Food

[cappy]

Think I said once before the 2/mate when you were there may have been called Nash . He was 2 years ahead of me at council school , I nicknamed him Nasher , then used to shout Nasher smokes Pasha , he used to chase me , as much smaller than him.we were doing 3 days each on a dead ship .he was invariably late for doing his 3 days on. Always had some valid excuse. Billy Tennent and his riggers were there if had to call on for any shifts etc. The local pub outside the gate was the lunch cafe a pie and a pint. This as you say would have been about 1959 thinking back. Don’t know what happened last week , but go back 60 years and have flashes of inspiration. JS

Well john that was him a really decent guy .....i recall going up to brake in germany ....it was an extremely busy seaway ...or i thought so ...there was vessels coming from all sides ...i was getting wobbly at the wheel...he just stood by me a moment or so told me i was on top of the job then whent into his chartroom .....i was fine so as an 18 year old i was pretty pleased with myself .....my previous time at the wheel had been on an old collier the SS flamma as a young boy usually once or twice a year between 10 year old and 14 with my granda will cram as mate or second mate as i was delivered to my mothers sister in sussex....via coal berths on the thames the wheel being as tall if not taller than me ......i was a very happy 12 to 4 watch seaman on the avonmoor .....and found that the least onerous or hard work i ever did at sea.....is nasher still about john as i say he was a decent guy .....cappy

[j.sabourn]

Don’t really know Cappy he was a couple of years older than me . I was an apprentice when he was 3rd mate then bumped into him when standing by the Avonmoor in Hawthorne’s. Think I was up for mates cert at the time. When they shifted her out of D/D and onto a river berth I was home for my 3 days off . Got rudely awakened by a stranger in my bedroom in my mother’s house . He was putting me on the shake it was the crewing manager from Runcimans saying get up we need you and anyone else we can get to get the ship onto a buoy outside on the river.
I said to my mother what did you let him in the house for, her reply he seemed such a nice man . Gad I could have screamed. So me Nasher and a few bodies moved a dead ship out of the dock and put her on a buoy, think we had a small tug to assist, it was otherwise Norwegian steam . Nasher was still single at the time the same as me , but he liked the girls as well so probably got hitched and never saw him again that I can recollect. Cheers JS

[cappy]

probably nasher over the bar by now john.....funny some folk in life leave memories ...others leave without a mark of ever being here......cappy

[j.sabourn]

I can remember being ashore with Nasher when I was an app. And he was 3/m In Capetown and the apps used to be very friendly with a family mostly females of various ages . They originally lived in Woodstock but the Aunty called Helen who was a toy boy lady had a flat very close to the Del Monica which we used to congregate at. I was supposed to be asleep on the settee supposedly after drinking too much, but listened to Nasher wooing the Aunty in a supposedly adult way so apart from Nasher smoking Pasha I had another silver bullet for my beretta . Yes he was a good bloke and could take a joke and not take himself too seriously. Sometime ago I asked John in Oz in another post if his current girlfriend at the time in Capetown was called Helen as didn’t want to step on anyones toes. Although she could of had other alias”s. Cheers JS