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Author Topic: Nautical "Strange but True!"  (Read 214106 times)

Bryan Young

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Re: Nautical "Strange but True!"
« Reply #775 on: November 05, 2010, 03:37:58 pm »

Bryan   - When I found that the end of your saga had arrived I felt  really sad that there would be no more. I suppose that everything really good has to end some time though

I have been reading your tale from the very beginning and was amazed to realise  that it has been so long. Thanks so much for sharing this with us.

Don B.
Thanks Don. I feel a bit sad myself to tell the truth. But perhaps there are others who are glad to see the back of it all! Bryan.
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Bryan Young

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Re: Nautical "Strange but True!"
« Reply #776 on: November 05, 2010, 03:45:42 pm »

Bryan, many, many thanks for an absorbing recount of your career at sea.
Shortly after starting my own journey (very close to yourself - Oct '57) in the 'Merch' I occasionaly ( %)) used to go for a pint down in Shields Market pubs where other seamen used to hang out, just so I could hear familiar tales covering the whole world being talked about around me before returning to my local and the more trivial discussions.
Your story had the same effect on me, feeling very at home amongst familiar surroundings.
Now what ?  :-))

Mike

PS Bob, it can only get better ! The first time I watched a poor blighter climbing over the bar at the Tyne piers into a hooligan, then ambled back to a nice warm house, I started to miss it less and less ! (Except the people, of course )
Mike, "what" indeed! In retrospect perhaps I should have limited my meanderings to the winter months. Now, to finish off the "Norseman" I'll have to brave the rigours of the chilly "outdoors" (sort of).
But that has made me cogitate on another looming dilemma. Taking photos without a cluttered backgound. A lot of the smaller rigging (halyards and stuff) are white, and so won't be visible against my (our) "whitish" walls. One thing just leads to another. Cheers. Bryan.
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Tug-Kenny RIP

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Re: Nautical "Strange but True!"
« Reply #777 on: November 05, 2010, 03:46:48 pm »

I'm sad as well because it was a great read. Can't wait for the 'Hardback' version to come out.  I reckon you're onto a good pension plan there.   :-))

Happy retirement Brian,

Ken

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Bryan Young

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Re: Nautical "Strange but True!"
« Reply #778 on: November 05, 2010, 04:03:45 pm »

Bryan,

Has it really been that long in the writing it surely didn't seem so from the readers point of view. Though it must have seemed like a marathon to you.


With no updates to follow I shall have to go back to the beginning and start again.


Many thanks for all your work. It has been illuminating, at times very funny and always a good read.


Yours Colin H.
Colin. Thanks for that. But no, it never seemed like a marathon to me. The hardest episodes to write were the "Olwen" trip to Aussie in 1988 (Vietnamese boat people etc) with "Capt.Speaking" and the Far East "cruise" under the Deity". This was the period when "BarryM" somehow got the impression that I'd been lost in our local park for a couple of weeks. I just couldn't pull it all together.
I've had to re-read it myself while I'm making another version for my granddaughter. Quite cathartic! But during this re-reading I was surprised at how much I remembered so clearly, but just as surprised as to how much I'd missed out! Just scared of being sued for libel or something I suppose....even though the people involved are either now deceased or pushing 110 years old. Regards. Bryan.
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BarryM

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Re: Nautical "Strange but True!"
« Reply #779 on: November 05, 2010, 07:07:01 pm »

Barry, my Caledonian sparring partner. Thanks for being supportive (now and again) for the last couple of years. I have (somewhat reluctantly) sort of forgiven your remarks about wearing spats on a visit to Bougis Street and so on, but I will never, ever, forgive you for trying to present old Flora as an honourable person. Doing that made me look almost legitimate, and that I resent. Stick with your steam.
Apart from that......thanks. Bryan.

Bryan,
I'm afraid you've been outed. My Singapore correspondent found this stuffed down the back of a sofa in the Seamens Paradiso in Anson Road. The caption reads "Midshipman Young models latest spats for Flora's Emporium - Bugis Street Branch."
Regards
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Bryan Young

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Re: Nautical "Strange but True!"
« Reply #780 on: November 05, 2010, 07:28:54 pm »

I'm sad as well because it was a great read. Can't wait for the 'Hardback' version to come out.  I reckon you're onto a good pension plan there.   :-))

Happy retirement Brian,

Ken


Kenny, nice to hear from you again.
I'm afraid that there'll be no "Hardback" version. Of course, if your'e really interested you can always cut/copy paste from the forum pages...but I don't think all the photos come out. Ah, well.
The one and only "hardback" thingy is now beginning Volume 5 of the standard 4 ring binders, and I'm just about up to the Vietnamese bit in 1988. As I complete each volume I've been putting the contents onto CDs (as a backup, mainly). But as my granddaughter is just about coming up to her 2nd birthday I reckon that it'll be at least another 16 or 18 years before she gets her mitts on them. By then I'll either be long gone or well into my mid 80s. Food for thought, eh? And heaven alone knows what technology will be around by then. But "print" will survive electronics I'm sure.
Forget the "Pension Fund" idea. Originally I did the whole saga purely for the entertainment and (hopefully) edification of members of this forum who, while being interested in "ships" had/have no idea what it's like to be away on one. I think I may have succeeded in that.
Making money out of it is and never was on the agenda. It's an open forum, so do what you will. Within reason.
I'm perfectly happy with my present cicumstances (apart from physical degeneration!) and have no desire whatsoever to begin another "career". But thanks for the thought. By the way, "my" hardback version is already over 500 pages with almost 6 years to go!!!!
Many regards. Bryan.
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Bryan Young

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Re: Nautical "Strange but True!"
« Reply #781 on: November 05, 2010, 07:30:58 pm »

I'm sad as well because it was a great read. Can't wait for the 'Hardback' version to come out.  I reckon you're onto a good pension plan there.   :-))

Happy retirement Brian,

Ken


Kenny, nice to hear from you again.
I'm afraid that there'll be no "Hardback" version. Of course, if your'e really interested you can always cut/copy paste from the forum pages...but I don't think all the photos come out. Ah, well.
The one and only "hardback" thingy is now beginning Volume 5 of the standard 4 ring binders, and I'm just about up to the Vietnamese bit in 1988. As I complete each volume I've been putting the contents onto CDs (as a backup, mainly). But as my granddaughter is just about coming up to her 2nd birthday I reckon that it'll be at least another 16 or 18 years before she gets her mitts on them. By then I'll either be long gone or well into my mid 80s. Food for thought, eh? And heaven alone knows what technology will be around by then. But "print" will survive electronics I'm sure.
Forget the "Pension Fund" idea. Originally I did the whole saga purely for the entertainment and (hopefully) edification of members of this forum who, while being interested in "ships" had/have no idea what it's like to be away on one. I think I may have succeeded in that.
Making money out of it is and never was on the agenda. It's an open forum, so do what you will. Within reason.
I'm perfectly happy with my present cicumstances (apart from physical degeneration!) and have no desire whatsoever to begin another "career". But thanks for the thought. By the way, "my" hardback version is already over 500 pages with almost 6 years to go!!!!
Many regards. Bryan.
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kiwi

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Re: Nautical "Strange but True!"
« Reply #782 on: November 05, 2010, 07:44:27 pm »

Bryan,
Thank you for the most entertaining read over the past years. Your writings have been the first things I look for when I log into Mayhem.
May you enjoy many more years of happy retirement
Wish my Dad had put his life down on paper. We only have a few photos from his time before me, and fond memories now.
Take care
kiwi
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Bryan Young

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Re: Nautical "Strange but True!"
« Reply #783 on: November 05, 2010, 08:00:04 pm »

Bryan,
I'm afraid you've been outed. My Singapore correspondent found this stuffed down the back of a sofa in the Seamens Paradiso in Anson Road. The caption reads "Midshipman Young models latest spats for Flora's Emporium - Bugis Street Branch."
Regards
Gadzooks, Cor Blimey, Shiver me Timbers, Golly Gosh, Bloody-Hell.....where did you drag that one up from? I really did try to disguise my (right) club foot, but apparently failed. Even at the tender age of 22 I would appear to have inherited my mothers "rapid ageing" gene. But funnily enough, all that seems to have reversed itself and now I just enjoy trying to ram bits of square wood into round holes. In the dim and fading bits of memory I have left, I vaguely recall having no such problem. Especially if I was toting a bar of (new) soap to use as currency, because, as you can readily observe, I was flat skint at the time and had to beg and borrow some suitable clothing for a night out down Bougis Street. I really wish you hadn't posted that picture as it brings back so many painful memories. Mainly inflicted by some very large and inebriated Viking.
But I am rather pleased that the false beard worked, otherwise some little old dear may come up to me in the street and mutter stuff like "fancy a re-run" dear? No thanks. I'll carry on with my dolls and Play-Dough.
Somebody the other day (a visitor in a white coat) mentioned to my wife (or so I've been told) that perhaps making "toy boats" is no "proper" occupation for someone of my age, and in my mental condition. So I killed him. Minced up he made a very good "hairy filler" fibre-glass paste. Try it sometime. Bryan (I think).
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Bryan Young

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Re: Nautical "Strange but True!"
« Reply #784 on: November 05, 2010, 08:07:12 pm »

Bryan,
Thank you for the most entertaining read over the past years. Your writings have been the first things I look for when I log into Mayhem.
May you enjoy many more years of happy retirement
Wish my Dad had put his life down on paper. We only have a few photos from his time before me, and fond memories now.
Take care
kiwi
Kiwi, I've had a few responses from you over the years...all pleasant and well received.
I've already had the best 16 years of my life since I "retired". But I take your point about your dads life. That was another motivication for me to write my little ditties. I also have only the odd photo and second hand stories about him.
Perhaps more people of "our age" should at least attempt to leave something of themselves behind? Regards. Bryan.
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leafman

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Re: Nautical "Strange but True!"
« Reply #785 on: November 09, 2010, 12:39:55 pm »

Hello Bryan.
Just returned from a 3 week vacation in India. Many thanks for these postings about life in the RFA. So accurate and informative and certainly many of them triggering nostalgia. You have a rather nice way of putting things over and I had no idea you were such a good writer.   I suspect that some of the titles you have applied to certain Masters eg "Captain Speaking" are ones I also knew well!  All in all some very good reading.  I intend cutting and pasting your many contributions so that I can clag them onto A4 sheets for some easy bedtime reading at my leisure.  I hope you do not mind me doing that.
Very Best Regards from  Kirkcudbright

Rab Thomson.
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Bryan Young

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Re: Nautical "Strange but True!"
« Reply #786 on: November 09, 2010, 01:15:12 pm »

Hello Bryan.
Just returned from a 3 week vacation in India. Many thanks for these postings about life in the RFA. So accurate and informative and certainly many of them triggering nostalgia. You have a rather nice way of putting things over and I had no idea you were such a good writer.   I suspect that some of the titles you have applied to certain Masters eg "Captain Speaking" are ones I also knew well!  All in all some very good reading.  I intend cutting and pasting your many contributions so that I can clag them onto A4 sheets for some easy bedtime reading at my leisure.  I hope you do not mind me doing that.
Very Best Regards from  Kirkcudbright

Rab Thomson.
Hi,Rab. Still wearing the turbine (complete with "the red dot")? Re your "intentions"....I have another idea. I'll send you an e-mail directly. Bryan.
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Bryan Young

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Re: Nautical "Strange but True!"
« Reply #787 on: February 05, 2011, 06:12:45 pm »

I did tell you all that some "odd-ball" things would no doubt arise after the main thread/story was completed.
At the moment I'm sort of doing a "then and now" photographic essay about my local area. Smiths Docks (the North Shields variety) was very much a part of "my" heritage as a seafarer.
Just by accident I came across the enclosed photo.
I guess it must have been taken around 1974 (ish). It's unusual insofar as it shows both my last Cable & Wireless ship and my first RFA both together.
The titchy little cable-layer being squeezed is "Mercury". And I always thought of her as being quite a large vessel!....But then again, "Resource" was a big ship. Until a couple of days ago I'd never really considered the disparity as I rapidly became accustomed to the big ones.
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