First brush with funny in a foreign port.

[Rodney Mills]

My first port of call on my first trip as a Catering Boy aboard M.V. Port Jackson was Las Palmas.* We had just supposed to make a couple of hours stop, but due to some problem we were not sailing until*late in the evening.* *I was standing by the gangway when a deck boy, stopped*and asked*me if I was going ashore, I told him "No as I didn't speak Spanish.* "No problem, mate, I do, so let's go." off we went. It was as exciting as Walthamstow, London. On a Monday what a letdown.

He said, "Let's get something to eat.'' So, we went into what was a Spanish version of a snack bar. We sat at a table and a waiter came over, orderbook and a pencil*at the ready. My trusty guide and interpreter using index finger to point at the waiter, then gesturing to us, then two fingers as the subject is the sandwiches says slowly and loudly, "You get for us. Dos sandwich-eee-ohs.", The waiter says slowly and loudly "Ham or Cheese?" My interpreter, guide and new mate answers "Ham-e-oh,."* and says to me "Sorry but I forgot how to say Cheese in Spanish." I answered Deckie, "No problem, ham-e-oh is fine." The waiter tells Deckie "It's cheese-ee-oh."

Thus I picked up my first word in Spanish. Years later when I learnt Spanish and also German, I shudder, but cannot erase Ham-e-oh from my memories.

Cheers Rodney*

[Doc Vernon]

Ah! yes Las Palmas, one of the Ports that i too visited while on the UCL Ships. I liked that place , and went there quite a few times, i found the People there very friendly, as were most around the Islands there such as Madeira, St Helene, Ascension. Had some good times ashore although the Shore trips were not long enough! The UCL Ships never stopped there for long periods! A great pity! But yes some great islands around that area of the Atlantic!!

[happy daze john in oz]

Also my first port of call.
By the second I had it worked out, how much silver per 200 smokes.
Not to buy a Las Palmas watch but did buy a couple of Las Palmas dolls.
Learned how to get booze on board.
Most guys bought a Las Palmas doll and put a bottle in the box.
But the master at arms on the gang way would say open the box, bottle taken away.
But I was smart, hid the bottle under the doll and went up the gangway with the lid off the box.

St Helena and Ascension island were of interest but only there for just over 8 hours.
Maderia, where we took on fish the chef hated to serve, too much work cleaning it up.

[Johnny Kieran]

That deck boy could have been me Rodney, but it wasn't. You describe the language exactly as I first learned "Spanish", but after a few trips to SA I soon picked up the proper lingo. Even today, I often surprise myself, and others, when speaking the lingo, some thing you don't forget.
We did get a few laughs using that "pseudo" Spanish, ie. "I kickajoo uppa de recatumatus effa joo donna maka da teao pronto"

[Johnny Kieran]

And another.
"Iffajoo donna shadupatatus, I kickajoo uppada recatumatus, widdama footatus".

[Gino Griffiths]

Funny that. Reminds me of the Brit football manager Ron Atkinson. He got a job managing Atletico Madrid. A news reporter asked how got on with the language barrier. He said, " They all seem to understand me if I shout - passo the ballo you muppeto". Who could possibly forget the ex Man U boss ,MacLaren who got a job managing a Dutch club. Asked if his new team understood him he replied, (using the WORST Dutch accent ever, " Yesh they're all very nishe here, they all sheem to undershtand me"! And what about Joey Barton answering questions in an awful French accent.

[John Arton]

On my first trip to sea, the crew were all Spanish from the Bilbao area. Working with them as a cadet I quickly started to pick up the language and after a couple of months was able to understand what the conversation was at smoko and even to take part in the chat, albeit struggling with many phrases and the accent of various guys.
My spanish came a cropper when I used it in lisbon during a drydocking, naively thinking that as they shared a border they all spoke the same language.

Rgds
J.A

[Johnny Kieran]

We had several Spanish seamen on boat I was on, and one of them was my cabin mate. He couldn't speak much English, but we soon got to learning each others language. I had a bit of Spanish, but after a couple of trips with him I was considered a right Diego.

[Gerald Farr]

We once called in at Las Palmas for bunkers and it was very late evening. The lighting at the bunker berth was virtually non existent and as we approached the small boat appeared under the bow to run the first line ashore. The headline was duly lowered into the boat which chugged off into the darkness with much shouting of "lower away, lower away" so the Mate kept the line running until a voice yelled out "ok heave away or something like that" so we heaved on the rope and the windlass stopped almost immediately as the shore bollard was right under the bow. The eye on the end of the rope was made up from a beautifully tied bowline and the other 50/60 fathoms of rope were nowhere to be seen having been skillfully removed in the dark and whisked away out of the port area well before the accommodation ladder was down. I'm pleased that I wasn't the one who had to explain that little faux pas away but we did get a laugh out of it.

[Tony Taylor]

We once called in at Las Palmas for bunkers and it was very late evening. The lighting at the bunker berth was virtually non existent and as we approached the small boat appeared under the bow to run the first line ashore. The headline was duly lowered into the boat which chugged off into the darkness with much shouting of "lower away, lower away" so the Mate kept the line running until a voice yelled out "ok heave away or something like that" so we heaved on the rope and the windlass stopped almost immediately as the shore bollard was right under the bow. The eye on the end of the rope was made up from a beautifully tied bowline and the other 50/60 fathoms of rope were nowhere to be seen having been skillfully removed in the dark and whisked away out of the port area well before the accommodation ladder was down. I'm pleased that I wasn't the one who had to explain that little faux pas away but we did get a laugh out of it.

Similar experience in Cartagena Columbia, we were advised that mooring rope theft was a problem at that port so the mate organised a watch on all the mooring ropes; we sailed away with all mooring ropes accounted for, happy days.
First lifeboat drill after sailing it was discovered that all the lifeboat painters had vanished.