Initiation ceremonies

[robpage]

A certain mate was irritating with hs " Wind ups" on cadets . We got a first tripper down the Engine room one day asking for the navigation lamp oil , Red , Green and White . The mate did not think it so funny when with a bit of food colouring and three old chemical bottles the lad returned with the oil in the correct colours . Sort of runed teh joke a bit

[Patricia Hosie]

Hi Ivan,

Yes, I seem to have a talent for it! They have really made me chuckle but the mother in me thinks, 'how cruel'.

Patricia

[Gulliver]

You might like this.

I’ll never forget my first Electricity Bill aboard m.v.Derbyshire-first trip cadet.
(Must explain that because there were 4 of us Deck cadets,my cabin was in one of the spare Eng.Cadets cabins)

I got a bit of a shock() at first…how could I afford it on £30 a month,andstill go ashore in Hamburg!
Note the pre-decimal 'proper' money.
It was even counter-initialled by the C/O .


Happy Days!
Gulliver
　
　

[Duke Drennan]

Like collecting bread for the `MULES` that pull the ship through the Panama Canal.
Go down the engine room for a `Long Stand`,

Hey Captain, I got that job to do my first time through the canal. You telling me now that they were'nt REAL mules ??????

[Captain Kong]

Hey Captain, I got that job to do my first time through the canal. You telling me now that they were'nt REAL mules ??????


They were then Duky but technology has taken over since you were there.
The new ones look like this in 2008 when I was there. I had two thousand passengers on QE2 saving all their rolls for them.
Here is the replacement at Gatun Locks. all the real Mules have been pensioned off

[Duke Drennan]

Hey Captain, I got that job to do my first time through the canal. You telling me now that they were'nt REAL mules ??????


They were then Duky but technology has taken over since you were there.
The new ones look like this in 2008 when I was there. I had two thousand passengers on QE2 saving all their rolls for them.
Here is the replacement at Gatun Locks. all the real Mules have been pensioned off

I'm in Panama just now and took several pics over the last couple of months from the restaurant at the Miraflores locks but I'm not too well versed in uploading them. But the mules are just as you saw them in '08. I'm told by a "local" colleague that they cost $7m each. Throw in the potatoes (or the rolls) and that's a lot of dough for a donkey.

[Duke Drennan]

Here ya go, figured it out.Attachment 4845

[Captain Kong]

Good one Duke.
I look in quite often at the Web cam that is on top of the observation deck at Mira Flores, good for ship spotting.
The trip through the canal in 2008 was the last one for QE2. I had told the family I would be on deck with a banner and an aproximate time, I waved it at the Camera and before we got to Gatun Lake I had an email with an attachment showing me waving the banner. Magic, the picture had gone to England and then sent back to Panama where I could see myself.
50 odd years ago that really would have been Magic if we could have done that then.
Cheers.
Brian.

[Duke Drennan]

It's not only the mules that have changed over the years, just look at what they call boats these days!!

Attachment 4846

Attachment 4847

[Captain Kong]

It looks like an upended milk bottle. I wonder how they would handle in a North Atlantic winter storm.

Cheers
Brian.