Initiation ceremonies

[Neil Morton]

Dare I mention the Golden Rivet, supposedly somewhere in the bowels of the ship.For you eddification Patricia it was placed in tha hull during construction and first trippers were asked go down a find it.

[Lou Barron]

as a young deck boy on the duchess of bedford i was sitting in the messroom when i was of watch and one of the abs said to me do want play some games i said ok he said that i would get the key to the fog locker and the chief steward as the key so off iwent got to the chief stewards cabin he looked at me and said he gave the key to the bosun so of to see the bosun he gave a grin and said its hanging up in the chart room on the bridge and of i went to the bridge went to go in the chartroom and then the dirt it the fan i was told in no uncertain manner to get of the bridge back to the messroom and all the guys had a good laugh but it gave me a chance to get one back on this ab in capetown he went ashore with some of the crew while was getting a skin full of booze with the help of my mate we fixed his bunk so that he would have job getting into it with a few empty beer bottles init to thats another story what happened after it

[happy daze john in oz]

For a young bell boy in the dining saloon of a Lavender lady it wasa quite common for a winger to ask a first tripper to go and get the left handed soup spoons, or left handed tea cups. But the best I saw was in the galley with a first year apprentice. The chef gave him a pound of flour and told him to chop it finer. After half an hour of doing so the chef then told him it was now too fine and chucked it in the rosie.
The same chef had a habit of telling the meat larder cooks to prepare any pork dishes in the Kosher section of the galley. Yes there was a specail section for this.

[Patricia Hosie]

Hi Guys,

Thank you so much for all of these posts. They are hilaious. I am enjoying every one of them.

Patricia

[alf corbyn]

sometimes on the UCL we had a job getting bloods to leave the saloon when we wanted to finish and go to our cabins. they would be sitting and smoking. one of us would look out of a porthole and say "look at the sea plane" they would get up and rush to see it and we would quickly clear awaythe tables. they would ask where it was and we would say its plain to sea haha. alf

[Ivan Cloherty]

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

Thank you Duke and Kong for the photos, they only make me glad I sailed when I did, when ships were ships and not boxes with a sharp end, when you could tell where a ship had been built by the rake of her mast or funnel, or by the shape of the mast table etc, each yard both foreign and UK seemed to have a favourite shape of mast tree, some with a central rail, some with rails all around, UK ships always seem to make it difficult to get from the mast ladder on to the table, on some you had to be a contortionist, as well as having to go sideways, the German built ships made it easier you seemed to be able tp step off the mast ladder onto the table no problem, probably their logical thinking trait.

I liked the old mules with the wire drum on top, but suppose health and safety stopped that as broken wire ensured decapitation of heaving line men who used to ride them

Memories aren't they great, gone off thread a little, but we did in the messroom and saloon also didn't we

Ivan

[Duke Drennan]

On any given day in Panama, if you look out from the bay on the Pacific side, you'll see a mininmum of 20 - 25 boats waiting their turn to enter the canal. A few weeks ago, I was surprised to see an old tramp anchored among the big box boats. I was more surprised to see that she even had derricks. I got a special twitch looking at her. There can't be many of them left, I'd imagine.

[Captain Kong]

Hi Duke,

I was in Papeete in Tahiti on 23 March this year, I saw this cargo ship arrive and moor opposite our berth.
DERRIKS ON , not seen those for years. just had to take a photo.
She was either Chinese or Japanese, she had a name followed by` Number 10`.
She had something then 3CT on her side, The photo shows thr Yokohama fenders along side and then a large fishing vessel moored along side. I didnt see any transferr of cargo or stores while we were in Tahiti.
But interesting to see a ship with derricks again.
Cheers
Brian.

[Duke Drennan]

......Schooner guys an' all !! Takes you back. eh Brian.

[Captain Kong]

Yes it sure does Duke. That ship, I think it is Japanese, it has a red funnel with two white stripes on.I have seen that funnel before , somewhere.