La Hacienda and Other Stories

I left Buries, foolishly, in 1970.
Had an interesting career since then and now retired. I ended my seafring career on ferries.

A story there. Along with an AB, Ralph Horsman (I think), I got washed down the deck of the La Sierra in the Pacific, when I'd been sent onto the deck to see how the rigging of the lifeline was progressing. I was Second Mate at the time.
The water was amazingly warm, and I remember wondering whether I was still on the ship or in the oggin. Soon found out when I ripped the arse out of my trousers and bashed my ankles on a saddle tank lid. Poor old Ralph came off worse with 2 nasty gashes on his head which my then wife (ex nurse) stitched up for him.

When i was chatting to him one day, while he was laid up in the ship's hospital, he expressed a not unnatural desire to swallow the anchor. I asked him if he'd ever considered ferries and he spent some time explaining how he'd tried the Newhaven - Dieppe ferry but found his colleagues so set in their petty ways that he'd never do that again.
Well i tried Dover ferries in1972, but soon got fed up with that for similar reasons and returned to my previous Baltic trade.

Towards the end of my career, I tried ferries again having been touched by the sight of my youngest in tears as I left for sea one day. Funny, no sooner does that happen than the kids disappear to uni leaving dad stuck on a sodding ferry.
BTW Ralph was put ashore in Singapore and we continued to Chittagong with our cargo of US grain from Seattle and Tacoma. We discharged the grain into 'Sam' boats off Chittagong as we were too big to get into the port. I was previously there on the La Laguna loading general for UK/Continent on a Clan Line charter.