Friday Frills...

                                                    Ship-on-stormy-seas-ivan-konstantinovich-aivazovsky

This ship sums up the past few days!  At least I have caught up, almost got all things ready, and have found all parcels arrive at their destinations, even if she is out at one of them.  

The weekend approaches, checkout lassies everywhere look forward to Sunday just so they no longer have to listen to Xmas music all day long.  There is only so much of that slop that one can take.  That said I will visit the girls in the morning, obtain enough to last for three days, though I have most stuff in already, and be back before the desparate crush through the store all day.  

Later, I will walk around laughing at those men attempting to buy for her indoors.  There are usually a few, easily recognised and their eyes look blankly into every shop window.  It is possible some stalls will be out tomorrow, they are often off before Xmas, so a trinket or two might be found there.  I will distainfully pass by before remembering someone I forgot!  Dearie me...

 

 

 

I like this cartoon, but notice how he follows the 'traditional' tale.  Joseph with an old man's beard, and a donkey, which looks more like a horse.  If these two were as I have proposed before do you think they could afford a donkey?  This is unlikely, and even if they had one the image on many cards at this time of year would be wrong anyway.  If there was a donkey involved it would be Jpseph sitting on it, not the wife!  

The 'Star' may well have been a conjunction of three planets, I forget which, Mars Venus and Saturn I think, which occurred twice.  'Magi,' in Babylon recorded this sighting, as did stargazing men in China.

The first appearance was 7 BC, and it returned in 5 BC, therefore, add in the historical fact that Herod died in 4 BC we can jump to a conclusion Jesus was born around this time.  The exact time is hard to define, but I rush to 5 BC, but with no other evidence.  Travel from Babylon would take time after working out the meaning of the sight.  Gather your men together, collect the sandwiches required, and trot off slowly joining in a vast caravan for safety.  It would take a while to reach Jerusalem. 

 

Ahoy Sailor....

 

 

 

Having indulged myself on Twitter to a constant barrage of Ukraine information, much correct and informative, much false and deceiving, I was beginning to suffer war weariness.  I am not sure what this would be like for those in Ukraine itself.  For those of us interested in the Great War we can easily appreciate the responses of the citizens of Kyiv to this cause.  What would you and I do in this situation?  Especially as with Putin being isolated and heading for instability this means he could become reckless and offer nukes!

To get away from it all I looked into naval terms that are in use today.  Some relvant, others not so much.  It is amazing how many daily phrase we use go back many years and have long since lost their original meaning.

 

The most common Naval terms in everyday use are of course far too rude for this delicate page.  If you wish to enquire further into such phraseology feel free to stand alongside Chelsea fans when their team plays Liverpool next time.

We will consider more regular phrases.

     

'Splice the Mainbrace' : On square rigged sailing ships the 'mainbrace' was the longest line amongst the rigging and during battle this was a target for enemy vessels.  If damaged the ship could not continue unless this was repaired, as this was extremely difficult it took the best men to fix the damage.  This was not always successful.  However, when 'spliced,' the men involved were rewarded with an extra tot of rum!   Eventually, the call to 'Splice the mainbrace' came to refer to the extra tot of rum given to the crew on special occasions such as a new monarch, royal event or visit of a royal to the fleet.

 

 

'Grog' :  Rum, was also referred to as 'Grog.'  This goes back to one Admiral Edward Vernon, who In 1740, as you will remember, he first diluted rum via a half pint of rum to a quart of water.  Now he was famous, not just for his sailing abilities but for the coat he wore.  This was a type of heavy cloth called a 'Grogram' coat.  Thus his nickname, though whether used to his face is not known, was 'Old Grog,' and the name stuck with the rum itself.  Sadly the tot of rum is no longer mixed in a 'scuttled butt' as it was withdrawn from the service in 1970. 

'Taken Aback' : A 'spliced mainbrace' was a problem often occurring during battle however, sailing a ship even today has its problems at sea in spite of GPS, radar and tech marvels.  In sailing ships waiting for a favourable wind was common, also common was an unfavourable one, a sudden change of wind direction could lead to the sails pressed back against the spars or masts, thus the ship was said to be 'Taken aback.'  We also are often found pressed against masts and the like during our day.

'Three sheets to the wind.' :  This phrase can refer to those who indulge in too much alcohol, surely not my readers.  On sailing ships loose sails, lines, could cause all sorts of problems and must be dealt with or the ship could be in serious trouble.  Not dealing with this correctly could result in sailing ‘Too close to the wind’

‘To the Bitter End’ :  A suitable phrase for the people of Ukraine today I think.  They will be continuing 'to the bitter end.'  However, this term goes back to the ships of the 1600's sailing the seven seas.  Each anchor thereon was attached to cleats, or bollards, on board, thus ensuring the anchor did not fall off.  These cleats were referred to as 'Bitts,' and therefore the anchor cable which attached there reached to 'the bitter end.' 

'Port & Starboard.' :  During the year of our Lord 1844 the Royal Navy directed that the term 'Lardboard, which means 'loading side,' usually the left side of a ship, as the 'Steerboard' was always on the right side of the vessel, ought to be replaced with the word 'Port.'  This remains the case today, and the word 'Starboard,' also in use still, came into general use not much later.  These words may go back a long way further into the past.

'Plimsoll Line' :  The 'Plimsoll line' was a line drawn along the base of a ship to indicate the safe level of cargo aboard.  If this line is underwater then the ship is overloaded!  During Victoria's reign one Mr Samuel Plimsoll campaigned for this and other safety regulations on ships and introduced the 'Unseaworthy Ships Bill,' including the Plimsoll Line.  Some shipping lines were somewhat careless in the care of ships and their crews, happy however, to take the insurance when it paid out.   

'Aloof.' :  My preferred position.  Aloof from the rough and unsophisticated that pass by daily.  Some would say this is just because I have been banned from all their meeting places, but this is not true, well, not quite yet.  It is likely that the Dutch word 'Loef,' some say 'luff,' means 'windward' to keep well away from the dangerous lee shore.  Hence 'aloof.'  I am quite willing to remain 'aloof' from danger be it on shore or otherwise.  

 

 

 

‘Letting the cat out of the bag,'  : Refers to the whip used to punish Royal Naval sailors who decided to cause trouble.  This was a 'Cat O' nine tails,' whip.  Short, with nine 'tails' and not very nice on the skin of the back.  This was kept in a canvas bag and therefore they 'let the cat out of the bag' on such occasions.  With many sailors enrolled unwillingly by 'Press Gangs' such violent control may have been used often. 

‘Enough room to swing a cat’ :  The use of this 'cat,'required a clear space, enough space to 'swing a cat.'

'The Devil to Pay,' :  This does not refer to activities involving the 'cat.'  Wooden ships required the inside of the hull to be caulked with tar and rope.  The 'devil' was said to be the longest seam of such ships. However, it is more likely this originated in the Faustian pact in which Faust sells his soul to the devil, and somehow this became connected to sailors and their ships.  Hard work, long hours, and the 'cat' can bring many thoughts to a man's mind.

'Scran,' :  A slang term for food long used by the Royal Navy.  The suggestion is that in the navy bags of Sultanas, Currants, Raisins and Nuts, were to be found in bags marked 'SCRAN.'  Some question whether Royal Navy sailors were fed such luxuries, and would they be in one bag?   Scran is used often in Scotland but hardly ever in my day.  Interestingly one point mentioned by Henry Mayhew in 'The Morning Chronicle' of 1849, mentions people, possibly Irish, begging 'Scran,' left over food, from servants of wealthy houses.  Mayhew was the first investigative journalist who researched the London poor in 'London Labour and the London Poor.'     

‘Freeze the balls from a brass monkey’ : This is assumed to refer to the brass squares on warships in which cannonballs were stored called 'Monkeys.'  The story goes that when these froze they then contracted and the cannonballs would roll off.   Sadly the cannonballs were not kept in 'monkeys' they were kept in wooden storage and tended not to roll off when frozen.  The term is understandable as any man will concur.

 

 

 

Drizzly Spring Musings

 

The hazy bright morning sun promised Spring warmth, as I write the drizzle is busy trying to rear Daffoldills which cower under the bare branches of the trees.  Tsk!  At least the gas is not on, the heaters are off and I no longer need to wear my coat indoors. 

As Spring deepens, it is claimed fewer people will be rushed into hospital with Covid, therefore Westminster will rush children back to school, pubs opened, shops, barbers and sundry businesses urged to return and by the end off July we shall see the hospitals full once again!  Of course it may be true that the vaccinations are having an effect, but there again it may just be those 'unnamed' people pushing in the press and on social media for a return that are behind this 'confidence.'

Nothing however, will take the smug grin of Hancocks face, as long as he is making money he cares not about the rest.  That is a sure sign of this bad government.

I believe we have an opposition but I have no idea where it is.

 

'Worcester II' by Charles William Wyllie (1853-1923).  'Worcester II' was a redundant R oyal Naval shipthat moved into the Thames in 1862 and took its place as a RN training ship.  She remained there until 1945 when replaced and moved by the navy to moorings elsewhere.  Unfortunately she was not used and slowly rotted away, capsizing and being slowly eaten by the tides.  Such a shame for a ship, but there again it saves cash in dismantling her.  

I have a penchant (whatever that is) for pictures of the sea.  Charles William Wyllie and his more famous brother, William Lionel Wyllie, both painted such works. Charles sadly moved into more mythalogical fantasies, usually featuring bare breasted women, I know not why.

It may well be more such pictures fill the empty spaces of this blog until I get out and about a bit more. Not that we can go far anyway these days...

 

Mirror

 

News is hard to come by these days.  The papers will fill space with everything and anything.  Here we see an item taken from the web, that appears to be where the press get their news these days, the item is all about a woman who saves money by searching the shops for reduced items.

Gosh!  Who would have thought that by seeking out the 'yellow stickers' you could save money?  

What surprised me is that she saves (she said) £50 a week on her total shop!  £50?  Maybe you were buying things you did not require, using expensive brands rather than 'shops own' and squandering money in a flagrant manner?  Just saying like.

The disabled, the unemployed (some 850,000 it appears), the poorest using food banks, and pensioners have been doing this for years.  But hey, anything to fill space in the media.

 

The Sea! The Sea! I Wish I Saw the Sea!

 

"Oh to go down to the sea again

          To the lonely sea and the sky."

Well I got as far as the front where I removed some weeds and cleared up a wee bit.  That and aches makes up my day.  I did this job because I thought 'Hermes' were delivering and I wished to be at the door to ensure he did not run away again.  Naturally it is tomorrow he is coming...

At least I was outside for a while.

How I miss the beach at Bournemouth!

There are other small coves around where it is possible to enjoy the sea, especially when few are around.  My dream home would have the right sea view in front of me and not far behind a railway, preferably a 'Heritage' railway, running steam every so often.  The view is somewhat different at the moment.  

One day when I am rich...

A stolen picture, taken from 'Edinburgh Past & Present' on facebook.  I even forget the lassies name, sorry.  She took this while landing at Edinburgh Airport (still called 'Turnhouse' by me!).  This is the area where I spent my first two years and then entered the school almost hidden high on the top left of the picture.  The view from the house we moved to looked over the Forth towards Fife, a super view, and on that page people often post pictures of sunsets and dawns to make me jealous.  I see trees and a park...  

This could be a worse view of course.  When I came here I was offered a basement in Dovercourt with a car park behind.  The view, and the mould on the wall, now attended to, was not to my liking, so here I reside.  Dovercourt is by Harwich which is a famous Submarine base, this was attractive but the flat was not.  The wee town itself was a bit rundown in spite of the tourist possibilities.  Not that I saw any submarines there now.  Sometimes I wish I had tried to 'go to sea' as so many used to in the past.  The idea of a rough crossing may have been what put me off.  Interestingly, my father was living just up from Granton Harbour having gone to the school just above the dock, yet he joined the army in 1925 when he could get no work.  I often wonder if he had tried for a seaman's job or if the waves put him off also?  The ships he saw as he grew up and paddled by the beach included the 'Grand Fleet,' or at least part of it based at Rosyth.  These must have impressed him, and he showed me where big guns once stood to defend the harbour, yet maybe a bullying corporal in the army was better than a ship rising and falling in the waves?

Better than most of the jobs I did have.

 

Meandering Waffle

I managed to survive the big day on Sunday, 'Textile Day' was a roaring success and by a clever trick I survived this day - I stayed at home!  It appears the multitudes did arrive, did spend money, did buy loads of cards in handfuls, did gossip, admire and altogether have a real good time.  I had better, I stayed in bed.
Tuesday however I was warned of a group arriving to visit, this soon occurred.  One woman arrived just after ten when she claimed they all would be meeting, ignoring the women gathering outside.  Eventually another woman arrived and then they came together to the prearranged meeting with one of my many bosses.  However still they women arrived, all of dubious ages, as there was a second group meeting here but not informing us, and they happily gathered themselves together slowly until they all arrived much later than planned.  It was however not their fault.  
This at a time when we have just begun to replace the heating system therefore half the museum is out of bounds.  Plumbers and staff, not me I must not leave my post, spent the day moving, clearing, carrying and hiding things while I attended to the ladies.  

While one meeting went quickly, as quickly as any all female meeting can go, the other group sauntered around examining each item and discussing its merits and meaning. I did not listen in, I had my own opinions.  The girls happily spent much time on each exhibit, and some it must be said are very well done, before coming in to the shop on the way out and spending money!  This was pleasing.  Such exhibitions do not attract great crowds during the year so to see groups making the most of them and enjoying themselves, and they appeared happy, was a good thing.

The laptop has been playing up.  It has been running slow and I have run all the proper items to speed things and also removed and altered other items.  On top of this the online banking has not allowed me in, so I must spend time changing all the info to see how much I have not got.  All this takes time as I also have been sorting out all the items on those memory sticks which are lying around.  These have become somewhat confused and there are several items (big items) on more than one disk and often twice on that!  
During this process, in between the grunts, swear words and oops I've closed it down somehow, reactions I have been discovering old pictures.  This one taken at Sandbanks a while back.  How lovely to be there when the sun shines, or indeed at other times.  At one time I considered moving there but it never felt right, which is a pity as I miss the sea and friends are there, but they at least are happy so that is one thing I suppose.

This Lightship was based at St Katherine's Dock positioned as you can see near Tower Bridge.  These one time busy docks had been transformed into residences of a variety of ships and the warehouses around contained shops etc and flats above for the upcoming rich.  In the late 70's I wandered down Wapping High Street, until then I had always known High Streets as laces full of shops and businesses but here I discovered, in between the empty spaces left by WW2 bombing, towering warehouses on both sides of the street.  A bit run down and seedy with the occasional burnt out church or ruin but quiet enough at the time.  How many people worked alongside these buildings?  How many famous or predecessors of famous people walked up Wapping Steps off shipping in days gone by.  How many foggy London nights saw ships rocking gently in the tide?  In the 70's all this had gone, only an occasional moored barge on the far side reflected the distant past. When I wandered there in the 90's these warehouses were now expensive flats with their own 'Oddbins' wine shop at the foot in easy reach for the trendy residents.  The two up, two down, houses of the late Victorian era had not survived the council planners even if they had survived the blitz.  Modern housing, expensive at that, filled the area outside the ex-warehouses and sleek cars sped past where once growling lorries or horse and carts had pulled their loads.  

Now you folks with any sense will regard this picture as boring.  There is a reason for this, it is a boring picture!  It is one I took some 20 years ago when I first had the bike and sauntered out around the area looking at the sky, dangerous on a bike, and watching green fields with strange crops therein.  Having sent so many years in the concrete jungle this was refreshing to the eyes and the locals could not see it because it was just always there!  I could see it and enjoy it, no matter how boring such pictures appear to be.  All around that road there were fields, they must be similar today, crops pushing into the sky cheering the farmer and possibly encouraging wildlife.  I am not so sure such fields help wildlife myself though the number of fields left fallow under EU rules has meant these fields do encourage birds and bees and other creatures to thrive.  I did however here a warning that rabbits, once covering the UK have disappeared from many areas.  In Scotland some 80% of rabbits have gone, about 60% in the rest of the UK.  Why I did not hear but many birds are also failing, sparrows are less in evidence and the Swifts that must soon appear are less in  number each year.  Maybe people have taken to eating rabbits rather than use foodbanks...?

Wanderlust

Young men like a bit of adventure.  Some simply walk out the door and keep walking travelling far and wide over large acres of the world, often with little forethought.  Others are forced by the call of King and Country to adventure in places they would rather avoid.  In days of yore young lads often as young as twelve or thirteen years of age would wander through the docks finding work on ships travelling to foreign fields, the better educated grabbing what contacts they could might find a trail across Europe making the most of the smattering of French and German forced down their throats at school.  The attraction  was the same, to go out there,  over the horizon to places untouched and unknown always hoping for adventure, well adventure that didn't hurt at any rate, and finding excitement that cannot be obtained by staying at home.

My limited adventurous streak showed during the close season, that once upon a time situation when the football season closed in May and did not reappear until August, then I would travel.  Bored as I was I went to the Bus station on St Andrews Square and got the bus to North Berwick.  This is not a long journey but I was only eleven or twelve at the time and my money was limited.  After this I went further, Kirkaldy in Fife or Leven a wee bit further over, just to see what was there.
As I got older football's close season got shorter and by then we played football during the spare time rather than wander about.  Of course when fifteen I also had a job that the grace of God and inept management meant I kept, I would have fired me, and with good reason, several times before I jumped ship.  The travel bug was satisfied I realised by the bus trips to football matches in Dundee and Glasgow.  While we went for the game I just enjoyed the trips outside of Edinburgh and being somewhere different, even if cold and wet as it often was.

Great West Railway

I did of course take a very badly thought out journey in 1974 when working at the Royal Infirmary.  This was the year I bought a bike for £18, the owner had 'Gone to Australia') and then a few weeks later set off on an epic journey to London.  This is not something I would do today.
However when based in a Swiss Cottage slum during 1976, though I may have moved to exciting Willesden Lane by then, I took it into my head to go to Cardiff.  Why?  I have no idea but there again I had always wished to go abroad.  So off I traps to Paddington Station, pay through the nose for a ticket and clamber aboard the 125, only used on that line then, and sat back.  
One notable aspect of the trip was my questioning mind. We entered a tunnel and while this is to be expected after a while, a long while I thought, we were still in the tunnel.  It took me a while to realise we were in Box Tunnel (either than the Severn I canny say which both looked dark to me) and I was surprised as I had forgotten the difficulties encountered when creating the railway back in the 1840's.  Isambard Kingdom Brunel constructed this tunnel and it appears like me many think that on one day a year the light shines straight through the tunnel and that day happens to be Brunel's birthday.  It appears we are wrong in this, it occurs a day or so earlier on his sisters birthday.  That is what I call a present, what she called it is not known.  

 Avraham Graicer

In spite of the overnight stay in Cardiff, where nothing happened, and my desire never to go abroad again I did in fact make an interesting trip to Jerusalem just before the 1st Gulf War, the one in which everybody was scared of Saddam, and with the weapons the USA had given him they ought to have been scared!  That was interesting and provided plenty of photos even though most were taken on slide film, still sitting there waiting to be shown but no good on here!  One day I will transfer them to digital and bore you as I bored others in 1990.  The one inescapable incident of that trip was visiting Megiddo, the ancient city that goes back several thousand years.  From the name we get the term 'Armageddon' and it was in 'Armageddon' that I got locked in as the lack of visitors (the Yanks were scared to visit in case of war) meant the caretaker locked up and went home.  I eventually found an unlocked gate before I had to climb over the wall. 
These days I find it difficult to go anywhere.  This year has been a bummer physically and while I wish to wander about have been unable to, local transport has not helped either, road works, and rail works have closed things on weekends.  Age also means I lack the adventure to see over the hill as I once wished to.  Having been over the hill for some time I have a degree of cynicism that youth does not possess and this limits adventure to some extent.  However a free gift of a car and the money to run it will I'm sure change my opinion.  Hmmm looks like my opinion will not be changing any time soon.   

A Quick Cruise

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It Rains Here

Trapped inside all day by the wet stuff falling like I was in Scotland!  Naturally I had no bread and had to brave it while searching Tesco for breakfast.  Surely in this day and age we can fix things so it only rains at night?  Bah!
I therefore spent an exciting day looking for peoples missing relatives.  When they were alive in the early part of the century some things can be discovered. However The Ministry of Defence does not release details of servicemen from WW2, this I reckon is so they can charge £30 a time for a search fee if you enquire about them.  This government will smell cash and privatise the records soon.  Oh look, they already have!
One lass failed to give sufficient info, one mentioned the ships dad had sailed in and these two took all day to investigate.  Poor dad, he was on three ships and I suspect he was on one of them when it went down, all three were lost.  He survived but gave little away as is normal.
He served at one time on a ship that went down while Lord Mountbatten was a mere Captain then.  Well a Captain of a Flotilla of five ships.  Two were lost in 1941 south of Crete and a film was made later starring Noel Coward called 'In Which we Serve' telling the story.  

The rain was such a pain that I even ironed four shirts rather than do something useful.  Just think what  could have done had the sun shone? I could have walked away from the laptop for a start!

Oops must go....football has started....  

Old Troopships

Rummaging through some old photographs I came across pictures dad took during the Kings Own Scottish Borderers trip from Hong Kong to Poona in 1930.  He included this postcard of the SS 'The City of Marseilles,'  ship built in 1912.  I suppose many would call this a 'tramp steamer' these days but she sailed happily from 1913 until 1940 including time between 1923  to 1930 when she carried troops around the Far East.  A mere 8250 gross tons she managed 14 knots with the wind behind her.  Ellerman's Hall Line provided accommodation for 141 first class and  46 second class passengers, what the troops were classed as I would not like to say.  A tough old girl she was attacked by a submarine en route Liverpool - Bombay in 1915 and hit it by her gunfire but survived by running!  

For me, a journey over the sea waves in tropical warmth would be an acceptable adventure.  For a thousand troops it may have been less enjoyable.  The playing of 'Housie Housie,' was allowed, probably to avoid the men throwing their cash away on gambling, deck quoits and other innocent pursuits may well have appeared to some the height of luxury, or as high as they might reach anyway.  The thought of leaving Hong Kong where five years had been spent kicking the Chinks around defending the Empire and moving to another foreign soil, India, may have been seen as exciting.  India had been the 'Crown Jewel' of the Empire had it not, surely this was worth visiting?  It appears dad liked a change from the routine.  His sense of morals had led him to spend time in the Military Police while in China and now in India he joined the RAMC and worked as an orderly, or nurse perhaps, in the Hospital there.  I have his note book of drawings and medical information which shows he was well taught.  I suspect Beri-Beri may have been the biggest problem!

Sadly the poor ship continued to plow its course until once again requisitioned by the needs of world war two.  She survived hitting a mine off the River Tay in 1940  but repaired having journeyed later to Ceylon she stranded herself in 1943.  She was scrapped 1947.

'HMT Nevasa.'  This card accompanies the above ship and suggests they both were involved in moving the troops in some way.  HMT, as you know, stands for His Majesty's Troopship.  Not that we have many of those these days, if we have any boats left at all under this cost cutting bunch of incompetents!  Built in the Clyde, as most were in those far off days, the 'Nevasa' became a troopship in 1915 and later served as a hospital ship also.  During the twenties she returned to commercial work travelling to East Africa and India.  Consider for a moment how many people were on the high seas in those days.  Today the vast number of ships will probably be container vessels, with a large number of ugly looking cruise ships touring the warm bits of the planet, but between the wars vast numbers of people sailed the seven seas, many on Imperial business.  Today we fly and think little of it but then travel took time, enabled the passenger to adjust to the differing climate, and allowed the young women to look for wealthy, proactive men heading up the gravy chain as they sailed.  Sometimes they just looked for willing men of course.  A month long voyage, away from family and friends, possibly with several years abroad ahead, this sounds a better way to go than crammed into a Jumbo Jet!  I can hear the splash of the waves a s the boat cuts through them, the gentle thumping of the engines down below, I feel the warm air, note the helpful service, the pretty girls, and the pretty awful ones who will cause trouble, the clink of glasses filled with gin and tonic, all this while typing in woollen gloves with the fingers cut out.  'Sigh'                                               Roll of Honour : Ships

Also spotted on what I think may have been a Kodak Box camera, the folding ones would be too dear, and I remember one being used by us as kids, we see a blurry 'HMS Enterprise.'  Protecting the Empire demanded the Royal Navys presence in the Far East Station and 'Enterprise' spent time there from 1928 onwards.  Yet another John Brown ship she was launched in 1919 but not commissioned until 1925, I know not why, they wouldn't tell me state secrets.  Her twin gun single turret was an experimental type and the heat must have been great as in the picture a shelter is provided for the men working beneath.  This gallant little ship was reduced to the naval reserve in 1938 yet when war cam she served in the Atlantic, Norway, South America, the Indian ocean, the Med and also on D-Day.  She served well right through the war and was rewarded by being scrapped in 1946.  Not much different treatment than what the sailors themselves received.

Look close, in the middle of the Chines harbour there lies an aircraft carrier!  Squint your eyes through the heat haze and note the difference between this one and the huge beast being built for the Royal navy today.  Yes, that old one has aircraft!  You like the harbour, I wonder how different it appears today?

How peaceful with no skyscrapers, flashing lights or hordes of people.  It is however busy and many still live on such craft today.

No, he didn't take the last two did he?  His album is full of pictures he bought out there.  Small pictures, the originals only a few inches as some will remember.   I am fascinated to see the type of picture he took, his keenness to photograph the men, often happy to pose, and wonder whether my brother and I took after him this way, my brother having the talent.  Every time I look through these pictures I learn more about the father I never knew as a selfish brat of a child.  Too young to comprehend his past, too selfish or stupid to care about anything but myself, and now I want to meet him anew and see how we would get on together.  Ah, it's that 'if only' once again! 

Nothing to say

So here is a picture of the Marco Polo.

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Almost Derelict

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Before the sun was up this morning, and it never bothered to get up in truth, I wandered out to catch the early worm.  My eating habits are not what they were!  Passing one of the crows so intent on removing a snail from its shell it allowed me within four feet of himself before he looked up, somewhat irritably, and glared as I moved away.  Not much else moved even though the market was opening up. This line of garages manages to look almost derelict and because nobody had bothered to rise I took this snap.  Usually the doors are open and mechanics are very busy chatting while attempting to work out how much to overcharge the car owner who's precious beast is undergoing surgery there.  It may well be these are just the workshops of the building on the right that constantly offers large cars at bargain prices.  They do not mention such cars are cheap to buy and horrendous to run!  Petrol, repairs, spare parts all cost a fortune, that is why muggins (always men who have watched 'Top Gear') falls for the cheap prices.  I would like to take better pics of these but some folks like to call the constabulary for some reason.  

    
As winter is closing in let's have a warmer picture for Saturday night. 'Off Scarborough,' by Ernest Dade. Very nice and makes me want to go to sea again.  It's not that I once went to sea, it's just that I wanted to go to sea once before.  I didn't, it was too cold.


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Friday Cogitation

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From the excellent River Clyde Photography site

A recent TV programme discussed the development of container transport and how this has revolutionised our world.  Until the late fifties and early sixties goods were transported in a very slow manner.  Hand to hand operation was required to load ships, with cranes used for larger items. Boxes were piled into nets which were hoisted aboard and stacked by hand in the holds. Slow, labour intensive, hard toil, expensive and costly in both breakage and theft.  I know about theft!  As a dumb fifteen year old office boy I filled out, in unreadable scrawl, the dockets for whisky sent to places as far apart as Australia, South Africa and the USA.  A thousand cases would be loaded, by hand, onto a 'British Road Services' lorry and would trundle down the A1 to London Docks where the majority of the load would, with difficulty the drivers would report, be unloaded and then packed onto the ship.  I say the 'majority' as it is amazing how many boxes would have a hole in the bottom when they arrived in New York!  London was one of the least appreciated docks the drivers told me, Southampton one of the best.

However at that time we began to use another lorry firm, name forgotten, to deliver the new 'Sealand' containers to the container depot somewhere in England.  At first there was one of these in London and I think Hull also had such facilities, however the strikes, very common in docks, led to the opening of Felixstowe as the main container depot for the UK. This revolutionised the transport of goods and aided development of the economy of many nations.  The success of transporting one thousand cases of whisky with no loss, no damage and therefor less cost soon became popular with all other goods. The strife in dockland, understandable as the conditions were hard, dirty and the management shocking, led to many strikes in the early sixties. By 1970 the docks had died and container transport was all!  A handful of men now load and unload ships in a few hours whereas before it could take days.  Specially designed container ships saw the end of the 'tramp steamer,' and the speed of movement aided the increase in produce transported. It did annoy sailors however as the three or more days spent in port now have become a few hours!   

Today vast amounts of goods of all description travel around the world making us more interdependent than ever. It also enables factories in China to manufacture socks at a price cheaper than those made at home and send them to the UK daily. There is at least one town, name unknown, which contains nothing but factories making socks for the world markets!  China has, because of containers, become the 'workshop of the (cheap) world.'  The point that comes to mind however is that this traffic, bringing TV's, socks, fashion, gardening equipment, cameras, foodstuffs and anything else we take for granted continues daily and we never see it happen!  It was possible in the past to watch goods unloaded at dockside and observe what arrived or departed, not any longer.  Lorries once trundled through the streets with goods lashed to the back open to public eye, not any more.  All these goods appear to arrive in the shops as if by magic and we take it for granted. 

Food arrives in brightly covered plastic packets.  Butchers shops have meat neatly arrayed on the counter however when I was a lad sides of beef and, half pigs would hang all around the shop, with sawdust on the floor to catch any blood!  We would often play with these dead beasts as we waited for mum to be chatted up by the butcher.  The only real health concern then was the butcher never took money.  He wrote the price on a note which was handed to the customer.  This was presented to a woman sitting in a small both at the end who took the cash and offered change.  Game birds hung for days in the shop window, their feathers standing out from the skinned meats all around.  Now they lie frozen in a deep white freezer, shrink wrapped in plastic. We knew as kids where our food came from, we could see it hanging there, this is not possible in supermarkets today.  They joke that kids do not know where their lunch comes from and maybe they are right. We live in a pre-packaged society, almost a false society.  Until around the middle of the19th century society in the west was predominantly agricultural. After that is was dominated by town and city.  Recently I did a short study of biblical agriculture, wheat, barley and other foodstuffs.  It struck me just how close to the land these people were.  The weather played a huge part in their lives and the seasons dominated the working day. When the daylight was available you worked, when it grew dark you went to bed. If the harvest was good you ate, if it was bad starvation and death arrived, just as it has in north eastern Africa this year.  Not that we care to watch this on TV, not when Libya is much easier to stomach, and anyway those Africans are always starving aren't they? 

We are not just too far from the land, we are too far from the manufacture of the goods around us. Food manufacturers fill our grub with many chemicals that 'enhance' the life of the product, the additives encourage us to eat more but this does not actually lead to healthier bodies. Much of our foodstuff now comes from abroad, often by aircraft usually by boat.  The world economy governs us more than our leaders, good and bad.  As the economy of the west struggles to recover it would take little to upset that of the east.  Living cocooned in our brightly lit, centrally heated, homes, minds numbed by television created by con artists, and lied to by a grasping media we are lulled into a false security, content with our lot and unaware of how close disaster is at hand.  It was ever thus.  We look no further than the end of our noses.  As long as we are OK few look into the future, preferring to leave that to others while we enjoy our soap operas and shiny things made in the far east. Is there a better way?  

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