The Vindi Bridge

[j.sabourn]

A friend of mine did 4 years national service in a Scottish Regiment. Being a fisherman he did not take kindly to discipline so part of that 4 years were in military gaols . So he was 2 years longer than normal in his khaki suit. JS

[cappy]

jeez youll be showing us snowflakes your war wound next ........now left turn feck off and join the royal skinback fusiliers ......you no doubt will get a medal for fastening your button....R683532 ps

[j.sabourn]

Think zips were in fashion then Cappy. JS

[Austin Carl Largan]

I worked with an officers steward on the Cunard cargo ships who took 12 years to get through National Service. He was the toughest nut I have ever come across and believe me, I have met a few hard ones in my time. He was from Glasgow and went straight from an orphanage into the army. Reading all the tales of woe and hardship from those who passed through the Vindi made me smile when I recall the tales this particular man told me about his orphanage upbringing in Glasgow.
He was well past middle age, aggressive and in a word, dangerous. I was just a young sprog but for some unknown reason he took a liking to me and he shared a lot of his hardship stories with me when we slurped the odd beer or two together. I was the only person on the ship to whom he was civil, everyone else, and in particular the officers, were regarded with contemptuous disdain. He had a gruesome and vicious story attached to each scar but the one which horrified me the most was his explanation of the scars he had in his scalp. He explained that when he was in the army there were two particular regiments which the powers that be tried their best to keep apart because whenever they met it was immediate and murderous warfare. I may be wrong about this but the Black Watch and the Cameronians spring to mind but don't hold me to it, I could be mistaken, either way, the two regiments had hated each other for hundreds of years. Unfortunately, a group from each regiment bumped into each other one time when they were out on a drunken binge and of course it was immediate battle. In explaining his head scars, he told me that he was hit over the head with a whiskey bottle, which broke and knocked him to the ground. He then went on to explain that he clawed himself upright again by using his opponents clothes but all the while he was doing this, his attacker was pounding down upon his skull with the jagged end of the bottle. Sitting back in awe, listening to this I asked him what he did when he was upright. He said that he wrenched the bottle out of his opponents hand and gouged his eye out with it. Later on after the subsequent arrest and trip to the emergency room, neither man would file any charges against the other nor give any explanation other than the fact that they had both slipped while going own some stairs. Unbelievably enough, he stated that as neither man had ratted out the other, they both staggered off the best of pals, one minus an eye and the other wrapped up like Christopher Lee in the "Mummy".
When I asked him why it took him so long to get out of the army he told me that he had bayoneted his sergeant in the back. When I asked him why he did that he replied...." I did na' like him........I did na' like him at all) Wry smile after saying that. We had to put him ashore in New York after an incident in the saloon whereby he attacked the third mate when said foolish young man complained that his fork was dirty. This complaint being made to someone who was quite obviously staggering drunk, belligerent and openly aggressive.
Just a closing word about our run here. Light ship Liverpool to Glasgow, Full cargo of whiskey, end to end, every hatch full, to New York. This was pre container days and the hatches were quite openly broached by just about everyone who had anything to do with it.....The ship was awash with whiskey.

Austin

[cappy]

its a seamans unwritten right to moan .......if a young man has no warmth or decent food in winter he has the right to moan .....not whinge .....i was on tramp ships out the tyne and mersey ......there was not i think one vessel where there was a proper hard case making his mark .....sometimes as said already in different posts ...families of three or four at a time ...even fighting amongst themselves.....it was part of life on these vessels ...no law was offered until someone was shot knifed or cleavered ..once this hard man was recognised some peace reigned.....i have seen two trouble causers dumped ashore in foriegn climes along with there hand baggage one bully whinging in auckland ....to late....these vessels were manned in the 50s and 60s by seamen who had seen the savagery of the loss the MN SUFFERED.....AND BEEN PART OF IT .....one thing in the MN i never marched or called anyone sir ever in my life but there were men i met who i deemed i would have given that accolade to on this site ....im sure the army was not for some like he who guarded the canal lake....but ihave had family who loved it ...any way to each his own finished on this now R638532.......cappy

[cappy]

a photo to keep in the family marian......different times....regards cappy

[happy daze john in oz]

But then Cappy there was a time just after the war when we could have moaned but did not.
When food was still on ration, coal was in short supply and the winter cold.
Yes we could have moaned but were thankful for what we had, no fancy food then, bread and milk for breakfast and eat what was there.
But we survived and became good citizens for all of that.

[Austin Carl Largan]

As an addendum to my officers steward story, this man spent a lot of his military nick time over in Egypt (I think he said Egypt, anyway it was somewhere hot, with sand and flies.) I have to back track a little here because I forgot to mention that he was missing a couple of fingers and when I asked him about them, I got his military nick story. He was in a rock quarry and the inmates busted up large rocks into smaller ones and loaded them up onto mine carts which, when full, were pushed manually up the side of the quarry on a rail track. The only break the inmates got from their labours were that they were allowed to ride the cart back down to the bottom of the quarry. But, of course there was still the "this regiment hating the other regiment" issue to be dealt with and some of the inmates, it had to be said, would never see the outside of a prison nick until they died, there were some very, serious criminals in there. So, amongst the hard liners, killing someone was the only real amusement and on the occasion that my friend lost his fingers someone had managed to get a saw of some type and had sawed almost entirely through the lever which was used as a brake on the mine cart. So, fully loaded with prisoners riding back down the brake was applied to slow down the bogie.....it snapped, the bogie then hurtled towards a sharp curve half way down and my friend, seeing what was going to happen, vaulted over the side, the bogie went on to jump the rails and went over the side of the quarry killing two or three and seriously injuring the rest. A good day all round for the thrill seekers. And that was where his fingers went, cut off by one of the wheels as he jumped out.

Austin

[Denis O'Shea]

Marian #36, your link would not open for me think your father must have been in the canal zone at the same time as myself June 53 to Jan 55 and when I left I thought that never want to see this place again, but then I joined the MN and went through the canal many times seeing the spot where I spent all that time at the bottom end of the little bitter lake at Kabret point. Rgds Den

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Hi Austin.
That brought back memories of my childhood. We used to go up to the coal tips to scratch around for coal, there was a small railway for the bogies, we would struggle to lift a set of wheels onto the track and let them go, they probably reached the speed of sound, as the humming noise got louder as they picked up speed, we were hoping it would warn anyone that something was coming, thankfully no one was ever hurt.
Des