a long trip but wouldnt change it

[cappy]

###in 1959 i paid off a british tanlker after some 10 or 11 months on the indian coast ......my buddy and i decided we would buy a coule of motor bikes .....not as much the need for speed ..but more to spend our money on something with our own name on it ....we paid cash ...no tally men for us ....ilived with my gran and her husband ..not my true blood but a great influence on my life ...ex barnardos and with medals for bravery during world war 11 at sea .......life to me was good i had just got my rating after a cleaver job saw a second cook taken ashore in mina al ahmadi half dead after a cleaver attack ......back to shields after a couple of days i had mastered my motor bike to some standard ......and while waiting near the town hall for my mate to appear he lived near jarrow.....i saw a truly beutiful girl come out an office and cross the road to stop at a bus stop near me ...i really was taken .....so next day i returned and as she crossed the road again in her lunch our i asked if she would like to go to the cinema ...her answer was i dont know you and dont be cheeky .......but as she boarded the bus she turned and had a look......i was quite happy with that happening......so after 2 more times i got the reply i was looking for ...and our lives started .....it has been a life of hard work ...ups downs ....succeses and knock backs ......but today my children and grandchildren have all called to see us ...even charlie who must fly to france to play his rugby...his chosen job tomorow we have been through thick and thin up and downs ....but never go out new years......to many fools about and i dont suffer them easily even in my 79th year ...so here we are 60 years this coming year together .....couldnt ask for more ...sure there will be many stories and mine is just one .......but wouldnt change it for any price ...a happy new year to all on this seamans site .... cappy from shields

[vic mcclymont]

Cappy, got a bit to go to catch up with you, 44 years married, like you life has ups and downs.
Wouldn't change it for the world.
Happy new year to all on this wonderful site.
Vic

[Keith Tindell]

I like you Cappy, returned from a 10 month trip on a tramper had a good long leave, and just 10 days before i was forced (by spending all my dosh) to seek another berth on a ship to anywhere, and met this really good looker, and thought if she's still there after another trip, i will swallow the anchor. Joined another tramper, which fortunately, paid off in Hamburg some 7 months later. Many letters on our way round to USA, Japan, South America, and back home. So like you, here i am 53 years later still as happy as Cappy. i always was bloody lucky, kt

[cappy]

I like you Cappy, returned from a 10 month trip on a tramper had a good long leave, and just 10 days before i was forced (by spending all my dosh) to seek another berth on a ship to anywhere, and met this really good looker, and thought if she's still there after another trip, i will swallow the anchor. Joined another tramper, which fortunately, paid off in Hamburg some 7 months later. Many letters on our way round to USA, Japan, South America, and back home. So like you, here i am 53 years later still as happy as Cappy. i always was bloody lucky, kt

###must be the lucky numbers draw......cappy R683532........all the best keith cappy

- - - Updated - - -

Cappy, got a bit to go to catch up with you, 44 years married, like you life has ups and downs.
Wouldn't change it for the world.
Happy new year to all on this wonderful site.
Vic

##just seems to get easier each year vic ...lol cappy

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Hi Cappy.
Two years ahead of you, I met my wife on the Southern Cross in 57 married like you in 59 best thing that ever happened to her ha,ha, Arguments I could count on one hand, [those that i won that is, ha ha] Our kids!! think we are still the same, always joking and laughing,
We had them all here at Xmas and it was the best ever.
Happy New Year to all on site.
Cheers Des.

[j.sabourn]

Snap Des, met the wife in 1957. But unlike you had to coerce her into marriage as late as 1962. Long separated courtship over 5 years. Finally made proper aquaintainship in 2002 on retiring. So didn’t start my house training until then. Cheers JS.

[cappy]

Hi Cappy.
Two years ahead of you, I met my wife on the Southern Cross in 57 married like you in 59 best thing that ever happened to her ha,ha, Arguments I could count on one hand, [those that i won that is, ha ha] Our kids!! think we are still the same, always joking and laughing,
We had them all here at Xmas and it was the best ever.
Happy New Year to all on site.
Cheers Des.

##married in 62 des so 3 years courting and saving .....good money on them ore carriers and back home on a regular basis ......regards cappy

[Captain Kong]

I was married for 21 years, dont remember breaking three mirrors

[cappy]

##seem to recall you put a poem you had written brian about different girls worldwide .....if you stilll have it would be pleased to see it again ....regards cappy

[Captain Kong]

Here it is Cappy,
.............................The Lap of Honour.

I went to the `Vindi*`when I was a lad,
where conditions were hard
and the food was bad,
but I walked through those gates
as tall as a man
off to my first ship bound for Japan

And now I`ve retired and saved up my cash
once more round the world I am going to dash
to Mombasa and Java and out to Cathay
to see all my old girl friends
once more on the way

Mimi`s still waiting for me I`ve been told
I`d like to see her before she gets old
then on to see Dedeh in Tanjong Patak
then fly off on a Jumbo to Hong Kong`s Kai Tak

I`ll go back to Tahiti down in the South Seas
to see my Wahine in the warm sunny breeze
Then across to see Maggie in New Zealand`s Hawkes Bay
and have a beer in Ma Gleesons* back on the way

I`ll do the Lap of Honour round the Australian coast
to see all the girls who loved me the most,
from Thursday Island round to Sydney and Perth
they were the loveliest girls on earth

I`ll go to see Sheila and then Marylou
and call upon Sally in Woolloomooloo
then go up to Townsville to see Mary O`Keefe
where we walked hand in hand by the Great Barrier Reef

When I think of those nights by a blue lagoon
loving my girl under a tropical moon
and those happy times that we both shared..........
my Mary`s still waiting for me, so I've heard.

On then to Honolulu and then Frisco Bay
and up to Vancouver and down to L.A.
I`ll jump on a Greyhound across to Hoboken
to see my Jenny whose heart I had broken

In Manhattan`s Times Square and 42nd Street
there must be some girls that I used to meet
it would be sad if I looked around
and none of my girls were there to be found.

So off I would go to old Mexico
to see my Juanita down in Tampico.
then across to see Molly in Montego Bay
and go up the Blue Mountains where we used to play

On then to Rio, Montevideo and B.A.
To May Sullivan`s Bar, where I used to stay.
There was Rosita, Paquita and also Maria,
On then to Santos and round to Bahia
.
Then when I return home again
to England's cold and dismal rain
all my memories will always stay
they are something that no one can take away

I`ll be thinking now that I`ll get a shock
on my memory trip to turn back the clock.
things won`t be the same time has moved on
the young girls I once loved have grown old and are gone.

and now that I am coming to the end of my time
I must put my memories down into rhyme.
`cos when you are young life is all magic
but as you get older life becomes tragic.

but there is still some life in the old dog yet
and there`s more adventures for me to get
so I`ll be heading off into the sun
to have more excitement and plenty of fun.

I`ts not for me to tend the garden and flowers
polishing the brasses , walking the dog for hours.
but to go back round the world in a blaze of glory
then I`ll come back home to write my story.

And then one day when I am old and grey
and my life`s been used up and it`s come time to pay
as I lie on my bed on my face will be a smile
I`ll just be a thinking ` it`s all been worth while.

Captain Kong........................