What?

[john sutton]

from a very early age I wanted to go to sea.At eleven I went to a Dr Barnados naval school with the intention of joining the RN but when the superintendant told me at 15 it was time to go to HMS Ganges and I woul have to sign a contract for 7 and 4 years I changed my mind and opted for the merch.Even at 15 I wouldnt be tied to a contract and this is how I continued for life.Never ever signed a contract,notr even a rental agreement
john sutton

[Rodney Mills]

Back in the mid 50s I lived in Southend-on-Sea, Essex. My leave over I would take the train to London to join a ship. The majority of fellow passengers in my compartment were businessmen commuting to the 'City'. How I envied them; starched collars, bowler hat, grey striped pants, black jacket, briefcase and reading the Times. They probably had a big house in Westcliff; wife, kids and a pedigree dog.


I served four and a half years in the M.N., glad I did, then I emigrated, first to Canada then the U.S.. Twenty-five years later I'm living in Connecticut and working in Manhatten. I didn't care if the snow was a foot deep, I'd realized a youths dream. No bowler hat thank goodness and the Wall street Journal instead of the times, but I loved it. I was the only commuter that enjoyed commuting, and I even had the dog, an English sheep dog.

Rodney

[happy daze john in oz]

You would have done well as a vet on some of the Castle ships, many of the bloods ate like animals!

[Captain Gordon Whittaker]

Come to think of it, I sailed with a few animals over the years, but not too many!

[Colin Pook]

As a boy, my ambition was to work on the railway. Left school at 15 and went for an interview in Brighton. Heart broken when I failed the medical due to a perforated ear drum. Not long after went to sea, and no one, but no one ever found out that I was partly 'mutton jeff'. In 1960 missed my ship (Oarsman) in Immingham and got suspended for three months. Lived in digs in Preston and got a job in Preston railway marshalling yard. Recieved a telegram one day saying the 'Clarkeden was in the Manchester ship canal and short handed, so I joined her. Had I not, I think I could have stayed on the railway for life. Obviously not to be!!
Colin.

[Lou Barron]

I thought of being a commander of a destroyer but ended up as a deck boy

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Hi All.
Went to school at four, by the time I was five I had built and sunk in about six tin boats, and so it went on for the next ten years, untill still as daft as when I started I left school and went to work in the local tin works at 14 but by then I was determined to go to sea, and sent away to join the Vindicatrix. If that hadn't happened I could see myself as a slave to the tin works like my forebears not a pretty picture.
Cheers Des

[j.sabourn]

In the NE the 3 main Industrys were Shipbuilding, Fishing, and Mining. All now gone, but at time most youngsters finished up in one of them. I wanted to go in the RN as a boy seaman at 15, but parents wouldnt sign the papers. My father wanted me in the building trade but I had no wish to finish up there. However he signed my Indentures with a company which employed an old friend of his. If had gone in the RN, in hindsight could of come out after 22 years with a pension, and carried on where I finished off at sea in the civilian side, and would no doubt have been much better off now financially. Parents think they are doing the right thing at time I suppose. I have never stood in the way of my children as regards what they wanted to do, even though I may have thought they were not doing the right thing at the time.
Regards John Sabourn.

[Keith Tindell]

I left school in 1957 with no qualifications, and worked in a shop for a few weeks, quickly realised this was not for me, always wanted to go to sea, Dad finaly agreed, he had not wanted me to go to sea, he had had a bad time at sea, he was on HMS Suffolk and was badly injured after shelling Stavanger airport in the war. But off i went to Graves end, and had a great time at sea for seven years until a certain lady entered my life. I had taken my AB ticket in London, and had gone to a fire station as part of the ticket for fire fighting, the guy there had told us all in the class that the fire service would gladly employ us all. So on getting married joined the fire service, and served 30 years, married now for 47 years, would not change anything

[Neville Roberts]

I always wanted to go to sea ,after watching Errol Flyn on the spanish main . but my dad wanted me to go in an office , wrong choice as it was a oil tanker company called HE MOSS, and I used to read about the ships in the war in the basement storage room. suffered 2 years at that job then joined the merch and went to the Vindi a great experience. I dont know what I would have done if not the sea as I just went with the flow and saw the end for me in the sixties ,as the planes took over the passenger trade I knew I could make a living in the states as a waiter so off I went