I've been enjoying my visits to SN and thought it was time I said hello. I am an ex Mercury boy - 4465 - there between 1957 and 1961, and went to sea with Moor Line as an apprentice. After a short period ashore in '61 I went to Decca overseas projects and spent some time on the early North Sea oil survey vessels working out of Grimsby and European ports. Spent some time at Decca's monitoring station in the Shetlands and eventually moved on to Lab Navigation in the Bahamas using Shoran navigation equipment. Came to Australia with Lab Nav and eventually settled here in 1968. Now that retirement has arrived I have time to look back at the great years of British shipping and yearn for what has been lost. I guess I am a sentimentalist at heart and find todays world not much to my liking, but taking the good with the bad the internet has made available information the average person would never had access to, so thanks for the opportunity to visit those wonderful years before political correctness ruled the waves. Best wishes to all. Anthony Legg
Anthony
Welcome to this wonderful site and enjoy all it has to offer.
Am also ex Decca but spent my thirteen years at the Newcastle Depot
Best wishes
Bert
Anthony,
A warm welcome to the site from Anglesey. I guarantee you will thoroughly enjoy the SN experience!
You will certainly spark many happy memories when you have a chance to explore our threads further and, who knows, you may even re-establish contact with old shipmates. Good luck! (Thumb)
Great introduction Anthony, I think you'll find many members here who agree with the emotions you stated. Hope you keep on enjoying the site and the nostalgia it engenders.
Hello one and all.
I am ex-Pan-Ocean Anco Ltd but my time at sea was cut short due to a spinal Injury that has left me paraplegic. I sailed on many vessels but the best times were on Anco Templar, Anco Sceptre and Anco Empress. If anyone remembers me (Carl Gooch - Navigation) whilst serving with Pan-Ocean I would love to hear from them as I am writting a book about my life and my time at sea was important to me!
Many thanks in advance to all - Great site. I have many phots of my time at sea with Pan-Ocean, including the time we rescued a vessel on fire in the Red Sea @ May 1981 on board Anco Templar.
Thanks for the welcome to SN, I'm sure I am going to enjoy the experiance. I was reluctant to introduce myself, being a bit of a reclusive hermit, but I've broken the ice. With regards to my time with Decca, which would have been around 1964/65, I was based initially at ( I think ) Wylen Garden City or somewhere close and did my training down on the SW coast, memeory fails me on actual location. From there joined went to Grimsby and the hi-fix monitoring station in an old caravan in the fish docks. Then to a survey ship that used a 'SHOOTIN BOAT' to drop 44 gall drums of fertilizer to create an explosion, we plotted the positions. Whilst working off the Humber I recall a tanker making for Hull cutting the geophone cable, and a charge exploding under the stern of our vessel, blowing out the stern gland packing, the vessel sank on her moorings in the fish harbour that night!!
The location in the Shetlands was a monitoring station at Dunrossness, mid way between Sandwick and Sumburgh. I was located in a farm house just off the main road overlooking the sea. The owners of the farm made me very welcome and I came to enjoy the company of the islanders, maany of whom had never visited the mainland. Anyway thanks for the welcome, Kindest Regards to all. Tony
Have fun on the site we do, Welome to are band of merchant navy and not forgetting the RN lad Bob
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