Liverpool Sailors......

[Tony Quinn]

Hi all,
I think I know a few you from other Merchant Marine sites.... My grandad was in the Merchant Navy....his name was, wait for it, Martin Quinn. Would like to hear anything about him from anyone who knew him.
Best wishes to you all
Tony

[Ronijayne]

Do you have any more info, date of birth etc?

[Frank1]

Did not sail with him Tony, but heard a couple of tales about him from guys who had. A real hardcase from what I heard of him. Think he was a bosun on the Empress boats.

[brian daley]

Hi Tony,
I was on the Empress of Britain in 1962 and was a deck hand. Martin was the Bo'sun and one of the bosuns mates was a guy called Tommy Molloy. I never saw ,or heard of, any violence during that trip,excepting for a scrap between Tommy Molloy and a 4th engineer called Neil McAteer. The Brit was the only ship I was ever sacked from and thus just did the one trip. I was sacked from her because I had laryngitis and was considered a risk to the passengers. I've written about this in detail in my blog,"Hullo Old Home" which is on this site,
Cheers
BrianD

[captain kong]

I sailed with Martin on the Empress of France, he was a hard man, Bosun, did not tolerate cowboys, only good seamen. I got on with him OK. The dockers in Montreal all hated him and were causing trouble.
I was in the Liverpool House across the road from the Canadian Pacific berth, Martin was sat at at table with a Bosuns Mate and the Chippy. Martin goes to the Gents and four French Canadian Dockers complete with their Hand Hooks followed him in. The screams were terrible, with all kinds of banging etc. then silence, we thought Martin had been killed.
Then the door opened and Martin walked out and sat down again with his beer. The dockers did not appear.
Hard man was Martin.

[Doris Mousdale]

Did you come a very good guy named Harold Schafer who was a Bosun round the same time or Raymond Unsworth longtime Blue Funnel man

[Ernie]

Martin Quin was a bully, not a hard case, his game when he was beaten in a fight was to wait and get them with a chipping hammer or scraper. I know blokes who it happened to. I was on the Empress of Canada and had no bother with him. Ernie.