Double Dr's

A mate sent me my brothers list of ships and discharges from London. My brother jumped the Derryclare in Lyttleton NZ in 47 and on his character discharge is Desertion, so there appears to be different types of discharge such as VNC.
Des

#61... I could never understand the mentality of having to do 6 years at sea as against 2 years in the army. I would not of been averse to doing 2 years national service and putting seagoing on hold for a couple of years. I can see the point if a married man and couldn’t afford his commitments on a national serviceman’s pay, but most were single men. For the deck department that is what the DHU rating was brought out for. Of course as usual it was misinterpreted, and misused in a lot of instances. Not so much by the shipowner either, as was not of use to him in the official manning scale as was very low when counting heads for minimum government requirements. JS

John, back in the late 50's early 60's a lot of gay men went to sea.
two reasons, being gay and getting caught in an act could see you in trouble, maybe even inside.
Homosexuality was still a crime then.
Consrciption was still in place until about 1960 so gay men went to sea to escape that.

Ma Gleesons in Auckland Girls dancing on the bar ,boys sitting on beer crates, fights and parties,
seen the footpath stacked with beer as boys off to parties, the going rate was you take a dozen beer to get into the party.
the 60's were the wild west , great years ,the Kiwi coast was party from start to finish in every port.

Only time I am aware of having been on a ship with a Homosexual onboard was my first trip deep sea. I was on the 8/12 watch with the 4th Eng having a beer in his cabin after watch, he was a big fuc--r. When he picked himself up he apologised as he meant no harm. I asked the C/Eng to put me on another watch the next morning, he did not seem surprised at my request. I never mentioned why , he never asked.

Maybe he wasn’t a raging p...r then Lewis just an AB the first word was not able and the second word was Bandit. JS

Lewis if missed your birthday yesterday sorry. Hope your soon off the water tablets and back to something more substantial. When you get past the three score and ten , it’s all bonus , don’t lose too much weight as will be no fun passing in the passage with your good lady. Don’t try it however with your ex 4 engineer. If have to do it face to face would be the best advice. Think all of Ireland is a beautiful country the south as well as spent some time in Fenit at the mouth of the Shannon. Whilst the rest of the world wonders about the problems political and religious that have occurred in the past and still do to a certain extent , only the people of Ireland themselves know the causes and it is up to them to have the remedy’s. Happy belated birthday greetings anyhow. Hope you have a beanfeast when the h2o tablets are gone. Cheers JS.
PS Fouro if you are reading this no one is pointing the finger at you, I have no money so if have already put legal proceeding in motion. Suggest you think of Lewis as the defendant to any claim for slander. The story is he’s worth a few bob. Cheers JS

hi john sabourn #69
talking of backs to the wall and all the obvious ones laden with double entendrie, like sleep with your back to the wall and your mouth closed which was a piece of early advice i once heard,
but would not it be a hatred crime to talk of the effeminate mincers afflicted in that manner these days
tom

[QUOTE=thomas michael;366105] effeminate mincers /QUOTE]

We could always argue, if challenged, it was a nautical term for 'back splice'

hi ivan cloherty #71
what ? that sounds painful.make sure it was tarred and fully whipped
tom

Lewis, which companies did you sail with as you claim only once met a gay person.

I think all of the companies with liners had some on board, some such as UCl and P&O maybe more than others.