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Thread: The Bar of the Canberra Star

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    Default The Bar of the Canberra Star

    As a deck boy, one of my first jobs was to clean out the crews bar first thing in the morning. After the previous nights revelries the deck of the bar was awash with stale beer (I can still smell it) empty cans and cigarette butts with the odd crisp packet thrown in for good measure.

    All this was gently swilling up and down with the motion of the ship. This ships bar was towards the stern of the ship and on the upper deck like some sort of box. I look back now with a certain amount of nostalgia as I don't recall disliking this job. First I would pick up all the biggest bits like the cans and crisp packets, emptying the ash trays (those that had escaped the deck) then I would start to mop up the stale beer. Sometimes there was so much of it that I imagined that the ship was taking on water.

    It was satisfying to get the bar ship shape again ready for the next session. I feel that the bar was a lifeline to us all, a sort of focal point in which we could all lose ourselves and drown out our sorrows. Many a crew member would pour out his heart once the alcohol took effect and on more than one occasion, we would not think anything of "drink driving" the ship during the middle watch. The Canberra Star had to be steered 24 hours a day.

    I remember one night distinctly when the crew tried to get me drunk before I went on watch when I was doing my steering certificate. As I have said before, I don't know how I got through that watch but then again, I can't remember.

    Someone said to me recently, "have you heard of health a safety?". It made me smile inside to recall all the things I was made to do that were dangerous but we thought nothing of it at the time. Until recently, I imagined that the merchant navy was as I remembered it and it was stuck in a sort of time warp but you know, it's how I want to remember it. They really were the days.

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    Well had you sailed with UCL you would have had no problems. I recall the barman in the Pig of the Windsor. There was always a jug on the bar full of what he said was overpour and he would add about a third to each pint. The beer was always McEwans outwards and Orangeboom homeward. The beer in the Pig tasted nothing like the beer ashore. Thought it was just me and some of the lads, then did a voyage on the Pretoria and that was worse. You could do a dozen pints at night and walk away as if you had nothing. Did spend a lot of time in the heads though.
    Happy daze John in Oz.

    Life is too short to blend in.

    John Strange R737787
    World Traveller

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    6 barrels or kegs to the pump . 4 of beer 2 of water
    Rob Page R855150 - British & Commonwealth Shipping ( 1965 - 1973 ) Gulf Oil -( 1973 - 1975 ) Sealink ( 1975 - 1986 )

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    Default Re: The Bar of the Canberra Star

    Hi,

    My dad sailed on this ship. I think it was mid 1960`s. His name was John Harvey.

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