A bit of Shipbreaking and a ride on the Train.

[Chris Allman]

Thought you all might like a look at THIS and enjoy Bangladesh. I think I would rather live where I live.

I have edited the link as it was the wrong one on first posting, it had jumped a video.

[Captain Kong]

Very Interesting Chris.
Where was Elf and Safety? shipbreaking in bare feet , the nearest to a Safety boot was a Flip Flop. Incredible how they work
Enjoyed it Thanks
Cheers
Brian

[Doc Vernon]

Pretty tough work wading through all that Mud!
Yuk what a job,wonder if the pay is good there??

[Gulliver]

I was aboard the Shropshire up the Pussur River in Chalna ,above Chittagong loading jute and gunnies in 1971,45 years ago at the start of the Indo-Pakistan war and the secession of former East Pakistan to become Bangladesh.
The people were incredibly polite and friendly and I felt so sorry for them and the conditions they lived in.It is true that Bangladesh is a waterlogged cess-pit,just like the scenes shown in the video,where many communities live,wash defecate,drink and die in or by the rivers there.
Some of us felt quite ill after 10 days and it was a relief to get out into the Bay of Bengal,hose the ship down and get some sea breezes on your face again.
I've just been reading reports after I watched the video that conditions and the economy have greatly improved.They might have for those who live in the cities,but not for the poorest kind of people like you see in the video living in the coastal and river communities.
It is true that smell is a powerful evocative sense,and I have to say watching those videos brought back that unique,stagnant water smell of decay and faeces,sorry but that's what it evoked for me. It was even enhanced for me by listening to the 'hawking' going on in the background and possibly the splat of betel juice hitting the ground from the decayed stumps of it's chewers.
Not a place that your fancy cruise liners will be visiting any time soon then....

[j.sabourn]

Your not talking about Downing Street then ? Did you never sing that song... We were leaving Rangoon ( Chittagong) by the light of the moon, sailing by night and by day, and while we are in motion, we are the pride of the ocean, you cant see our ass hole for spray, Sail along Shropshire sail on, Capt. Himmler looks on her with pride, he would have a blue fit if he saw someone s### on the side of the Shropshires port side. Other verses of course. Being a Shropshire lad myself would agree with Himmler. Cheers JWS

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Hi Chris
Thanks for that, as I have a New? lap top I can get the sound up. What gets me about it is over the years they, whoever they are must have made millions, so why the hell haven't they improved the work place like building a drydock? We have had some quite heated discussions on this site about unions if ever a workforce needed organizing those poor baswards do.
Cheers Des.

[happy daze john in oz]

Watching that makes me wonder just how many ships go that way each year and how many new ones are launched?

[Gulliver]

... Sail along Shropshire sail on, Capt. Himmler looks on her with pride, he would have a blue fit if he saw someone s### on the side of the Shropshires port side. Other verses of course. Being a Shropshire lad myself would agree with Himmler. Cheers JWS

Housman is one of my favourite poets,especially now as I live just a stone's throw from the Salop border-lovely old word,Salop,nothing to do with salopettes I should imagine .m.v.Salop doesn't quite have the same impact as m.v.Shropshire ,which fitted in quite well with Mr.Bibby's dictum of naming his vessels after English counties especially northern ones,although latterly he had to go further afield naming his alien gas tankers and bulkers after such alien counties as Berkshire,Cambridgeshire and (sadly) Wiltshire.
Trivia: Housman was actually a Worcestershire man .His statue is down the road from me in Bromsgrove. The pigeons love him of course. He just took a fancy to the Clee Hills in Salop I suppose,probably on his summer bike rides into Shropshire. He later ended up in London,where most of us end up at some stage of our lives.I made it back though, thankfully.

Not sure about your reference to Himmler,although in the rhyme I recall Himmler had something sim'lar- a complete load of balls if you ask me though....
Gulliver Ball & Wall.gif

[Keith Tindell]

Thats why India is becoming a world power with trade, cheap labour, and lots of it. If you think back to when we great, Isambarg Brunel etc, building engines , ships , railway lines, the labour was cheap, and all made on the backs of the poor, kt