Joining the ship...

[Bernard Baldwin]

Hello all.

I registered my father on this site a while back but only really getting to post now. His name is Bernard John Baldwin. He was born in Cardiff in 19 25 and 'ran away to sea' when he was 15 without telling his mother (we have a page of a letter she wrote to him after she worked out what had happened) and signed on as a Steward's Boy. His first ship was The Egee, a 25,000 tonne, oil burning ship which he joined when she was in dry dock in Barry Island being fixed after an misfiring accident to one of the Hornemann projectiles damaged the ship.

He's 92 and his Alzheimer's is beginning to worsen in the last while but he's still very clear in his mind about long ago and his time in the Merchant Navy.

One of his favourite ditties is:

"The working class can kiss my ass
'cos I've got a bosun's job at last

Rise and shine boys, rise and shine
The Royal Mail line."

That's if I remember it rightly. I'll ask him tomorrow and see if it needs editing.

Anyhow hello and lovely for him to be here.

[Keith Tindell]

Sounds like a man after my own heart, remember singing that song every time we had a pint. if you can list his ships, sure there will many memories for him, despite his condition, which i send him best wishes for , regards kt