The Lamp Lighter

[Richard Quartermaine]

The Scouse Chief Cook on the SS Raranga in 1947 where I was galley boy (also coal fired stove) was a wise old diplomat. One day a bunch of sooty stokehold crew arrived at the starboard side galley door to be met by Cookie who sensed their coming and had dipped a big ladle into the big pot of boiling water always on the stove top and held it by his side. As cookie faced them over the high splashboard they aired their grievances; Cookie took it all in and politely responded and off they went aft to their quarters. The tucker obviously improved for there were no more confrontations.
Richard

[Jim Brady]

A delegation went up to the captain after getting no satisfaction from the cook and chf/stwd after complaining about the fish which was a bit high.The captain ordered a knife and fork and sat down with the fish on his table,he had a little nibble at the fish and announced yum yum take it away before I eat the lot,end of argument I'm afraid.
Regards.
Jim.B.

[Captain Kong]

I was on the Corrales, a Fyffes Banana boat 1956
.
After all the stores were taken ashore and sold in Las Palmas,
We had fried bananas, stewed bananas, mashed bananas. roasted bananas, grilled bananas, frappy bananas, Banana soup, we were going bananas.
We couldn`t sleep at night because of hunger pains.
The Captain, `Mighty Joe` Young was a huge man, and when I was on the wheel he would be on the wing of the bridge lifting a 400 pound barbell, `Can you do this ` he would say to me.
`If you gave us some food I could, I am weak with hunger.`
`Don`t be so soft ` he would say.
All we had for evening dinner one night was a thin soup with bananas instead of potatoes, called Irish stew.
I was voted in as the one to go and kick to the Captain, `Mighty` Joe Young.
I went up the boat deck with my plate of "Stew", I knocked on his door and he opened it, towering above me, `What do you want` he said, `The crowd want to complain about the food, it`s diabolical. This is supposed to be Irish stew`. `What`s wrong with that? he said. Me forgetting he was an Irishman said `It`s alright if you`re Irish, but`............. ? .
and with that he smashed me in the face with a big iron fist and I did a somersault down the ladder to the boat deck and ended up under a life boat. My face covered in blood from my nose and lips. I crawled down aft and all hands laughed at the state of me. They had eaten theirs, mine disappeared somewhere over the boat deck. So I went hungry again.
Brian
Now off to sunny Fleetwood for a few days in a Force Ten storm. to see if the house is still standing.