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10th April 2018, 08:44 PM
#1
Narvik Harbour 1965
these photos might bring back some memories to the iron ore boys
Last edited by Robert Byron; 10th April 2018 at 08:47 PM.
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11th April 2018, 07:26 AM
#2
Re: Narvik Harbour 1965
Wasn't the port that I remember. It was the weather en route that sticks in the memory.
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11th April 2018, 09:25 AM
#3
Re: Narvik Harbour 1965
Hi Robert.
I did a couple of trips to Narvik in the early
fifties on the Houlder Brothers "ORELIA".
Dave Williams
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11th April 2018, 09:38 AM
#4
Re: Narvik Harbour 1965
Narvik in the land of the midnight sun. About the years mentioned think you had to be registered as a drinker if a local to get any hard liquor. They had hard penalty’s for drunk drivers in excess of what they are today in the uk. There is I believe a graveyard there with British and other nationals who were executed by the Germans. My opposite number on one ship had been pow on the Altmark and was rescued along with others by the Cossack. If you could get ashore a bottle of whisky would get three times what you paid for it. Wasn’t much to buy except very low alcohol beer though , so better to drink the whisky yourself. Saw Cindy ashore there once from Port Talbot. Cheers JWS. PS if anyone has a list of those men taken off the prison ship his name should be among them it was Norie Smith from Swansea or Cardiff or elsewhere in Wales. He’s a long time dead now so won’t mind being remembered. He was another teenager when captured. JS.
Last edited by j.sabourn; 11th April 2018 at 09:53 AM.
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11th April 2018, 03:52 PM
#5
Re: Narvik Harbour 1965
yes thats right about getting a bevy ashore in Narvik a real prohibition port and no pubs , i used to take a tipple in a flask to add to the coffee i always had lots of company
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11th April 2018, 04:03 PM
#6
Re: Narvik Harbour 1965
yes Dave 1963 when i first went there a port to load iron ore all through the winter , we loaded at Lulea up the Baltic into the gulf of bothnia in the summer sometimes, i do believe the ore was from Sweden even the stuff we loaded in Narvik i think it was conveyed over the mountains from Sweden to Narvik so it could be shipped during winter as the Baltic was frozen
bob byron
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yes some hairy weather up that way for sure and freezing ice, it was like riding rough horses on the " Orecrest" on that run that ship would pitch and roll even in port
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for sure
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11th April 2018, 05:53 PM
#7
Re: Narvik Harbour 1965
Originally Posted by
j.sabourn
Narvik in the land of the midnight sun. . Cheers JWS. PS if anyone has a list of those men taken off the prison ship his name should be among them it was Norie Smith from Swansea or Cardiff or elsewhere in Wales. He’s a long time dead now so won’t mind being remembered. He was another teenager when captured. JS.
hi j sabourn
we sledged it back to the ship on a couch we had found at the back of a furniture store in narvik,we left it it by the dock.
as a matter of intrest, I was given a sovereign by one of my old mans mates whom was one of altmarks prisoners when I was taken into the local pub my old man used to frequent in bootle his name was sandy gant.
tom
Last edited by Doc Vernon; 11th April 2018 at 07:53 PM.
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11th April 2018, 06:21 PM
#8
Re: Narvik Harbour 1965
###best old man i ever sailed with was rescued from the altmark ......a proper gent in every way ......after a carry on in split which was commie at the time i was chucked in the back of a hurry up wagon ..my seamans identity card was taken and as the door opened to sling another guy in i jumped clear .....it was dark no street lights ...i was of like a linty .....got in a little bar met a girl never forgot her name lambretta and her mate vespa .....took me to there home got the ist ever attention of two at once ...only thing that put me off about 3 in the morning one got out the bed ..pulled a bucket from under it and started farting and shiting like a coal burning fireman who had been on the guinness and curry for a week .....any way got back aboard some lads were still inside the old man called all hands amidships and asked who had been in the bar nobody moved ..he said the bill was to be so much money ....then said ok cappy they have given us your seamans I D card you are the only one proven to be there apart from them .still inside but after we sailed never heard anything again......yugo was still very much commie then and pretty sparse sold a shorty mack for about twice what i got for it ...but then the old man stopped shore leave cant remember what happened to the dosh ......happy days
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12th April 2018, 06:39 AM
#9
Re: Narvik Harbour 1965
In Lulea in 64 there was very little alcohol of nay kind.
Wine was available in a few top class restaurants and a beer called ,'Near Beer' was all we could get.
The reason given for being a dry country was it kept the road toll down.
Up there in 2017 and on just about every corner in Sweden now you will find a bar or pub.
How times have changed
Happy daze John in Oz.
Life is too short to blend in.
John Strange R737787
World Traveller
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12th April 2018, 09:36 AM
#10
Re: Narvik Harbour 1965
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