On the train homeward bound

[Captain Kong]

Just Paid off and Homeward Bound.
I paid off a ship in London and got a Liverpool bound train at Euston. This was around 1958.
It was a train that had a coach that was like a pub, better than the ones of today, just a serving hatch.
I went into the bar and ordered a large Rum and a splash of coke. Then a lad entered the bar on two crutches, he was obviously a Seaman, bronzy face, good pale blue sun bleached wrangler dungarees.
He struggled to the bar on his crutches, I noticed he had both legs covered in plaster from his feet to his crutch and the dungarees were cut all the way up to accommodate the plastered legs. I bought him a large Rum as he was struggling to get his money out and keep his balance. Cheers, we both said..
What happened? I asked. He told me that they were tieing up in the KGV dock and the backspring snapped, hit his legs and almost took him through the fairlead. Smashing both legs in several places. He had a few days in hospital in London but wanted to get home to Liverpool.
We sat down with both his legs stretched out before him. and as he was obviously in a lot of pain we had to have several extra LARGE Rums to ease it.We had one after another while we yarned and then more and more. It turned into total oblivion. I do not remember anything after that, I dont remember ever getting to Liverpool.
I awoke with one eye open, I thought I was in a prison cell and swiftly shut it. Kinnel, I thought, where the hell am I, how have I got here. I was still fully booted and spurred, I risked opening two eyes, and realised I was in the Sailors Home in Liverpool. With shaking hands I pulled myself up and looked around the cabin, there was no gear, no bag, I felt in my back pocket and found my wad from the pay off was still there and breathed a sigh of relief.
I got off the bed and with trembling legs staggered to the bathroom to have a shower, I felt a little more human after that. I went to the Reception and made enquiries of how I got there, I was told I was carried in by the Taxi driver and dumped there the Sailors Home had paid the Taxi Fare and it was on my bill. the night Porters had carried me up to a cabin and dumped me on the bunk. What nice people , I thought. They said I had no bags with me.
I checked out and got a taxi and went to Lime Street Station to see if they could help me find my gear.
I went into the Left Luggage Office and made enquiries. Yes my bag was there, great. Then the man said there were two of you carried off the train last night, the other fellow lost his crutches, do you know where he is ?, behind him was a pair of crutches on a shelf.
I didnt, and how the hell he got off the train and home without his crutches I will never know.
It just proves the healing power of Rum.

Cheers
Brian.

[James Curry]

Who was paying for all the rums Brian? as you mentioned the other fella could not get his hands in his pockets. He was plastered as you were plastered. Maybe you were conned. Maybe gives a new meaning to the term legless

[happy daze john in oz]

WE had a guy who used our first pub down in Kent.
First night he came in I thought he was a dwarf so short.
The I discovered he had no legs below the knee.
Like the guy in Brian's story he had been a dock side worker.
A wire hawser had broken and whipped across taking both legs off.
Happy to be alive after that he enjoyed a pint or three.

[James Curry]

We had a guy drank in my local the Caernarvon Castle. He was ex RAF Bomber aircrew. A really nice man he had been shot down over Germany and ended his war in a POW camp. Anyway this guy had lost both his hands and Prosthetics in those days were not what they are now. If he needed a pee someone would always have to go with him. He could not unzip his fly but could handle his john thomas okay. Thankfully in those days no one thought anything of it!!! He did have a sense of humour though first time I helped him he could tell I was a bit embarassed. He did make me laugh though, he said be thankful it is only a pee I need

[John Arton]

Used to like the old British rail trains with the bars on them.
Paid off one ship in Tilbury and a bunch of us got the train from Euston up to the north ( I was still living at home in the lake District at the time).
Repairing to the bar carriage we got stuck into the tins of Macewans ale. The 3rd engineer lived near Crewe and had arranged for his wife to pick him up at the station. By the time we arrived at Crewe we were all pizzed and he staggered off the train to be greeted by his wife running to greet him. She was wearing a short skirt and one of those big capes that were the fashion at the time,(looked like a giant bat running down the platform), greeting him with a big hug, he was so pizzed that the pair of them tumbled together down onto the platform in a jumble of legs and a flash of her knickers. Last we heard and saw of them was her berating him for getting home so pizzed.
Rgds
J.A

[Johnny Kieran]

Paying off in London during the Summer months was always a bonus for me, I'd ask for a permit to get to Ireland as my family were usually over there for the holidays. Never had it refused even though I lived in London. I even watched England win the world cup in 66 at the mission in Liverpool waiting for the Ferry once, and it was full of Germens

[Keith Tindell]

The stories that must abound of the old pay off pi** ups, i myself after the normal session in the pub, bags at my feet on the underground, usually to get to Waterloo station, was it the circle line ?, i have not been on the underground in London for nearly 60 years. But would often waken up, god knows where, having fallen fast asleep, probably for an hour or so. I once paid off, got to Waterloo fine, and woke up in Portsmouth, only trouble was i should have got off at Guildford. Happy days, the number of loggings i have had, from just popping ashore for one pint in the dinner hour, adrift all afternoon, loss one days wages , ie worked all morning for nowt, should have just gone straight ashore.

[happy daze john in oz]

In the bar in Southampton station waiting for a train, on the Guiness with my mate and his wife.
On the train there was of course a bar and we thought we should do our best to supplement Southern Rail income by imbibing there.
By the time we were pulling into Waterloo I was out of it, mate and wife must have got off.
Next thing I know we are in Basingstoke station with the guard saying all off, last stop tonight.
How the guard's in Waterloo had allowed me to sleep on is still a mystery.

There I was looking for a nights sleep, thankfully there was a pub with accommodation.
Got home Saturday morning and mum said,
'thought you would be home yesterday'
So did I!!!!

[Des Taff Jenkins]

I seldom paid off in my home port of Swansea, always some far away places like Glasgow or Newcastle, London, all foreign places. and the trip home on the train was nearly always in the bar. On one trip home to Swansea got so pissed that four of us found ourselves getting out in
the Ferry terminal to Ireland.
Des

[happy daze john in oz]

If you ever sail across the sea to Ireland, even at the closing of the bar.................whoops evening