Still alive

Hi Alf,
Used to love eating that curry on deck with P&O crew.
Remember one time in the Red Sea.
Temp must have been over 100f
Almost naked, with a towel round your neck
Never tasted anything like it since.
The curry john, not the towel!

Do it all over again best years of my life.Breeze in your hair tucker and good drink in the belly,and plenty of beauties to bed with and a job and life style to our liking what more could a man want.

HI All.
And here's me thinking it is still going, My wife still puts the hose on the window to wake me up, and accuses me of loafing when she sees me carrying a piece of rope yarn around the garden all day. Keeps telling me to go clean the forecastle [Garage] out. only thing is she wont stamp my discharge book so I can get another berth.
Cheers Des

Attachment 15910

Perhaps I was lucky and lived a charmed life at sea, I don't know, but I never saw a case of food poisoning, never a serious accident even though we were climbing about aloft without harnesses or safety lines. All the stings and insect bites did not do lasting harm, but the mosquito's always attacked my eyelids and ears so I woke up looking like I had been 12 rounds.
I was mugged once in Rio Grande De Sol and had a knife at my throat but the only thing I had to steal was my jacket. In Lagos a few of us were threatened by doped up Nigerian soldiers with rifles. So apart from bad weather and heavy seas I had an easy life compared to some of you lads.

My father was in the MN and British Army WW1 and again in the MN afterwards. Seldom spoke of his soldier days but he waxed on lyrically about his days (not so much about his nights) in the MN. Although he did have a cherished letter in his army wallet from a sweetheart in Amiens some time between 1914 and 1918.

His stories were the instigation for my doing the rounds of the shipping offices in Sydney. As has been said time and time again, meet a fellow sailor and you're on the same wave length immediately. To a lesser extent it was similar moving around as an expat and bumping into those who had lived in the same places as you had.
Perhaps the ever changing supplies of water and stores gave some immunity but I never had Montezuma's revenge at sea but got it from time to time under different names travelling around my "diocese" in Asia in later years.
Richard

louis i seem to remember a tramp out of the tyne .....the story from old sailor.....a large tin of corned dog was eaten by most of all handsand contained a botulism were upon many hands died and more parylised ...i believe in the 20s or thirties......regards cappy

We are becauser we travelled so far and to so many countries somewhat unfazed by some of what goes on in the world today. Iraq, Afghanistan and others, we have all seen a range of outrageous conditions but thought little of it at the time. those conditions will continue for many a generation yet.

No doubt we are more than able to give good sound advice nyone who wants to listen, advice gained from years of our own experiences, pity some of the politicians would not listen.



Cappy, I have seen tramps in the woods, tramps in the city, but one on the water???????????????????

my brother sam was in freetown the ship was tied up when the riots started they pulled away from the quay and stood off next morning just the stumps of the jetty were left still smouldering . my late brother Kenny in and out of cuba before castro. and told us stories about papa dock Kenny got around all over even at Tristan da cuna evacuating people when the island blown up? people would never be in those situations again that's why its important to share with the young its history.jp

I know that going away to sea made me able to fend for myself even during the war to me then was one big adventure and i think i did see a bit of action .It was when our ship got sunk by enemy action made me think .
that it was not one big adventure and that we was fighting a war to survive .
Then being taken a pow i then had to rely on my very good shipmates to thank for make life a lot easy and i have a lot to thank them guys for

hey Des. Whats with the rope yarn?.