Joined
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I put some photos and stories in the Denholm News thread already here are some more.
Arctic Troll 1977
Joined the Arctic Troll in Dagenham on April fool’s day 1977 it was discharging paper, we then moved to Emden to finish the discharge.
At Emden we played football against the crew of a fruit boat can’t remember what nationality they were. After the game we invited them back to the bar on the ship and they enjoyed a few pints of draft Skol. The next day they brought over some of their cargo for us, bananas. I think everyone on the ship ended up with big bunches of bananas in their cabins. On a return trip to Emden, we were loading Volkswagens. The factory was very close to the docks so it was arranged that we could have a trip around the car factory. At the end of the trip we were taken into a lounge area and they had a slot machine selling matchbox series Volkswagens, the guide asked us if we were going to buy any that we use the proper coins. At that time before the Euro was introduced Germany was still using marks and a one mark coin was almost the exact size and weight as a British 10 pence but it was worth about four times as much. So any German phone box in a dock near British ships was always full of ten pence’s. I know this worked as I used this method to phone home and also obtain a matchbox Volkswagen.
We then went across the pond to Halifax, Nova Scotia and St John, New Brunswick. St John is in the Bay of Fundy which has then biggest tide in the World over 50 ft. The river in St John reverses during high tide and water flows up the river , this can been seen at point in the river known as the Reversing Falls. An old Arctic Troll story is that a mounties horse was tied up near the ship and was stolen and taken on the ship at low tide when the gangway was level with the dockside. However when the tide came in the gang way was too steep to get the horse down so they put strops under the horse and lifted it off with the ships crane. Personally I think this was just a tall story but maybe it happened.
The usual port for loading paper was Stephenville in Newfoundland. While there myself and the 3/E Bob Landsman had a day off and we were going to hire a car and drive up into the mountains. The Captains wife and two kids were on the ship and she asked if we would take to two kids with us. So next day we got a taxi into town and went to a car hire shop, there were problems getting the car so we did the next thing any seaman ashore would do and look for the nearest pub. And so we ended up spending the day doing a pub crawl with the kids along the main street in Stephenville. As Bob met a girlfriend and stayed in town it was my job to get the kids back to the ship for teatime. On climbing the gangway the captain’s wife was not pleased but the captain who stood behind her and he had the biggest grin you ever saw he knew what would happen. It was not to be the first time that trip that the kids ended up with us in a pub.
In Canada they produce a rather delicate fizzy red wine called Cold Duck which is extremely cheap and along the lines of Lanliq or Buckfast, and has the same results, it blows your head off. The chief Steward purchased some of this for the rig and as you can see from the photographs it went down well with the crew and officers.
Once when leaving Savannah we ran up the confederate flag on the poop deck and told the locals we would do it, so as we passed the Port Royal we got a round of applause from the regulars. If I remember right you could not see the poop deck from the bridge wing I think we would have been made to walk the plank if the Old Man had found out.
The ship was like a nursery school at time with kids belonging to the Captain, Chief, Mate and 4/E, the kids had an absolute ball on the trip. Oh and we had a couple of passengers for good luck.
I paid off the ship in Dagenham on 24th august 1977, it was a great ship and went to good ports unfortunately I only did one trip on her.
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Arctic Troll 1977
Joined the Arctic Troll in Dagenham on April fool’s day 1977 it was discharging paper, we then moved to Emden to finish the discharge.
At Emden we played football against the crew of a fruit boat can’t remember what nationality they were. After the game we invited them back to the bar on the ship and they enjoyed a few pints of draft Skol. The next day they brought over some of their cargo for us, bananas. I think everyone on the ship ended up with big bunches of bananas in their cabins. On a return trip to Emden, we were loading Volkswagens. The factory was very close to the docks so it was arranged that we could have a trip around the car factory. At the end of the trip we were taken into a lounge area and they had a slot machine selling matchbox series Volkswagens, the guide asked us if we were going to buy any that we use the proper coins. At that time before the Euro was introduced Germany was still using marks and a one mark coin was almost the exact size and weight as a British 10 pence but it was worth about four times as much. So any German phone box in a dock near British ships was always full of ten pence’s. I know this worked as I used this method to phone home and also obtain a matchbox Volkswagen.
We then went across the pond to Halifax, Nova Scotia and St John, New Brunswick. St John is in the Bay of Fundy which has then biggest tide in the World over 50 ft. The river in St John reverses during high tide and water flows up the river , this can been seen at point in the river known as the Reversing Falls. An old Arctic Troll story is that a mounties horse was tied up near the ship and was stolen and taken on the ship at low tide when the gangway was level with the dockside. However when the tide came in the gang way was too steep to get the horse down so they put strops under the horse and lifted it off with the ships crane. Personally I think this was just a tall story but maybe it happened.
The usual port for loading paper was Stephenville in Newfoundland. While there myself and the 3/E Bob Landsman had a day off and we were going to hire a car and drive up into the mountains. The Captains wife and two kids were on the ship and she asked if we would take to two kids with us. So next day we got a taxi into town and went to a car hire shop, there were problems getting the car so we did the next thing any seaman ashore would do and look for the nearest pub. And so we ended up spending the day doing a pub crawl with the kids along the main street in Stephenville. As Bob met a girlfriend and stayed in town it was my job to get the kids back to the ship for teatime. On climbing the gangway the captain’s wife was not pleased but the captain who stood behind her and he had the biggest grin you ever saw he knew what would happen. It was not to be the first time that trip that the kids ended up with us in a pub.
In Canada they produce a rather delicate fizzy red wine called Cold Duck which is extremely cheap and along the lines of Lanliq or Buckfast, and has the same results, it blows your head off. The chief Steward purchased some of this for the rig and as you can see from the photographs it went down well with the crew and officers.
Once when leaving Savannah we ran up the confederate flag on the poop deck and told the locals we would do it, so as we passed the Port Royal we got a round of applause from the regulars. If I remember right you could not see the poop deck from the bridge wing I think we would have been made to walk the plank if the Old Man had found out.
The ship was like a nursery school at time with kids belonging to the Captain, Chief, Mate and 4/E, the kids had an absolute ball on the trip. Oh and we had a couple of passengers for good luck.
I paid off the ship in Dagenham on 24th august 1977, it was a great ship and went to good ports unfortunately I only did one trip on her.
