Unfortunately the young bits have gone, only the old bits left! but still young at heart. This lovely sunshine certainly brings back warm and warming times spent in South America and other places where we left our hearts
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Ivan, as the song says I left mine in San Fransisco, Den
What a trip that was, like most guys I could tell a few good stories about the runs ashore that we had but nothing to beat that one. Don,t show any of this to the modern "snowflakes' they would have to have counselling after reading this.
Stories, some we could write and have published, some have.
But then there are some no one dare publish, to close to true life that many would have no idea existed.
But we saw it all experienced things that before we went to sea had no concept of, it broadened our minds and made us better people able to cope with the ups and downs of life along with some very odd shore siders.
None of us would change even one minute of it, and would if we could do it all over again.
Exactly True Blue!
Some stories as you say cannot be told as they are to unbelievable and far too Bold!
Ask me i know! Cheers
Ain't that the truth! I see the woke brigade have sacked the director of the Tokyo Olympics because of a joke he made in 1998, from the look of him he must have been about 16 at the time and probably didn't even understand the implications of the joke at that time.
Guess I must have offended nearly every nation and religion at some time since I was 16, wish I could remember them, they may even be topical now! If the woke brigade visit this site, they'll need a fleet of ambulances to take them to counsellors.:smashPC:
Hi Brian rereading your story about the spice islands is like sailing with someone twice. It reminds me of swinging the lamp with a beer in hand on the a**e end of a few ships that I was on in the tropics with old mates and reminiscing, someone would mention about when they had sailed on such and such a ship with so and so, a story would be told that I had heard before whilst sailing with the narrator on a previous voyage. Some of those stories like yours get better as time goes on. As Ivan mentioned He left his heart in South America. Well I ( I suspect you as well ) Left mine in the spice islands.
I have always had a fascination with South East and East Asia and was lucky enough to join a Shell tanker In Singapore in November 71. The first 3 trips were running from Singapore to Vietnam and there after included at various times runs to Port Swettenham In Malaysia, Miri and Brunei in Borneo also Balikpapan (South Kalimantan as the Indonesians prefer to call that part off Borneo) Tanjong Priok in Java and Makassar in South Sulawesi . I was even more fortunate during the 70's to visit several of those ports again on different ships and eventually join a small products/chemical carrier in Singapore in December 80 and spend about 3 months sailing between various ports in Malaysia, Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi and my first visit to Bali. I had become smitten.
During the 80' 90's and the first decade of the 2000's I revisited the area several times either on ships or on holiday in between jobs, then again on extended vacations while working in the UK in 2013/14and just before I retired in 2016/17. In February 2017 I made my first visit to Kuching in Sarawak the home of the Brooke Dynasty the White Rajahs of Sarawak and more importantly I met a good woman who owned a small bar there (An added bonus) I returned there in 2018/19 and visited Kota Kinabulu and Labuan followed by Pontianak (All Borneo) Jakarta, Makassar, Lombok and Bali. I then flew back to Kuching via Kuala Lumpur and eventually returned (Reluctantly) To the UK.
I had planned to return to Sarawak two winters ago and with my good woman visit Her mother on the Island of Bohol in the Philippines. This is where She was born, we had also planned a visit to other Islands that I had not visited. Unfortunately covid struck and begun its devastation of the World, with the resulting severe restrictions on travel I am unable to visit Kuching and my friend can not visit Me. I am hoping that by November I can return to Kuching and pick up where I left off. With about 17,000 Islands in the Indonesian Archipelago and another 7,000 in the Philippines chain, I have a lot yet to see in a part of the World that I love and hope with a bit of luck to spend 4/5 months there each year.
The story, `A Voyage to The Spice Islands`, is all Truth, it is taken up from my old Diary made at the time 61 years ago. when the world and shipping was a totally different place.
Since retiring from Seafaring 23 years ago I have been cruising round the World every year for, Three or Four months at a time, and have seen the changes everywhere and all not very good.
All the little Paradises we once knew have all gone,.
To try and find a Seamans Bar that we once knew is nigh impossible, Seamen do not get ashore these days, In and Out same day
The only ships you will see in South America today is German and French Container ships, no British.
In Valparaiso just the Scandi Bar was still open but empty.A couple around the Australian coast still there but now used by City types. No Seamen left to keep the Bars going,
So we were the last of the Seafarers, the World will not sea our likes again,
I feel sorry for the younger generations, they can NEVER live the lives we had. they can Never enjoy a life in Paradise as we did.
Where`s me bottle of Rum, I am nearly in tears as I write.
Sayonara. Adios,
Brian
'So we were the last of the Seafarers, the World will not sea our likes again'
You are so right Brian-it was a privelege.Even though I got in at the tail end,before containerisation and 60 day sea passages on big bulkers ,I treasure my time learning my profession on slow dawdle -awhile here-and-there-proper cargo ships ,balmy days on trans-oceanic crossings,the occasional typhoon to remind you of the awesome might of the sea,the laid-back 'manana' atmosphere and another night in a tropical port,going ashore in the cool of the evening after showering, in a crisp white shirt with dollars in your pocket,or at anchor having a BBQ and Walport film up on No.3 Hatch deck with the tropical smell of the shore ,heady with jasmine and campfires,with twinkling lights of villages mirrored by the indigo blue equatorial night sky speckled with a million scintillating stars.....I should have been an author-eat your heart out Joseph Conrad ! But as I said-what memories to sustain us ...... Today's seafarers will never see that.It must be just like
driving a train.
I have read this post several times now and each time I enjoy it all the more. Landlubbers in their homogenised little worlds would never believe the half of this post. Absolutely brilliant. Gordon