it sank in the English Channel on the 5th November 1944, and married soon after during his time on survivor's leave. He was then transferred to Infantry Landing Craft just prior to the Japanese surrender and travelled to the Far East, but was not involved in further action. After discharge from the navy in October 1946 he worked on the Scottish fishing trawlers fishing in Iceland and Faroe, before working with the Anglo-Australian Fisheries venture which was set up by Francis James and Marrs of Fleetwood, Lancashire. Mr Cruickshank came out to Australia as a coal trimmer aboard the company's trawler Ben Dearg arriving in Fremantle in September, 1949. Together with the Comillies they fished in The Great Australian Bight operating out of Albany. He moved up the ranks to the position of mate before the trawling venture folded up in the early 1950's. Obtaining work with the Cheynes Beach Whaling Company Mr Cruickshank joined the crew of the Cheynes as a deckhand during the company's second or third season of whaling. On completion of the necessary qualifications in 1957, he became mate on the Cheynes under skipper Axel Christensen when the company's second chaser Kos VII was purchased. After a short time ashore, working mainly in the building trade, Mr Cruickchank returned to whaling in the mid 1960's. He gained his Skipper's Ticket in 1968 and was made relieving skipper. In the early 1970's he became permanent skipper of the Cheynes III and remained with the company in this capacity until its closure in 1978. Mr Cruickshank set himself up in commercial fishing which he continued for the remainder of his working life, retiring in 1993.