Durango

[kurutai]

I,m trying to find anyone who remembers the old bosun in the Durango who built ships in bottles.

[Ron Walker]

Hi,
I remember the bosn ,he was from the Isle of Wight.Isailed with him when I was a cadet on the Durango.
If you wanted him to put a ship in a bootle,it had to be full of whiskey first.He aid you had to get something
out before putting anything in.I cant remember his name.

[happy daze john in oz]

I,m trying to find anyone who remembers the old bosun in the Durango who built ships in bottles.

There was silly me thinking they were all built in the shipyards.

[kurutai]

Hello Ron thanks for picking up on that request of mine , his name was Fred Walden great old fella i was in her as an A.b. in 64 if you would like a photo of him i can try to send it to you if i can work how to do it in fact i have one of his ships long story attached to that all the best and thanks again

[Dick Rees]

Hi
I remember him as a grizzled old seadog but a lovely chap. I thought he had a nickname but I cannot remember it. Like Ron, I was a cadet on the Durango from January 1965 and did four trips on her, the last one as the Ruthenic for Shaw Savill. I wanted him to make me a ship in a bottle but as an underage cadet I was not allowed a spirits issue so obtaining the 'price'of a full whisky bottle was a problem for me. The Captain was "Polly" Perkins, his tiger was 'Alice' and 'married' to the Lampy, the officers steward was 'Jane'. My fellow cadet was a short cheeky Liverpudlian simply known as 'Scouse', I forget his name but we got on famously.
Dick Rees

[Tony Wilding]

When working for trinity house a good few crew off the lightships made them when on station, i was taught the secret by a quartermaster on thv ready, came from gt yarmouth, have made them in dimple bottles from miniatures to full size, allso in lightbulbs , have not done one for years, but am sure it would come back one seaman on the lightships was a master at making trawlers in bottles, , i made a model of ss great britain in a bottle, presented it to them years ago dont know if its still there. Tony wilding

[kurutai]

Hi
I remember him as a grizzled old seadog but a lovely chap. I thought he had a nickname but I cannot remember it. Like Ron, I was a cadet on the Durango from January 1965 and did four trips on her, the last one as the Ruthenic for Shaw Savill. I wanted him to make me a ship in a bottle but as an underage cadet I was not allowed a spirits issue so obtaining the 'price'of a full whisky bottle was a problem for me. The Captain was "Polly" Perkins, his tiger was 'Alice' and 'married' to the Lampy, the officers steward was 'Jane'. My fellow cadet was a short cheeky Liverpudlian simply known as 'Scouse', I forget his name but we got on famously.
Dick Rees

Hello Dick , the lampys name was Tony Judd you may or may not know this but Polly Perkins who i also sailed with in the Eden was a prisoner of war, i can see him now i always found him to be a fair old man as far as i know he obtained the name polly because of the amount of parrots the crews used to bring back on ships under his command, in fact we signed off the Eden in Liverpool in august 1963 and as we where up for,d topping derricks he came out on deck shouting out to us "parrot permits , parrot permits thats all iv,e got nothing but parrot permits " most of us on deck had a parrot i can still see him shouting at us and those words are just as clear in my mind to this day , i myself brought a parrot back on that trip and i had him for 43 years it realy broke me up when i lost him a lot of water had passed under the bridge and he had become part of the family and as you say Fred the old bosun was a real character you will never see the likes of him and Polly again thats for sure all the very best .