Such knocking on the door wasn’t the usual sort; figuratively speaking it was a demand to be heard.The place was the South African Parliament and the urging came from the African National Council to educate the nation’s black youth – ‘ANC press Vorster for immediate action’ read the headlines of the Cape Argus. In 1974 this coincided with my first trip to Capetown and although…
From a working dock to a thriving leisure attraction, the Royal Albert Dock Liverpool has seen many people come and go. A new Heritage Lottery supported project is looking for people with memories of the Albert Dock, particularly dockers and seafarers who remember it before it’s closure in the early 1970’s. What was it like to work there? What were…
I’m not sure what emotions we felt as a ship’s crew – fear or apprehension, perhaps.
For as the ship sailed into the heat and humidity of Freetown harbour, the rows of military Land Rovers parked on the quay – some painted with a distinctive Red Cross – were plain to see.
As defined by ‘Marine Insight’, the maritime educational body, stowaways are categorised in two groups:
A Happy New Year to all. I was passend a copy of this footage by Pat Moran a while ago and happened to come across it recently during a New Year clear out. Interesting to see the crowds on the waterfront. If anyone knows who filmed this let me know in the comments below.
As the ship passed the Cape Hatteras lighthouse off North Carolina it was the deck cadet who spoke first: ” I’ve been here before”, he proclaimed.No-one answered until the lighthouse beam flashed, casting an eerie shadow inside the wheelhouse.”Yes, me also” replied the skipper
Filmed at the Pier Head, Liverpool on Sunday 11th November 2018.
I had a call recently from a man called Colin Smith, on behalf of the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation. The foundation is trying to track down the owners of original David Shepherd paintings as part of a project to establish their whereabouts. One of the difficulties DSWF have in tracking down original artwork is that David painted around 6000 pictures…
Robert was kind enough to share some of his memories including his ambition of a young age to go to sea, joining his first ship in Liverpool in 1965.
Around the time when the United Kingdom had almost full-employment and a social contract to govern prices and wage restraint, we also had a thriving Merchant Navy. For this was in 1974 when not only were there over 1600 red-ensigned vessels compared to less than 300 today. That notwithstanding, the slump in vessels was already declining in that year owing to the oil-price…
We were lucky enough to be able to do a short interview with Capatin Roy Kerr who was in Liverpool as part of the Three Festivals Tall Ships Regatta over the weekend. Roy is certainly living the dream as Captain of La Malouine and particularly enjoys working with the different crew that join him along the way. La Malouine was…
The first time I saw the circling speedboats from a distance of three nautical miles, I realised a ship was under attack. For this was the Gulf ‘tanker war’, part of a lesser- known conflict precedingthe 1990 Gulf War. At this time the Iraq-Iran conflict had been raging since 1980, it’s territorial losses and gains changed monthly. This stalemate prompted attacks on ships by both belligerents,…