the sea in our blood

[Neville Roberts]

I remember after a few trips the sea seemed too get too us ,I was always very glad too get home after months away, but it only took about 2 weeks or so before I got the itch too get back on board and away from the hustle of the shoreside life , I suppose it was the simple life we led on board no use for money or bills too pay , just signed for what you got , always felt sorry for the shoreside 9 to 5 crowd just looking foreward too the weekends , and we could wonder about the exotic places that we where about to see . and the wonderfull girls that would entertain us in the many ports of call bloody hell I,m gettin nostalgic have too go now and join a ship .tarar der lads see yas when I get back .Nev.

[Doc Vernon]

Hi Neville
Certainly agree with you there mate, but although the trips i did were not too long,that didnt actually apply to me!
But i can quite understand with many of the Lads that those long tedious trips (i guess some very long) would certainly have made you wish for Land Aho!
But as far as feeling sorry for the poor landlubbers,yes indeed many a time i thought gees! how do these poor People manage this day to day chore!
Yes we were very fortunate indeed,and to think those days it was all free too!
The places we were able to see,the good food we were given,and most of all the great comaraderie!!
Ah! Better i go too now and see if i can jump aboard a passing Ship! haha!
Cheers

[Keith at Tregenna]

Great title for a book or just remembrance.

The sea in our blood!

“If Blood was the price
We had to pay for our freedom
Then the Merchant Ship Sailors
Paid it in full”

(Norman Date / Hon Secretary/ Merchant Navy Association Bristol UK)

[Neil Morton]

Best of all I remember those long reaches across the Pacific and Indian Oceans.Nothing but sea and sky and good fellpowship. Tall tales and two cans of beer a day.Warm of course unless you were on side with cookie. Ah my!!

[Doc Vernon]

The ocean as life: the sea in our blood, the birth of life. The rocking of the waves, the cradle of life. The ocean is the mother of all living things.


The ocean as lifes journey: adventure, danger, the crossing of the great water. The desire to go beyond, to leave the old world behind and discover something new and exotic; the call of the sea.

The eroticism of the ocean: it can be wild, pounding, violent and terrifying, or warm, bouyant, gentle in its swaying and lapping motions; the calm after the storm

The ocean as death: fathomless, unknown, dark, infinite, into which all rivers, however long their windings, must flow, losing their identities as they merge with that which was their true source.

The ocean is ever-changing: Observe it closely, its forms and colors are in constant flux, it is never still, you cannot exhaust its infinite variety. And yet, it is always and profoundly the same; the ocean as the passage of time and the persistence of memory.

The path that leads to knowhere!Beauty Personified!

[happy daze john in oz]

You can take the man out of the sea, but you cannot take the sea out of the man. There is something about the sea that has a profound effect on many a man, and some women. I spend a lot of time down in Port Melbourne just to watch the shipping movements, take a cruise as it is the only way I can get back out on the ocean. Spend time down on the coast watching the sea do it worst in a storm. But I never ever did get on with the 9 to 5 concept.

[tsell]

I have just added Jacques Cousteau's famous quote to my signature.

[Gulliver]

While we're into nostalgia again lads(it doesn't take too much on this site!)--here’s one of our posts resurrected from 2 years back-the sentiments are the same;-and thankfully I can still smell it all……..

Evocative Sea Life Smells

　

　
I know it's been done before....but here's mine.


1.The salty,oily tang of West Float,Birkenhead and the smell of a dozen ships galleys cooking breakfast-along with 'Arfurs Hungry Docker Caff 'on Dock Road corner.
2.The smell of oilskins and seaboots after preparing the old girl for heavy weather ahead.
3.The special smell of sisal and manila in bosun's Rope Store.
4.The aroma of freshly-baked bread emanating from the galley portholes on a glorious Indian Ocean morning.
5.The smell of a million bags of cocoa-beans we loaded in West Africa.
6.The delicious fragrance of fried flying-fish (some alliteration there!)that Chippy's just found on deck after morning soundings.
7.The all-pervading pong of petroleum(!) as we pass the refineries in the Bonny River
8.The sweet smell of log-fires drifting in the haze(Radar's on,lads) as we traverse the Malacca Strait.
9.And later,the smell of concrete,traffic,and a thousand 'noodle-stalls'-the smell of LIFE-as we wistfully glide past Singapore in the glowing dusk......
10.The heady smell of red-lead,kerosene and sun-bronzed bodies in the Paint Store as we clean ourselves up after a long day's chipping and painting.
11.The smell of cheap perfume on the Crew Deck as we depart our last South American port........


And the Nasty Ones?.None!.(Keeping the dream Alive!)


Gulliver

[Albert Bishop]

Totaly agree. After maybe best part of a year at sea , I could be really looking forward to getting home(Channels?). Then after a couple of weeks finding nothing had changed, and saying " Hell I'll just nip down to the pool to see whats going" Our way of life was so much different to the people ashore I think we sometimes had difficulty fitting in
Cheers, Albi.

[Colin Hawken]

I can also understand these feelings. I live on the banks of Southampton Water and never get tired of watching the various Ships. From Queen Mary 2,Queen Victoria,Independence of the Seas and other giant Cruise Liners.There are also the Container Vessels of many Nationalities.Some of those are absolutely huge as well. There are also the local Ferries. I never tire of watching all of them. Were I young and healthy enough to go back to sea(I'm certainly not) I'd be gone tomorrow. We still had the best years though,didn't we Boys?