This, from a sealed bottle recovered after 28 years floating at sea !

[j.sabourn]

#10. Thought your ears would stand up to the sound of the cash register Cappy. Where you bin collecting your rents I suppose.? Sobered up by now I hope or still on the pick me ups. Bloke across the road from me had his flag up for Australia Day , it blew down and was lying on his lawn , so I phoned him up and told him, he answered and said thanks , it was still lying there the next morning so I got the wife to go and pick it up and put it on their chair on the front verenda, they came home later that day , when he answered the phone he wasn’t even there he was away in his caravan . This modern technology one doesn’t know if your coming or going. An old shipmate of mine and his wife have been over in the eastern states in their caravan for the past 2 years and still can’t get home for the border being closed , he has his house , all wired up and can just look at his phone to show the house and all the rooms are ok. More technology than I could handle . Have you got your house like that ? Cheers JS

[cappy]

#10. Thought your ears would stand up to the sound of the cash register Cappy. Where you bin collecting your rents I suppose.? Sobered up by now I hope or still on the pick me ups. Bloke across the road from me had his flag up for Australia Day , it blew down and was lying on his lawn , so I phoned him up and told him, he answered and said thanks , it was still lying there the next morning so I got the wife to go and pick it up and put it on their chair on the front verenda, they came home later that day , when he answered the phone he wasn’t even there he was away in his caravan . This modern technology one doesn’t know if your coming or going. An old shipmate of mine and his wife have been over in the eastern states in their caravan for the past 2 years and still can’t get home for the border being closed , he has his house , all wired up and can just look at his phone to show the house and all the rooms are ok. More technology than I could handle . Have you got your house like that ? Cheers JS

john i have sent you a happy birthday but it appears to have gone with the wind....as for is my house fitted out like that ......i dont know i am scared to ask her indoors ...the only mod con i know about is my heating which i keep turning down with my phone but she keeps turning it up ...before all this modern stuff ......i could damp the fire down with tatty peelings to save coal .....ps i have hidden her phone .......oh the expense of it all......R683532 PS TELL ME WHEN THE CASE OF YOUR FAVOURITE SCOTCH HAS ARRIVED.......FOR YOUR BIRTHDAY

[j.sabourn]

Can give you the most probable 2 nicknames if already haven’t done so, would be Davy or Locker. JS.

[Ivan Cloherty]

While I have no intention of demeaning the ship's ratings, the poem is very nicely written in a good hand and in such a fashion that would suggest the scribe to be someone with a reasonable education and schooling........most likely an officer.

You would be surprised at the talent at sea among the so called 'lower deck' even in days of yore, as some very well educated people sailed 'before the mast' and the sea was not their intended career, but for various reasons had to escape their domesticity, or had been shanghaied into the service,[couldn't fly home in those days, not even in my days (a year's salary if flying from Japan)] there were artists, poets, writers, scrimshaw experts etc. Even in my days (50/60's etc) we had musicians, artists, writers, photographers etc from all ranks on board, my own peculiar habit was colouring black and white photos for various crew members of all ranks, as colour photography was in its infancy as far as the man in the street was concerned. One of my non volunteer 'Off duty' duties was librarian and on long trips encouraging people of all ages from all ranks to become interested in literature and it was nice to see the avid non-readers become avid readers with a yearning to learn more on a particular subject as varied as flower painting to geology. So your lovely poet could have been from one of the many disciplines on board.

[Harry Nicholson]

Well said, Ivan. 1958, our carpenter on Mawana, a Liverpool chap, was a poet and folk singer. A well-built fellow of much talent and humour. He had a tiny cabin. A Brocklebank super, who inspected us prior to maiden voyage, asked chippy: 'How do you like your cabin?' Chips replied: It will have to do, but if it's ever painted, I'll not get in.'
He was the best shipmate you could wish for.

[happy daze john in oz]

Many crew had all manner of skills.
One guy cut hair, not to style, just cut it. But if you are desperate I guess it is no worries.

One engineer used to make grog from Pineapple skins, stunk the boat deck out to such an extent the Chief officer had to have a word with him, might have been three, 'get rid of it'
I had the job of disposing of it, dark night and over the wall it went.

The the barman in the Pig, he had a skill, could mix water wit the beer and tell us it was just a lighter brew.

A second chef in first class galley could hide smoked fish behind the panels in the cool room, then take them ashore in Durban and sell them to the local publican, a Scotsman who liked smoked fish.

Yes so many skills then, miss them now.

[Kim Bicknell]

You would be surprised at the talent at sea among the so called 'lower deck' even in days of yore,

Hi Ivan.
No, I wouldn't be surprised at all. Like you, I'm at an age which has been sufficiently long enough to have worked in a few professions and on many different vessels alongside various ages, ethnicity and nationalities of Deck boys, GP's, IR's, Ordinary Seamen, Greasers, Able Bodied Seamen, and Bosuns during my own time in the Merchant Navy, which was as no more than A.B. and Bosun.
I fail to see how my assumption that the likelihood of the poem having been written by an officer is probable, has seen you draw an inference that I'm of the belief that 'lower deck' crew are without
literacy, skills, education, talent, aptitude, qualities and ability outside of seafaring. All that you have said in your #16 is true, apart from me being surprised. Not much surprises me.

[Ivan Cloherty]

. All that you have said in your #16 is true, apart from me being surprised. Not much surprises me.

Sorry, seems I have misinterpreted the words 'most likely an officer'

[Dennis McGuckin]

Many crew had all manner of skills.
One guy cut hair, not to style, just cut it. But if you are desperate I guess it is no worries.

One engineer used to make grog from Pineapple skins, stunk the boat deck out to such an extent the Chief officer had to have a word with him, might have been three, 'get rid of it'
I had the job of disposing of it, dark night and over the wall it went.

The the barman in the Pig, he had a skill, could mix water wit the beer and tell us it was just a lighter brew.

A second chef in first class galley could hide smoked fish behind the panels in the cool room, then take them ashore in Durban and sell them to the local publican, a Scotsman who liked smoked fish.

Yes so many skills then, miss them now.

Mine was turning rum into rum extract.
Or was it the other way round?

[happy daze john in oz]

No Den, you were making Ice Hockey pucks and calling them Tab Nabs.