Walking through history

[Jim Brady]

As I said this canal was our playground.Another thing we used to do was,there were wooden swing bridges some of us would get on the end to swing it open and some would be on the other bank where it was swinging away from.We would see who would wait the longest before jumping the gap between the bank and the opening bridge.This little kid fell in (we always said he went under three times,if you did that that was the end of you)anyway one of the bigger lads grabbed him by the hair and we pulled him out.He was more scared of going home with wet clothes than his near drowning experience in the canal.At first we lit a fire to try and dry them off,no good.Knocked on a few doors this man invited just three of the gang in.He came out dried off but all of us that did'nt get into the house were going mad because the man had a telly and we had never seen one,it was funny them trying to explain a telly to us.
Regards.
Jim.

[cappy]

#17 gawd if you can remember that you must be as old a john s .......are you crabby like him

[j.sabourn]

#20.. Knew a few Chief Stewards from South Shields they all owned fleets of houses. The only poor one I met was from North Shields and the only thing he had from a life at sea was a parrot. One in particular think he thought he was Gods answer for shipping. On the Pennyworth ( maybe Jim Knew him) had a very bad stutter, they were composition decks and most had a piece of carpet next to the bunk all except this ch. Stwd. Says to Phillips the Super, after stuttering his way through a few words that he wanted a piece of carpet as his feet got cold getting out of bed. The super says see the mate (me) and he"ll give you a piece of coconut matting. Started stuttering again and threatening to resign, Phillips says good I'll have your relief down this afternoon, you talk too much anyway. Cheers John S

[alf corbyn]

i bet the only thing you have to worry about in the canal now are shopping trolley's.

[cappy]

#23 love that one john best laugh for a while......a poor shipping co that didn't provide wooly bedsocks

[Keith Tindell]

Cappy ref 22, Has he got mobile dandruft as well!!!, must have frequented the same establishment as myself, KT

[Jim Brady]

The chf/stwd on the Pennyworth John was a tall guy who had a deaf aid for that reason we nicknamed him "Torchy" (tv show Torchy the battery boy)What amused me about this guy was he gave himself the job as bacon slicer,he used to cut all the bacon and on a Sunday he would make jelly,very strange.
Regards.
Jim.

[j.sabourn]

Think I can remember him as well Jim. was he from Shields as well. You cant remember who the Chippy was can you, as Kenny Coulthard was there all the time I was. John S

[j.sabourn]

Jim, There was a second Mate in his 60", and a 3rd. Mate from Shields. The 3rd. Mate used to be always dressed up like an Admiral of the fleet, ribbons and all. The effect was spoiled though when he put on his cloth cap. His name was a Allan Medd and he wrote articles for a Shields newspaper calling himself the Happy Wanderer. We were in Oxelosund (Sweden) one Christmas and ashore and he took a photo of me with arms round these two ladies. I appeared on the photo to be under the weather, he showed me and said he was going to put it in an Article, I told him if he did I would sue the pants off him, apart from other things, he didn't have printed. He had a Master fired as he wrote to the BOT accusing him of being drunk and the master lost his job. This particular 3 mate had a penchant for doing such things and he was black listed in the NE. However they must have been short of people at the time. The 2nd. mate was also in his 60"s and another poser and another story again. These were not the people that I would say were the best of the old days, I am sure Cappy realizes that not all those brought up pre and during the war were all good examples of seafaring. The 3rd Mate to me was a very dangerous man, he didn't even have a ticket, The 2nd. Mate was always boasting about taken the fleet down to Sydney as a navigator. I found out he was this RN call up of MN personell during the war and had been a provisions officer stationed in Sydney all during that time. They are a long time dead now I assume as would both be well over 100. To me they left no memories of great loss like a huge majority of other seafarers. Cheers John S

[cappy]

#29 would agree jim I believe that the mechant navy has always had its share of scallys .......and during the war was no exception.....in the book the real cruel sea are some of the stories.......of drunkenness at sea which I never did and mutiny ..........and even in my time many shipmates I wouldn't have taken home........but our record is still a very proud one......the main problem was always to mch alcohol taken ashore which often caused more than hi jinks......was good fun tho.......capitana pasa plata manana