My first deep sea trip

[Bob Dunkley]

Time flies they say, but I cannot believe it is 49 years since I was a pier head jump on this lovely ship. 6 weeks they said , 7 months more like but loved it.Attachment 27944Attachment 27945.I cannot remember which her paint job was at the time though. Many happy memories from that trip.

Lewis I sailed in this ship 50 yrs ago as J.O.S .Tilbury to West Africa down the coast to Douala ,and back again to Belfast ,the Lamp trimmer was Albert Shakespeare from Hull was he on there when you were ?? you might have even been in my old cabin Ist one up the stairs, or the one most forward on the port side.

[Trevor Bodiam]

I, unlike many others cannot recall much of my first deep sea ship, the British Energy and only remember going from Falmouth to the Maricaibo ? lakes in Venezuela and back to Tilbury for pay off. I knew however that the experience was fantastic just being at sea and the realisation of just how vast our oceans were and how the movement and sounds of a ship underway would always be a joyous experience for me.
To put it simply - i loved it.
My next 2 ships were also B.P. tankers the Hussar and Grenadier, but eventually i knew there was another big wide world out there besides the Persian gulf and Sidon and hopefully far more interesting places so decided tankers weren't for me and discovered Union-Castle, Hain-Norse, and Port line and found real happiness and great times, that certainly can never be forgotten.

[joseph connor]

for those of you who read my post about keeping the grandson entertained and started making a ship ,befor he got bored,it was a couple of weeks before i picked it up again and thought i would carry it on, well it is almost finished,
it has been the most time consuming thing i have ever one, it is only ten ins long, i have learned that very small pieces of wood apart from being dificult to sand because of the grain, they seem to be attracted to everything else making it very difficult to place ,i suppose there is a scientific term for it,i just called it a bloody pain , lol
the ship by the way is my first deep sea article ,Blue Funnels ,AUTOMEDON, I think i can remember about 70/80% of that adventure ,and appart from seeing, doing things that my mates at home wouldnt believe, it taught me many of lifes lessons,in my post i said if anyone is interested i would post a photo of it? well nobody seemed to be , but you are going to see it anyway after all my hard work,lol. thats if i can manage to upload them.

IMG_20190105_173252.jpg Just adding one Pic here for Joe to show him that they are too Dark and don't show up well. Need you to Retake the Pics with a better Camera or whatever Joe and then send them on to me again.
Cheers

I have fiddled around with another one Joe it is now in Black and White but shows a bit more Detail

Joe Ship.jpg

[Doc Vernon]

I also still jave two small Ship Models that i bought ages ago,as they are so small i find it hard to do anything with them so here they lie Dormant in a Drawer Grrrr!
They are of two of my Former UCL Ships
Cheers

[Captain Kong]

Good job there Joseph.good detail.
I tried to make them but abandoned it after a while. in other words , I was no good at it.

I prefer to paint them it is much easier,
Cheers
Brian

Photos dont open up as they used to do, stay as thumb nails.

[John Arton]

My first trip to sea lasted 11 months on a 66000 ton tanker, Lord Mount Stephen a new building for Canadian Pacific (did 21 years with them before redundancy). Joined Tranmere then visited such exotic places as Das island, Mina Al Ahmadi, Gothenburg (ship visited the British grenadier there and met some very snot nosed B.P, cadets), Lisbon for drydock, Ez Zuentina in Libya, Rotterdam, thameshaven etc. Apart from 14 days in drydock where we were put up ashore in a very swanky hotel, never had a run ashore. Did I miss not going ashore. Not really, my days were spent tank diving, chipping and painting, overhauling valves, greasing deck machinery, replacing flame gauzes in tank vents, a month spent in the engine room overhauling steam valves, purifiers and clarifiers, being taught by the Spanish bosun how to splice rope and wires, lifeboat maintenance etc. Weekends were for study, learning the COLREGS, taking sights, time on the wheel learning to steer, sew canvas etc. We had a bar a swimming pool, movie nights with fish and chip nights, quizzes etc. All in the main spent in hot tropical weather. Never had time to get bored, 06:00 turn to every day, clean and scrub wheelhouse and polish all brass work.
The runs ashore came later on Beaver boats and forest product vessels.

Question
When I was polishing the magnetic compass on the monkey island, I was told to remove the binnacle hood before polishing it as the use of grassland and the polishing action could alter the magnetic field around the compass and I never polished the Flinders bar holder. Myth or just someone pulling my plonker?
Rgds
J.A.

[Doc Vernon]

A few Photos added for Joe Connor on his Model Ship.
Cheers

IMG_20190108_102444.jpg

IMG_20190108_102749.jpg

IMG_20190108_102459.jpg

[joseph connor]

Thanks Doc, for your time in doing that for me.

[Doc Vernon]

No Probs Joe
Just that the others were not acceptable for viewing on site too dark! These are a lot better!
Looks very painstaking ?
Cheers

[Captain Kong]

Excellent Joseph.
Cheers
Brian