Originally Posted by brian daley
Disgraceful, Brian. Fancy trying to type a naughty word into an innocent post.
Well you were well and truly caught!
Disgraceful, Brian. Fancy trying to type a naughty word into an innocent post.
Well you were well and truly caught!
DUNEDIN STAR, SOUTH AND EAST AFRICA, SEPTEMBER 1956
We arrived alongside in Durban on Saturday morning on the 15th of September and we were only to be here until Monday, so there was not a lot of time to get ourselves known here.
Saturday night Tony and I with some of the other lads went uptown to the Playhouse, it was a club very similar to Delmonaco`s in Cape Town, it was built as an Indian palacea, court yard with the `sky` above
Having moving clouds which changed colour as the sun set and then twinkling stars. There was a good bar and lots of pretty girls to dance with but we just couldn`t crack it, we must be losing our touch or
I think maybe that the girls didn?t want to get involved with seamen, so we got ourselves bevied instead.
On Sunday morning the Seamen?s` Mission put us on a coach and took us up to the Valley of a Thousand Hills to a Zulu village to watch the Zulus singing and dancing, quite interesting but we couldn?t crack it with the Zulu girls either.
That was our last run ashore until we would arrive in Brisbane one month later. On Monday morning we dropped the derricks and battened down and then sailed to Lourenco Marques in Mozambique.
We anchored in Delagoa Bay and unloaded our cargo into barges for a couple of days then sailed round to Beira. We were anchored out there for seven days completing discharging all our cargo again into barges, we were too far off shore to get ashore so we were quite happy when we were ready to sail to Australia to get a decent run ashore.
I had a letter from my girlfriend Sheila in Melbourne and she said that she had a friend who wanted a
Blind date with Tony but when I told him he wasn?t too keen as on most blind dates you end up with the ugly one, still it was something to look forward to.
We sailed from Mozambique on Saturday, 29th of September sailed round the southern tip of Madagascar and then had a good run down to the southern ocean to the Aussie coast.
Hi Brian,
Went to LM three times, and each time it was a different name!
First time - Lourenco Marques
Second time - Camfumo (didn't last long).
Third time - Maputo, its current name.
Star boat
Great stories Brian, keep 'em coming. You have got the memory of an elephant
Alec.
Star boat
Great stories Brian, keep 'em coming.
Alec.
We landed in Brisbane in Queensland mooring at New Farm Wharf, that night we went into Brisbane and to the Grand Central Hotel in Queen Street. It was a bit quiet in there and we asked one of the local lads where all the action was. He told us to go a township outside the city, there was a pub and a brothel. Sounded good so `Blubs` Donnelly, John the Baptist, Tony and I climbed into a taxi and went there.
It was just a small place with wood side walks a pub with bat wing doors, a few wooden houses and a Brothel facing the pub. It was used by the men who spent a few months in the bush who came into town had a few beers and a leg over before going back to the bush.
We had a couple of beers in the pub and sat on the veranda looking at the Brothel.
Then `Let?s get it over with lads`, we strolled across the street to the `House` and knocked on the door.
A big buxom woman, who?s former beauty was fading fast, opened the door, "G`day boys you want to see my girls? come in" We went into the lounge with six scantily clad young ladies lounging around on divans waiting for us.
It?s ?20 for a `quickie`, no pay no play.
`Kinnell! Our wages at that time was ?30 a month so it was 3 weeks wages for ten minutes, 2 minutes in Tony?s case. We argued and haggled but she wouldn?t bring the price down. You would think it was her who would be doing the deed, I am sure the girls would have done it for nothing the way they were looking at me, I was, lean, mean and bronzed with sun bleached hair and girls used to scream after me. In the end the old Mamasan screamed, " Get out you Pommie bums".
We walked back across the street to the pub and ordered another beer and sat on the veranda overlooking the brothel, dreaming of what might have been. " You would have been finished by now Tony " I said sipping my cool Castlemaine xxxx
"and I would have just about been nearly half way." Just then John the Baptist, a Liverpool lad, who looked like his namesake, said "they will all burn in hell for their sins, Vengeance is mine sayeth the Lord, I will repay" Why what?s going to happen John, ` we asked. " When you were arguing with the Madam I put the electric fire behind the drape curtains and switched it on, just watch,"
A minute later we saw flames licking up the drapes and then a flash and the tinder dry wooden building went up in flames, Kinnell! Six scantily clad young ladies ran out of the House followed by the screaming Madam, then 3 naked young ladies and 3 men staggered out trying to pull up their keks and falling over as they tried to run across the street. Suddenly the building collapsed in a shower of flames and sparks.
`Come on let?s get out of here`, I shouted, we ran around the corner and found a taxi and went back to Brisbane.
When we got back to Brisbane we went into the Grand Central Hotel for another beer and a young lady by the name of Gwen Taylor took a fancy to me and was all over me, chewing my ears and kissing etc. Tony was a sick as a pig cos no once else fancied him.
A closing time we all piled into a taxi and went back to the ship. We went into my cabin and I got a bottle of Penfolds out and then went to the mess room to get a bottle opener and some glasses. When I got back Gwen had gone,? where is she?"
Bubs Donnolly said she?s gone with Tony to his Cabin.
I legged it up the alley way and hammered on the door which was locked, "Open up you ba*tard that?s my girl" " Not any more, she?s mine now, so *** off."
I ***** off back to my cabin and drank the bottle with the rest of the lads while we laughed about the Brothel burning down.
Next morning I got up early and went to the bathroom and found Gwen, who had just had a shower, scrubbing the crutch piece of her knickers with Tony?s toothbrush. Later on when Tony got up and was brushing his teeth he said, "What are you laughing at" When I told him what Gwen had done he was nearly sick. " Serves you right you ba*tard " I said. Meanwhile Gwen did a runner with Tony?s money and a carton of 200 ciggies.
We stayed in Brisbane for a couple of days then sailed up to a God forsaken place called Port Alma, up near Rockhampton.
Brian ,as I was reading todays episode I thought "how very unlike the lives of our own dear royal family". You know John the Baptist was right,you are doomed to burn in hell for the wicked things you did back then. But, before you do,.tell us some more ,please!
BrianD
We arrived in Port Alma after calling in at Gladstone, another one horse town for a couple of days. Nothing much there just a couple of pubs with batwing doors. Next stop was Port Alma.on 3rd.November, a godforsaken place up in.Queensland.
It was up a crocodile infested creek, surrounded by salt flats, scrub and desert. a breading ground for millions of flies and mosquitoes. There was no electricity there only oil lamps when it got dark ashore.
There was just a small wood jetty and six wooden huts and a canteen that only sold Sarsaparrilla pop, The Five huts were the accommodation for the wharfies and one for the girls who worked in the canteen, cooking meals for the wharfies. The girls were ruled by a huge Bosun type of a woman, a big forced draft job.We called her the Mamasan, who hated us Sailors cos she thought we were all sniffing round her girls and would have them locked up in the shack by 9.30 pm. The nearest town was 200 miles away where there was a meat works that sent the frozen beef down every day on a single track railroad. The wharfies and girls stayed there for the duration of loading a few thousand tons of beef.
Saturday night was 5th of November, bonfire night and a large fire was lit on the beach and beer and grog appeared and we were all having a great time snogging the girls in the shadows. Tony and I were having a go at two beautiful Polynesian twin sisters , Theresa and Thyra Hornung, when the Mamasan gave us a load of abuse and threats and took the girls back to the shack and then locked them all in for the night.
The party was over so we all went back aboard the ship and turned in.
About 1am the watchman woke us up and said the wharfies were running about with
shotguns searching for a sailor who had been trying to break into the girls shack. We checked the cabins and found that John the Baptist was missing.
He was called John the Baptist cos he looked just like the man from the Bible and was always saying biblical phrases from the bible. He was from Liverpool.
Tony and I got a torch and went ashore to find him before the wharfies did and blew him apart with their shot guns.
By the shacks I spoke to a wharfie with a gun and he told us that they had heard singing of hymns coming from the top of the water tower,
. John the Baptist had climbed up the tower to hide and fell into the water and the sides were to high and smooth for him to climb out and was just swimming around in ever decreasing circles.when the wharfie and his mate climbed to the top of the tower they could see John singing `Abide with Me` and just as he was sinking for the last time he started singing `For Those In Peril On The Sea`. Just before he sank they grabbed him and pulled him out and got him onto the ladder, John just shot down and disappeared into the darkness and so they were still searching for him.
Tony and I searched under the shacks and then I saw him, I grabbed Tony and we crawled underneath the shack and there was John the Baptist. on his knees with his head on the ground throwing sand over his head shouting "You can`t see me I am an ostrich" Crazy, he was out of his head with the grog.
As we grabbed him he was shouting " The Lord Is my Shepherd, but He lead me astray tonght". We dodged our way back to the ship in the darkness and got him to his cabin and locked him in.
The shouting and screaming ashore slowly died down and the Mamasan locked up her girls again and the wharfies turned in and Port Alma went back to sleep after the most exciting night it had ever had.
Next morning the wharfies went on strike and refused to work until whoever it was apologised. So we got John to got out to meet the wharfies.
He looked like John the Baptist, he had a little round white skull cap on, a thin haggered face with a beard , a long white shirt that came past his knees and open sandles. He stood on top of the gangway looking down on the wharfies and the girls.
They were shouting abuse and kill the ba*tard, but when John appeared on the gangway platform, the light cluster was on the deck behind him, in the early morning light, he was glowing, he looked truly biblical. They were stunned and fell silent when they saw this apparition above them.
He raised his arms and said "The Lord was my shepherd but I was lead astray last night, I was suffering from the sins of the flesh but now I have seen the light and and have found the paths of rightiousness I have cast out the devil within me and I will sin no more and now I walk in the shadow of the Lord. God Bless you all. Vengeance is mine sayeth the Lord I will repay." and with that he turned and walked back to the mess room.
The wharfies stood there in a stunned silence for several minutes They could not believe what they had just seen and heard and so in their bemused state they went back to work and John became a legend.
.
It has taken me over two hours to get this post on, does anyone else have problems with the slow speed??
Dunedin Star continued,.......................
We stayed in Port Alma for another few days loading beef. We spent the evenings in an old railway carriage with the two twin sister, Thyra and Theresa, until the big Mamasan came along to chase them back to the shack and lock them up. When we sailed for Melbourne we said we would write to them until we returned the following trip on the Adelaide Star.
Arriving in Melbourne we tied up near to the bottom of Flinders Street on a Saturday morning. After topping the derricks ready for the wharfies starting on Monday morning , I went ashore to phone my girl friend, Shiela, who I had first met on the `GEORGIC` when she was emmigrating in 1955. She was a beautiful green eyed ginger haired girl. She said she had a friend who wanted a blind date with my mate, so I told Tony.
` No, No, ` he said, `Blind dates you always get the ugly one.`.
She said they would meet us in the cafe in Flinders Street Staion at 4 pm. We went ashore to the `Sir Charles Hotham,` on the corner of Spencer and Flinders Streets for a bevy. He was gulping it down, `Do I have to go? I dont want the Ugly one, I`ll have to get bevied to face her.`
At 4pm we staggered up Flinders Street and went into the cafe, we had a couple of coffees. Then I saw them across the road on the corner of the Church. "Look at her Tony, she is beautiful, "
`No I`m not looking `he said with his head in his hands.
They entered the Cafe, Shiela came over to us and gave me a kiss, "This is Anita" she realy was gorgeous, Tony was still not looking, "And this is Tony" I said giving Tony a thump,`and fasten your flies". he raised his head and could not believe what he saw, I have never seen a man sober up so fast.
We sat there for a while having coffee, then Shiela said they were going to the Olympic Village in Heidelberg. The 1956 Olympic Games were on then. So we climbed into a taxi and went there. There was a dance on and then Anita disapeared, `Where is she` Tony said, "Just wait " said Shiela. Then they announced the final heat for "Miss Olympic Games 1956"
The finalists came on stage in their swimming costumes and there was Anita, looking fantastic. "You owe me." I said to Tony.
Anita won the contest. What a blind date!!!.
She then went on to win the Miss Victoris title and then Miss Australia, she had changed her name to Victoria
Shaw, after the State of Victoria and her mother`s maiden name. She eventually got a movie contract and went to Hollywood and became a movie Star, I saw her a few times in in a few films the last one a western. She died about three years ago.
We spent a couple of weeks with the girls. I went to the `Hostel` where Shiela was living with her parents, it was a disused army camp in Brooklyn on the outskirts of Melbourne, I went through the iron gates and a depressing row of Nissen huts, two families in a hut seperated by a breeze block wall and a cold water tap outside the door. they had been there for twelve months. Six months later when I went to see her they had moved to a farm house out in Melton South in the country. a little better.
The night before we sailed we kissed the girls good bye and went back on board the ship. In the messroom was the crowd drinking their bottles of beer, We got ours and joined them. There was a `beachy` there, a Liverpool bum who had been dossing down in the mess room. an obnoxious ba*tard. who was drinking everyone`s ale and money was missing from cabins.
He got hold of one of my bottles of ale , so I gripped him by the wrist and said,"Put it down or I`ll break your arm", He pulled away and threatened to kill me and said he had killed before and would do me as well. I said who have you killed.? He replied that he had killed two men in the Cameo Cinema in Liverpool seven years earlier in March 1949. ........
{ Now in 1949 my home was raided by the police and I was beaten up by the cops, a man, George Kelly was charged and then Hanged in 1950 for the murders and another man Charles Connolly was gaoled for ten years for conspiracy to the two murders at the Cameo Cinema. I became a close friend with Charles and eventually after a campaign by George Skelly and Lou Santangeli we got them both cleared and proven innocent of the murders, Charles died just before the result at the Criminal Court of Appeal in London. a sad story. ...I digress. ]
So I leaned over the table and smashed him in the face with a big iron fist. Of all the men to say that to it had to be me, who had been involved.
I dived over the table and battered him, with Tony`s help I dragged him out on deck and flung him down the gangway. With hindsight I should have held onto him, and found out who he realy was.
After the Court of Appeal verdict I learned from a lady in London that she suspected that a relative was the man who did the murders and his description fitted the Liverpool bum and he was in Australia at that time.
Next day we dropped the derricks and battened down, we had a full load for the Continent and London. we sailed that afternoon bound round the Southern Ocean past the Cape of Good Hope and up the Atlantic to Gibralter, a long voyage...
to be continued.................................
Dunedin Star, continued??????
After a long voyage of thirty days around the Cape from Melbourne we called in at Gibraltar to discharge two hundred tons of frozen beef.
Tony and I were on the 4 to 8 watch. We topped the derricks and stripped the hatches for the Dockers and removed the plugs for the fridge hatches.
Then we shaved showered and shampooed and leapt ashore to sample the delights of Gib after a long trip at sea. Tony was engaged to a young lady who was in the Signals Regiment and based here on the Rock so he was excited that he would meet up with his intended.
We walked up Main Street and went into the Royal Oak for a couple of pints then to the Cha Cha Bar for a few more. Walking down the next road we found the NAAFI Club so we dived in there for some more grog.
There were half a dozen National Servicemen in the bar so we were treating them to Rum and pints, as they didn?t get so much money.
Then suddenly Tony remembered his girl was here, he had forgotten, so he went to phone her. He came back and was going berserk; she had kicked him into touch and was now going out with a sergeant in the Army.
He came back into the bar and thumped one of the soldiers, he thumped Tony back and Tony fell on the floor so I thumped him knocking him over a table with all the glasses smashing on the floor. The others joined in; six to two wasn?t bad odds. Then an Army Officer and some more troops ran in and sorted us out and then escorted us to the gate and threw us out, well we had been thrown out of better places than that.
The following year I went back there and there was a notice on the gate, ?No Dogs, Dagos or Merchant Seamen allowed in the Club?.
The ship was sailing at 4pm so we staggered down the street and went past the Governor?s Palace; there was a soldier on guard with rifle and bayonet. Tony staggered across to him and crashed into him knocking him to the ground and dropping his rifle with a clatter. They were rolling over fighting so I had to separate them and got the soldier up and apologised for Tony?s behaviour, I explained that he had lost his girl to an Army fellow. I dragged Tony away and we staggered down the street to the dock. The crowd had just dropped the derricks and battened down and the ship was ready for sailing. Just made it. We sailed then for Dunkirk and into a cold weather and storms across the Bay of Biscay mooring in Dunkirk in a blizzard two days before Christmas Eve???????.
To be continued???????
Dunedin Star continued.........................
I forgot to mention of when we left Melbourne for homeward bound.
A young Fireman, George Jones of Liverpool had a brother Jimmy living in Melbourne and on leaving he said he wanted to go back to Liverpool so George stowed him away.
We found out a couple of days later when I went to Georges cabin and found Jimmy.
At first it was OK then when it became time for the weekly accommodation inspections when the Captain, Chief Steward, Chief Engineer came around it was a work of art shuffling Jimmy around so he wasn?t seen, from one cabin to another and in one locker to another.
One night Jimmy had a seizure and collapsed on the deck in Georges cabin, he was shaking violently then fell quiet, we thought he had died.
He eventually recovered and told George he was epileptic. George went mad over this, he said he would never have stowed him away if he had known. We even discussed what we would do if Jimmy died during one of these fits, we decided we wouldn?t call the Captain but just slide Jimmy over the wall into the oggin and say nothing.
Jimmy was beginning to be quite a nuisance and giving George a lot of stress, five or six weeks of this is a long time to hide someone.
In Dunkirk on Christmas Eve, Jimmy borrowed money off George and went ashore, got quite legless, fell out of a bar and discovered a hole in the road with workmen?s` tools and a wheelbarrow, he got the wheelbarrow full of tools and was galloping all over Dunkirk with it before the Gendarmes lifted him and locked him up. George on hearing this had to hide for two days as he was supposed to be in gaol, so he had a lousy Christmas.
The Police notified the Captain that one of his men, Jones, was in gaol and so on Boxing Day he went to the gaol and paid the fine and took Jimmy, the Stowaway, back to the ship. The Captain thinking Jimmy was George logged him two days pay for being adrift and then charged him the return taxi fare and the fine off the Police. It cost George half a month?s wages, George was going demented over his stupid brother.
He was becoming ill over his behaviour.
When the ship arrived in Hull just before New Year, George got a sub for Jimmy?s train fare to Liverpool and got rid of him. Then George who was really looking quite bad asked the Captain if he could see a doctor, the captain said `No, you just want to go home for the New Year instead of going to London, the final port of discharge as per articles`.
On New Years Eve George collapsed in his cabin, we told the Captain and I went ashore to a phone box and called for an ambulance. They came and took him to hospital.
Three weeks later I was in Liverpool and I bumped into Jimmy, ?How?s your George? I asked. Jimmy replied, ?He died on New Years day in the hospital?.
George was 22 years old. If he had seen a doctor when he wanted one, would he have still been alive? Very sad, after five months George went home in a coffin.
to be continued..................................
We went ashore in Dunkirk, two days before Christmas, it was freezing and deep in snow. We were drinking in Yvette?s bar and got friends with a couple of American seamen, one called Frisco who was a little guy and the other was a big fat slob called Boston.
They were throwing their money around like confetti and as long as they kept on paying Tony and I kept on drinking, a very good arrangement we thought.
We were drinking and dancing with Yvette?s` girls on Xmas Eve and Yvette said that if we brought a couple of turkeys on Xmas Day when the bar was closed we would have a big party there with free booze.
We said we would bring Frisco and Boston, as they were the biggest turkeys that we knew.
Later on as we were all getting bevied Frisco was shouting that he wanted to go to midnight mass at Dunkirk Cathedral.
So we carried on drinking and at 4 am on Christmas Day we all decided to go to midnight mass. Frisco got a very large sombrero off the wall in the bar, put it on his head and staggered out into the snow, he looked like a drunken mushroom. It was freezing and snowing and the four of us were staggering up the road and we had to call in a couple of bars to warm up and then we came to the Louis XIV Club and Boston went in and the doorman threw him out, he went in again shouting, "I am a United States Citizen ya gotta let me in, these other bums are Lymies keep `em out". The doorman threw him out again.
Boston screamed "I could have got in there but for you Limy bums" so with that I thumped him and we were rolling about in the snow and I was sat on his chest battering him when he shouted " I surrender". I let him get up and said " Us Limy bums don?t like being insulted, don?t do it again". We staggered on through the snow towards the cathedral.
We got there for midnight mass at six a.m. just as the service was about to start.
At the entrance was a font with the holy water in and another font with money in and Frisco grabbed a handful of money and blessed himself with it and Tony twisted his arm and made him put it back.
We sat at the back of the cathedral, I whispered to Frisco, " Take that stupid sombrero off your head" " Hell no," he shouted, " Some one might steal it".
The Bishop was speaking in Latin through a microphone. Frisco stood up and started walking down the aisle to the front, still wearing the big sombrero, " Hey shout up will ya, we can?t hear what you?re talking about at the back?.
With that I said come on Tony let?s get out of here.
We just got outside when we were followed by Frisco and Boston being thrown out by half a dozen Frenchmen. Frisco was shouting, " I?ve been thrown out of better places than this."
We staggered on through the snow to the dock.
We arrived at the American ship, the `HOWARD T ANDREWS` a Liberty ship and Frisco invited us on board for breakfast. In the mess room Boston introduced us to the American sailors as two Limy bums that they had found, I was going to thump him again when I could smell the breakfast in the galley.
A big black mess man towered over me, " Wadda ya want, eggs, two, four, six? easy over, sunnyside up or what. ham ?, two, four, six, or what.?
" Err six of everything please " Tony and I said.
We got six eggs, six huge slices of ham with fries, tomatoes beans and toast. the biggest breakfast I had ever seen.
After breakfast Tony and I left and said we would see them in Yvette?s bar later in the day with our turkeys.
We got aboard the Dunedin Star and the sailors were just getting their breakfast of one egg and one thin slice of bacon, we gave ours to the lads.
The Galley boy came into the mess room so Tony said to him ? Get us a couple of Turkeys this afternoon" the Boy replied there was only one turkey onboard and that was for the Officers Xmas dinner.
" What no turkey for the sailors?" so he said there is a chicken for the sailors. " It must be a bloody big chicken to feed all the sailors,? I said. " Get us that one then "
" I can?t " said the Galley boy. Tony said "Just leave it by the port in the galley and leave the rest to us. "
We got our heads down until 1pm and got ready to go ashore, we walked past the galley port and there was a small chicken on a plate. I leaned through and passed the chicken to Tony who wrapped it in a paper and we ran down the gangway and up the road to Yvette?s bar.
We were sat there with a drink when Boston and Frisco came in with two large cooked turkeys. Boston sat down with us and said " Where?s ya turkeys Limies"? I pointed to the newspaper with the chicken in. " Well god****, a few scraps for the dog " and then he threw it on the floor and Yvette?s Alsatian dog dived on it and scoffed the lot.
I jumped up and said " You fat Yankee ba*ta*d" and was going to thump him again when Yvette jumped in between. It?s OK there is plenty of turkey for us all and the drinks are on the house, and all the girls are yours for free.
Well we had a great party with the girls all night and two days later we got back to the ship.
The Captain had Tony and I on the bridge to be logged for being adrift for two days. We were fined two days pay and forfeit two days pay, then we were questioned about a missing chicken, we said we had never tasted chicken for months, we hadn?t, but Yvette?s dog had.
The ba*ta*ds, the ship had 15,000 tons of meat from Australia on board and we were starving. they could have bought dozens of chickens with the four days wages each they had taken off us.
The following day we sailed for Hull.
To be continued????????.
Last edited by captain kong; 07-22-2009 at 05:29 PM.
You haven't lost your touch Brian, a good tale and very well told. Keep 'em coming............................................ ...........Where's our Fred, I haven't heard anything of him since the Liverpool 'do'. I hope he is O.K.
BrianD
Stories.
Great stories Brian.. You've got the memory of an elephant.
Alec.
We arrived in Hull on the 29th of December 1956.
It was cold wet and windy, a typical winters day on the Humber.
We had a few bevies that night and the following night then it was New Years Eve. The problem with having to the discharge ports after a long trip meant that we were going to pay off with nothing, after all the subs and loggings.
New Years Eve, we were sailing at 10pm. What a stupid time to sail.
All hands went to a dance at the Baths at Beverley Road, the pool had been boarded over, and there was a band, a bar and lots of pretty girls.
10pm came and went, Midnight we were kissing the New Year in and Tony and I copped for two young ladies to take home. Tony?s girl looked like Gene Autry and had legs to match, mine was quite pretty.
We took them home and eventually made it back to the ship just after 1.30 is, she was still there with tugs alongside and the Pilot on board, the Captain demented and screaming abuse as the crew were arriving back one by one.
Next day we were all lined up on the bridge for logging, at this rate we?ll be paying Blue Star on pay off day.
Another day at sea and then we arrived in Antwerp. We were only here for the day sailing sometime in the evening.
I went ashore at 1pm and at the first bar stopped for a beer. Inside was a lad I had sailed with on the `Empress of Scotland` 18 months earlier.
He was on a Ropner boat, the `Levenpool`, a Fort boat; they were trying to get paid off. They were on a two-year voyage, coal from the Continent to Buenos Aires and grain back to the Continent.
They had all began to break out in scabs and boils with bad guts. They had complained about the water, which was pumped up from the after peak and told the tank was cleaned and cement washed in dry dock in Glasgow nine months earlier. They had the Union man over from London and eventually got the tank drained and then the manhole cover was unbolted. Inside they found the skeletal remains of a man and some empty whisky bottles. It was presumed that the man who cleaned it also had a few whiskies and flaked out inside. When the men shouted inside if anyone was there, no answer, then they battened down? When it was filled up he must have drowned and they had been drinking this contaminated water for nine months. So they were hoping to get paid off.
My mate was gulping ale down as fast as he could, trying to wash the taste of the ships water away.
I was keeping up with him and eventually Oblivion. I remember nothing until I woke up at sea bound for London. Don?t remember going back on board or anything.
Next morning, Friday, 4th of January 1957, we berthed in London and paid off in the afternoon. We all got taxis to Euston Station and went into the bar for a few drinks then we caught the last train to Liverpool
" Brief Encounter".
Tony and I went into the bar on the train, which was full of business types. drinking Gin and Tonics, going home for the weekend. Whilst I was stood at the bar I saw a very attractive young lady trying unsuccessfully to order a drink. I asked her what she wanted, a G&T? right. ? A G&T and two rum and cokes Garcon.? ?There you are, my treat?, I said. In those days I was lean, mean, and bronzed with sun bleached wavy hair and the girls could not resist me, TRUE!!
I introduced myself and told her that we were homeward bound from Australia and were celebrating Christmas and New Year.
She told me that her name was Magnolia and she lived in Birkdale near the golf course and she was a secretary to Sir Hartley Shawcross the famous legal eagle. After a couple more G&T s our hands touch and it was electrifying, our fingers entwined and soon we held each other in an embrace. I could feel the warmth and contours of her body as she pressed herself against me, we kissed gently and I could smell the perfume in her hair. I could see Tony over her shoulder and he was going around the coach talking to all the men there and pointing at me, but I took no notice I had a promising night ahead, soon we were planning to stay at the Adelphi Hotel on Lime Street. Magnolia was lovely, I was in love with her and she was with me.
The Train stopped at Crewe Station, suddenly I saw Tony open the door and throw my case out on to the platform and a crowd of men came over to me and pulled me away from Magnolia. " Hey what?s going on?? I shouted.
" Come along old chap" one fellow said to me, " your Mother is waiting for you"
My Mother??? What?s she doing in Crewe? They dragged me away from Magnolia who was looking startled at what was happening, I was struggling to get free but there were to many of them and next I was out onto the platform and Tony slammed the door. I picked up my case and tried to get back on the train then the Porter grabbed me from behind and was pulling me back. Then the train moved off and was picking up speed as I ran alongside it. Magnolia opened the window and leaned out, she was weeping as the train accelerated out of reach Magnolia took a ring off her finger and our fingers touched for the last time as she passed the ring into my outstretched hand. I stood there stunned, I could not believe it, what was happening, one minute I am homeward bound with a beautiful lady and the next I am all alone on a cold dark platform as the train disappeared into the darkness.
The ba*ta*d, that Tony will have a lot to answer for when I catch up with him. I walked back down the platform to where my case was, the Porter was there. " What the hells going on I demanded." why did you stop me from going on the train"
He replied " Your mate said that you lived in Crewe and that you had been away from home for more than three years and seeing that you were drunk they had to force you off the train"
The picture was getting clear now, that Tony wanted to have a go at my Magnolia.
" What time is the next train to Liverpool " " There is no more tonight, the next one is at 6.30 in the morning" he said. " Kinnell" I dragged my case into the cold dismal waiting room, I sat there stunned, looking at the ring that Magnolia had given me, This was the big one, the only woman I
would ever love, now she was gone, I could have wept. I didn?t know her surname, or her address or phone number I would never see her again. I kept the ring for two years until a young lady in South America took it off me.
I stretched out on the hard wooden bench in the cold waiting room and tried unsuccessfully to sleep. I could not believe it, I should have been in the Adelphi with Magnolia.
I climbed aboard the train at 6.30 next morning, cold, stiff and hungry bound for Liverpool. In Lime Street I dumped my case in the Left Luggage Office and caught the bus to Dovecot to where Tony lived. I walked down Grant Road to number 189 and hammered on the door, as soon as he opens it I will batter him.
The door opened, it was his Mother, " Hello, are you Tony?s mate off the ship? Come in" I went in " Where is he"? " He?s upstairs, I?ll just go and get him, make him a cup of tea Luv" she said to Tony?s sister, she was attractive, I followed her into the kitchen and was chatting to her while she brewed up.
Tony walked in laughing, " All right Scouse, how did you get on in Crewe"" You ba..? I said but I could get angry as his Mother was smiling and his sister was handing me a cup of tea." Why was I thrown off the train" " Well" he said as we all sat round the table " I fancied Magnolia and I knew I would have no chance while you where there so I told the men in the train that you had been in the French Foreign Legion and had been captured at the battle of Dien Bien Phu in Viet Nam, and when you were released you went to Sidde bel Abbes in Algeria then demobbed in Marseilles and now you were on your way home after being away for more than three years and I promised your Mother that I would see that you got off the train in Crewe where you lived. so all the fellows in the coach thought they doing you a favour." " How did you get on with Magnolia? " I asked. " I didn?t " he replied " she was weeping and when I went to her she slapped my face and then went down the coaches to her seat and I didn?t see her again. "
" You sneaky ba*ta*d , and I was all fixed up there" " That wasn?t a very nice thing to do , our Tony " his Mother said.
Ah well, `Cie la vie`, as we say in the French Foreign Legion. We walked down to the `Boundary` Tony?s local alehouse, as they were open by now and had a few bevies before I got the train back to Bolton and home.
Last edited by captain kong; 07-23-2009 at 06:11 PM.
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