Your stories

[Jack Taylor]

Hi all,

I apologise for posting this topic here, as I don't have a story to tell. However...

Some of you will already know that I run a website called British Seafarers (British Seafarers). We post news articles daily (with the exception of weekends), but now I would like to venture into something a bit different.

The idea is a weekly "Editor's Choice" article every Friday. In short, this would be any personally written story from the public of their time at sea, both past and present. This can be anything from being humorous (but clean, to satisfy the moaners ), to a sad story, to something emergency related. In short, I'm looking to hear about your memorable/notable experiences, as I believe that many will genuinely take an interest in this.

If anyone would be interested in taking part, you are more than welcome to share these stories below, or to send me a personal message. Whilst I can't promise how soon after your story would be published, it will certainly go live a few weeks later .

Many thanks for your interest,

Kind regards,
Jack.

[j.sabourn]

Jack, think quite a few on here will have memories of the Cuban Crisis in the early 60"s and if trading with Cuba at the time may have stories to tell which will of course in a lot of cases differ from the official ones, also the scare that it caused where a lot of us were pushed through at great speed on an Admiralty Course called the Merchant Navy Defence Course. It might make those aware at sea today that hostilitys can flare up at a moments notice, it is a well known fact that the uk has the reputation of being unprepared for any untoward event, the present events going on in the world at the present being a small example of such. Your generation will be the ones who will have to take the bull by the horns or in some cases the politicians by the balls, and make them accountable to the electorate. I don't envy you the future. Cheers John S

[j.sabourn]

My first awareness of the blockade put around Cuba was when as second mate on a ship during the middle watch was sitting on the bridge taffrail, which only firemen and first trippers were supposed to do. It was a beautiful calm clear night and could smell the land which we expected a landfall at first light. I was remarking to myself the lack of shipping in the area. I almost fell off the taffrail the wrong way in which case I would of fallen to the next deck down when this blinding light suddenly appeared on the port side, my immediate reaction was I thought I had missed a surface ship through being too relaxed. However it was a US submarine surfacing about a couple of hundred feet away. Asked the usual what ship and where bound then disappeared again. He must have been following us for days so was probably aware of our name and destination which was Santiago de Cuba later in the day. From there we went to Cienfegous another old favourite port of mine, ashore there in the town square as was pointed out to me by the locals were all the pockmarked walls showing where the bullets had chipped away the masonry after the firing squads had completed their duties on some of the local populance. Don't know if it was that trip or the following one, when ashore sampling the local delights was approached by two well dressed Cubans who wanted passage out and offered me 500 dollars to get them into a ships lifeboat and secure the cover when in, all I had to do then was loosen the cover on arrival Panama and they would disappear. Thinking they could of been secret police I refused. However arriving Japan the crowd had a postcard from these same two Cubans thanking them for their assistance. Knew who it was that helped them so managed to squeeze a couple of bottles of Nissan beer out of them, they refused however to go to the expense of a Japanese hotel. I must say however on all the tv pictures shown at the time of American warships I never saw such, so must have been library pictures pulled out of the archives for the occasion, the same as most film footage one sees is nearly always old stuff used without ceremony such as telling the viewers it is such. Most of us have had many incidents in port and at sea, some are printable and some not so printable, but as one gets older most inhibitions about such don't mean much anymore. Best of luck with your present undertaking. JS

[happy daze john in oz]

We were on our ay to Cape Town when a first class passenger at dinner asked the officer at his table why the ship had changed course The officer replied that this was not the case.
Next evening the passenger told the officer we are back on course.
When asked why he thought this he commented that the sun had come up ad gone down in a different direction.

It was only later we found out about Cuba.

The ship had recievied orders to go to the nearest port, drop the passengers and be prepared to return and act as a troop carrier.
Then the order cameo say all was now well.

[j.sabourn]

John reminds me of during the Falklands war there was talk about sending us after the fleet, this was changed in Gibralter and I can honestly say I was pleased at that. The reasons were practical and correct for not going. After the war was over there were things to recover off some of the sunken shipping, and the navy had to hire I think it was the Stena Seaspread, maybe Hugh will know. The amount of money that short fray cost in the hiring of foreign shipping alone I think would be disasterous to let people know, unless some costing was done that I wasn't aware of. An Engineer friend of mine on I think a British tanker was in Capetown at the time and the companies rep was flown out to speak to crew, and were told if they didn't volunteer to go they were first on the Redundancy list. At that time the British MN was well on its way out. Nobody seems to learn from History, its just the same as fashion it all comes around again. Cheers JS

[Keith Tindell]

I joined the Durham Trader in the middle of October 1962, she was discharging sugar at the Tate and Lyle berth on the Thames, having just come from Cuba. Once discharged, we went over to Rotterdam for the shore guys to fit new shifting boards, a bit of a palaver in those days, and we were told Cuba for sugar, back to London , six weeks. As we neared the Cuban coast, the political situation was red hot, and we were being buzzed by Yankee war planes, flying low over us, and checking us out. The company decided that things were getting too hot, and we were told to steam South until they found another cargo for us. The cargo they found was Grain, to be able to use the shifting boards, proceed to Durban, and on to Japan. We then went from Japan to Oz for more grain, etc etc, and eventually paid off in Newcasle uk some 10 months later. But that was the excitement of being in the MN in those days, the whole world was your workplace. All in all a lovely life, KT

[j.sabourn]

And to cap it all off Keith you could of had the added delight of bumping into Cappy as he came away from his hearing at the federation in Newcastle. Think he is away hiding somewhere as hasn't been on the air for a while. Hope everything ok with him . JS

[cappy]

And to cap it all off Keith you could of had the added delight of bumping into Cappy as he came away from his hearing at the federation in Newcastle. Think he is away hiding somewhere as hasn't been on the air for a while. Hope everything ok with him . JS

fine js just keep looking in busy with trotting about at the mo ...and making the most of the weather......days here and there ......and been helping with grandkids through the summer hols.....hope all well with you ......will be back as the days draw in ...off to ardrossan on sunday .......catch up with you later regards cappy

[Jim Brady]

I was in Havana on the Cotopaxi, a couple of hours after we left the Battle of the Bay of Pigs kicked off.Whilst crossing the Western Ocean we often seen Russian ships with their what we were told missiles on deck.One trip I think it was aboard the Carinthia a message was received that a crew member had been injured down the engine room on one of these Russian ships.We put a lifeboat down with the ships surgeon aboard,the Russian ship stood well off us so the lifeboat had quite a way to go.I was up on deck watching, the waves were quite high,one minute the lifeboat was on top of a mountain the next minute it disappeared.The surgeon went aboard and the crew member was in such a bad way that he said the only way he could treat him was to bring him back to our ship,this was refused of course.Did he live or did he die we will never know but there was no way the Russian captain or the commissar where going to let him off that ship tobe treated.
Regards.
Jim.B.

[Jack Taylor]

Hi all,

Thanks for your input so far. I will go down the road of putting together an article with various quotations from you all about the Cuban crisis .

Any more stories on different occasions are greatly appreciated, as I would like to try and deliver a different story each week.

Many thanks,

Kind regards,
Jack.