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Thread: Happy days seafaring

  1. #21
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    Default Re: Happy days seafaring

    Quote Originally Posted by j.sabourn View Post
    #7 what happened to the left knee Brian ? Bitten by a mosquito. ? The little baskets like getting a man when he’s down. Reminds me when I brought Captain Hort back from Dakar to Rotterdam,stuck a small plaster on his healed stab wound and told him to show it to the Daily Expresss on their asking , to make amends for their untruthful repoerting in the first instance. Cheers JS
    Dakar! what a place, we had to pull in there (Well Anchored ) and waited for a Launch to come and pick up a very sick Crew Lad, that took him to the Dakar Hospital, rather him than me that time !

    Dont know exactly what was wrong or what was going on, but we were there for some 18hrs, i was lucky to be amongst a few of the Crew to be able to go ashore in another Launch.
    But to be honest, even though i was a greenhorn still, the time i spent in Dakar i could well have just stayed on the Ship and read a good Novel!

    Only thing i got that was of any use (If you can call it that) was a Flick Knife at a throwawy price!

    It was then to me just a Novelty!

    Remember later on i gave it away to someone !
    Cheers
    Senior Site Moderator-Member and Friend of this Website

    R697530

  2. #22
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    Default Re: Happy days seafaring

    Dakar Senegal.jpg


    Vernon.

    Memories come in strange places.
    Des
    R510868
    Lest We Forget

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  4. #23
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    Default Re: Happy days seafaring

    Dakar was usually a bunkering port for ships going east around the Cape. I was mate on a Foreign Flag vessel bound from Poland to Karachi , a cargo of coke. Received orders to bunker at Dakar as usual. The master an Irishman who must have gone coasting for the rest of his days and had to return deep sea asked me what Daker did they mean ? I told him he didnt believe me and said maybe they mean the other one , I said there is no other one, he did not believe and sent back to the main office Please confirm position of Dakar and not east Pakistan referring to Dhacca. Back came the reply , if not sure ask the mate. JS
    R575129

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    Thumbs down Re: Happy days seafaring

    I paid of a ship in Dakar, I had been there a few times for bunkers in the late 60's and 70's. I thought then that it was just another dusty West African port. Staying in an indifferent hotel for 2 nights confirmed my first opinion plus it was just plain boring. The only good thing about the place was a lack of corruption which was unusual for West Africa.
    Last edited by john walker; 11th March 2023 at 04:09 AM. Reason: to add

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    Default Re: Happy days seafaring

    Why did we leave? I was a fool.....

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    Default Re: Happy days seafaring

    Quote Originally Posted by john walker View Post
    I paid of a ship in Dakar, I had been there a few times for bunkers in the late 60's and 70's. I thought then that it was just another dusty West African port. Staying in an indifferent hotel for 2 nights confirmed my first opinion plus it was just plain boring. The only good thing about the place was a lack of corruption which was unusual for West Africa.
    I paid off in Dakar in 79, left the ship about 4/5 miles offshore. We were landed in the docks (about 8 o us) which were deserted and left waiting for at least half an hour then one car turned up and took four away, the remainder of us stood for about another 15 minutes then another car turned up and picked us up, none too soon as we were being eyed up by some ugly looking characters who were slowly edging their way towards us and my wife was getting a bit edgy.
    We were dropped at the security gatehouse where the other guys were waiting and we were told that we could leave but we had to leave all our luggage there which we refused point blank, so the security people then said we could leave but had to leave radios, cameras etc.and again we refused, so it was a stand off. Eventually the agent arrived and gave a bung to them and we left.
    Spent a couple of days in a reasonable hotel run by a French couple.
    When we arrived at the airport, porters snatched a small bag each and ran inside with it ignoring our protests, then demanded 20 bucks eack but got given rather less.
    Arriving at passport control we were told we could not leave unless the porters were paid 25 bucks so the old man coughed up.
    Looking back after going through we saw the porters divvying up with the passport control guys.
    At least there were no bloated dead bodies lying in the street which I have witnessed in Lagos.

  8. #27
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    Default Re: Happy days seafaring

    Looking at the accident record of Brian.
    I have come to the conclusion, not concussion as in the case of Brian, that he is an effort to gain entry into the Guiness book of records at some very obscure level.
    Happy daze John in Oz.

    Life is too short to blend in.

    John Strange R737787
    World Traveller

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  10. #28
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    Default Re: Happy days seafaring

    I have been to Dakar in Africa and Dhakka in Bangladesh, didn't go ashore in Dakar, but dip my feet in the water in Bangladesh, took as few weeks to get the smell from my nose.
    Des
    R510868
    Lest We Forget

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  12. #29
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    Default Re: Happy days seafaring

    Quote Originally Posted by Tony Taylor View Post
    I paid off in Dakar in 79, left the ship about 4/5 miles offshore. We were landed in the docks (about 8 o us) which were deserted and left waiting for at least half an hour then one car turned up and took four away, the remainder of us stood for about another 15 minutes then another car turned up and picked us up, none too soon as we were being eyed up by some ugly looking characters who were slowly edging their way towards us and my wife was getting a bit edgy.
    We were dropped at the security gatehouse where the other guys were waiting and we were told that we could leave but we had to leave all our luggage there which we refused point blank, so the security people then said we could leave but had to leave radios, cameras etc.and again we refused, so it was a stand off. Eventually the agent arrived and gave a bung to them and we left.
    Spent a couple of days in a reasonable hotel run by a French couple.
    When we arrived at the airport, porters snatched a small bag each and ran inside with it ignoring our protests, then demanded 20 bucks eack but got given rather less.
    Arriving at passport control we were told we could not leave unless the porters were paid 25 bucks so the old man coughed up.
    Looking back after going through we saw the porters divvying up with the passport control guys.
    At least there were no bloated dead bodies lying in the street which I have witnessed in Lagos.
    Hi Tony, I guess I struck lucky. It was because of not being asked for any dash that I remember the port ,other wise as I mentioned there was nothing memorable about it. I think it was the same ship earlier we had been in Lagos/Apapa . The pilot had just boarded and we were getting underway I was on the poop deck when I spotted what looked like a small branch of a tree. As the branch bobbed in the ships wake it turned out to be the arm and hand of a man attached to a very dead black guy. I went up to the bridge and reported my sighting to the captain and the pilot. I was told by the pilot not to worry, it was probably just a pirate who had been shot by the army/police on the foreshore and tossed into the briny for his miss deeds.
    At a later date I worked ashore in Nigeria for a year and found the corruption there endemic. I was returning from leave after staying in Portugal for a well earned rest. The company had asked me to fly down to Port Harcourt via Madrid and Lagos, In Madrid I was to meet and escort a new port captain. I can not remember the guys name but he seemed a decent bloke. Anyway I met him as asked and caught the flight down to Lagos. In Lagos the cr*p started all the blacks were de planed and the whites were the last off the aircraft. The dash started with immigration followed by customs and port health. I explained to the new guy not to worry as any monies payed out would be reimbursed by the company, it was the usual practice to pay anybody and everybody. From Lagos we were to get an internal flight down to Port Harcourt. Booking into the next flight was a reverse of alighting from the last flight. It started with baggage check in, I had none just a small briefcase. The new guy had a huge suitcase which he put on the scale and it was a couple of kgs. over weight. The baggage guy then put his right foot on the scale which added a few more kg. He then asks for excess baggage money. The new guy then starts to remonstrate with the baggage guy. Before it all got out of hand I calmed things down by explaining to the new guy that he was digging a hole that he would not get out of if he did not cool it. I then apologised to the baggage guy ,I then gave him a parker pen and about U.S.$20 and we proceeded on our way. In Port Harcourt we were met by a company agent, I then was to travel on to our home compound which was quite a long way from the airport. The new port captain was demanding a plane ticket home as he had seen enough of Nigeria and wanted out. I thought that the new port captain was probably not the right man for the job and needed to get used to Africa and it's ways and then went back to work. Oh happy days.

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  14. #30
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    Default Re: Happy days seafaring

    #29 John that post brings back many happy memories (Grrrr) of my time spent in Nigeria in the 70's with the chaos of the airports and those internal flights at tree top level to places I'd never heard of and cannot remember, corruption was rife and a way of life, but having lived in Pakistan I was used to it, but I preferred Pakistan to Nigeria, so you can tell I led a wonderful life at that time!

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