Queen Mary and the lifeboats

[happy daze john in oz]

Des, by those figures you must be about 92.
Congratulations if that is true, well done mate.

[cappy]

92 not many teeth left now ...but still chewing the cud des .....lol cappy

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Come on, I'm not that old, I will be 90 in July, which is young by sea going standards, with a full set of teeth, and all my faculties, well I think so anyway .
Des

[Roy Dadge]

My first voyage was on the Queen Mary, as a fireman in December 1962. Imagine my surprise, when I was ordered to my lifeboat station, sat in the lifeboat and lowered over the side into the icy New York harbour. Luckly, we only descended far enough to touch the sea and where then hoisted back to the boat deck.

Roy

[j.sabourn]

Roy an acquaintance of mine just passed away about 6 months ago was his first ship in Think it was either 46 or 48 joined her as Bell Boy . Finished his sea career as Chief Steward in ANL . That many passed away in the past year can’t put my finger on his name at present. I only ever sailed with one seaman off the deck off the Queens and he reckoned the crew accomodation was not the best due mainly to the overcrowding. Cheers JS

[cappy]

a fireman mate of mine from shields told me in the daytime in clement weather .....he had a watch sitting on the funnel deck ..whereby there was a phone in which he reported any black smoke or clinker flying about ....best job he ever had said he just bronzied ....but as he was a teller of many tales .....i never new if he was telling the truth or not ....also heard in the 50s trainee trimmers and fireman.had to chuck coal through a suspended car tire the go the other side and chuck it back...oh happy day....cappy...R683532

[j.sabourn]

I heard the same story about the tyre Cappy. JS

[David Hutchings]

Not Queen Mary but still on the Cunard thread...the lifeboats (wood/clinker built) from the Franconia were used as "props" in the classic 1958 Titanic film "A Night to Remember".

[Malcolm Lawrence]

This reminds me of a friend of mine in the late 60s, he bought an open lifeboat 36' I think and converted it into a coastal trawler (6' Beam Trawl) I helped with it and it turned out pretty well.
The main issue was getting the prop in a position that would bite the water enough to provide traction to tow the trawl, we overcame the problem by building a tunnel for the prop (with the aid of wooden mould former's and fibre glassed over) bit of a job working upside down but worked well with a Perkins diesel, caught loads of fish on overnight trawls and sold them in the local pubs. Note: no such thing as Quota in those days

[Gordon Gray]

Tristan Jones incredible bloke. I read three of his books and the trip he made in south America lugging his boat over the mountains until he finally caught up with tributary of the Amazon and then on to "civilisation" was almost fantasy. A great read and quite unforgettable.