[Wribbenhall]

Originally Posted by jamesgpobog

Different cruise.

Here's the truth about the Groucho's.

I have a Harley and belong to an online riding club. We had a 'Rite', that if you wanted to qualify, you had to don the Groucho's in public, and take a pic, then post it on the club site. I had so much fun getting that original pic (taken on the cruise) that I continued the gag for the whole cruise. There's a whole series of them...

Oh heck,James,I've been trying for 70 years to understand you Americans,but I'm no nearer.There was a time I think when I thought you were 'almost getting there',but,no disrespect meant,when I say you are all too much of a muchness.
But then again you're American,and I'm British,and that says it all.
As George Bernard Shaw wrote, "We are two nations-separated by a common language".

Let us know which cruises you'll be taking in the years to come- but I'll apologise in advance here if I can't quite make it on the same ones !

All the Very Best
W.B.H.

[PatriciaAnnT]

Originally Posted by Wribbenhall

Oh heck,James,I've been trying for 70 years to understand you Americans,but I'm no nearer.There was a time I think when I thought you were 'almost getting there',but,no disrespect meant,when I say you are all too much of a muchness.
But then again you're American,and I'm British,and that says it all.
As George Bernard Shaw wrote, "We are two nations-separated by a common language".

Let us know which cruises you'll be taking in the years to come- but I'll apologise in advance here if I can't quite make it on the same ones !

All the Very Best
W.B.H.

Please don't lump us altogether!

[Wribbenhall]

Originally Posted by PatriciaAnnT

Please don't lump us altogether!

Only if you promise not to wear your Groucho mask whilst cruising !


x

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

I once signed a contract to scuttle a ship in deep water. She was the "Universe Defiance", a Ludwig tanker that had suffered a serious explosion and was unsalvageable.

It was an odd feeling.

On the other hand, I had to dispose of CNCo's "Coral Princess". One possible buyer was the HK Government who planned to use her to forcibly repatriate Vietnamese boat people. I and several others didn't like the idea of our little old cruise ship, which had given an awful lot of happiness to many, doing that work.

Anyway, they did not buy her and she went for further trading. We got a stunningly good price. A colleague remarked that, in her new role, she could have been renamed economically by painting over the first letter of her name. She lasted another ten years.

[marinemec2004]

Originally Posted by dom

Nicholas Monsarrat wrote one book as such, The ship that died of shame

Read it! Excellent book and Excellent author!

[jg grant]

Until recently I had this woolly notion that'my' ships still plied the oceans somewhere. Google told me that the Abbotsford was wrecked off Panama and the SS Stanrealm was wrecked near Hong Kong. Then I happened to tune in to a TV programme and see my old ammo/ supply RFA being ran up on the beach at full speed in India. Got a lump in my throat at that one. Razor blades and Hondas, maybe that's best. Ronnie.

[racco79]

Originally Posted by Barrie Youde

Isn't it a matter of doing what seems right at the time? For as long as the ship has a useful working life, keep her going. At the end of that life, the knacker's yard is right and proper. Only the exceptional very, very few can be accorded the privilege of lying in state for ever.

My sentiments exactly - hate seeing things go for disposal/scrap when they have many more years left in them. If they are not fit for purpose then one has to accept the inevitable, but just reading or hearing about when young ships go - terrible. Reading this thread I see how upsetting it can be for people who have served on the vessels concerned. I couldn't do it, I know fully well how it feels having seen one of my favourites consigned to Esjberg (have I spelt that right?) horrible.

[Amanita]

It's been a while since I posted here, and now I come across this thread..

I may be no sailor, but I do consider myself an Animist, and the soul of a ship that many seafarers speak of- it's there, for sure. Even some of us shore-bound types can sense it. I still remember the mighty Saipem 7000 coming into port here, she had a presence I'll never forget. With those two cranes of hers working in synchronicity, she was truly a living being. And when I was lucky enough to go on board and explore her, that presence made a deep impression indeed. Years later, I see her in my dreams occasionally.

I remember being fascinated with Supertankers when I was a kid, and toting around a National Geographic featuring them, wishing there were more pics to admire. Years later, I remember feeling sadness when I realized that the end had already come for these ships, and what short lives some of them had had.
I love the poem posted in this thread, and wish I could find a book of mine that seems likewise appropriate. I'll look for it a bit later.

Although an end in the breaker's yard seems more fitting than being allowed to rot, I couldn't pick up the torch and do it either.

[DAVID ALCOCK]

Look on the bright side every ship at ALANG feeds hundreds of families for a few weeks in an area where poverty is widespread

[Alan Rawlinson]

Originally Posted by DAVID ALCOCK

Look on the bright side every ship at ALANG feeds hundreds of families for a few weeks in an area where poverty is widespread

Agree. Scrapping is infinitely preferable to preservation or conversion etc, which is the worst solution of all. The reason for this is the sentiments experienced by those involved in the working life of the ship. It's not just the physical steel structure etc, but the 'buzz' of active life on board and the coming together of a way of life which remains in the head. Even a well preserved ship ( Queen Mary?) will still look very sad to any ex crew walking round - like a decaying corpse.

[DAVID ALCOCK]

we stayed on qm twice in the 90s as she was swapping owners ,we just wandered arround no restrictions/security at all ,the cabins were nice but the rest virtualy abandoned

[stevekelly10]

Having taken one ship to her final resting place after having sailed on her and her sister ship (which soon suffered a similar fate) numerous times over the preceeding 13 years. It is not a thing I ever want to do again! When the telegraph rang F.W.E for the very final time, I found it very emotional even it was just a lump of metal http://www.aukevisser.nl/supertankers/id104.htm

[Alan Rawlinson]

Originally Posted by stevekelly10

Having taken one ship to her final resting place after having sailed on her and her sister ship (which soon suffered a similar fate) numerous times over the preceeding 13 years. It is not a thing I ever want to do again! When the telegraph rang F.W.E for the very final time, I found it very emotional even it was just a lump of metal http://www.aukevisser.nl/supertankers/id104.htm

Thinking about empty ships etc I recall being the only person on a passenger ship laid up in a strike ( many moons ago) The empty feeling and eerie atmosphere left the ship feeling a bit sad, as I wandered around all the spaces normally humming with activity.

[DAVID ALCOCK]

Thats what QUEEN MARY was like !minimal staff and we did not see more than half a dozen other people round the whole 83000 tons ship.

[SuperClive]

Originally Posted by stevekelly10

Having taken one ship to her final resting place after having sailed on her and her sister ship (which soon suffered a similar fate) numerous times over the preceeding 13 years. It is not a thing I ever want to do again! When the telegraph rang F.W.E for the very final time, I found it very emotional even it was just a lump of metal http://www.aukevisser.nl/supertankers/id104.htm

Hi Steve and All

We all felt choked when she was renamed 'Philoctetes' for that final departure from Birkenhead in Dec 1972. But we flew a lonnnng pennant from the masthead as we sailed down the Mersey that last time and the Rea tugs gave us a final salute.

Yes, I agree, that final FWE as we went full astern up the beach in Kaohsiung was something of a tear-jerker after 3 years as my home. As I've put on another post elsewhere, some days out from the breakers, we found a couple of unopened boxes of Brasso in the 2/E's stores. She absolutely gleamed down below that final fateful watch. Yes, landlubbers cannot see what we seafarers mean when we say our former, loved homes / workplaces / ships that took us to see foreign lands had hearts and were alive. When I pulled the string I'd rigged from the ER door to the DO day tank dump valve and waited a few minutes until the genny faltered, died and the lights went out, I knew I'd killed the old girl. We marched off past the bow section of her sister, Perseus, she'd arrived 3 weeks earlier and that's all that was left of her. A very odd feeling indeed.

BFN

Clive

[A.D.FROST]

Do they still go for "Razor Blades" these day's now most them go to Bangladesh rather than Taiwan

[DAVID ALCOCK]

the ROTTERDAM is still alive as a hotel-just ,i could see the start of maintenance problems and lack of use ,on a sunny saterday in august she was busy but by no means full.
all the staff/hotel and tour were brilliant BUT she is way too far from the centre

[Manxman 52]

A thought envoking thread, having served in the submarine service who's job in time of war is to "kill" ships, I have to admit seeing my old boats being broken up and one laying dormant in Barrow whilst they decide her fate (she will be probably sold for scrap) I got a bit upset by the sight of these once fine submarines in various states of being broken up and no I couldn't take a torch to them

[Stevo]

I hate to tell you this Manxman but the Onyx is indeed going for scrap owing to the failure of preservation attempts. Rumours are she will go to either Liverpool or Swansea for breaking.
What I reallly don't understand though is that Onyx would be an ideal replacement for the HMS Alliance at Gosport. The latter needs millions spent on her repairs and is in a dire state, whereas Onyx is in reasonably good state and museum prepped in addition she has a history whereas Alliance has no war career despite being advertised as a WW2 sub.

[Hugh Ferguson]

Originally Posted by Wribbenhall

Oh heck,James,I've been trying for 70 years to understand you Americans,but I'm no nearer.There was a time I think when I thought you were 'almost getting there',but,no disrespect meant,when I say you are all too much of a muchness.
But then again you're American,and I'm British,and that says it all.
As George Bernard Shaw wrote, "We are two nations-separated by a common language".

Let us know which cruises you'll be taking in the years to come- but I'll apologise in advance here if I can't quite make it on the same ones !

All the Very Best
W.B.H.

I can't begin to imagine what kind of a life you would be living now were it not for Americans.
I've never read such insufferable sentiments as those, ever!

[Coastie]

Originally Posted by Hugh Ferguson

I can't begin to imagine what kind of a life you would be living now were it not for Americans.
I've never read such insufferable sentiments as those, ever!

He only spoke the truth!

[Sister Eleff]

Originally Posted by Hugh Ferguson

I can't begin to imagine what kind of a life you would be living now were it not for Americans.
I've never read such insufferable sentiments as those, ever!

Well said Hugh.

[Hugh Ferguson]

Originally Posted by PatriciaAnnT

Please don't lump us altogether!

Just ignore it, Pat. It's a strange mixture of bigotry, prejudice and ignorance.
Several of that persuasion truly believe that the Americans bled us white in paying for all the war material, Lend Lease and much else, quite forgetting that the heaviest loss of life suffered by the U.S. marines ever, in a single operation, occurred in the taking of Tarawa and returning it to us, gratis.
Not to mention the service rendered by the U.S. Navy in sinking virtually all of the Japanese supply ships carrying war material to their beleaguered armies in Burma and Malaya.
That gave our 14th Army huge assistance defeating the Japanese forces occupying Burma, and later, enabling us to re-occupy places like Hong Kong and Singapore without any loss to our military.
I was astonished, just recently, to learn that an armada of cargo carrying Dakotas, that flew over us once in Akyab (Burma), was flown by U.S. personnel-on their way for an air-drop of supplies to elements of our 14th Army which had just broken the will of the Japanese 3rd Division at Kohima!
The fact of the matter is that our debt to the Americans is beyond being payed for in dollars and always will be.

[Hugh Ferguson]

Originally Posted by Barrie Youde

#12

What a beautiful Memoriam for Glenroy!

Amen.

Click HERE for a fine photo of said ship; with 27 comments!

[spongebob]

A liitle off the beat of the thread but "Killing of a Ship" reminds me of a novel published, perhaps in the 1960's, about a cargo ship steaming along at full speed when it hit a partially submerged container which ripped the hull open from stem to stern.
She sunk in a matter of minutes with all hands and the story revolves around the compressed traumas and events suffered by the vessel and its crew.
The author must have been a well versed merchant seaman as his dialouge had a ring of accurate realism as to the way the disaster unfolded.
It may not of been a best seller but it was certainly a great bit of descriptive writing for people familiar with ships.
Does anyone recall this novel , its name or its author?

Bob