Mersey memories.

[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.

[John Pruden]

calm nights laying in bed I often here the thump of a propeller going out into the channel wondering were that trip will take the ship a lonely sound but my short career at sea was the best time of my life and miss every day as I think all members do.. jp

[Keith Tindell]

I get the same memories from down here John, especially on foggy mornings, I can listen to the fog horns blowing as they come in to the Solent. Once you have been to sea it never leaves you, kt

[John F Collier]

I left the MN 1960 got married in 62 managed to buy our own house in Essex 1968 right on the river Thames, as JP says,
I also used to listen to the throb of the ships engines going past and the ships horn's giving a blast, as like all rivers we have our heavy mist and fog, and in the summer if I was out in the front doing the garden I'd hear the engines and look up to see
one of the oldies going past outward bound, although I was happily married I used to get a real yearning to be on the ships
that I could see. It took me years to get past that feeling as I was constantly being reminded of my past, the old funnels that I knew slowly disappeared, and today it is all large container ships going to and fro Tilbury and of course the cruise liners. JC

[Chris Allman]

The sights and sounds of the Mersey are still there, albeit different looking ships and different looking docks. I don't hear so many sirens now as I used to and New Years Eve is very quiet compared to what it used to be with loads of sirens going off, very few now. I still watch the comings and goings with interest and they bring back the distant memories of the sad leaving and then the great return after a voyage. The sight of the Bar Lightship welcoming you home and of course bidding you farewell, now no more, the Tugs, Lameys, Alexandra, Reas Liverpool Screw Towing bustling around the river and docks, all gone along with the hundreds of different cargo ships and the Empress's and Cunarder's. Then there was the Mersey Ferries, now down to three very sick boats which hardly run at all these days. I certainly feel sad and very nostalgic for the great days of the Mersey and my own very small input into what was a wholly different but very enjoyable seafaring world. I think I sailed in one of the best times and I am so very grateful for that.

[happy daze john in oz]

It never leaves you no matter how long you are away from it the memory is still there.

I spend a lot of time down in Port Melboure just sitting and watching the arrive and sail.

Wondering what it would be like now to be at sea, would I still like it, how would I cope with all the changes?

Yet still the yearning remains.

[Louis the Amigo]

Hi shipmates,The Mersey was one of many rivers we all sailed on back in our time, All rivers are timeless? The British merchant navy like us all, is part of history of a once great seafarering nation. But today millions more tons of cargoe still arrive by sea in the U.K.by seaman from distant lands.

[John Arton]

I to started my life at sea from Liverpool with the BSF organising interviews for me with a number of shipping companies based in Liverpool, Blue Flu, Bookers, P and O and C.P. who gave me a job and 48 hours later I was struggling up the gangway of a tanker moored at Tranmere. 12 hours later I was sailing for exotic foreign ports and the 1st port was a sea buoy off Das Island up the Persian Gulf. Exotic...yeah!
That 1st 11 month trip called once again at Tranmere end ended up drinking in some dives in upper Parliament Street with the Spanish Crew. An evening that put me off drinking Vodka to this day.
It was only when I went to Stolts did the Mersey become a regular call for me from 1991 onwards and it was a shame to see all the docks pretty empty. I can recall as a young child visiting my father on the California Star in Liverpool in the 50's and the docks being crowded with ships, all with the Red Ensign flying.
rgds
JA

[Brian Charles Williams]

In a nut shell John ,your so right the memories never leave you nor that yearning .Do you think when `we had it` we never really appreciated how lucky were experiencing what only a few of us in those days did for a job ?
I was only saying to my wife how the steady throb of a ships engine at sea was a sound that was wonderful & how when you tied up and the engines stopped how that silence was deafening !.............Brian w.

[John F Collier]

I left the MN 1960 got married in 62 managed to buy our own house in Essex 1968 right on the river Thames, as JP says,
I also used to listen to the throb of the ships engines going past and the ships horn's giving a blast, as like all rivers we have our heavy mist and fog, and in the summer if I was out in the front doing the garden I'd hear the engines and look up to see
one of the oldies going past outward bound, although I was happily married I used to get a real yearning to be on the ships
that I could see. It took me years to get past that feeling as I was constantly being reminded of my past, the old funnels that I knew slowly disappeared, and today it is all large container ships going to and fro Tilbury and of course the cruise liners. JC

I forgot to mention the Shell Refinery at Corringham and a little further up river was the liquid Natural Gas storage depot,
apart from the cargo ships going down to London, there was the oil tankers and LNG tankers, one I can remember was the
METHANE PRINCESS and the old passenger ships at Tilbury, I could watch all of these ships from the comfort of my home.
So I really did witness the decline of our merchant fleet over just a few years, so sad to see. cheers JC