Spent Xmas of 64 either there or Oxelosund can’t remember which. JS
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Spent Xmas of 64 either there or Oxelosund can’t remember which. JS
Like J.S. I also have that dubious honour, a bit later though. It was 12/11/76 at 19.26 when I passed over the North Pole. I went from Heathrow to Copenhagen, then catching SAS flight to Tokyo, stopping at Anchorage to refuel, and the Bullet Train to Kure to join the King William. I still have the certificate hence the accuracy of the time and date. Happy Days.
Ian Cowley
In early seventies I flew BOAC from Tokyo to Heathrow via Anchorage.
When I boarded the plane I was seated right at the back end (747) and was followed on board by a relief cabin crew, so was included with them once they learned my background.
We were on our third round of drinks before take off and it was virtually a continuous party all the way to Anchorage.
I vaguely recall wandering around Anchorage airport in an alcoholic haze.
Still didnt feel right when we arrived at Heathrow, got no certificate but was informed by the captain that we had made the first fully automatic landing ,
Was in a small port in Norway up by the North Cape, stern to tie up just as well as the ropes were frozen and had to be pulled along the deck.
Felt the same here in Cooma last night Minus 8; thick frost, but what a lovely day today.
Des
[QUOTE=Duke Drennan;351767] In those days it was almost impossible to get a drink, wine in a restaurant and they had what we called near beer, no bloody alcohol in it, was a grog free country then.
Back there a couple of years ago and now pubs everywhere, must have come into the real world.
#15, in the 50/60's the Scandi countries and ships were dry and the crews in foreign climes as soon as they smelt the barmaids apron became pizzed and looking for a fight and always were known as Scandihooligans challenging all and sundry to a fight or drinking contest none of which they ever won...………...happy days !!!
it happened to me , Ivan,
in Montevideo in the California Bar,
because I could not speak Swedish
a Swede hit me so hard my granny felt it 7000 miles away.
In the battle two swedes died.,
It is in my story of the URMSTON GRANGE.
Cheers
Brian
10 of us flew B.A. Heathrow to Osaka via anchorage to join a ship in mizushima dry dock. The plane, a 747, was virtually empty and we were the single biggest group of passengers. During the stop over in anchorage we wandered around the airport, took photos of ourselves alongside that polar bear and had a few drinks. As it was getting close to our scheduled departure time and having heard no announcement over the tannoy, we made our way to our departure gate only to find the cabin crew preparing to close the aircraft doors and we would have been stranded in Alaska if we had got there a few minutes later. No apologies from the cabin crew for leaving something like 10% of their passengers behind, just a hurry up and get seated. Mind you what happened when we did land in Japan and the subsequent dry docking made most of us wish we had been stranded in Alaska. The ship was the worst and most dangerous wreck captained by the biggest rissole it was my misfortune to sail with. Over a month in freezing cold Japan having daily battles with the risshole, the only saving grace being working with the Hong Kong surveyor who was basically going round with me and condemning most of the stuff I pointed out to him. A 10 day docking for change of flag turned into a 40 day nightmare compounded by having to work with that risshole of a captain and we never got a certificate for flying over the Pole!!!
Rgds
J.A.
Maybe the rissole had words with the airline John and confiscated them. I think I sailed with 3 such rissoles during my time. Thank God for the good ones. A Yugoslav a. Protestant Irishman , and just a plain big headed englishman all didn’t go very far with their apparent disagreeable nature , and all were surplus to requirements. JS