The Suez Canal

[Don Rafferty]

Whenever I hear the voice of Mohammed al Fayed, ex owner of Harrods, I am instantly transported back to the mid 60's and the guy that flogged me a Phillips reel-to-reel tape recorder, they could have been twin brothers, or was it al Fayed himself?

The camel stool is still going strong, I originally gave it to my parents, but it is now with my brother, whose grandchildren love playing on it. Customs would insist that any padding in the cushion be removed, it could've consisted of anything - sometimes hospital waste!! The better ones had screws where needed, the lesser ones had nails with a hacksaw cut across the head of the nail to give the appearance of screws.

[Trader]

Rifle-eye was the Blue Flu man.

Alec.

[Ivan Cloherty]

I sailed through Suez in 2005, The bum boat man joined in Suez he only had a few bits of Chinese crap, souvenirs of Egypt made in China.
I asked him about George Roby and the other fella Jock Macgregor, he had never heard of him. didnt know what I was talking about.

When I was in Suez in 1956 and whilst we were still invading their country, the bumboat men still came out and tried to sell us souveniers, we were ordered to sink them in case they had bombs on board. Don't think they knew what a bomb was, but you can never be too sure. To deter them we used to drop cargo gin blocks on a heaving line and stop it just as it reached the boat, if after 3 times they didn't bugger off we dropped the block so it touched the boat, they got the message then. Didn't seem right to us fair minded British to kick them whilst they were down - but they were persistent buggers

Ivan

[Richard Quartermaine]

In 1950 on the Port St John there was a "Jock MacGregor" and I bought a big bedspread with Arab horses etc. I gave it to my mother and years later it came back to me. Threw it out about three years ago! What about dirty books - I got the Cairo edition of Lady Chatterly's Lover. Quorrre!! was that heady reading for young blokes in those days. Later on you could find the best bits by just going to the thumb-soiled pages after it had been down the glory holes a few times.

What about Aden and the ****e hawks, and bartering the contents of the Rosie at Cape Verde Islands.

Richard Q

[John Aspin]

Greetings one & all,
Yes I remember the bum allright having sailed through the suez four times twice east & twice west but never purchased anything as someone mentioned a load of crap, however it has also been mentioned about simalar things in Aden well having docked there quite a few times I never bought any of that crap either but I was lucky we Arab donkeymen/firemen in the engine room all from Aden/Yemen all good lads one in particular Ali Manay this was my first trip (1958) I always wanted a good watch and was prepared to buy one untill Ali intervened saying dont buy one from them I am off ashore, which they were allowed to do to see there families he said I will buy you a genuine one which he did dont know if you have ever heard the name but it was a Pierpont it cost me 8 pounds a lot of money in those days and would you beleive it I still have that watch today & it is still working, it is now 53 years old.
Thanks for bringing up this subject it has as with most threads on this site brought back some memories.
Best wishes to one & all,
John Aspin (R685343) Ormesby-Middlesbrough.

[Neville Roberts]

I picked up a camel saddle in port said also a suitcase that I covered in shipping labels , a teaset with dragons on it and a picture of a geisha in the bottom . and a pair of shoes that just about lasted till we got too freemantle, they started spreading out as soon as I wore them ,and were about 3 sizes too big when we got too Ausie, must have been camel hide not treated ,still have some of the things that I bought while at sea ,brings back the memories

[Glan Phillips]

Vernon.
I dont suppose that you can put your hands on those photo's,
always remember the fellas in them always had sock's on!!!!!!

Dave Williams

Dave......what are you up too, trying to get some of those photo's ????

Cheers....Glan

[Glan Phillips]

Another well known bumboat man in the 1950's was SANDY McNAB, he could give you details of ship movements (arrivals and departures) more accurate than 'Lloyds List'.
Got caught a few times, once it was a bottle of scotch.....turned out to be cold tea ! Next it was 'turkish delight', in a very nice looking box.....inside.....stale toast lol
Regarding the dirty books, the main character always seemed to be a chap named Frank Harris, anyone sail with him !!!!

Cheers....Glan

[Colin Hawken]

I remember Sandy Mac Nab.He always told us he came from Aberdeen,Glasgow. During the Suez crisis they stopped supplying British ships with searchlights for night time Canal passages. Turned out it was better for the helmsmann without the bloody searchlights. Later on an Esso tanker,Lucky Star we were to be the first British ship(we were under the Panamanian flag like a lot of Esso's chartered ships at the time) but had a British crew. One of our ABs was a giant of a man by the name of Duncan Mc Cloud. The Egytian searchlight crew were on the Foc'sle and started trapping off and called Duncan an English B******d.. Duncan,who I think was one of the Mc Cleods of Lewis,picked this Egyptian up and held him up over his head. From the Bridge our Skipper called out,"Mc Cleod put that man down." Duncan replied,"Aye Aye Captain" and dumped the Gyppo straight into the water, Needless to say,we didn't get a searchlight.

[Graham Payne]

Anybody buy one of the 30 bob "Tea Sets" in Hong Kong, they were Bone China with a imprint of a women on the bottom (of the cup), hold them up to the light and you could practically see through them. I'm sure many a Mother would have recieved one. Wonder how much one would be worth nowadays ? Sorry from going from the Middle east to the Far east but it's only a small distance on a chart, is it not ?