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[Tony Taylor]

lewis i stopped reading sea breezes magazine some 35 years ago .....some time before that it had been a great and interestingread about vessels uk owned mainly but many stories worldwide also .......it then slowly got less and less interesting as more and more shipping companies had dissapeared and cruise liners and ferries filled page after page ......the merchant navy as i had seen it was gone ......our lefty members blame the greedy shipowners ......but if there was a profit in it we would have still had many shipping companies with vessels trading world wide .....the return on capital outlay had disappered......the money was spent elswere ....i recall being in singapore in the 60s the hammer and scycle vessels outnumbered any other nation by far .....the container vessels were on the cards carrying many more cargoes and quicker loading and unloading ......our 5 hatch tramps etc were as much good as a clipper ship in todays world .....tankers were going to such giant sizes ....with few seamen aboard .....poorer nations were flagging there own vessels ..nigeria ......india ...pakistan ....malta .....japan was building them again and flagging them ....the day of our merchant seaman was going going gone ....who on this site would wish to honestly go to sea on a container with 11 or twelve hands and after coming up from the far east ....turn round in a few hours to go back again..we had sometimes weeks in port ...bigger crews ....more shipmates...i think no camerararderie on a container ship ......would rather not bother going to sea today ......adventure for young men gone .....with there benefits they can fly to oz japan malaysia kiwi in a day .....and the sad thing is ....every foriegn city looks the same now .....the individual differences are gone ....naw cappy goes to shields regular now .....and gets sad looking at was once the coaly tyne .....one filled with british merchantmen coming from every were and going every where ....tankers in smiths colliers at the staithes dry cargoes in brighams the tde readheads and many others ...its a dream gone.....red duster blown away a long time ago now.....weep for it yes but it will never come back .....i only say jeez i saw the best of it.......cappy

That very thought went through my head yesterday while sitting at Mill Dam waiting for my son and wife returning from a fishing trip; I could visualise the colliers on the buoys waiting for a berth at the staithes. Port health authority launch alongside (I was allowed on board a couple times, gleaming Gardner engine). Ships everywhere, rank on rank of tankers at Smiths three abreast often.
Yesterday there was the DFDS ferry, and a bulker up at Tyne dock and the Arcadia - looking quite shabby, must be idle again.
Middle docks, now a building site. Redheads - derelict.
Rats running around the Merchant Navy memorial statue, capped the miserable scene.

[cappy]

That very thought went through my head yesterday while sitting at Mill Dam waiting for my son and wife returning from a fishing trip; I could visualise the colliers on the buoys waiting for a berth at the staithes. Port health authority launch alongside (I was allowed on board a couple times, gleaming Gardner engine). Ships everywhere, rank on rank of tankers at Smiths three abreast often.
Yesterday there was the DFDS ferry, and a bulker up at Tyne dock and the Arcadia - looking quite shabby, must be idle again.
Middle docks, now a building site. Redheads - derelict.
Rats running around the Merchant Navy memorial statue, capped the miserable scene.

Well youve got me weeping now tony.....rats running round the memorial .....a memorial that shows a merchant seaman with a wooly watch cap on .....never saw one of them ever in shields or any weer else .....it was a flat cap or a steamin revi or even a trilby ......but of COURSE OLD TWO JAGS had his name on the list of dignatories....who ever the rest were havnt a clue.....rest in peace MN.....cappy

[Tony Taylor]

Well youve got me weeping now tony.....rats running round the memorial .....a memorial that shows a merchant seaman with a wooly watch cap on .....never saw one of them ever in shields or any weer else .....it was a flat cap or a steamin revi or even a trilby ......but of COURSE OLD TWO JAGS had his name on the list of dignatories....who ever the rest were havnt a clue.....rest in peace MN.....cappy

Cappy, that was at 3.30 yesterday afternoon, it was much worse at 7 in the morning when I dropped them off, saw first one just as I turned in off the roundabout, , then lots more scurrying about in the headlights as I drove down to the landing stage.

[j.sabourn]

#12 Look to see who the owners were, there was no need. JS

[cappy]

John Prescott at least went to sea. You don't have to admire the man or his politics, but to go from assistant steward to Deputy Prime minster and serve in that position for 10 years during that time he served as First secretary of state.

First Secretary of State is an office sometimes held by a minister in the Government of the United Kingdom. The office indicates seniority, including over all other Secretaries of State.

Certainly achieved more in life than a lot of us. Get over it.

Well he wasnt much good at getting over it according to his secretary

[Keith Tindell]

Well it was a quikie while his wife was down in the restaurant Cappy, i,ve been watching Blair-Brown series on tv, and they replayed the scene where he gave that bloke a straight left to the jaw when the egg was thrown. Of course the law took its usual course when it was someone of note, and they were both dismissed, if it had been two locals having a dustup, there would have been at least a fine.another example of the two layers of society when it comes to justice, kt

[cappy]

at least unlike farage he had a go. Can we get back on thread now .

permission granted

[Keith Tindell]

I think with the tax and ship owners, maybe, just maybe, the gov is starting to realise that we have no ships to call on in the event of supplies and shortages, lets hope so, kt

[Keith Adams]

Don’t know about you guys but i still have a big grin on my mug thinking about Cappy’s observation of the wool so called ‘Watch Cap” on the MN Statue. We have the same myth over here as far as the general public are concerned of what seafarers wore. Also the yellow So-wester; although i did have an occasion to wear the black one i was kitted out with at the Liverpool Sailors Home during my first four years at sea.
Think it was early 1970’s i took my American wife back to England to visit after filling her head with how mad busy the Liverpool port shipping activity would be compared to the San Francisco slow paced scene — not thinking the same demise had affected the UK equally as bad. Timed it for high tide and only one ship left and none arrived — i was shocked and had i had only been gone 12 years ! Still hard to believe …. Keith A.

[j.sabourn]

Only time I can remember wearing a cap on a ship was one trip I was second mate where the master insisted we wear when on watch. I still had my old apprentices cap hardly ever worn which was listed as part of your necessary wardrobe to young green boys. The third mate didn’t have a cap , so was a ritual passing over this Cap on handing over the watch. Another company master was just the opposite Cappy knew him very well his tropical uniform consisted of taking off his. Trousers and jacket and meeting the pilot in Cairns FNQ in his long johns and wooly vest , but for decorum reasons used to keep on his trilby. Loading sugar there in those days was as you described bleeding the sacks down the hold with the usual 2 weeks loading , 3 weeks in the rainy season. Today they load in so many hours . Cheers JS...