# Where are you, Blue?



## Cpt Dick Brooks (May 13, 2013)

His real name is Ian Cox, and I first met him in a pub in Bristol. I'd just returned to the UK from a two year contract in Dubai, where I'd been working as master of my third ship, Dauntless Star, after selling her to Ahli Marine. I'd called in at Ipswich for a couple of days to catch up with old friends, then took the train across England to Bristol to stay with Hooky, one of my buddies from Dubai. He'd run a block-making factory, and we'd often got on the whisky together. He lived on the east side of Bristol in his own three bedroom semi with his live-in girlfriend, Whinny Pooh.
Both Hooky and Pooh worked during the day, so I got in the habit of calling in at the local pub at lunchtime for a few ales. Blue and his mates would gather around me and shout the drinks while I told them stories of my adventures around the world. He was interested when I told them I'd returned to the UK to buy another ship, then take her on a voyage around the world. They were still a little disbelieving and thought I was spinning them a yarn, until he accompanied me and Hooky on a tour of all the major fishing ports around England looking for a new ship. My quote for the Hull trawler, Ross Resolution, was accepted by her owners, Halliers Fisheries, but the reality didn't set in with him until I showed him the bank draft for the purchase of the ship from my bank in Dubai.
After a few drinks to say goodbye to my drinking buddies, Blue and I set off for Hull in his beat-up car, with the back seat and boot loaded with all we needed to move on to the ship. Despite it being in April, there was ice on the deck. This came as a bit of a shock after living in Hooky's central heated house, especially after working in Dubai where the summer temperature the year before reached 64 degrees Celsius in the shade... if you could find any.
Blue was only a young fellow around twenty, and had passed his apprenticeship as a car mechanic. He was going to be my chief engineer, and spent a month in Hull with me, going over Ross Resolution with Halliers' engineers and electricians leaning all we could about the machinery and equipment on board the ship. Blue's mate, Andy Amatt, was going to be my second engineer, who like the others, had never been to sea before. He'd been working at Woolwich ****nal as some kind of engineer, and was keen to learn all he could about a thousand ton displacement ship. Hooky was to be my third engineer, despite knowing nothing about ships. He was an enthusiastic mechanic on the repair and reconstruction of pre-fifties American cars, so knew what was needed about machinery.
Following a successful voyage from Hull to Plymouth in the spring of 1978,where the members of the delivery crew who were intending to sail with me across the Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean learned all they could about the running of their particular part of the ship, we settled down in Mount Battern Bay to prepare the ship for the voyage of a lifetime.
As the starboard generator was shot, Hooky bought two Foden artic units for me fitted with Rolls-Royce Eagle diesel engines... one to be fitted to the 240 volt DC generator, and the other being broken down and stored in the winch-room for spare parts. All this mechanical work was good for my future engineering crew and settled them into the routine of shipboard life. The name of the ship was changed to Debut as part of my agreement with Halliers Fisheries, because Ross Resolution was a company name with her being part of the Ross fleet. She was given a coat of paint on her superstructure, and all the unneeded fishing gear was removed from the deck and stowed in the fish hold.
I bought a copy of the Yachting World to get the address to advertise for crew, but so many young adventurers were seeking positions on yachts to travel the world, I wrote to them instead. Within a month in Plymouth, I finally completed my crew list, with Blue's sister, Jacky, joining the ship at the last minute after completing her contract as a cook at the Aviemore Ski Centre in Scotland. She'd seen enough pots and pans, and wanted a deck position on the ship. With Pooh and Pauline as the galley crew, Paul Elliot as first mate and Mike as second, Nick Shaw as the ship's doctor-***-deckie, Debut set out on a voyage around the tropical world.
Other than myself, having spent most of my life at sea as master of my own ships, Paul and Mike who had some yachting experience, none of the rest of the crew had ever been to sea before. I took things gently with them, calling in at La Coruna in Spain, Lisbon in Portugal, the Canary and Cape Verde Islands before heading west across the Atlantic Ocean. After a wonderful voyage, with a starboard quartering swell up to fifteen feet, Debut made her landfall on the east coast of Barbados after eight days at sea. Blue was now a fully competent chief engineer, with Andy and Hooky as his second and third.
Blue travelled through the Grenadines on Debut to the carnival at Trinidad, then with us north again through the islands. I was contracted to recover lead keels from yachts wrecked on the reefs as ballast for Bob Dylan's new 68 foot new schooner, Water Pearl, being built at the boatyard at Bequia. 
Our first salvage operation was the sailing yacht, Caryle, which ran aground on the reef east of Union Island on a pleasant sunny afternoon. While we were anchored at World End Reef, where we discovered the unknown wreck of a British whaling ship, we were contracted to salvage the Johanna A, a small wooden cargo boat that had run aground in Sandy Bay, on the east coast of St. Vincent after running out of fuel on her way to Barbados from Antigua. She was enharboured by the dense volcanic sand right under the fully erupting volcano, Mount Soufriere. As the northern half of the island had been evacuated, heavy machinery couldn't be brought in to dig a channel for her into deep water. We cut her in half with the towing wire, like cutting cheese on the orders to pull by the owners.
After the salvage of the Barbados 21, an eighty foot fishing-boat in Bequia, the inter-island Grenadines ferry, Siemstrand, went up on the reef in Union Island loaded with passengers and some fifteen tons of Heineken beer. We pulled her off after only 25 minutes from being connected. And what a party it was, as I insisted on all her passengers and cargo being unloaded. Motor launches and yachts helped bring them on board Debut, and Siemstrand left on her way to Grenada five tons light in her cargo of beer.
Blue was offered the skippers job on the luxury Grand Banks motor yacht, Shiny Penny, to carry tourists from the hotel in Union Island three miles to the Tobago Quays for swimming and a barbecue. Andy took over his job as chief-engineer on Debut. That was the last I saw or head from him, as we left for Bequia, and then on to Falmouth Harbour in Antigua for the hurricane season. Get in touch, Blue, so we can talk over old times while doing in a bottle of whisky. All the best, Cpt Dick Brooks.


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## Puffin's skipper (Nov 15, 2011)

Hope you find Ian, your old shipmate.. even if not, its still a hell of a yarn you passed on for we old salts to read that would rather hear a tale in the mess than look at the gash they put on TV these days.. Good on yer Skip. We need you to keep posting your great yarns in the log.. all well worth a read...


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## Rodney (Jul 21, 2010)

A really good yarn Captain. Thanks, Rodney


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## Cpt Dick Brooks (May 13, 2013)

*Puffin's skipper.*

Good to hear from you, Puffin's skipper. You sound as if you're a bit like me. I've spent most of my life at sea, never ever even driving a motor vehicle. There's a wonderful life out there on the high seas, but I must admit that I'm a little long in the tooth to go throwing myself around on a ship at my age... trying to do everything bar loop-the-loop. They can never take away the memories we have of our adventures.
If you'd like to read more of my wanderings, apart from all the short stories I've posted on the various forums of this site, you may like to go to the Book forum, where the four books that I've had published are set out in detail, with the Kindle codes to easily access them. They are under the two group headings of 'The Black Ship's Odyssey' and 'The Black Ship Trilogy'. I'm working on my fifth and possibly my last book at the moment, which is actually the first one of the set, covering when I left Plymouth and voyaged to Pago Pago, in American Samoa. This is Book One of 'The Black Ship's Odyssey'. Enjoy the read and stay in touch. All the best, Cpt Dick Brooks.


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## Cpt Dick Brooks (May 13, 2013)

*Rodney.*

Good to receive your thread. I'm glad you liked my short story about looking for my chief engineer, 'Blue'. He was only a young lad, but worked hard and got himself established in the maritime world. I've managed to get in contact with many of my old ship-mates through this site. I've had several leads about his sister, Jacky, and the tall ships that she sailed on after she left Debut in Antigua during the hurricane season of 1979. She made her way from deckie when she joined Debut in Plymouth, to first mate on several salvage operations. Good to hear from you. All the best, Cpt Dick Brooks.


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## Cpt Dick Brooks (May 13, 2013)

*For Ships Nostalgia.*

Thank you Ship's Nostalgia for helping me get into contact with my first chief engineer on Debut, Ian Cox, aka Blue, who was with me right from the start when I bought her in Hull in 1978 as the Ross Resolution. I hadn't seen or heard from him since he left Debut in 1979 when we were in the St. Vincent Grenadines. He accepted the captain's position on a luxury motor yacht, taking guests from the hotel in Union Island to Tobago Keys near the outer windward reef near Green Island. Once again thank you. All the best, Cpt Dick Brooks.


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