Experiences at sea

[happy daze john in oz]

One of the funniest sights I saw. A first time blood up on deck speaking copious volumes with 'Huey'. Problem was he was talking to windward and all his words came back to him.

[Roy Buchmueller]

Hi Roy
Very interesting comments that you have there mate,seems you had quite a time!

Nice uniforms though?
Niether of us could have coped with that amount of discipline. Face Ache 2/E went bonkers when he found all the application forms all over the ship!
As they said to me right off on my first trip, if you can't take a joke you shouldn't have joined!

[john sutton]

1) standing on the jetty throwing potatoes at the captain of the navicella who was walking up and down the flying bridge and refusing to give us our bag of booze back
2)stuck in the ice on the way to botwood(i think) on the caxton
3) fighting an AB called Bob Powell on the Geneton.I was naked and he was in full heavy weather gear having just come of the wheel(open wheelhouse).Would have made it big on U tube had it exsisted in those days
john sutton

[Jim Brady]

As a bellboy delivering a telegram to a cabin with four young women in a total state of undress,topless and not bothered to try and hide(the sea did funny things to women).Can you imagine a 16 year old boy not knowing where to look and blushing red in the face.Some times delivering to a cabin with a single female in it and the same thing ,it was was there but to a kid it was terrifying.WhenI was older I used to say to the bellboys I wish I had my chance again.
Regards.
Jim.b.

[John Pruden]

in yokohama a fella used to come on board with free tickets to the local bars and he gave you a free calender so naturally you said yeah we will be there OK he said i will pick you up at 1900 yeah no problem give us a calender{like you do} so after copious amounts of harp i turned in next thing i know my cabin mate was scrapping with this fella in the alleyway me sleep with not a stitch on the door flung open the door knob hit me right on the forehead i rolled out of my bunk still p.ss proud slipped into one boot and joined the fracas one of the abs was bent as an Arabs dagger started taking photos of the scrap me not a stitch on p.ss proud with one boot on in the seaman's bar i noticed a string of pictures that he had taken hanging there for all to see anyway when i asked for them the fairy's reply quote john i will treasure them all my life?i bet the t..t has still got them a young 17 year old anyway you might get a giggle out of the storyjp

[Red Lead Ted]

Harrisons of L,pool his name eludes me everyone new him as the local gofer would come aboard in the windies, He would explain he was born in Liverpool and that his father owned a farm when you asked him where in Lpool he replied Cantril Farm,An area in Stockbridge village in Lpool. Only spuds you can find there are in the corner shop. Another gr8 mem the Dhobi woman who would come aboard to do your dhobi for a few pence. There was always a bit more than your Dhobi on the menu if you were up for it. Happy day,s lads a mans gotta do what a mans gotta do Terry.

[Lou Barron]

Being on lookout in the tropics and seeing the wildfire light up sky at night and not a care in the world

[Ivan Cloherty]

Just watched a programme about a US destroyers shakedown cruise of five days, on a tight hard a port manouvre the top radar antenae snapped at the weld, apparently it weighs about 180kgs and was only prevented falling to the deck by the electric cables inside. Height of snap above waterline 45 metres. 3 U S sailors had to climb up the inside of the mast, weather calm, flat sea, enough room inside the mast for 2 or 3 men abreast. At last they reached the aerial platform and were able to secure the antennae with the "innovative" use of a webbing sling (their words), when reaching the deck again they thought it been a scary experience, even though fully harnessed up, because the wind had been gusting to 15 knots up there!.......................doesn't it make you proud !! apparently it made the captain proud of the three, ugh!

When I think of the things we oldies used to be asked to do in a howling gale, get up the foremast/mainmast and change a bulb in the masthead light, no harnesses in those days, one minute over the ocean, next over the deck and then the ocean on the other side as she rolled, all the time being banged against the mast when she pitched and yawed, somehow we managed and didn't break the bluddy bulb and then up a rickety rope ladder the last few feet to reach the light. On some ships even reaching the mast table required you to be a trapeze artist even before you got access to the topmast...................but I think most of us enjoyed the challenge but never got any thanks, it was all part of the job.

[Calvin Kent]

Coming down the North Sea it was flat calm, totally windless, and fog so thick you couldn't see the masthouse let alone the focsle. I went up on the monkey island and it was totally surreal. The fog bank was possibly forty feet deep but finished so abruptly you could duck your head in and out of it, but above it was sunny and I could see for miles. But all there was to see were ghostly ships masts hovering above the fog going in various directions.

In the Indian Ocean there is always underwater volcanic activity but one night the phospherescence was really strong and on lookout I couldn't take my eyes off the wake. The sea was like a mirror and the wake was shining so bright it seemed to almost illuminate the sky above it. Towards the end of my watch a few squalls came out of nowhere and we saw three luminous waterspouts. Absolutely amazing.

A few of us went to a beach club near Abidjan, Ivory Coast. It was a hot Sunday afternoon and the beach was full of French colonial families. The beach shelved gently until it got to about seven feet deep and then dropped off vertically. It was a calm day with just a steady swell rolling in so being the nosy one I had to dive down. The moment I got into the deeper water I was caught in a rolling vortex. I was being battered by tyres of all shapes and sizes and blinded by sand particles. I didn't know which way was up, all the wind was knocked out of me and I didn't have any buoyancy left. I was being spun around getting weaker and the flashes in my head told me I'd really f***ed up this time. I remember thinking how stupid I was and all I had to do was open my mouth. Suddenly my foot touched the bottom. I kicked with all I had left which wasn't a lot and next I knew my head broke water and I could breathe. I looked around and the sun was shining on a blue sea, families froliced on the beach fifty yards away, my mates were gathered round the cases of beer we had brought with us drinking and yarning. I just trod water for a while getting my head round what had so nearly happened and the fact the world had just carried on totally oblivious of my private drama. It was a strange sight and one I think of often.

[John Pruden]

leaning on the rail one night one of the catering staff said{john can i have a word} yes whats up? i have got unwelcome visitors i said crabs yeah the problem is i don't want to go to the chief steward right OK get to the showers on the way i gave him a full bottle of old spice you wont say nothing to anyone will you who me so of he goes into the shower shaves all his bits next things the screams were unmerciful i had told all the lads on the deck alleyway all falling about laughing it was about a month before he spoke to me again but it must have cured him he never did see the chief steward.jp