UK Customs Checks

[j.sabourn]

#46 Better than Speedy Gonzalus ? Des

[j.sabourn]

#48 ref the pubs in freo . The P & O pub near the waterfront was the meeting place for the Guild . Not to sure where the Engineers union had their meetings. The deck and firemen was a pub on the High Street and the stewards never knew where either as was rare to have offshore, unless seismic or other survey vessels with larger manning. Having so many unions in one industry was defeating any purpose of their reasoning in lots of ways. I thought . JS…..

[happy daze john in oz]

Only in Melbourne did we experience 'six o'clock swill'.
In all the civilized ports such as Sydney, Freeo the pub s closed much later, in Sydney not sure they ever did.

[j.sabourn]

#50 The Cuban coastguard on the other hand was a different story . If you know Cuba you wil know the port of Boqueron is almost up to the wire of Guantanamo Bay and this Cuban attached himself to me like a leach said he was a member of such organization but never saw him in uniform.however he carried a firearm and used to produce it at the most inconvenient times , one time sitting in a cantino he pulled it out and was going bang bang like a kid playing , immediately 4 of the other clientele also produced firearms , I viewed this from under the table. This was not too long after Castro got in. In later years about 1988 I returned deep sea for a year foreign flag of course and actually carried cargo into the US naval base there , it was just an ordinary naval port to my eyes so was a bit dissappointed . JS

[Austin Carl Largan]

Hello again J.S.
Well if you were aiming for his nose but hit his eye I would say that that was pretty darned close, hell, you couldn’t even call it a near miss.

I know all about their petty little officious attitude but in all honesty I believe they got it from us in the first place, they just took things two steps too far transitioning our system to theirs.

I had renew my vehicle pass to get into the refinery and docks every single week for over a year. I’ll tell you about it when I get back to a regular keyboard ……. This iPhone Is a pain to type on.

[j.sabourn]

All I’ve got is an IPad . At my time of life is all I need. is the second one I’ve had and the last all things being equal.sorry keep spelling your name wrong Austen and not Austin. Nothing to do with motor cars I assure you . JS

[Fred Saunders]

Reading the posts again abut the power of Customs Officers, they did have the power to stop and search people and vehicles on he wharves and go to houses to search for suspected goods.
There was a problem wayback in a certain State in Australia, where the Police were very friendly with the chief customs officer and they used his arrant a little too often, so the then chief officer called the Collector, put a stop to the Police using the Customs for their own use.
What happens now??? Good guess, it is 29 years sinch I and 15 others were made redundant in our local Port.
Fred Saunders

[j.sabourn]

#57 I may have put this up before. But in 1964 I was mate on the Pennyworth an ore carrier . The ships carpenter we still had a proper one and he had been on the ship a couple of years . Middlesborough was his home port which we visited frequently and he used to take his docking bottle home with him. One trip there the customs searched his house and found various bottles from previous trips and he was severely fined. I believe if he had broken the seals on these few bottles he would have been ok and nothing they could have done ? His name was Kenny Coulthard , he may even be a member of this site and if he reads this sorry for the intrusion into your life Kenny, hoping you are still alive and well. You should be as was about the same age as me at the time and I’m still breathing . Cheers John Sabourn

[happy daze john in oz]

Customs officers can be as bad as some customers.

Here in Oz if you wish to take grog with you on a flight for future use it must either be in on board luggage of bought after you have gone through immigration from the ;duty free' shop.

If you try to take it any other wat it will be taken off you at the immigration point.

My neighbor worked in customs for a while and he told me who ever took the grog off the passenger got to take it home.