Piracy

[Ivan Cloherty]

Brian after reading of your many adventures over the years I have often wondered did you ever join a ship in port A, sail to ports B,C and D then return to port A without nothing very much happening?

Louis, you wouldn't remember them would you, although invariably something however trivial would happen to make you remember nearly (possibly!!) all voyages, be it a skipper, food, obnoxious crewmate, funny (ha! ha!) crewmate, lousy port, etc, but naturally you would get short trips on the coast that could be routine

[John Gill]

Age, all in the mind and the wine of course.
Many aged in good wooden casks are the best.

The Duke of Clarence drowned in a wooden cask of Malmsey wine. If I have to go, there are worse ways of slipping off this mortal coil.

[Keith at Tregenna]

Going back a bit, was it a vintage year?

On this day in 1478, George duke of Clarence was drowned, so legend has it, in a butt of Malmsey wine for plotting treason against his brother, Edward IV. A member of the Yorkist faction in the Wars of the Roses, George was the younger brother of Edward IV and elder brother of the future Richard III.

[j.sabourn]

#34 Gilly its going to have to be the old green tarpaulin canvas then , none of this best duck canvas. JS

[Captain Kong]

Hi Louis.
Yes I did one or two boring trips where nothing much happened.
A story would be like this, ......
"We sailed for two weeks, got there, no shore leave then we sailed back".. ....end of story. boring.
After 48 years I filled three Discharge Books. a lot of adventures in there.
I always kept my overtime books which also included any happenings
just like a Diary. so it is easy to remember places, dates and happenings.
I must admit that once I got my Tickets with ESSO, most but not all exciting voyages were a lot less, but again the world and Seafaring had changed so much. especially on a VLCC,
Two months around the Cape to the Gulf, load from a sea Buoy and then two months back again., In Four and a half months Never saw land only water, Dry ships, no alcohol allowed.
Today "Lockdown" is so easy. done it many times.
So most of the good days of Seafaring happened in the 50s and 60s.
that is why I wrote.........
We were the last of the Seafarers.,
the World will not see our likes again.

Today seamen Never get ashore, In port for a few hours load a few containers, and away again, all the Seamen's Bars around the world had closed, the girls all gone. Nothing ashore for a Seaman , if he had a chance there is no where to go.
I have been doing world cruising every year for 20 years since retiring, and in all the ports I once knew there is nothing left,
We had it all, now Nothing.
Cheers
Brian

[Louis the fly]

Yes very true the good times ended long ago. In my latter years at sea the crews I sailed with just looked upon it as a job not a way of life as we did. The humour and genuine friendships were gone. Today with the corona virus raging all over the world there are crews stranded on ships everywhere. The relief crews can't fly out because of flight restrictions and those on board are not allowed ashore because of the danger of spreading the virus. Not a good time time to be a seaman.

[Dennis McGuckin]

So true Louis.
Some years back, I had an ex MN visit.
He was not from the old school.
All he talked about was the union.
No adventures ashore like we had.
When at sea, I never worried about money.
As long as I had enough to sub for a run ashore.
Glad that we had the good days.

[happy daze john in oz]

Container ships, cruise ships and some tankers. In early morning, sail before sunset.
Very few crew get the chance to go ashore and if they do it is for such little time they often just sit on the dock.

But during our times we all had adventures, some we recall others lost in the mists of times and the grog.

[Ian Walsh]

Whampoa - I was there in '66, Red Guards all over the place (Chairman Mao and the great leap forward, stuff). All going ashore with little red ribbons pinned on that said "International Seafarer", The only good thing was the 1 litre bottles of Tsingtao beer, beautiful stuff - we got the Capt. to stock up with it

[Ivan Cloherty]

Whampoa - I was there in '66, Red Guards all over the place (Chairman Mao and the great leap forward, stuff). All going ashore with little red ribbons pinned on that said "International Seafarer", The only good thing was the 1 litre bottles of Tsingtao beer, beautiful stuff - we got the Capt. to stock up with it

You were lucky Ian, in 59 -62 era we were not allowed ashore, only once in nearly two years, that was in a bus with armed guards to the 'Friendship Shop' in Shanghai. Upon arrival and departure from Chinese ports, all crew members were lined up on the foredeck, regardless of the weather +35c to -15c with the latter temp being kept on deck longer, up to 2 -3 hours whilst armed guards searched the ship both on arrival/departure with on occasions drawers pulled out and contents strewn on cabin deck. Armed guards also roamed the accommodation during the stay and you were not allowed to lock your cabin door as it apparently showed disrespect to soldiers and they could enter your cabin any time day or night. There were many other infringements to your personal liberty, too numerous to list here; but the average shore person never heard of these events/restrictions/abuse as it would not be good for international relations or trade. I have written about this prevuiusly with more detail. Tell it to a shore wallah and they think you are hallucinating