Southampton port plug in

[Des Taff Jenkins]

When I was in construction we built a new teachers college, two of us stayed over during hand over to the education Dept, the women's toilet had trouble with the vacant and empty signs falling off, a young girl had just gone in the toilet, next thing the sign fell on the floor, when she came out i asked what she had done, she blushed and said i unscrewed the lock with a nail file, they where that bored with themselves they just didn't know what to do.
Des

Lewis, Fancy leaving your wife in the West Indies. Is she still there?

[happy daze john in oz]

Uneducated or just plain ignorant.

We had for some time a children's farm in the middle of town here in Melbourne.
The reason, to show children that milk comes from Cows not the fridge in the supermarket, meat comes from animals, and fruit grows on trees.

The education system now has a lot to answer for.
14 years as a Uni employee and saw it all.

'We are not here to teach you, we are here to make sure you pass your exams' was often the cry from lecturers.

The you see taxi drivers with PHD etc unable to get a job as no experience.

[J Gowers]

#28 Lewis I was also in Chaguaramas with a drilling rig in 2006 the floating drydock was along side where we were berthed and was in a bad state on repair.
Did you partake of the Puncheon the local rum 75 proof and would blow your head off, it was banned from taking it on the plane.
Another interesting thing in Trinidad is the the tar oozes out of the ground in many places they have a big tar lake and they just scrape the stuff off the top re-melt it and use it on the roads.

It was a beautiful place though.

In the photo the drydock is just at the back of the red oil drums it had sunk again.

On the drydock it was in the middle of winter and the yard supplied us with electric heaters for the accommodation but if you switched them all on it overloaded what the shipyard could supply.


Trinidad Pics 085.jpg
Trinidad Pics 070.jpg

[j.sabourn]

I was in Chaguaramas every 6 weeks in 1967 for the best part of a year. Rigs and semi submersibles were something from Mars to me in those days, but on completion of discharge from an old Liberty ship we used to pick up the bauxite landed there from the Sun ore carrier which used to load up the Mackenzie River passing through Georgetown in Guianna , used to be called British Guianna. Must have been before any floating dock was there or maybe I had failed to see due to the flowing rum , which in those days was Old Oak and purchased around the corner in Port of Spain. Those were the days my friend, I thought they"d never end. JS...

[J Gowers]

I worked on the Sovereign Explorer (Sovex) there for about 18 months flew Gatwick to Port of Spain on the way there we always landed in Antigua and it landed at Barbados on the way back, used to piss me off seeing all the holiday makers going off in Antigua I wished I was with them. BWIA British West Indian Airlines, known as Bee-Wee.
The floating drydock was pretty small I would have thought only any good for fishing trawlers or small supply boats, ops I mean ships. It was just rusting away when I saw it, or maybe it was always rusty.

[Lewis McColl]

The dry dock company was owned at one time by Swan Hunter. As far as I know they gifted the whole place to the government. Walking through the workshops the old clocking in clock was still there and even the employees clocking on cards still in the racks. Trinidad is a nice Island but Tobago is much nicer as are the people. Bibby line were mangers for the Shipping corporation of Trinidad & Tobago, they had 2 Methanol tankers an LPG coaster and a Coastal products tanker. I think I did about two years on the Methanol tankers. I decided I had had enough when it became very very dark onboard. I will post another story about the lovely people from Trinidad later. I am going fishing down to the village of Waterfoot.

[Tony Taylor]

I was in Chaguaramas every 6 weeks in 1967 for the best part of a year. Rigs and semi submersibles were something from Mars to me in those days, but on completion of discharge from an old Liberty ship we used to pick up the bauxite landed there from the Sun ore carrier which used to load up the Mackenzie River passing through Georgetown in Guianna , used to be called British Guianna. Must have been before any floating dock was there or maybe I had failed to see due to the flowing rum , which in those days was Old Oak and purchased around the corner in Port of Spain. Those were the days my friend, I thought they"d never end. JS...

when it was British Guiana the Four bells was spot on, when it became Produce of Guyana it was not so good, still drinkable , but not as good.

[Denis O'Shea]

#28 Lewis was that the yacht or the wife you left in Jamaica? Did jamaica or did she volounteer. Den

[Lewis McColl]

Haha!!! I know when I have a good woman and I have the best. As those who went to sea are all to aware it takes a special kind of woman to be married to a seaman.

[Lewis McColl]

Well the fishing trip was not a success, Sammy the Seal was determined to spoil the afternoon. Every time I made a cast Sammy or Samantha the seal decided to dive and follow the bait. Packed it in after an hour was worried in case the Seal took my bait. How do you remove a fishing hook from a Seal.

Anyway concerning the Trini's as ships crew. Apart from Nigerians they have to be the worst crew I ever sailed with. I ended up in hospital for 10 days through food poisoning. The cook was having a beef with the C/Off over overtime so he added a little something to a cheese and onion omelette which the C/Off had pre ordered for lunch as I had as well. I got the wrong omelette. I flew up to the USA to re join the ship at Perth Amboy. The cook apologised the rest of the crew thought it was funny. The size and build of the C/Off had he ate the Omelette it would likely have killed him. As said the Trini crew thought it was amusing to see a big strapping guy like me looking a bit weak and pale because of the what the cook had done.
Well one bids ones time. The Trini's like fish tea as they called it it would be on the hob simmering away all day. They had it with nearly every meal. I think on that ship there were about 20 Trini crew. It is amazing what a few drops of silver nitrate boiler test chemicals will achieve when added to the big pot of fish tea. Most of them ended up shi-ting through the eye of a needle for a week. I did suggest that perhaps seeing as the cook had poisoned me perhaps he was doing the same thing to them ?? Cookie paid off next time back in Port of Spain, apparently he had had a bad fall one night.