Alcohol, love it or hate it?

[John Arton]

Many of us will have had our first taste of alcohol as an underage youth trying to buy a pint in the local pub,mine certainly was when me and my school mate had managed to get a pint in a pub only to have to make a sharp exit through the gents toilets window when the plod came into check that there were no underage drinkers in the pub.
On going to sea, as cadet I was allowed two cans of beer a day in the officers lounge but only used that privilege at weekends.
A night out in upper parliament Street in Liverpool with the Spanish crew on my first ship ended up with me swearing off vodka for the rest of my life.
A 48 hour well in the royal docks only 2nd ship with the paying off crew made me swear off rum for the rest of my life.
As 3rd and 2nd mate I always enjoyed a couple of after watch beers with my fellow engineering watch keeper.
As mate, a few beers after watch was the norm and g+t with captain on Sunday inspection.
As master, couple of beers with chief engineer, mate and 2nd engineer to go over the days events before evening meal.
Like many others excess consumption of alcohol ashore has led me to spend 24 hours in a Mexican jail (not to be recommended) after discovering a love of tequila, sprawling around in the dust outside a bar in tubarao after discovering that brama chop beer did not turn you into a Mike Tyson twin after consuming excess amounts of said beer, plus been thrown out of a number of bars in countries world wide where an excess consumption of the local beer/wine/spirit has led my mouth to occasionally utter a slight derogatory remarks about the education of the locals/the looks of their female companion, etc. All said without real malice to cause discontent but Johnny foreigner can be a sensitive soul at times.
Now happily retired with fond memories for both myself and wife of the times we spent at sea together, I find my alcohol consumption has dropped dramatically. A couple of bottles of beer occasionally, a g&t once or twice a month. With civic have not been to the pub for well over a year and even before civic it was only once a month if that, for a catch up with guys I had sailed with.
So from one who really did like a beer , often to excess, to now when I can happily go weeks/months without even thinking of having a drink, ain't I just a good boy eh!!!!
Rgds
J.A.
p.s as regards wine, never really been a fan of the stuff irrespective of country of origin.

[Keith Tindell]

Hi John, have you been watching me all my life !!!!, that just about describes me , and where it went from there. Main difference is that i do enjoy a glass of wine now, but when at sea it was rare. I do recall, vaguely , leaving a Spanish port, where i don't recall, and we had indulged in the local wine, and as usual the first one rubbish, but got better about glass3, we decided then to buy one of those huge glass demijohn ? of the stuff, and woke up next morning, dying i thought, and this stuff was horrible. The bottom of the demi john seemed to be full of tar !!, needless to say, poured over the side, kt

[Captain Kong]

When I was 17 on the AMITY, the ABs were going ashore, I asked , if I could go with them,
A BIG AB said, "You pay like a man, you drink like a man, and you act like a man, Or you get this,"
He waved a BIG IRON FIST under my nose, I was terrified, but I did it, good disciplined drinking,
I never forgot it,

[thomas michael]

hi john arton #1
what a true and honest tale of the demon drink, which i found that i had many similar experiences,brings back memories and one tale in particular,i was docked in garrucha almeria spain loading iron ore, and i went ashore with a couple of the lads i ended up in a bar down on the shore line only locals and ended up sparring,after that staggered back to the ship and god knows what happened next but i was taking the mickey out of the policeman sitting in the mess when i leaned over and opened the flap on his holster and took out his gun i was just playing with it whilst everybody was telling me to give it back to him and running for cover, the policeman finally got it out of my hand as the rest of the gang kept me distracted, thank god they did, or else, boy its not worth thinking about,
tom

[Tony Taylor]

Never tasted wine until I went ashore in Bordeaux. I was first trip apprentice and the 2/e I was with claimed to be a wine buff (a/hole more like).
He bought me a glass of wine which he proceeded to extol as a classic, the idiot did not recognise it as the vinegar it actually was.
Scroll forward 5 years and had another go at the SA wine we loaded via the chopper off Cape Town, totally different and oh so cheap, about 65p a bottle and a £1 for champagne.
Another couple of years on and started an Aussie coast run in Cairns, where we were offered a case of lobsters and Aussi Chardonnay for our personal account, so every now and then would have one of each for dinner in my cabin and the cook would knock me up a special bread - absolutely delicious.
Hardly touch wine now.

[Ivan Cloherty]

Well me daddy (himself a seaman) said to me, 'well son if you insist on going to sea, remember seamen are noted for two things, women and wine, go easy on the second and you'll get plenty of the first. Learn to dance and you'll have a great life' He was right, I was never a heavy drinker, but had my moments like everyone else, but what was called a happy drunk who liked to sing (or something similar to it!). The dancing stood me in good stead and I was never lonely. But I nearly got my head kicked-in in Vancouver when I was 3/m for making a girl pregnant, but she told her brother it was the 3/m on my ship, and I happened to be on deck in uniform when this man mountain came aboard and grabbed me by the throat and was about knock me into the next world, when we both heard a scream 'That's not him'. Apparently an S.O.S. had taken my name and rank in vain, only came out the woodwork after we sailed,(he'd been wisely hiding) and he said 'sorry third' so I told him next time he does that give the girl the 2/m's name as he'd be too drunk to remember anyway. The 2/m's nickname was 'orbit' as he was always spaced out.

[thomas michael]

hi ivan cloherty #6
good afternoon a very funny anecdote,
tom

[Denis O'Shea]

Nuff said think most of us have got the T shirt. Den

[Harry Nicholson]

A glass at lunchtime is enough now. Life without headaches is bliss. How we survived in our teens is beyond me. Oh, that Cape Smoke brandy! I came off worse in a bar brawl and was thrown down three flights of stairs in Cape Town because of it. After that, I took things more steady.

[Keith Tindell]

Oh to be young again, providing i could keep the knowledge i have now. Remember coming off watch 12-4 and cook leaving out a brilliant breakfast, sausage egg bacon tomatoes, eating all of it and crashing out, if i was to do that now, strait to bed after eating, indigestion would crucify me, kt