My Sea Time and Ports

[j.sabourn]

#13. Have often thought Vernon that I should get off my backside and make some effort to put my own voyages in chronicle order from 1953 to 1991 , after that I can normally remember . Places I visited can remember but ship and time of event are hard to trace from a discharge book and memory gets worse as get older. Also might add laziness. Some are not even in the Discharge book. The first and the last is about my limit , the others are a blur in between. It can’t have been the booze as a lot were dry ships. Cheers JS.

[Doc Vernon]

Hi JS
Well that would certainly keep you busy, almost 40 Years of Ports and Booze and Girls LOL.
So just i wonder how you would be able to get all that info! As Records would be very hard come by seeing that yo served well beyond that 1972 mark!

But it would be a good challenge to try anyway!
Cheers

[j.sabourn]

Reading some of these reminiscences that old saying “ worse things happen at sea “, should be rewritten as “ worse things happen at sea and often in port “ . Cheers JS

[Doc Vernon]

Well in my case JS it was just that!
worse things happened at sea and more often in port for me anyway! LOL
cHEERS

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Hi John.
I can remember most of the ports I visited during my first two years at sea as it was on the one ship, and know the ports visited when I was on the Wave Baron from the RFA site, some of the others are easy like a ship called the Basford where i went over the side, and the fact that we only went to St Johns NB and back, and also the Baron Elibank the other St Johns and back. The two ships that are hard are the Baron Kilmarnock a tanker on it for nine months, and the British Builder for twelve.
Des

[j.sabourn]

#18 My first 4 years was on 2 ships only but can only remember the first 11 months of the sequence of ports , starting from Avonmouth, Belfast , Cienfuegos (Cuba) ,Panama, Kawasaki ( Japan), Cairns, Purfleet , Cardiff, Buenos Aires , Villa Constution , Rosario, Durban, Singapore , Kobe, Osaka, Cairns , Mackay, Townsville .
After that I can’t place the sequence of ports . Until after arrival for permanent residency in W.A. In 1991 .Maybe the world started spinning faster and made me dizzy as well as the start of climate change. The first 4 years received no discharges in book , apart from the first one which received in Purfleet which was put in by mistake. That was as far as I can remember until I reached the old age of 17 , then the forgetfulness started , maybe it was the guilty conscience of dastardly deeds or needs as the case may of been ? Cheers JS.....

[happy daze john in oz]

Yes I can remember many things that happened at sea, the good the bad and the ugly.

But when kit comes to ports it is the bad things that come to mind, not too many good stories there.

[Ivan Cloherty]

Just start with one ship John, doesn't matter which one, as with word you can put them in chronological order later if you wish. I started off intending two or three pages, end up with 230 pages and a 120,000 words. Just the facts warts and all, no need to embelish anything as we seamen led a life few would believe, good and bad. I know there are certain times in the North Sea you will want to leave out and gloss over, but the rest is there for telling. Once you've started it becomes addictive, go for it, our life efforts are soon enough forgotten, so get them down on paper.

[j.sabourn]

The ships I have listed on here are almost in order with the exception of at least 3 which can’t remember their names . There is I believe over 80 , most of them were 6 week jobs. The only reason I can remember most was that I made a note in my discharge book if I remembered , was only to provide proof, For when they brought out the rule of seatime for the upgrading of knowledge , if you didn’t have at least think it was 2 years seatime in every 5 years. That was only when I remembered to do it. All these stupid rules seem like to show their head when Britain went into Europe , when Britain’s standing in the world of shipping was at its peak . Today is probably no higher standing than a Panamanian cert. Cheers JS

[j.sabourn]

My first trip to sea I went with all the clothes stipulated which was a struggle for my parents in some cases , as was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth.One of the stipulations was 2 white boiler suits , which I sold to the engineers within 2 weeks of joining , they were still in their cellophane or whatever was usd in those days. The other one was X number of under pants , I was two pairs short , and my parents being what they were insisted I went by the book . So I finished up with 2 extra pairs of the old mans. He told me later he had to borrow my mothers , Others told me he used to promenade on the scaffold with no trousers on after Laying a tier of bricks. It used to be a standing joke in later life , when people complain today about being hard up , I often think of him making do with what was at hand, can’t have been a pretty him in a pair of woman’s knickers . The list also included a sea chest and my mother went round all the second hand shops until she found an old cabin trunk, this was soon to be dispensed with , with a guilty conscience I may add and replaced with a home made sea bag. There was no where to stow sea chests on a tramp ship. Whoever made up the list for would be Hornblowers should have had a size 12 seaboot up his rectum. Cheers JS