Dunkirk

[happy daze john in oz]

Today I recieved a Christmas Card from a very good old friend of mine in UK. We grew up together, went to the same school and it was his influence in part that first got me to think about the Merchant Navy.
His brother has designed a web page for naval history including that of their father. I found it very interesting so if anyone has an interest in such matters it can be found at.

L.E. Levett
Sub heading cjx 131840 (1912-1989)

[Doc Vernon]

Good site for those interseted John.just to assist others i have given the Actual Link!
Thanks
Cheers

https://sites.google.com/site/lesele...131840/deippe/

The following Links are just more of interest!
Cheers
Service Record: L.E.LEVETT - World Naval Ships Forums

[Captain Kong]

I SPENT A CHRISTMAS IN DUNKIRK 1956
.
We went ashore in Dunkirk, two days before Christmas, it was freezing and deep in snow. We were drinking in Yvette’s bar and got friends with a couple of American seamen, one called Frisco who was a little guy and the other was a big fat slob called Boston.
They were throwing their money around like confetti and as long as they kept on paying Tom and I kept on drinking, a very good arrangement we thought.
We were drinking and dancing with Yvette’s` girls on Xmas Eve and Yvette said that if we brought a couple of turkeys on Xmas Day when the bar was closed we would have a big party there with free booze.
We said we would bring Frisco and Boston, as they were the biggest turkeys that we knew.
Later on as we were all getting bevied, Frisco was shouting that he wanted to go to midnight mass at Dunkirk Cathedral.
So we carried on drinking and at 4 am on Christmas Day we all decided to go to midnight mass. Frisco got a very large sombrero off the wall in the bar, put it on his head and staggered out into the snow, he looked like a drunken mushroom. It was freezing and snowing and the four of us were staggering up the road and we had to call in a couple of bars to warm up and then we came to the Louis XIV Club and Boston went in and the doorman threw him out, he went in again shouting, "I am a United States Citizen ya gotta let me in, these other bums are Limies keep `em out". The doorman threw him out again.
Boston screamed "I could have got in there but for you Limy bums" so with that I thumped him and we were rolling about in the snow and I was sat on his chest battering him when he shouted " I surrender". I let him get up and said " Us Limy bums don’t like being insulted, don’t do it again". We staggered on through the snow towards the cathedral.
We got there for midnight mass at six a.m. just as the service was about to start.
At the entrance was a font with the holy water in and another font with money in and Frisco grabbed a handful of money and blessed himself with it and Tom twisted his arm and made him put it back.
We sat at the back of the cathedral, I whispered to Frisco, " Take that stupid sombrero off your head" " Hell no," he shouted, " Some one might steal it".
The Bishop was speaking in Latin through a microphone. Frisco stood up and started walking down the aisle to the front, still wearing the big sombrero, " Hey shout up will ya, we can’t hear what you’re talking about at the back”.
With that I said `come on Tom let’s get out of here`.
We just got outside when we were followed by Frisco and Boston being thrown out by half a dozen Frenchmen. Frisco was shouting, " I’ve been thrown out of better places than this."
We staggered on through the snow to the dock.
We arrived at the American ship, the `HOWARD T ANDREWS` a Liberty ship and Frisco invited us on board for breakfast. In the mess room Boston introduced us to the American sailors as two Limy bums that they had found, I was going to thump him again when I could smell the breakfast in the galley.
A big black mess man towered over me, " Wadda ya want, eggs, two, four, six? easy over, sunnyside up or what. ham ?, two, four, six, or what.?
" Err six of everything please " Tom and I said.
We got six eggs, six huge slices of ham with fries, tomatoes beans and toast. the biggest breakfast I had ever seen.
After breakfast Tom and I left and said we would see them in Yvette’s bar later in the day with our turkeys.
We got aboard the Dunedin Star and the sailors were just getting their breakfast of one egg and one thin slice of bacon, we gave ours to the lads.
The Galley boy came into the mess room so Tom said to him “ Get us a couple of Turkeys this afternoon" the Boy replied there was only one turkey onboard and that was for the Officers Xmas dinner.
" What no turkey for the sailors?" so he said there is a chicken for the sailors. " It must be a bloody big chicken to feed all the sailors,” I said. " Get us that one then "
" I can’t " said the Galley boy. Tom said "Just leave it by the port in the galley and leave the rest to us. "
We got our heads down until 1pm and got ready to go ashore, we walked past the galley port and there was a small chicken on a plate. I leaned through and passed the chicken to Tom who wrapped it in a paper and we ran down the gangway and up the road to Yvette’s bar.
We were sat there with a drink when Boston and Frisco came in with two large cooked turkeys. Boston sat down with us and said " Where’s ya turkeys Limies"? I pointed to the newspaper with the chicken in. " Well goddamn, a few scraps for the dog " and then he threw it on the floor and Yvette’s Alsatian dog dived on it and scoffed the lot.
I jumped up and said " You fat Yankee ba*tard" and was going to thump him again when Yvette jumped in between. It’s OK there is plenty of turkey for us all and the drinks are on the house, and all the girls are yours for free.
Well we had a great party with the girls all night and two days later we got back to the ship.
The Captain had Tom and I on the bridge to be logged for being adrift for two days. We were fined two days pay and forfeit two days pay, then we were questioned about a missing chicken, we said we had never tasted chicken for months, we hadn’t, but Yvette’s dog had.
The bastards, the ship had 15,000 tons of meat from Australia on board and we were starving. they could have bought dozens of chickens with the four days wages each they had taken off us.
bRIAN.

[Bill Bland]

Remember the old saying Brian "Star on the funnel starvation in the mess" Adelaide Star 1958 only time had black fish and chips.

[Captain Kong]

Hi William, I was on the Adelaide Star in 1957, the year before you,
The full story of the Voyage is on Page 26 , Swinging the Lamp, Seafaring Stories thread, next to last page, hope you read it, bring back the memories.
Cheers
Brian.

[Dennis McGuckin]

I was on a couple of Star boats in the 50-60ies.
They were good feeders.
On the Tasmania Star the crew galley aft had a superb chef.
In fact us in the officers/passengers galley used to go aft for our own meals.
Tab nabs were first class as well[cough cough]
Den.