Originally Posted by
Captain Kong
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
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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.