Shanghaied. (Joe Shell)

[Colin Hawken]

"They sent us to Dock Street,the weather was fine.
They gave us a job with Joe Shell's mighty line.
Their colours were painted Red,Buff,Black and White.
They worked us poor b******s by day and by night."
Chorous " Heave Away, Heave away,
From Pladju to Tilbury is a f*****g long way."
This is all I can remember,there are more verses. Come on lads,there must be other survivors from Shell's "Singapore Pool"as we called it. I escaped in 1954 but still remember the address for mail from home. PO.Box 148,Singapore..It's burned into my brain. In those days if you joined a Shell tanker you were very likely to be"Shanghaied"for the"Voyage not to exceed two years"you signed on for Remember all those exotic Ports? Paulo Bokham,Paulo Samba,Balik Papan,Miri,Tarakan and others? Mind you there were compensations.We had several runs from Singapore toJapan.We had a month in dry dock in Hong Kong.That was great fun,it was still a Crown Colony then,as was Singapore.Even then you had to behave yourself in Singapore.I had a year out there,not two like some.Looking back now,I think it was a good year. The ship, Narica was a rough old tub,like so many Shell tankers,but we had a lot of fun.
I posted this a couple of years back,but didn't get much reaction. I was aso in the Caperata for about six months,A B on both of them.

[Doc Vernon]

Hope you get a better response thistime round!
Cheers

[DeepSea]

Never sailed with them, but remember something like this from someone who did

The Bosun's a b*****d,
And so is the Mate,
They turn us too early and knock us off late,
And when we all get to Dock St,
We'll all get the sack,
But I don't give f**k, Cos I aint coming back

Heave away, heave away.
From the lighthous to the s***e house is a f****g long way