Buries Experience

[Brian Gannon]

Hi Cobber.

Well my first ship was the La Ensenada, which I joined as an Apprentice in Cardiff,19/11/1956, as a young mate of 16. Man just the journey onmy own to Cardiff from London was scary enough, then having to find the ship in Cardiff Docks was alot to handle.My # was R663632.
Other BM ships were not as cosy as the Ensenada, but older, they were the La Cumbre, an Ex Mac Boat, so did a jig every time she stuck her nose out of port, then the La Laguna.
Switched after time to tankers including several Esso of which at that time, the Esso Westminster was a new larger vessel.
So Aussie was on one trip with Shell and had time off to take the trtain from Newcastle down to Sydney, great time.
Short version of time on the water, tough but fun.
Happy Sailings

Brian Gannon

[Tom Abernethy]

HI YOU GUYS, IN THE EARLY 60s I SIGNED ON THE OLD LA PAMPA IN LONDON AS JOS. FROM THE COMPANY OFFICES IN THE CITY I WAS TAKEN BY COMPANY MINIBUS WITH MY GEAR TO THE SHIP.
I REMEMBER THE MINIBUS GOING OVER EITHER LONDON BRIDGE OR WESTMINSTER BRIDGE TO THE SOUTH SIDE OF THE RIVER BUT I CAN,T THINK WHAT DOCK IT WAS. QUITE A BIG DOCK THO........
CAN ANYONE TELL ME WHAT BECAME OF HER SINCE THAT TIME. AFTER A COUPLE OF SMALLER SHIPS ON
HOME TRADE AND FGN GOING ARTICLES SHE WAS MY FIRST DEEP WATER SHIP . SO EVEN THO SHE WAS
A RUST BUCKET WITH BAD GRUB AND CRAP ACCOMODATION SHE HAS A SPECIAL PLACE IN MY MIND....
LATER IN THE 60s I FLEW TO MARSSAILES AND JOINED THE LA PRIMAVERA, GOOD COUPLE OF TRIPS....
CHEERS LADS AND LASSES.
TOM ABERNETHY (R721582)

[noodles]

just sitting here looking over all your posts about b,m company and its all comeing bac to me ,,i remember getting a telgram from the pool in tome street in belfast ,,me and my friend from derry {who got a telegram also }headed up to the pool on a friday morning and went into the pool we where then told to get into the back of a van [it was like a postvan }so we jumped in and were taken down to the docks which we could have walked to quicker ,,well we got out of the van and jeasues there was the ship and was it big ,,it was like a a mountain ,
[remamber this is out first trip ,,well anyway the gangway went on forever but we got there ,,signes on and were out at work within ten minets ,,
]it went to falmouth ,then to well cant remember but heres some of the ports ,,singerport {dry dock/[jjapan ,,{toyko..nagora]then kerona ,,antrept......san fancisco.[kittymat/,,canada ,,and a few i cant remember ,,and just remembered ,up the amazon ,,,where we went ashore one night [now the taxies were all small powerboates }well we got slightly drunk and decieded to ask a few ladies to come to the ship with us ,,and on the way to the ship thetaxi{powerboat ]started to sink ,well i wasnt not that good at swimming but i sure as hell learnd,quick ,,we all got ashore saftly and had are fun ,but the moral of that story is we went to san franciscop after that and when we were ashore we all got t-shirts with ,I SWAM IN THE AMAZON, done ,all the crew,,thing i may have it somewere ,,,i sailed with john white ,,the one called chalky,,also digger ,,mickey ,,and cant remember ,,ahhh not forgetting david ,,the cook whos got a website up ,,any way ,,good luck everone with whatever you are doing ,,,slan anios mo charras{goodbye for now my friends..noodles