Infestation

[Captain Kong]

The old banana boats were quite bad for spiders , many poisonous, big ones some bigger than your hand.
all get into the accommodation. plus snakes and banana rats.
In woke up one day with a big fat hairy spider as big as my hand sat on my face I was looking up its tail pipe,
[could have been worse, it could have been Port Boat Mary,]
I didnt dare move until it slowly walked down towards my chest then I bashed it off onto the deck. it galloped around then climbed up into my seaboot and disapeared. I got a tin of Shelltox, poured it in he floated up and jumped out, I legged it out of the cabin and out on deck. I had a ciggy, with all hands laughing, then I got a deck broom , went back in there and eventually beat it to death.
The ship was full of them, some lads found snakes in their cabins. The ship carried all kinds of serums for bites, provided by the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. Sometimes we captured live ones, and got them into jars and in Garston sent them to the School where they could make serums or find out if they were new varieties.
Cheers
Brian

[Kenneth Kenny]

Roll Out the Barrel.Working Down the Hatch,in the Huskinson Dock,discharging cargo of Butter and Meat,working in lockers in between deck,we came cross this Barrel looked, if was full of Wine,this was the only one in the locker,carton's of Butter.Anyway one of the lad's got a few cups from the Canteen,one of the Holdsman taped it and got some wine out of said it taste's like Aussie Wine,all hands had a mouth full,next minute the Ships Boss shouted down the Hatch,a lad's have you come cross a Barrel of Wine,we said yes, he came down the hatch with a bloke in his best suit told us he was from the Medical of Tropical Medicean.He looked at us seen a few cups and said I hope you lad's have not drank any of this wine in the Barrel.There were Eight on us down the hatch.He told us that there was dead monkey in the Barrel,and the wine preserved it.I remember one of the lad's was Step Toe.We all bought Black Draft from the Chemist on our way home.Ken.R634898.

[Captain Kong]

That happened to us on the EGYPTIAN, in 1953, we loaded a barrel in Famagusta and one of the lads tapped the barrel, it wass alcohol and with the BOT Lime juice it went down very nicely.
We docked in Liverpool and then the Mate came down to the mess room and said Who tapped the Barrel, ?? No one knew,
OK , I will tell you what was in it, It was a dead Chinaman, who was being sent home to be buried, in those days a Chinaman had to be buried in China, and there were no Air Services then to China.It was being transhipped to a Blu Flu ship.
All hands were nearly sick. The Mate laughed at us, and never said a word.
Cheers
Brian.

[Lou Barron]

Having a fair bit of experiance with rats the first time was on the German supply ship there the rats was not very friendly maybe they were Nazi rats but they would keep you awake at night running all over the place .The next time was in the pow camp they say that some of the pows ate them not that i saw any of this happening .The biggest experiance with them was in NZ one of the jobs i got was in a grain and seed store (i was to stay 35 years there).The rats use to play havoc with the stacks of grain and seed we caught about 45 of them when we pulled thw stacks down with shovels and pieces of wood we would kill them we also use cyonide powder but that was dangerous to use andv you had to get apermit to use it .When i was the head storeman i was transferd to another grain store that the firm had taken over it was a very old store and we even had cats to catch the rats but it was hopeless they were causing a lot of damaged so i said to the manager we will have to get the store fumigated so we did .We could not go into the store for a day or two even then your eyes would start to weep but when the clean up the store they got just on two 44 gallon drums of dead rats and mice plus a couple of cats

[gray_marian]

Oh Lord, I wish I had not read this thread! Just know what I'll be dreaming of tonight

[happy daze john in oz]

[QUOTE=cappy;144865] ...had only 4 girls working for me at that stage and they were petrified to come up the old stairs


They most likely knew you were at the top waiting for themLOL

[happy daze john in oz]

I get Rats in my garden every winterm, I have a big lake at the side and these are water rats, they are lovely and clean and vary in colours.
In Spring they disappear back into the Lake.
Now SHE insists I kill them, I know what it is like to be nearly killed on several occasions, but fortunately have been saved at the last minute, so I am very reluctant to do this as appreciate life.
They do no harm. So eventually after a load of ear ache I bought two traps. Placed the bread and cheese in there, next morning there was a tiny field mouse in there, looked so sad, I nearly wept. I had killed it. But after more ear ache I had to arm the traps again, this time I got a beatiful brown and white rat, it was spotlessl;y clean but dead.
I was going to bury him in the garden , `NO IN THE BIN`. so in a plastic bag in the bin he went.
I hid the traps after that and reported there were no more rats.
I honestly did not enjoy killing them, they were doing no harm just sheltering for the winter.
I am just a big softy.
Cheers
Brian.

You see Brian that is the problem with man, he has no concept of why any creature is on this planet, politicians excepted, so those he does not like he kills. the fact is they are all aprt of the eco system whicj man is buggering up big time. Then the polis tell us we have global warming, well the silly barstewrarsd are to blame for stuffiung up the ecosystem in the first place.

[happy daze john in oz]

never saw a rat on a ship, only on the dock. shooting rats is more fun than poison

And Alf you have some 600 or so who should all b ein the dock at the Old Bailey not in Parliament.

[happy daze john in oz]

How did the weavils get into the cereals,corn flakes rice crispies etc.On the Cotopaxi having cereal for breakfast when the milk was poured on all the weavils would float to the top,how did they get into a sealed wax bag.If barley or rice went into the soup the top of the soup was covered in weavils.I had a toilet roll on the press,I folded it and skimmed it around the top of the soup.The other problem was the jaspers,give the pantry a good flitting out,that would kill the jaspers but they pushed the egg from their backside and that would incubate and off we go again.The jaspers were also in the accommodation,Channel Night I packed my case got a bit of a wammie and suspended the case from the deckhead,I did'nt fancy taking any of those b------ds home.
Regards.
Jim.B.

I often wonder hwo such things get into sealed containers. Maybe the Chinese put them there to give more protien. I hope you did dispose of the toilet paper in the corrcet manner and not re-cycle it>

[happy daze john in oz]

Oh Lord, I wish I had not read this thread! Just know what I'll be dreaming of tonight

Don't tell me Marian, Politicians