The Dew Drop Inn Virtual Rugby Pub

First topic message reminder :

Welcome to the Virtual Rugby Pub - a place where you can come in for a sly beverage and discuss whatever's on your mind, or just eavesdrop on the regulars if you fancy a break from all the rugby chat.

The only rule in this pub is one of mutual respect for everyone in it, oh and no defacing pictures of Rhys Priestland, Cian Healy, or the special one of Charlize Theron and Gibbo above the bar!


So pull up a chair....what'll it be?



Old Pub:https://www.606v2.com/t18722p1000-the-dew-drop-inn-virtual-rugby-pub#723943

prop_lyd wrote:I may be wrong but: is there anyone who calls themselves English coming to the big meet?

If not could we call it 'The Celtic Invasion?!' May bring my flag with my for those of you who haven't signed it!!

Afternoon all.
Prop, does having a Scottish Great-great-grandfather count as "Celtic" (I have to go back a couple of generations further for an Irish link).

Hound, have a great trip!

Mrs P, I have the keyboard version of the Kindle, but to be honest I use the keyboard very rarely (it's occasionally handy if I'm searching for a specific book and don't want to tab through lots of contents pages).

Stag, I'd be interested in seeing prices for the Lions too - I'll be due a trip home in 2013, so could be interested in 2 weeks in Aus and tagging on a week across in NZ.

red_stag wrote: [And for all your Touring Needs don't hesitate to let me know For the UK regz, pay in Euro and your flight is cheaper!!

Oz Explorer Tour - All three Tests & the Rebels match

Koala Tour - 1st and 2nd Tests & the Rebels match

Skippy Tour - 2nd and 3rd Tests

Down Under Tour - All Ten Lions matches including the Barbarians in Hong Kong

Give us a quote on all those Stag - PM or email

luckless_pedestrian wrote:Finally!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/15934117.stm

https://www.606v2.com/t19197-andy-tuilagi-signs-for-the-dragons#728402

Lucky...

Happy Birthday mate... I just saw it on the front page. Hope you are having a great day. You've already received one great present... may there be more as the day unfolds!

Hound_of_Harrow wrote:I usually refer to 'our lot' as just The Lions. Although I'm surprised no one has taken umbrage at that name seeing as the lion is mainly part of English and Scottish heraldry.

WRONG !!! - GLYNDWR

Have a great time anyway

Cracking impression here.

http://www.broadsheet.ie/2011/11/29/leinsater-player-impersonates-ryle-nigent-on-airplane/

Thanks, Linebreaker - I'll save those pints for tomorrow, when it's actually my birthday!

EDIT: Also, how did you know my birthday was coming up?

Saw it earlier Mick its epic!!

No probs Pete, the whole pub will be inundated with offers

luckless_pedestrian wrote:Thanks, Linebreaker - I'll save those pints for tomorrow, when it's actually my birthday!

EDIT: Also, how did you know my birthday was coming up?

If i dont get chance later .....Happy Birthday for tomorrow Lucky

its at the bottom of the home page who's birthdays are coming up

Ah, I didn't know about that, Kenny. Thanks for the early birthday pint!

luckless_pedestrian wrote:Thanks, Linebreaker - I'll save those pints for tomorrow, when it's actually my birthday!

EDIT: Also, how did you know my birthday was coming up?

On the home page... can you see it under the User list?

November 30 already here. It says it's your birthday on this day.

No problem ......... hope you have a good one

not sure if i will get on here much tomorrow ...kids at home because of teachers strike !!

luckless_pedestrian wrote:Enjoy, Hound!

For this Saturday:

Wales: Leigh Halfpenny; George North, Scott Williams, Jamie Roberts, Shane Williams; Rhys Priestland, Lloyd Williams; Gethin Jenkins, Huw Bennett, Scott Andrews, Bradley Davies, Ian Evans, Dan Lydiate, Sam Warburton (capt), Toby Faletau.

Replacements: Matthew Rees, Ryan Bevington, Ryan Jones, Justin Tipuric, Tavis Knoyle, Dan Biggar, Alex Cuthbert.

Andrews Cuthbert

Why bother calling Liam up? At least he'll be back for Munster.

Yep, 30th November, Linebreaker. A magical date.

luckless_pedestrian wrote:Yep, 30th November, Linebreaker. A magical date.

Yup the first ever soccer international took place and its is a national day of celebration in Yemen.

Well, that then explains all of your magical posts!

India on the ropes at 79/5 needing 212 ... c'mon Windies!

I visited the Yemen as a boy and it's how they like to commemorate it.

What, the fact that you left?

No Foxy in the Welsh team. Apparently he's picked up an injury. In a panic he might not be fit for the Munster match now!

No, Dreamer, he'll be OK.

It's Georgie I'll keep an eye on. He's a bit prone to knocks.

They don't say I left, Glas. They say I ascended.

I don't see how good this is for the regions.

For example Scarlets are likely to be facing Munster who will hopefully have just beaten a weak Ospreys team and themselves will have had to sent a weak team to Ulster.

I see them being undercooked and suffering in the game that matters.

Glas - tis a groin injury apparently, although some rumour going round he's been seen with his foot strapped up. none of this sounds good. And can't believe Georgie is playing, bet his hip still isn't 100%

(note: I am just getting myself into what is hopefully an unnecessary panic as usual, so don't panic yourself!)


Stag - EXACTLY!!! Tis a ridiculous fixture

Afternoon folks.



As some of you know, I'm a qualified officer in the Merchant Navy, but gave it up. A lot of my family and friends have for a long time questioned why. This article sums it up. It was published today in The Telegraph and while it no doubt highlights the extreme cases I personally have experienced a lot of what is discussed but thankfully not to such a horrific extent. I know this is a long piece but I ask you to take a few minutes to read it. It is, afterall, our desire for consumer goods that drives this industry. Cheers.








Forget any romantic notions of life on the ocean wave – most modern-day
seafarers are simply ‘prisoners with a salary’



It was only late afternoon, but already dark and stormy, on the Thursday of
the week before Christmas 2009, when the cargo freighter Danny FII
approached the Lebanese port of Tripoli en route from Uruguay to Syria. She
carried 18,000 cattle, 10,000 sheep and 83 humans, including four
passengers, and had been converted from a car carrier into a modern-day
Noah’s Ark.


Danny FII was not a new ship, but it was modern, because her crew was
international: a British captain and chief engineer, 59 Pakistanis, some
Filipinos, a Lebanese and a Syrian. Though she was Uruguayan, she flew
another country’s flag. She was a typical member of the 90,000-strong fleet
of freighters that sail the seas, bringing us 95 per cent of everything that
we consume.


Eleven miles out from Tripoli, the night, the weather and the Danny FII itself
combined to create a fatal outcome. The details are still unclear, but Danny
FII changed course, then capsized. Twenty-three sailors reached the
lifeboats, but they capsized, too, and the seas filled with drowning animals
and men. Forty men survived, 43 did not, including the captain, who went
down with his ship. And so Danny FII was added to the 36 other ships that
sank that year and the 43 men were added to the estimated 2,000 or so who
lose their lives annually.


Why were there no headlines? Consider the reaction if 37 airliners crashed
every year, or 37 trains, and if it happened every year, regular as a
shipping schedule. In 1910, the journalist FR Bullen wrote that we regarded
this ‘indispensable bridging of the ocean’ as ‘no more needing our
thoughtful attention than the recurrence of the seasons or the incidence of
day and night’. Nothing has changed.


The man who goes to sea, wrote Marco Polo, is a man in despair. This is still
true, but today’s man of the sea is also probably poor, probably exploited,
and living a life that contains, at the least, chronic fatigue and overwork;
boredom, pirates and danger. Suicide rates of seafarers are triple those of
land-based occupations and carrying sea cargo is the second-most deadly job
on the planet after fishing.


The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), which represents
seafarers, said recently that ‘the maritime and fishing industries continue
to allow astonishing abuses of human rights of those working in the sector.
Seafarers and fishers are routinely made to work in conditions that would
not be acceptable in civilised society’. Middle-class shoppers may think
they are helping the world’s poor by buying Fairtrade food, but, chances
are, they have never given a thought to the conditions on board the ships
that bring them those goods.


Only last year a young South African cadet named Akhona Geveza was found
floating in the sea, an hour after reporting that she had been cuddled in a bad way by a
senior officer. An investigation by South Africa’s Sunday Times
newspaper interviewed other cadets and found two made pregnant by senior
officers; two male cadets cuddled in a bad way; and a widespread atmosphere of
intimidation. ‘When we arrived,’ one female cadet told the newspaper, ‘we
were told that the sea is no-man’s land and that what happens at sea, stays
at sea.’


The International Commission on Shipping estimates that thousands of
seafarers, working on 10-15 per cent of the world’s ships, ‘work in slave
conditions, with minimal safety, long hours for little or no pay, starvation
diets, Cuddle in a bad way and beatings’. All to bring us our Fairtrade coffee and our
ethically sourced clothes.


A British Navy Admiral last year accused Britons of ‘sea blindness’; of having
no idea what sea life is like. But how can we? Shore and sea lives are
nothing alike. You would expect for example that the families of Danny FII’s
dead crew would be compensated, because that is what happens in shore life,
ideally, where there are checks and balances and courts and redress. But the
men of Danny FII lived in a world that is essentially lawless.


When something goes wrong at sea, a seafarer has nowhere to turn. ‘A
land-based person would have national jurisdiction,’ says Deirdre
Fitzpatrick of the ITF,. ‘I’m in the UK, my problem is here, and I know
where to go for help. If you are Filipino, on a Panamanian-flagged ship,
travelling from South Africa to the Netherlands, what law is going to govern
you? You are a total moving target.’


International, multinational, transnational: this is normal in shipping, an
industry whose complexity would impress offshore bankers. Crews of five or
more nationalities are standard, and 60 per cent of ships now fly a flag of
a country that is not that of their owner. These days, the average ship in
British ports is unlikely to have either a British flag or a British crew.
The only thing you can predict with certainty about it is that its sailors
will be from poor countries, and exhausted. Occasionally, they will also be
unpaid, or worse, which is where Tommy Molloy comes in.


An inspector for the ITF, based in Liverpool, Molloy spends his days visiting
whichever of the world’s freighters has arrived at the quays of Liverpool
and Birkenhead, to see if they pass muster. We meet in New Brighton,
old-time seaside resort for Liverpool, now supplanted by Ryanair and
short-haul sunshine. His office is on a retirement estate for ex-seafarers
run by Nautilus, a seafaring union.


All the old seafarers here are British, and ‘they wouldn’t recognise the
industry today’, says Molloy, as we drive at pensioner speed through the
lanes. But he hardly ever sees a Briton on the ships that call here, because
they cost too much in wages, and expect things like being paid on time, or
having the right to be in a union, that shipowners can avoid quite easily
and legally by flying a ‘flag of convenience’, a responsibility-avoidance
system unique to shipping.


It is common to see ships who are owned by, for example, a Japanese company,
flying the flag of Liberia or Panama. This entitles them to operate under a
nation state that supplies none of the governance that it should, a practice
that makes tracking down bad shipowners near impossible. Flagging out your
ship, an Australian maritime union wrote, is like ‘being able to register
your car in Bali so you can drive it on Australian roads without having to
get the brakes fixed’.


There are decent flag-of-convenience registries, but questionable ones abound.
North Korea has a large fleet. When Cambodia-flagged ships got involved in
too many sinkings and drug trafficking investigations, the registry office
in Singapore was closed and two weeks later reopened as Mongolia’s. The
United Nations Law of the Sea specifies that there should be a ‘genuine
link’ between the flag-owner and the state. It took years for diplomats to
agree on this. They are now spending years deciding what a genuine link
should consist of. In practice, when anything goes wrong, the seafarer is on
his own.


I drive with Molloy to Birkenhead docks. He has the right to visit ships that
have signed an ITF agreement promising to respect certain wage levels and
hours of rest. Otherwise he asks politely to visit. Shipping is the only
industry that regulates working hours by hours of rest, because it would be
impossible to conform to hours of work limits.


On a recent passage I took, conforming to regulations was impossible. In port,
crews were working 18 hours a day, because shipping these days is 24 hours,
seven days a week. The days of prolonged stays in port are long gone. With
containerisation, a ship can be unloaded and loaded and gone in 24 hours.
Some of the crew on my ship hadn’t been ashore in months. ‘I’ve been to New
York, Hong Kong and Tokyo,’ the chief engineer said, ‘and they all look like
my engine room.’


Molloy doesn’t see many decent ships. ‘I deal with the dirty end
of the industry,’ he says. The first ship we visit, though, is fine. Hohe
Bank is flagged in Antigua, owned by Germans, managed by Britons, built by
Chinese, and with an Indonesian crew and Russian officers. Normal, in other
words. Molloy hands out ITF magazines in Russian and an Indonesian language,
and they are pleased to get them, because it is human contact, which they
don’t get much of.


Plenty of seafarers I meet tell me their job is like being ‘at prison with a
salary’. Wrong, wrote the Maritime Charities Funding Commission, which found
that ‘the provision of leisure, recreation, religious service and
communication facilities is better in UK prisons than on many ships’.


The ship ‘house’, where seafarers live, is small but clean. But Molloy gives
me a PowerPoint presentation about some other ships he has seen. Mouldy,
filthy couches, rotting fruit and meat. I hear complaints that chandlers –
suppliers – regularly give ships poor quality food, simply because they can,
when a ship is in port for 24 hours. But the crew doesn’t complain here and
the paperwork is orderly.


Still, even on the better ships, Molloy can go aboard and be there for days.
‘You’ll find that all the crew have exceeded their contracts. We always try
to persuade them to leave but often they don’t want to.’


Non-officers don’t have permanent contracts, so staying at sea longer means
more money and less need immediately to look for work. I met Filipinos with
four children who had missed every birth and every birthday. It is the price
they pay. ‘We call it dollar for homesickness,’ one said.


Many seafarers also find themselves abandoned in a port with no money, no
supplies and no way to get home. The abandonment of ships peaks during times
of recession, but it happens all the time, usually when an unscrupulous
owner has run out of money and disappears.


The worst cases happen overseas, such as that of Arabian Victory, stranded in
Dubai in 2002 for 45 days in temperatures of 111F (44C). The Indian and
Ukrainian crew didn’t even have water. Appeals to Dubai authorities, the
flag state (Belize) and the Indian consulate failed. When the crew decided
to sail to India for help, the Iraqi owner tried to arrest them for
hijacking.


This case is extreme, but Molloy sees abuse that is alarming for being so
routine. He boarded one Greek-owned ship and found that the Filipino crew
and officers hadn’t been paid for months. ‘The captain got on the phone to
the company and told me $48,000 was being wired immediately. I said, hang
on, I haven’t even calculated the total yet, then I did and it was $47,600.
They knew exactly what they owed.’


Once, when Molloy got money for the crew, he had a call at 3am from a crew
member. ‘He was at Manchester airport on his way home. He said: “I’m the
only one who refused to give the money back as soon as we got off the ship,
so they kicked me off.”’


But who is going to enforce anything? When a crew is abandoned, the ITF can
apply to special maritime courts to have the ship arrested and eventually
sold. This can take 12 weeks, and the sailors have no money or food. Welfare
organisations such as the Sailors Society, Mission to Seafarers and Stella
Maris are often the only solace for exploited seafarers. They are crucial,
especially when the crew won’t leave for fear they will never get paid.


Molloy tells of one Sri Lankan who told him: ‘If you send me home, I will cut
my throat.’ Like thousands of seafarers, he had coped with not being paid by
taking loans from moneylenders, who were threatening to kill his family.
Russians and Ukrainians are more likely to stand up for themselves, says
Molloy, but the Filipinos will resist longer because of blacklisting, a
practice that no one admits to but which is widely used among the crewing
agencies in the Philippines.


Roy Paul, who looks after Filipino seafarers for the ITF’s Seafarers Trust,
says it is common practice. ‘You’ll have someone who has worked for a ship
for four or five years, then makes a complaint against, for example, a
racist captain. Suddenly the agency has no ship for him, though it did for
four years.’


The conditions that Molloy sees every day would cause outrage ashore. And it’s
not just lower ranking crew members who suffer. In South Korea, the Indian
captain, Jasprit Chawla, was imprisoned for 18 months after his anchored
ship was hit by a runaway barge and leaked oil into the Yellow Sea. He was
only released after a protracted campaign. ‘You land a plane at sea and
you’re a hero,’ Paul says. ‘You put a ship on land and you’re a criminal.’


Of course, there are many responsible ship owners. As Deirdre Fitzpatrick
points out, ‘They know that their most valuable asset is their employees.’
They also know that there is a worldwide shortage of officers (a 33, 000
shortfall at the last count).


Campaigners hope that this shortage will put pressure on the industry to clean
up its act. Not much else seems to be working. Even the Fairtrade Foundation
is defeated by the complexities and realities of this extraordinary, unique
industry. It would be nice, says Fairtrade’s Ian Bretman, to insist on using
ships that have signed ITF agreements, or to avoid flags of convenience, but
without any way of monitoring, ‘this would be merely an empty gesture. [But]
I hope that it will not be too long before we can consider what practical
support we would offer trade unions in the maritime and shipping industries
so that seafarers can also see the benefits of Fairtrade.’


None of the seafarers I met shares this optimism. In a seafarers’ centre, I
ask Menandro, a ship’s cook, if he would send his son to sea. He used to be
a civil servant in the Philippines, but the economy collapsed and only the
shipping agencies were hiring. He now spends his days bringing us everything
we need to survive. Menandro is an educated and articulate man, but his
answer is brief. ‘No, no and no. I am doing this so he doesn’t have to. This
is no life.’

It isn't good for the regions, Stag. That's clear to anyone who doesn't work for the WRU. No other home nation has felt it necessary to cram in an international between the World Cup and the Six Nations.

Blydi hell. There's some tough reading there Hugh. I had no idea it could be like that.

I never knew that about you, Hughie - nor how bad conditions were.

WRU = W@nkers R Us

Yeah I didn't know that about you either Hughie, you must have seen/experienced a lot that I couldn't even begin to imagine, if that article is anything to go by.

Penfro - yep yep yep.

Best bit about working from home....Rachel Riley on countdown!!!!

Not long till flogging molly (just over 24hours )

Hughie my sister's b.f was in the merchant navy too, he was in the engineer squad and seemed to love it, not sure why he left mind....

Id say its easy have a different view of things when you only hear about it on TV.

Penfro - they certainly seem to be poorly run IMO. They appear to think their job is only to look after the national team.

BTW Prop - Rachel Riley =

That's not quite true, Stag. Look at Shaun Edwards's new contract, which gives him access to the premiership clubs and a hand in coaching them, plus Wales's age-group squads. Then again, it could be that he insisted on that and it wasn't the WRU's idea at all.

red_stag wrote:BTW Prop - Rachel Riley =

If you can i'd tune in today then!!!!

Don't worry, we needed something negative to concentrate our minds. The Welsh regions' run in Europe would come to an abrupt end the moment they start to think they could actually win anything and had a month to think about the next big game. Consternation at the WRU has long been a motivational force at Llanelli/Scarlets. It'll be fine.

prop_lyd wrote:

red_stag wrote:BTW Prop - Rachel Riley =

If you can i'd tune in today then!!!!

She looks amazing every day its on.

Was she the one off Emmerdale and 'You've been framed'

Glas - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Riley

Ah Huggy – you’ve got me thinking off my old Grandad , tough man that he was. Here’s his story and why I’ve always like the Irish
FROM THE IRISH TIMES OF SDATURDAY 28TH DECEMBER 1929:
CRIPPLES OF THE STORM, TWO VESSELS LIMP INTO WATERFORD

CREWS' TALES - WORST EXPERIENCE FOR MANY YEARS - SIXTY HOURS' ORDEAL - BATTERED BY BIG SEAS
Not less perilous was the condition of the steam trawler Oceanic. She left for her fishing grounds on Christmas Eve, and the duration of her battle with the gale was practically sixty hours. When off Minehead she encountered the full force of an eighty mile an hour gale. Put about four square to the gale, the Oceanic could do no more than hold her own, not being able to make the slightest headway for hours and hours.
Mountainous seas meantime battered her. So strong were the forces against her that her bows were partially stove in. Notwithstanding her gallant fight, she was yet to meet with further disaster. Her rudder was badly broken and twisted; she shipped heavy seas, and all hands were ordered to the pumps. Despite the most strenuous endeavours of her crew of nine, the water continued to rise and her sluggish gait suggested yet another misfortune. It then became apparent that water was entering from below, and it was found that the bottom plate had been displaced. By ceaseless work at the pumps the crew managed to keep the vessel afloat, until her skipper, seeking what shelter he could close to the coast, brought his vessel into calmer in Dunmore Harbour.
The crew were then in a very exhausted state, and on arrival at Waterford yesterday showed signs of their ordeal.
The mate, Preston,, told our correspondent how he had at one period almost given up hope, which was but faintly renewed with the appearance of daylight. The gale was, he said, was the worst he had known in his forty-seven years' experience.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

FROM THE WEST WALES GUARDIAN OF FRIDAY 4th JANUARY 1980:NONE OF MILFORD HAVEN'S TRAWLERS have spent Christmas at sea for years now. But fifty years ago this month a local trawler left for the fishing grounds on Christmas Eve on what quickly became a nightmare trip! Her crew spent sixty hours in a desperate battle for survival in a terrifying storm which nearly sank their ship and took their lives. For that crew, Christmas Day 1929 meant a cold, unremitting struggle to save their ship and themselves from disaster. And it was another ten days after that cheerless, perilous Christmas at sea before the nine trawlermen got home after their ship had lain broken and beached in Ireland.

It was on Boxing Morning 1929 that the 80ft. Milford trawler OCEANIC finally limped into the shelter of the little harbour at Dunmore East, Co, Waterford, Eire, her crew of nine utterly exhausted after toiling for 24 hours unceasingly at the pumps in the battle to save their leaking, broken-ruddered ship.

Only two of that crew survive today — Mr. Billy Norman of Hakinville, who was Third hand, and Mr. Fred Etherington of Vivian Drive, Hakin, who was a Deckhand. Both of them were young and newly-married (they both had Golden Weddings during the past year) when they sailed as shipmates on that fateful voyage on the old Peter Hancock trawler.
It was Mr. Etherington who kindly loaned me a cutting from the "Irish Times" of December 28th 1929 which reports the drama of the Oceanic's Christmas ordeal at sea.

100 mph Gale
In command of Plymouth-born Skipper Williams, the nine-man crew actually sailed from Milford Haven for the fishing grounds on Christmas Eve itself! When fishing off Minehead, the trawler encountered the full force of the gale which was raging with a velocity of 80-100 miles per hour with mountainous seas running.
All that her Skipper could do was to keep her four-square to the storm for hour upon hour, during which time the trawler could do no more than hold her own. She was practically at a standstill, unable to make the slightest headway in the teeth of the fierce Christmas gale. Battered by heavy seas, her bows were partially stove in, she was weakened amidships and her rudder was badly broken and twisted.
As the Oceanic continued to ship heavy seas all hands were ordered to the pumps — operated by hand! Despite the most strenuous efforts of her crew the water in the trawler continued to rise and from the sluggish way she lay in the water it was apparent that yet another misfortune had hit the ship! Water was found to be entering her through a displaced bottom plate — the Oceanic was not only badly battered but had also sprung a leak!
For twenty-four hours her crew of nine worked ceaselessly at the pumps, managing to keep the vessel afloat until her Skipper, seeking what shelter he could, ran along close to the Irish coast and finally rode into Dunmore on a high sea which struck the trawler astern,
"The crew were then in a very exhausted state and on arrival showed the signs of their ordeal," laconically records the "Irish Times" of next day.

Given up hope
The Oceanic's Mate, Mr. Preston of Gorleston, told reporters that during the worst part of the gale on Christmas Eve he had almost given up hope of surviving. "It was only with the arrival of daylight on Christmas morning that we felt some relief, and our hopes of pulling through were faintly revived," he said.

But it was to be another night of battling for survival at sea and another dawn of hope before the disabled, leaking and damaged Milford trawler and her gallant crew of nine were finally swept by the sea into the safety of Dunmore at the mouth of the Waterford River. The Mate told the "Irish Times" reporter that this was his worst experience in 47 years at sea.

"Burned a bed"
"It was bad all right but in those days we just went out there and took whatever the weather brought," recalled Mr. Billy Norman this week. "The Oceanic had no wireless and no electricity in those days," he recalled. "We burned a bed out on deck when we got off the coast of Ireland to try and get a lifeboat to come out to us because the ship had gone so low in the water. But no-one came.
"When we finally got into Dunmore the ship was beached and wires were put over her galluses to keep her from falling right over on her side. She was listing so badly that a Marine Surveyor ordered us all ashore until the danger was over. The pilot refused to take us over the Bar to go up the river to Waterford because the ship was so water-logged. So she lay on the beach in Dunmore until her broken plates could be welded."
Mr. Norman recalled that he and Mr. Etherington went up to Waterford to the Seamen's Mission and were given dry clothing, apples and oranges for the crew. "The Irish people made us welcome and helped us all they could," he said. "But the first our families in Milford knew what had happened to us was when my father read in a newspaper that the Oceanic was beached in Ireland! It was a a couple of weeks before we got the ship home again."

Sense of humour
Even in the midst of their desperate battle for survival the Milford trawlermen kept a sense of humour. "Freddie Etherington had hung his seaboot socks out to dry and I remember putting a glass trawl float and odds and ends in one of them with a note saying, 'Dear Father Christmas, please bring me a boat with an engine in it!" recalled Mr. Norman.
For the crew, the Oceanic's Christmas ordeal at sea had surely meant no Christmas dinner? "Well, in those days, the trawlers never carried special food at Christmas anyway," explained Mr. Norman. "I'd been at sea for seven Christmases in a row when this happened and we only had the usual kind of trawler food."
Had it been unusual to put to sea on Christmas Eve? "Not a bit of it," replied Mr. Norman. "For years after that we'd go to sea just before Christmas. I can remember sailing from Milford at half past seven on a Christmas Eve on the trawler Epinard. And just in case our crew didn't turn up, there was a full second crew there waiting! But WE went. That's the way it was in the years between the wars."

Wagons roll.

Get the in while you can Hound, you'll be sick of ye old Heineken by the end of the weekend, no??

Have a great time!

have a great time

- have a good 'un

Cheers folks. I've heeded lucky's advice and am in the Mad Bishop & Bear at Paddington

Then there's the Wetherspoon at T5 at Heathrow................then nothing decent for 8 days.

We normally get by on Guinness and Peroni when not at the ground.

Mick , apparently your Vern has put himself forward for the NZ vacancy?

Ah Penfro, I remember reading that story about your grandfather before.


Tough old gun

Great story that Penfro, the things they did back then are amazing

red_stag wrote:Glas - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Riley

And she's a smart lass

No, Asbo, he was contacted cos he's on the NZ shortlist;he's replied,says that it's a job no one refuses, but Hanson is streets ahead of him, and that he's committed to ASM.But he does have a "get out" clause in his newly signed contract,\.he adds that if he's called for an interview in the next three weeks, then he won't go;ASM's season is in the balance.

Hi there Cari