Well it looks like it is going to be a bit quiet on here for a while;what with the credit crunch,falling fat stock prices and Captain Cong going off to Antartica.
(Does'nt he know Amundsens beaten him to the South Pole) I guess we'll just have to get stuck in with more of our tales,how are things going with Novena Fred? And where is our favourite electrician Ron,is Kevin repairing a bilge pump. Our Jeff must have jumped ship,the old messrooms looking empty;c'mon on fellers ,stop hiding,
BrianD
Not gone yet,
Off in the Morning to Cape Horn then on to the white continent.
Amundsen did not get to the South Pole. I have done a check with my sat nav and he was 407 metres out so I am going to plant the Union Jack where it should be.
Jeff Glasse is not around. I had him executed in Walton, unless his son, Jeff Glasse turns up in the mean time.
There is no Satelite comunication down there so I wont be able to send emails.
Tatty Bye every one. I will bring the photos back.
Last edited by captain kong; 03-02-2009 at 09:39 AM.
Originally Posted by brian daley
Hi Brian,
I've been in and out of a few threads, so not hiding. Off to Greece tomorrow (Thessaloniki) and won't be back until next Monday so will be awol.
+Have a happy holiday Kevin. Get down on the Mataxis.
Cheers
Kong.
Happy hols to both of you,come back refreshed and full of stories!
Not a holiday - I'm a speaker at this conference:
http://www.traveldailynews.com/pages/show_page/28927
They've paid my flights and booked me a suite in a 5* hotel - all for a 20 minute presentation on Saturday morning.
Paying a scouser to talk - how soft is that?
Very intereting Kevin, not bad work if you can get it.
Enjoy.
I am off to the big South, taxi is here. Sayaonara.
Cheers. Kong
Don't have to do without my daily fix of Yo. Got internet access in my room.
Just posted this on another site, and thought it might raise a chuckle here also.
A junior engineer joined us - think it was on the Novelist - and over time we learnt that he'd been raised by his grandmother but she'd died a couple of years ago. One night in the bar he'd had quite a few and told us his gran used to drive him mad by squeezing the toothpaste tube at the top.
The next day he was on watch and someone went into his cabin and squeezed the toothpaste at the top. For the next 2 weeks it was done everytime he was on watch. He never said anything but did tentively ask a few if they'd seen anyone going into his cabin. He never guessed we were doing it as he didn't remember he'd told us what his gran used to do.
After two weeks he was looking very jumpy and we asked him why. He eventually admitted he thought his gran was haunting him. We asked why and he told us about the toothpaste. We couldn't keep straight faces and eventually told him what we'd been doing. He was too relieved to be angry!
Adventure in south america.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HERE IS AN ADVENTURE WE HAD IN 1958, HOPE YOU LIKE IT.
In 1958, I arrived in Rio Quequien in Patagonia on the Houlder boat, `Urmston Grange`.
Just a small town on the river with a few wood shacks, stockyards, an abatoir and one pub with an ugly old bartender.
We had a beer in the pub and asked the barman where was all the life around here. He said the next pub, `Hotel Nova Pompaya` was up the road about 15 kilometers, we didn`t know what a kilometer was but Charlie thought it was less than a mile ,so we didnt have far to go. We got the only taxi in town and after an hour of bouncing on a rough dirt track through the pampas we arrived. It was dark and in the moonlight we could see a couple of small shacks behind a saloon with a hitchin post outside, and a wood side walk. A few horses were hobbled, with their front legs tied, grazing.
A dim glow of an oil lamp showed through the batwing doors. This was the Hotel `Nova Pompaya`.
We walked through the batwing doors into a dim bar room only lit by two oil lamps, a group of gauchos sat around a table. They wore baggy keks made of white canvas, Boots up to their knees, a gun belt and big sombreros, we thought that we had walked onto a John Wayne movie lot. Behind the bar was a very attractive young barmaid , she was serving a gaucho with four thimble sized glasses of Anis,
`What are you having , Men` I asked, `The same but big ones`,.they replied.
The barmaid smiled at me "quatro bottelos Anis y quatro grande vasas por favor mia querida." I said squinting my eyes trying to smile like John Wayne.
The barmaid was amazed and the gauchos got up to look at us , muttering , Mucho loco hombres.
We started on the four bottles of Anis, we`ll show these Gauchos how to drink, they dont call me Alehouse for nothing.
We emptied the four bottles andCharlie ordered another four, on the bar was an old gramophone with a big horn on top. I went to the barmaid and asked what her name was, Theresa, and if she would play a record.
She smiled at me and put on a scratchy old record of a tango, turned the handle and wound it up. I asked her to dance, after a bottle of Anis I was a fantastic dancer, I held her in my arms and swayed to the music and the Anis, I could feel the warmth and contours of her body as I held her close and as we danced she responded and pressed herself against me, I could smell her perfume. It felt good, it had been two weeks since I had held a young lady in my arms and that was Cleopatra in Buenos Aires, I hoped Theresa wasn`t like `her`.
I whispered in her ear that I wanted her , like now. She told me to go outside and wait but not to let the gauchos see me. I went back to Charlie and Martin and told them I was going outside to see Theresa. `I fancied her` said Charlie, "I fancied her as well` said Martin, , "Too late this time I got in first."
I slowly walked to the door and slid outside when the gauchos weren`t looking.
A minute or so later Theresa whispered from the darkness, we met and kissed passionately. `Come`, she said, holding my hand leading me to a small shack, we went in and she lit an oil lamp, it was just a small room with a bed a chair and table. We fell into a passionate embrace onto the bed, she was panting with desire,
" Mucho rapido, mucho rapido" she gasped, "Dos minutos". So I mucho rapidoed as fast as I could. Her long finger nails were scratching my back as she screamed and threshed about underneath me, she was fantastico.
Dos Minutos later we were getting dressed breathlessly. " Go" she said and mind the gauchos.
I strolled back into the bar as casually as I could with my legs still trembling.
Then Martin and Charlie were shouting " how was it , was she good".?
The gauchos didn`t like it, they knew what was going on, Two minutes later Theresa walked through the back door and a gaucho went to her shouting abuse at her then he belted her across the face , she screamed in pain and a trickle of blood ran down from her lips.
I jumped up and went over and smashed the gaucho in the face with a big iron fist knocking him over his table and knocking the drinks and all his mates on the floor. I stood over him, " You Barsterdo, don`t ever do that again".
I was walking back to the lads when there was a hell of a bang and crack and a bullet whistled past my ear and hit the top of the bat wing door splintering the wood and leaving the door swinging.
" Kinnell" I turned around and the gaucho was stood there pointing a revolver at me. The smell of gun powder in the air, Martin and Charlie had disapeared through the door as fast as the bullet, this was not in the script.
I was wetting my knickers, " Take it easy , Hombre, Que pasa, que pasa nada." I said as I was walking backwards towards the door, as I got there I dived through the door as there was another bang and the door frame splintered...
I found Martin and Charlie hiding outside in the darkness, fortunately the gauchos didn`t follow us , we stood there trying to figure out what to do, there was no telephone or electricity up there so we couldn`t call a taxi.
We were stranded 15 kilometers from the ship,. "Here`s another fine mess you`ve gotten us into " said Charlie.
Just then Theresa called from the back of the saloon, I went to her, she flung her arms around me and we kissed, I could taste the salt of her tears and blood on her lips. She put a card into my hand, and whispered, " Via con dios , mi amor, hasta la vista." I kissed her again for the last time "Adios mia querida," I said as I slipped the ring , that Magnolia had given me last year when I had been thrown off a train, (another story), onto her finger, then she was gone into the darkness.
I stood there choked, if I had transport I would have taken her with me.
I walked back to the lads, " What are we going to do now` said Martin. We were stood by the horses, `Lets take these` I said,
`We can`t ride a horse `said Charlie. `It`s the only chance we have if those gauchos come out we are dead. OK lets go.` we took the ropes off their legs and I climbed aboard one, Martin managed to get onboard his but Charlie dived on his and fell off the other side and landed on his head, he eventually got on and we set off at a swift cantor, with a couple of bottles of Anis down us it was easy and soon we were yeehawing and yahooing as we galloped across the pampas. It was just like the charge of the Light Brigade
We arrived at the jetty and and straight up the gangway in single file and onto the after deck , we climbed off and went into the mess room " Kinnell, what a night" we told the other sailors. I pulled the card that Theresa had given me out of my pocket.
It was printed, " Theresa y Diaz y Llanos. Hotel Nova Pompaya, Rio Quequien,
on the back she had written, "Mi Amigo Brian, con simpatico y mucho amor, Su Amigo, Theresa." I still have the card fifty one years later and often look at it and wonder what ever happened to her.
I went to have a shower before turning in and found that I couldn`t take my shirt off, it was stuck to my skin with dried blood, Charlie said ",Have you been shot?" No it was from the scratches from Theresa when she was in her frenzied passion.
I had to stand under the shower for a long time until I could peel the shirt off my back.
Next morning at 6am the Bosun and the Mate were banging on our cabin doors, " All hands on deck, muy pronto,"
We all staggered out on deck feeling as rough as a badgers bum, Our bodies were wracked with pain from the long horse ride and the effects of the Anis..
When we got there we were surprised to see the afterdeck full of people. There were four gauchos, two Vigilantes, the Captain, Mate, Engineers and stewards and three large horses galloping around.
They were all shouting and gesticulating and when we appeared the gauchos started shouting and pointing at us.
The Captain was trying to get order out of chaos, he said to us " Did you steal these horses last night?" We told him that the gauchos were shooting at us and trying to kill us so we had to take the horses to escape.. Meanwhile the Peggy brought out a large jug of coffee and we had a mug each, next thing we were staggering about as drunk as monkeys, The advantage of drinking Anis that it stays in your stomach and when you have a drink next day it reactivates it again Two drunks for the price of one.
The Vigilantes wanted to arrest us for horse stealing and said there was a death by hanging for horse theft, this wasn`t unusual at that time . In Argentina, around that time about 15000 `Deschemisados` the shirtless ones, had gone missing in Argentina and were later found in mass graves,
At this we were rolling over laughing, then the gauchos said they wanted to shoot us, and when the gauchos tried to get the horses down the gangway we were hysterical laughing at their performance The horses were rearing up on their back legs and neighing, We were saying what kind of horsemen are these, us Sailors could get them up the gangway and they couldn`t get them down. The whole afterdeck was in complete chaos, The Captain who was fluent in Spanish had a word with the Vigilantes and gauchos, he then got the Stewards to go with him amidships and a few minutes later returned with six cases of Grants Standfast whisky. We just happened to have a cargo of Grants Standfast Whisky, There was one each for the Vigilantes and the gauchos. and they went down the gangway happy, The Mate got the sober AB`s to rig the derrick and with some canvas slings they swung the horses over the side and landed them onto the jetty. The Captain told the three of us to turn in and he would see us on the bridge in the morning.
All shore leave was stopped while we were in Rio Quequien.
The following morning Charlie, Martin and me went up on the bridge and met the Captain, He said we would be logged a days pay for being drunk and another days pay for missing a days work. also it would cost us two weeks wages each to pay for the whisky. "What?" we said , thats half a months wages we can`t afford that." "Do you want to make it one months wages?`, He said, `those Vigilantes could have taken you away and that would have been the end of you. I saved your lives not because I wanted to but I didn`t want to be short handed on deck for the rest of the voyage. "
Some times you just can`t win.
Vintage stuff Brian, I could smell the cheap cigars and taste that anis,as for Theresa,eh muy bueno!!
BrianD
FAREWELL TO BOB FAIRLEY
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Today I recieved the very sad news of our old friend and shipmate Bob Fairley, He has passed over the Bar. I recieved the sad news from Malcom on Vancouver Island. Bob lived in Ontario. Canada.
Bob Fairlie has crossed the bar. His daughter informed me of his passing, on Thursday. Bob was a veteran of the Second World War, and a man who
was proud of his participation in those exciting days, particularly serving on
the Murmansk run. Bob left the sea in the early fifties, married and emigrated to Canada, where he and his wife raised a family. He was also a member of the Canadian Merchant Seamans Assoociation, and it was when he came to Victoria to attend their general meeting that I got to meet him, having got to know him on the old Sailors Home site. Captain Kong and Ernie Higham recently hosted him at the Eldonian - see photos on the ships gallery thread,
and Ron Manderson did the same last year when Bob visited Merseyside.
So, those of us lucky enough to have enjoyed his company, however briefly,
can look back on it with a smile, as Bob had an a dry sense of humour that
really cracked you up.
So, let us all raise a glass to a fine man. Cheers Bob.
Ernie and I met up with Bob just over two weeks ago in the Eldonian Club and I posted his photos on the Gallery, It was a great pleasure to have met him, he always had a good sence of humour and kept us entertained with his jokes, sadly no more. It was a great shock to hear the news.
Bob served on the Russian Convoys during World War 2.
All the best Bob on your new venture. Cheers.
1, Bob with me and Ernie, 2, Bob with a fellow Russian Convoy Veteran,
3. Bob and his mate from Wallasey. three weeks ago.
Last edited by captain kong; 07-12-2009 at 11:16 AM.
Hi Brian.
Very sad to read that your friend and shipmate has passed away.
Regards Reg.
thaithyme
A SAILOR DIED TODAY
He was getting old and skinny
and his hair was falling fast
and he sat around the alehouse
telling stories about the past.
of a war that he had fought in
and the deeds that he had done
in his exploits with his buddies
heroes everyone
and tho`sometimes to his neighbours
his tales became a joke
all his buddies listened
for they knew whereof he spoke
But we`ll here his tales no longer
for old Bob has passed away
and the worlds a little poorer
for a sailor died today.
He wont be mourned by many
just his children and his wife
for he lived a very ordinary
very quiet sort of life
He held a job and raised a family
quietly going on his way
and the world won`t note his passing
tho` a Sailor died today
Kong - excellent, thank you.
I'm sure Bob would be thrilled.
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