Drink

[Ivan Cloherty]

Dangerous place is Saudi for alcohol.

But in Dubai, when I was staying in a hotel waiting for my ship. the bar was full of Saudi Sheiks who fly in by helicopter and drink whisky straight from the bottle. with a girl sat on their knee and lighting cigars with thousand Dirham notes.
Brian

And they didn't mind driving across the causeway to Bahrain every Thursday night and partaking of more than a jar or two all day Friday, complete hyprocrites the lot of them

[Bill Cameron]

Served on the Llandaff, a tramp tanker, dry ship except for the skipper he had his Drambuie. This was no a happy ship, officers and deck crew were Welsh, firemen were all from Northern Ireland, catering staff were all from the Dundee pool.
We headed to Abadan for a cargo of Crude, then headed to Balacpapan in Indonesia, one week out of Abadan, the bond ran out of cigarettes, the atmosphere on board was not good, fights broke out lots of times, we got a bond in Singapore, so peace was regained.
We discharged cargo in Balacpapan and waited 14 days for the crude to be turned into Slack Wax, and headed home, it was Lands End for orders, as fate had it we were sent to Rotterdam and out again heading to Trinidad, we were a crew of 45, and the company had taken on board two cases of Orange Boom beer, on reaching Trinidad it was Xmas and the crew were summoned to the midships accom, where the Mate issued us all with a bottle of what I considered the worst beer in the world.
As a man the crew threw the said beer over the side, the Mate was furious, we got a hard time from him all the way home to Swansea.

[Jim Brady]

When I was on the Hamilton a tanker we ran out of beer (we had a few old scouse fireman and deckhands who had their 2 a night) anyway we were in Apapa drinking Heineken at half a crown a bottle.When we left Apapa going back to Curacao it was going to be Xmas the skipper knew we would be wanting beer for Xmas so he took Heineken aboard off his own bat and charged us half a crown a bottle which he knew we had been paying ashore.
Regards.
Jim.B.

[vic mcclymont]

On the Ranald we ran out of beer, Mailship had to bring replacements.
Regards
Vic

[Doc Vernon]

On the Castle Boats the Catering staff mostly Stewards did what was called the Linen and Beer Carry each Morning,the Beer carry was of course to restock the Bars on Board!
When doing this many of us between the Storeroom and final destination Bar Room grabbed a Beer or two from a crate (this was a well known act) and consumed it along the way.
Other than that we always seemed to have a Pig and Whistle on most of the UCL Ships,so there was no shortage of Beer and many other Drinks too,and most all the Catering staff would gather in the Evenings after duty finished to down a few!
Some too much and struggled to arise in the early Morning to get down to doing their duties!
Quite a few never managed and were logged!
Cheers

[vic mcclymont]

The other trick on the VAAL was to water the beer down for the passengers. Beers were always poured in a room behind the bar.
Regards
Vic

[Doc Vernon]

Naughty Naughty! LOL

[Trader]

Robert, Smithy and John Reagan worked at the Shipping Federation also known as the "pool" in Salford (Manchester). They ran the office where all the seamans jobs were dished out. I sailed out of there until 1966 before moving to London. I moved back in 1970 and joined the Baltic Viking.

[dave moore]

As pantry boy on Royal Mails Aragon maiden voyage if my memory serves me right my main occupation at mealtimes was up and down the Burma road non stop to the pig and whistle filling up bane Marie's with beer for the cooks and pantry men this was under orders from the chief .To my surprise at the end of the trip I received more cash in dropsies than what I paid of with..I just loved all those thirsty boozers

[Jim Brady]

I was in the 1st class platehouse on the Carinthia the meal bar was right next door, me and my mate had a pint on the go all the time whilst working.the meal bar is where the wine waiters use to serve drinks to the passengers in the restaurant.You would never get a drink from there in CPR but Cunard not a problem.
Regards.
Jim.b.