One of the great pleasures this site has brought me, has been the frequent jogging and re-emergence of forgotten memories.
Today was a case in point, and as I sat writing at my desk, I recalled an amusing incident from the past.
I'd paid off the Manaar on arrival at Tilbury, taken several weeks leave and rejoined her in Middlesbrough for a brief bit of coasting, before going deep sea again.
On arrival at Middlesbrough, I found our former 4th engineer visiting on board and in a very agitated state. He was having a go at Pete our 5th Engineer, who like myself had just returned from leave.
Things were very heated, but Pete just shrugged everything off, and after a while the 4th left the ship.
After he'd gone, I asked what it had all been about.
Pete had not left the ship at Tilbury, staying on until Liverpool. Before the 4th had left, he'd approached Pete and explained that he'd been up to a bit of smuggling. He'd bought lots of tins of cigarettes (the ones with 50 in) stuck them end to end and then lagged them like a pipe in some part of the engine room. His plan had been to return at Middlesbrough and collect them.
In those days you could walk off the ship, along the railway lines and up onto the platform in the railway station, thus avoiding any curiosity about what was in the bag as you walked out through the dock gate.
The Fourth's plan had gone adrift because in re-visiting the engine room he'd found his hoard of **** had been removed.
It turned out that Pete would have preferred not have been implicated in the arrangements, so when he left the ship in Liverpool he passed the information to the apprentices with a nod and a wink, and they had disposed of the lot.
Dave
Today was a case in point, and as I sat writing at my desk, I recalled an amusing incident from the past.
I'd paid off the Manaar on arrival at Tilbury, taken several weeks leave and rejoined her in Middlesbrough for a brief bit of coasting, before going deep sea again.
On arrival at Middlesbrough, I found our former 4th engineer visiting on board and in a very agitated state. He was having a go at Pete our 5th Engineer, who like myself had just returned from leave.
Things were very heated, but Pete just shrugged everything off, and after a while the 4th left the ship.
After he'd gone, I asked what it had all been about.
Pete had not left the ship at Tilbury, staying on until Liverpool. Before the 4th had left, he'd approached Pete and explained that he'd been up to a bit of smuggling. He'd bought lots of tins of cigarettes (the ones with 50 in) stuck them end to end and then lagged them like a pipe in some part of the engine room. His plan had been to return at Middlesbrough and collect them.
In those days you could walk off the ship, along the railway lines and up onto the platform in the railway station, thus avoiding any curiosity about what was in the bag as you walked out through the dock gate.
The Fourth's plan had gone adrift because in re-visiting the engine room he'd found his hoard of **** had been removed.
It turned out that Pete would have preferred not have been implicated in the arrangements, so when he left the ship in Liverpool he passed the information to the apprentices with a nod and a wink, and they had disposed of the lot.
Dave