Page 3 of 3 FirstFirst 1 2 3
Results 21 to 30 of 30

Thread: Mersey memories.

  1. #21
    Join Date
    Jun 2015
    Location
    Essex
    Posts
    2,196
    Thanks (Given)
    1849
    Thanks (Received)
    2419
    Likes (Given)
    7367
    Likes (Received)
    9363

    Default Re: Mersey memories.

    #17, I think they are bringing them back in a different form now, I don't know what went wrong but it was a terrible accident.
    In the 1920's my dad was on a milk round and he had a three wheeled hand cart with milk churns on top, there was a hill with tram lines and a junction at the bottom of the hill where the tram line turned left and also carried straight on, the front
    wheel got caught in the tram lines and the cart would only go straight on when he needed to go left, it probably happened a lot, but you don't hear about these things. cheers J

  2. #22
    Join Date
    Jun 2008
    Location
    Sunbury Victoria Australia
    Posts
    24,991
    Thanks (Given)
    8300
    Thanks (Received)
    10124
    Likes (Given)
    106523
    Likes (Received)
    45652

    Default Re: Mersey memories.

    Quote Originally Posted by Brian Charles Williams View Post
    I`m guessing they are more `light rail` not trams as we knew them. Our trams here were purchased from Spain ! Brian W.

    Correct mate, they are not trams but light rail with two or more carriages, very common here in Melbourne.
    Happy daze John in Oz.

    Life is too short to blend in.

    John Strange R737787
    World Traveller

  3. Likes Dennis McGuckin, N/A liked this post
  4. #23
    Join Date
    Jun 2008
    Location
    Cooma NSW
    Posts
    8,967
    Thanks (Given)
    10195
    Thanks (Received)
    5219
    Likes (Given)
    44136
    Likes (Received)
    26879

    Default Re: Mersey memories.

    Hi All.
    I had the privilege to have for the last ten years of my working life worked on the Sydney ferry South Steyne
    built in Leith in 1932, she was still as good as the day she was launched, the biggest working steam Ferry in the world. The only reason at 70 that I finished on her was we went over to NZ for five years, otherwise I might have still been there, one of the engineers who used to travel up from Melbourne to work on her for a weeks holiday was in his 80s. Great British engineering, with her hull still as sound as. I used to turn the engines over with an electric motor once a week to keep the oil through the pistons.
    Cheers Des

  5. #24
    Join Date
    Jun 2008
    Location
    Sunbury Victoria Australia
    Posts
    24,991
    Thanks (Given)
    8300
    Thanks (Received)
    10124
    Likes (Given)
    106523
    Likes (Received)
    45652

    Default Re: Mersey memories.

    Quote Originally Posted by Des Taff Jenkins View Post
    Hi All.
    I had the privilege to have for the last ten years of my working life worked on the Sydney ferry South Steyne
    built in Leith in 1932, she was still as good as the day she was launched, the biggest working steam Ferry in the world. The only reason at 70 that I finished on her was we went over to NZ for five years, otherwise I might have still been there, one of the engineers who used to travel up from Melbourne to work on her for a weeks holiday was in his 80s. Great British engineering, with her hull still as sound as. I used to turn the engines over with an electric motor once a week to keep the oil through the pistons.
    Cheers Des

    Those ferries out of Circular quay sure do a lot of time, great that they keep going so well.
    Had an uncle who was bosun on the Woolwich ferry in London for about 30 years.
    Happy daze John in Oz.

    Life is too short to blend in.

    John Strange R737787
    World Traveller

  6. Likes Dennis McGuckin, N/A liked this post
  7. #25
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Location
    wolverhampton
    Posts
    218
    Thanks (Given)
    15
    Thanks (Received)
    51
    Likes (Given)
    119
    Likes (Received)
    465

    Default Re: Mersey memories.

    Wonderful article sums up our salad days, I was on most of the ships you mentioned in the nineteen fifties
    and most of the bars, very very nostalgic
    thank you.

  8. #26
    Join Date
    Oct 2016
    Location
    Adelaide
    Posts
    255
    Thanks (Given)
    8
    Thanks (Received)
    119
    Likes (Given)
    12
    Likes (Received)
    653

    Default Re: Mersey memories.

    I must agree with your thoughts re, the Sydney Harbour ferries .Was using them a lot just before Christmas while visiting a friend in Balmaine East. I too thought how well they have survived all these years .When jumping on and off them around the harbour it brought back very fond memories of those far off days when we would tie up at Piermont and would sometimes go across to Luna Park. Have to say the `park` still looks as if it`s still in the 50s ! Regards Brian W.

  9. #27
    Join Date
    Jun 2008
    Location
    Sunbury Victoria Australia
    Posts
    24,991
    Thanks (Given)
    8300
    Thanks (Received)
    10124
    Likes (Given)
    106523
    Likes (Received)
    45652

    Default Re: Mersey memories.

    Yes Brian, the Sydney harbor ferries are something very special and it would be hard to imagine the harbor without them.

    Transport of that nature can be found in a number of countries, Hong Kong and London/Woolwhich are a good example. But now here in Melbourne some of the smarter business men are beginning to operate some ferries across and around the bay.

    An old system maybe but one that still works very well.
    Happy daze John in Oz.

    Life is too short to blend in.

    John Strange R737787
    World Traveller

  10. Likes Ivan Cloherty, N/A liked this post
  11. #28
    Join Date
    Nov 2008
    Location
    Bolton UK
    Posts
    15,004
    Thanks (Given)
    20832
    Thanks (Received)
    11089
    Likes (Given)
    30414
    Likes (Received)
    37116

    Default Re: Mersey memories.

    Here is me and Vernon on Circular Quay last February, and Veron enjoying a beautiful Lunch on one of the Ferries.
    Sorry about the black eye Vern , I had a spot on my camera, also a view of the old cargo piers, now apartments, with the "old" Rocks behind. What a change from the 50s.
    Cheers
    Brian
    Attached Images Attached Images
    Last edited by Captain Kong; 14th January 2017 at 10:09 AM.

  12. Likes N/A, Bill Cameron, Des Taff Jenkins liked this post
  13. #29
    Join Date
    Sep 2017
    Location
    Northumberland
    Posts
    26
    Thanks (Given)
    7
    Thanks (Received)
    27
    Likes (Given)
    14
    Likes (Received)
    73

    Default Re: Mersey memories.

    Met my 'Flying Angel' at Kingston House (Mersey Mission to Seamen) and married at St.Nick's. Regularly outward bound from the Mersey with Elder Dempster - then Blue Funnel. May have sailed many seas and visited more ports, but the 'pull' of the Mersey is still there for both of us when we try to get to Liverpool when we can. Just to look at the river.

  14. #30
    Join Date
    Feb 2015
    Location
    Florida
    Posts
    11
    Thanks (Given)
    0
    Thanks (Received)
    7
    Likes (Given)
    0
    Likes (Received)
    28

    Default Re: Mersey memories.

    Quote Originally Posted by Captain Kong View Post
    I have just found this in a box in my garage, from a Liverpool Newspaper, it is what I wrote to give a speech at St Nicks Church in Liverpool on MN DAY a few years ago
    .
    .

    MERSEY MEMORIES.
    What a wonderful River the Mersey is, a conveyor to the seas and oceans of the world.
    As a first trip Deck Boy, the Mersey took me out to sail amongst the Flying Fish, the Dolphins,
    Whales and the odd Sea serpent.
    Let us not forget those brave men and women who sailed down the Mersey into U-Boat alley
    in WW2, losing 40,000 Seafarers, some leaving their bones on the bottom of the ocean,
    others buried in some far off land.
    Many sailed down the Mersey and jumped ship to become Waiters in New York, Lumberjacks in Canada,
    Wharfies in Australia and Sheepherders in New Zealand.
    From the River Mersey we sailed to those other great rivers, the St. Lawrence, the Hudson, the
    Mississippi, the Amazon, Congo, Yangtze, Hooghly and Shatt Creek.
    Sailing down the Mersey on an old Cunard Liner, the FRANCONIA or BRITANNIC, gave me a chance to
    meet many Celebs. Including Bob Hope and Burt Lancaster. The Mersey took me out to Jamaica on a
    Fyffes banana boat and a meeting with Errol Flynn where we got drunk together on his yacht ZACCA.
    In 1959 I met Fidel Castro and when I asked him to buy me a drink he told me to “Vamoose” or something like that.
    We sailed down the Mersey on the big white Empresses to Montreal and drank in the House of Scouse
    and saw Joe Finnegan win the singing contest on the Bulova Watch Radio Show,
    On the EMPRESS of FRANCE we hit the Ice Berg and lost 40 feet of bilge keel.
    The Mersey took us out to go on the worlds biggest pub crawl. From Joe Beefs in Montreal, the Diner in New York,
    the Scandi Bar in Valparaiso, to the First and Last in Punta Arenas in in the Magellen Straits,May Sullivans in
    Buenos Aires, Tombo Marys in Lagos, Mary Bashems in Sydney and Ma Gleasons in Auckland.
    It was the Mersey that took us out to see all our girl friends around the world. To Rosita, Paquita and Maria in
    South America., to my little Wahine under the swaying palms in Tahiti, to Mimi in Hong Kong, Dedeh in Java,
    to Sheila in Melbourne, to Maggie in New Zealand and so on.
    After 20 years as an Able Seaman it was on the banks of the Mersey on Derby Square where I sat for my Mates
    and Masters Certificates, giving me that wonderful feeling when Navigating a 300,000 ton tanker across the oceans of the world.
    Now that I have retired after 45 years of Seafaring, I stand on the Pier Head on my visits to Liverpool and looking out onto
    the dark waters of the River, I can see the ghosts of the old ships sailing out to a world that no longer exists. The REINA del PACIFICO
    to Valparaiso, the GEORGIC taking £10 Emigrants to Australia, the FRANCONIA and EMPRESS of SCOTLAND to New York and Montreal,
    The Blue Funnel Line off to Java, and China, Elder Dempsters, Harrisons, Ellermans and many others, have all sailed off the face
    of the earth never to return. Then I think of the Mersey, it gave me all this and much more.
    Thank you River Mersey.
    Brian Aspinall . aka Captain Kong.

    "The sea is the strongest mistress ever, and she will never lets you go" so very true 1958 - 1969 active, then shore positions until 2017.

Page 3 of 3 FirstFirst 1 2 3

Tags for this Thread

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •