Having a rummage

[Lewis McColl]

A friend of mine died of Cancer last month and when we were over in the UK we took his wife Bridget out for dinner. She asked me if I had any old photos of us all from when we were all younger. Anyway thankfully I have found a few and thanks to modern technology I have scanned them and she now has them.
Why is it though that when you start looking at old photos you are still there over an hour later.
Here is a few from a about 1986 when I was on board a Danish owned EAC company vessel. This was a first for me as well as we took her new away from the builders Mitsui shipyard in Japan. I was supposed to do 6 months on her but ended up doing 14 months. It was the first time I was ever paid overtime and we went on overtime after doing a 40 hour week. Made an absolute fortune. The company had made a cockup in the contract over the overtime rates of pay but accepted it was there mistake and it was very much in our favour. The manning was top 4 Danish and junior ranks British with Korean Crew (nasty little barstewards) kicked them off after one tried to stab the mate and put Filipinos on.
Anyway as said the money was amazing as 3rd eng I cleared £45,000 in 1986!!!that was some money, okay that included my leave pay. I saved like there was no tomorrow. When I paid off I went straight into the Halifax building society and paid off my mortgage which still had 18 years to run. So happy to be mortgage free at the age of 36.
Anyway can anyone put a name to a few of these chaps one is a scouser Jim ? but for the life of me cannot remember his second name best sense of humour I have ever sailed with, Jim was the Cook /Chief Steward. The other chap I believe was being looked for by the police, we used to call him Lucky something or other.20180425_100047.jpg20180425_103202[1].jpg20180425_103327[1].jpg The one with the girl is my wife. I had to fly her home from Vancouver a week after this was taken as we found out she was expecting. I was taking no chances as she had miscarried our first baby 4 months into her pregnancy the year before. Thankfully all went well and we are grandparents from her baby bump from 30+years ago. Hand on heart if I ever think back about the best trip I ever did it has to be my time on the FP Clipper, great run great ship and a great crowd. West coast of the states and Canada back to Europe and always 4 days in Liverpool. Being local the Chief would tell me to disappear home and give me a ring when we were sailing.

[John Arton]

Nice pics Lewis, used to see those Clipper vessels in B.C. in the early 80's and also later on in Antwerp, always smart looking vessels but what the heck is going on with all those mustaches, were you all auditioning for a part in the Three Amigos? LOL.
Rgds.
J.A.

[Lewis McColl]

haha John think it was a fashion faze back then. My wife said I was starting to look like a tortoise cat, the mustache what was left of a beard. I was going grey on top (dark brown) ginger side boards and the tache was a mixture of brown & ginger. We did BC , Vancouver and Prince Rupert also Port Alice on Vancouver Island and a few others. I loved BC and had a cracking job offer to sail as Chief Eng on small coastal tankers running up and down the BC coast. I had the papers all sorted and then my wife changed her mind and would not live over there. Ask her now if she thinks she made a wrong decision, she looks at her feet and admits she did.

[John Pruden]

look like lord lucan there lewis?? jp

[Lewis McColl]

Wondering when someone would spot it, I even gave a clue as in lucky, he was known as Lucky Lucan was he not as he was a bit of a gambler. I am the handsome chap on the left.

[vic mcclymont]

Hi Lewis, you can get treatment for the lip fungus. Lol.
Vic

[Lewis McColl]

Wish I had as much on my head as I had on my lip when that was taken lol.

[Des Taff Jenkins]

haha John think it was a fashion faze back then. My wife said I was starting to look like a tortoise cat, the mustache what was left of a beard. I was going grey on top (dark brown) ginger side boards and the tache was a mixture of brown & ginger. We did BC , Vancouver and Prince Rupert also Port Alice on Vancouver Island and a few others. I loved BC and had a cracking job offer to sail as Chief Eng on small coastal tankers running up and down the BC coast. I had the papers all sorted and then my wife changed her mind and would not live over there. Ask her now if she thinks she made a wrong decision, she looks at her feet and admits she did.

Hi Lewis.
What's wrong with her feet!!!!
Des

[j.sabourn]

Maybe. They”re webbed ?? JWS.

[happy daze john in oz]

Rummaging around, can be fun but also can be filled with problems.
It is amazing the stuff we collect over time, and when you rediscover it ask why did I ever buy that?

Old photos, oh dear did I really look like that?
What went wrong since then are you sure that is me in that one, never looked like that.

But it can be fun to look back at what we were then, but maybe not compare it with today.