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20th May 2020, 03:57 PM
#21
Re: La Colina
So I've just had a couple of good stories from my Dad from his time on the La Colina:
1. My Dad was in the cabin next door to his with a few others playing cards, they hard a kerfuffle in my Dads cabin and went in to find a swordfish flapping around in there that had jumped through the porthole. Guess what they had for tea that night LOL.
2. This is the best one. While in Algiers in around 1961 ish there was an unfortunate incident which resulted in a local lady being shot by some chap from the Foreign Legion, my Dad and a couple of his mates witnessed it and had to give statements etc, anyway the other Foreign Legion chap was and English bloke (who my Dad thinks may have been from Barrow-in-Furness), he'd had enough and wanted out. They smuggled him onto the ship (possibly making some use of the false funnel) and brought him back to the UK, ditching his uniform in the sea on the journey back.
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21st May 2020, 12:38 PM
#22
Re: La Colina
Hello Katie,
I’ve been reading through this thread and hope I’m able to help trigger a few memories for your Dad. I spent 4 -5 months on La Colina in the second half of 1968. I have fond memories of this ship - great officers and crew and always a calm easy-going atmosphere. We did the Port Talbot - Narvik run three or four times (one of my favourite places to visit, and the run through the fjord was stunning!). Other runs included Lulea (Sweden), Copenhagen and Monrovia (Liberia). If your Dad was sailing on her at that time he may remember getting stuck in pack ice just out from Lulea - the ship shuddered to a halt and we had to be rescued by a large arctic ice breaker. On the next run from Port Talbot to Monrovia we hit a storm in the Bay of Biscay which rattled a plate loose near the waterline - it was suspected that the shuddering in the pack ice weakened the plate. Ballast was moved from starboard to port and we limped into Lisbon for repairs - maybe your Dad ran did some running repairs before we reached Lisbon? On the return trip back to Port Talbot we were all looking forward to getting home for Christmas only to find that when we got back to Port Talbot it was too rough to enter the port. We had to wait for nearly two days before it was safe enough, finally signing off on Christmas eve! Do you have any photos of your Dad around that time? I’m not good with remembering names but not too bad with faces
Hope that helps.
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21st May 2020, 05:18 PM
#23
Re: La Colina
Hi Paul,
This is amazing thank you. I think you may have missed each other by a month or 2 as I'm sure he met my Mum up North in May 68 and didn't go back, I will ask him though. I've never seen any pics so I don't think there are any of him on the ship, but there will be other pics of him from around that time. I'll get back to you when I've gone through my photo albums. He said that Narvik was his favourite place.
Katie
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Originally Posted by
Katie Gaskell
So I've just had a couple of good stories from my Dad from his time on the La Colina:
1. My Dad was in the cabin next door to his with a few others playing cards, they hard a kerfuffle in my Dads cabin and went in to find a swordfish flapping around in there that had jumped through the porthole. Guess what they had for tea that night LOL.
2. This is the best one. While in Algiers in around 1961 ish there was an unfortunate incident which resulted in a local lady being shot by some chap from the Foreign Legion, my Dad and a couple of his mates witnessed it and had to give statements etc, anyway the other Foreign Legion chap was and English bloke (who my Dad thinks may have been from Barrow-in-Furness), he'd had enough and wanted out. They smuggled him onto the ship (possibly making some use of the false funnel) and brought him back to the UK, ditching his uniform in the sea on the journey back.
I'm really hoping there is someone on here who may remember either of these incidents.
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