music at sea

[Lou Barron]

after viewing a lot of posts i have not seen any about how the crew amused themselves with music one ship i was on it was my last one to i joined her in Port chalmers nz we was on charter to the union co nz we shipped wheat from aussie to nz it was a mostly a geordie crew and a good one to i dont remember how came about but we decided to form a skiffle group if thats the word wehad one guy with a accordion then another made a instrument with atea chest wire tin lids and hooter another guy with a mouth organ then another with uke then me with thev spoons we use to go aft and play one port we was in port lincoln they asks us if we would play at the local dance after a talk we said ok but dont expect to much what night free beer all night what a night

[happy daze john in oz]

On most ships I served on there was always one or two wiith a guitar or similar. Remember on the castle boats there was often a small group that would play and sing in the pig. One lot were so good they got to do a show for some of ther bloods.

[Pete Leonard (Bruno)]

I think it is well known that Tommy Steele spent a while at sea with Cunard. I had a mate one time who told me that he used to play his guitar in the Pig on the Scythia. It got on some peoples nerves so much that they used to tell him to p..s off out of it. Didn't stop him though did it?
Cheers
Pete

[Captain Kong]

When I was on the last voyage of the GEORGIC, the deck crowd had a foo foo band on the fore deck just outside the forard Pig. we had 2000 emmigrants from Liverpool to Oz around the Cape.in August 1955.
All the young girls , teens and 20s would come out onto the fore deck and dance. I played the base, Tea Chest , boat lacing to a broom handle. and some guitars. The Master at Arms tried to stop it every night but the girls nearly caused a riot, so they stopped trying in the end. Good Days.

We had a big hard case member of the Catering Dept. Big Jossie Peters, one day he came to me and said "Do you want a guitar?`, I said yes, he gave me two. The following day he came back with three and every day did the same. I had 27 guitars in my cabin, we had two to a cabin on her, I was` look out` man.
I said to Jossie, Why do you keep giving me all these guitars? he just said "I efing hate guitars so I take them off them`. Just before we paid off in November 1955 I left them in the Pig. they disapeared.

[Ivan Cloherty]

I think every ship at sea in the 50's and 60's had some type of band onboard, when I was 3/m on one ship one of the cadets had a violin on which he played classical and country and western, I was the tea-chest Bass, 4/e was on the washboard and thimbles and a couple of the lads had guitars. We were always told to p--s off whilst at sea when practising, but we were the most popular people on the ship when in port playing in the local Aussie pubs, as any crew member got free beer in the same pub, that's fickle shipmates for you!!!!

There were some really talented instrument players sailing on the old cargo ships, even though most were banished to the poop deck, one guy I sailed with was a whizz on the clarinet and it went everywhere with him, got us a lot of free beer

Rgds

Ivan

[Captain Kong]

In the early 50s there were many good entertainers on the Cunard and CPRs Empress boats. in the Pig.
My mate, Joe Finnegan, now living near Perth, and Tommy Lawless, won the Carol Levis show on TV. They were offered a recordin contract, they turned it down and said they preferred to be at sea. They were magic on guitars and singing. Tommy died early.
We sailed back from Fremantle to Liverpool as passengers, with Joe four years ago on the FUNCHAL to Liverpool for a holiday,and Joe was up singing for the passengers and they offered him a job. He has also done a lot of singing on cruise ships out of Sydney to the islands and the all round OZ cruises.
When I sailed with Joe, in Cunard and CPR in the 50s he always won the Bulova Watch singing contests in Montreal, every trip he won a gold Bulova Watch, I won nothing.

Another lad from Liverpool, a good singer on the Cunard boats, singing in the Pig, was Norman Milne, he won a singing contest in Radio City in New York and then sang in the dance halls in Liverpool , like the Locarno. He was offered a recording contract and changed his name to Michael Holliday making a lot of records. He suffered a lot of depression, and killed himself in 1961 and is buried in Anfield Cemetery.

There were a lot of showmen singers in the crews of those big ships in the 50s.

The other instruments I hated was the Bag Pipes, on the New Zealand Star in 1953 the Bosun Mad Angus, the Bull, Mcaskill, from the Isle of Barra, a wild and lonely place, would drink a bottle of whisky then march up and down the boat deck every night playing the pipes until the early hours. No one would tell him to stop. he was a Giant of a man. He once tried to stop a big Locomotive in Canada with his fist, the loco won, end of.

[Jim Brady]

When I was on the Carinthia every night in the Pig was like Sunday Night At The London Palladium,one of the waiters used to leave his Tux and DickieBow on,he thought he was Bruce Forsyth,he played the part well and kept good order and gave the singers a good introduction.Terry "Fingers" Finnan was on the piano,a guy on the tea chest and another guy with a snare drum.Some great singers and a good nights entertainment with Wrexham Lager at about 9d a pint.
Another guy that won the Bulova gold watch in Montreal a number of times was Gerry Devine a great singer.Cpt.Kong,talking about Jossee Peters I new him and his brothers,brother Vinny was a Bell Boy with me on the Britain,he came runner up in Montreal a number of times and only recieved an L.P.
The Beatles were inspired by the music brought back from the states by Liverpool seaman.
Regards.
Jim.B.

[Joe Doyle]

We were taking some Migrants to OZ/NZ aboard the Akaroa when she caught fire some where in the sargosso sea.All life boats were lowered and the passengers had there life jackets on ready to board I was in charge of number 3.Whilst most of the Crew were below fighting fires two A/B's were going from one lifeboat to another giving the lifeboat crew a wee dram (if needed) which they had aquired from one of the bars and the other AB had a guitar and was singing one of Credence Clearwater songs "Proud Mary keeps on burning" Only he changed the words to the 'Akaroa keeps on burning' It became a favorite on the NZ Coast. But it scared the living S@#T out of the Bloods.Great days cheers Joe:

[Roger Dyer]

Hello Lou...... What a great thread - one of the very best I've seen since joining this site. Already it has attracted the interest of several regular subscribers and others and all the 'posts' have been great. Brian (King Kong) your mention of Carol Levis brought the memories flooding back. Shortly after WWII, in the late 40's, when we in the U.K. were still subject to rationing, cold winters too ('47) and life wasn't always easy, apart from the occasional visit to the cinema ( if you didn't 'bunk in' and Mum and Dad could afford it) the radio was the sole source of entertainment . I can still remember the 'Carol Levis Talent Show' each week, the band playing 'Stardust' as he in his Canadian (or was it American?) accent introduced the show. Very popular at the time. Sadly, I believe that later he was to take his own life ......To get back to the subject, in 1957 I was a deck boy on Port Line's 'Port Sydney' running down to Kiwi. With three stewards (plus another guy who played guitar) I was in a group that used to sing in harmony a la ' The Four Freshman' We used to practice a lot and whilst not quite as polished as the originals of course we did, occasionally, manage to entertain a few of the lads on the after-deck whilst crossing the Pacific on those wonderful, calm, balmy nights we sometimes used to get (remember?). Great days.........Keep 'em coming lads...Roger.

[Mike Hall]

ah the memories,after my first trip to sea i bought a guitar.
i was able to adapt it to electric.i also had an old fashioned
tape recorder(with tapes)and i had that adapted into an
amplifier.a few strums on this within the accomadation,
on any ship,soon found all the other instuments on board.
on one ship the skipper had the drums,engineers with guitars
and even a trumpeter was found.
some good ole times were had.

another kind of music on board,was the ulster star,she
had piped music throughout the whole of the accommadation.

mike