A Jimmy Cagney lookalike in baseball cap and plaid shirt, the Mississippi river pilot was quite opinionated of American society: “too many Jews and African-Americans in government” he proclaimed as the ship swung ten degrees port up river to New Orleans.I thought: oh! dear, is this the type of prejudiced society I half-expected it to be? By the way, for those fortunate…
Such knocking on the door wasn’t the usual sort; figuratively speaking it was a demand to be heard.The place was the South African Parliament and the urging came from the African National Council to educate the nation’s black youth – ‘ANC press Vorster for immediate action’ read the headlines of the Cape Argus. In 1974 this coincided with my first trip to Capetown and although…
From a working dock to a thriving leisure attraction, the Royal Albert Dock Liverpool has seen many people come and go. A new Heritage Lottery supported project is looking for people with memories of the Albert Dock, particularly dockers and seafarers who remember it before it’s closure in the early 1970’s. What was it like to work there? What were…
Who are Seaborne Freight?
I’m not sure what emotions we felt as a ship’s crew – fear or apprehension, perhaps.
For as the ship sailed into the heat and humidity of Freetown harbour, the rows of military Land Rovers parked on the quay – some painted with a distinctive Red Cross – were plain to see.
As defined by ‘Marine Insight’, the maritime educational body, stowaways are categorised in two groups:
As the ship passed the Cape Hatteras lighthouse off North Carolina it was the deck cadet who spoke first: ” I’ve been here before”, he proclaimed.No-one answered until the lighthouse beam flashed, casting an eerie shadow inside the wheelhouse.”Yes, me also” replied the skipper
Around the time when the United Kingdom had almost full-employment and a social contract to govern prices and wage restraint, we also had a thriving Merchant Navy. For this was in 1974 when not only were there over 1600 red-ensigned vessels compared to less than 300 today. That notwithstanding, the slump in vessels was already declining in that year owing to the oil-price…
Writer and Painter John Richardson kindly sent me a copy of the book he has written entitled ‘Victims of the Atlantis’ and he was happy for us to publish it on Liverpool Ships and Sailors as lots of Liverpool ships feature. So, here it is – thanks so much John. John has also written a book on the Cutty Sark,…
As part of BOA70 We were invited onto the Canadian Ship Iroquois on Sunday evening, it was a very posh do, with cocktails and even a chocolate fountain. We sampled the Navy moose milk which is apparently a Canadian Navy tradition and it was so good, we thought we would share the recipe. It might be a good idea to…
I was very sad to hear that David Owen, passed away on 20th April this year. I’ve been busy on a couple of work related projects and hadn’t made it down to the usual Wednesday afternoon at the Albert Dock to catch up with Dave, Pat, Brian, Russell and Roy. In the last few times I saw Dave, we were…
This is the first of many messages I will post. Let’s hope we all contribute and make it a success. Tony