# Old Letters



## hawkey01 (Mar 15, 2006)

I found a few letters that my mother had kept over the years when I was at sea. Both sent to me and from me. For nostalgia sake I have read through them and it occurred to that some of the comments maybe of interest. Anyone else got any old letters - not of the romantic nature - from your time at sea.


These are not necessary in date order as just how I picked them out of the bundle.

Letter from my mother contained the following:
The year 1966. - Dad has bought me a spin drier, it cost £60 and he got a discount of £16. Much cheaper than it will be next year. - I cannot remember why it would be going up so much but I suppose it must have been the budget and an increase in purchase tax to come in 1967.
That was a lot of money back then.


1964. This one was from my brother at that time based in Aden with the RAF. He was a pilot on the latest transport aircraft at that time – the De-Havilland ARGOSY – he was describing the formation of a fly past for an air day. The lead aircraft was to be an Argosy followed by two Beverleys and astern of them three Valletta's. 

Letter from one of my old radio school friends in 1967.
RO, Roger B. Cliffe. At that time on the Minchbank. – the trip already, Boston, Mobile, Houston, Madras, Calcutta, Chalna, Chittagong then on to Colombo, Majunga, Buenos Aires, Montevideo and then -God only knows - 15 month trip. 
We were in Calcutta for a month over Xmas and New Year with Beechbank and Shirrabank. 
He also wrote that another friend Alan Hardcastle was on the Regent Eagle.
I must say I did not know where Majunga was – I now know it is Madagascar.

These came from letters from me to home.

Letter started 28-2-66.
Flies in Kakinada – my comment - I think every fly in India has come down to see us.

4 months gone already, its flying by as it is such a happy ship- Blanchland.

Sailed Kakinada 27th Feb 66 – auto alarm on the blink. I did recount this on another thread. Not that my folks would have had any idea what an Auto Alarm was.

1.3.66
Passed through - Ten degrees channel this morning and the islands of Nicobar, then tomorrow afternoon into the Malacca straits.

19.2.66
Nearly time to leave Calcutta, now at anchor waiting the tide bound Kakinada.
Got some beer last night the first we have had since arriving in India as we had run out. The customs in Calcutta would not let us have the bonded beer so had to drink the local stuff. – horrible – we ran out of beer quite often on this ship – good times. 

Shutting down AC and opening the ship up as the air is pretty stale after 2 months with AC on. I seem to remember several of us were not feeling too good with coughs etc.

18.3.66.
Kawasaki. We had been there for 3 days. – my comment was - everyone enjoying themselves to the first degree. It certainly is a wonderful country. - This was my and others first visit to Japan. I could hardly tell my folks that we were all having an amazing booze up and loads of – being polite – fun with the local ladies!


8.11.66.
Tahsis Vancouver Island - Teaming with rain and its hardly stopped in 4 days.

A few more to write up. 


Hawkey01


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## hawkey01 (Mar 15, 2006)

A couple more extracts from old letters. They obviously don’t seem to have made much of an impact on the readers. I will just finish off the few I have left. 
Sorry about that but I was looking to get a bit more action in the – Radio Room – it has been very quiet lately.

Argolis/6ZDC at sea 7.3.68.
At present bound for Skaramanga drydock.
Sorry about the writing but light ship she vibrates like mad – just like the Opalia/GLQA did. I have just added the callsigns as I can remember them.
My cabin and the radioroom are combined and on the Captains deck aft. The swimming pool is on my deck – very convenient.
It is nice and quiet and all air conditioned.

Aureol/GMGJ.
4.10.1968.
Moving to the landing stage to pick up the passengers.
1st class fare single to Lagos in a suite costs £500. At todays prices that does not sound too much for a suite but in 69 that would have been in many cases more than 6 months salary. After I pack up the sea I was a rep: for a while and my monthly was not much more than £60.

Sarpedon/GQGW.
29.01.1969.
At anchor Hsinkiang China.
We have been here now for 9 days and we are really suffering. All our water pipes, baths, toilets are frozen up. How we managed with frozen toilets I cannot imagine must have been some working!
The temperature is lower than I have ever experienced before. On the way up from Manila the temperature dropped 35 degrees in 24 hours. Today the temperature is minus 19-1/2 degrees. We are lying in a sea of ice.
In an earlier letter I recounted how I had purchased a new Canon QL19 camera for £21 in Singapore. The latest at that time.

One other thing that I remember about going into China was that the Capt gave me a message for Liverpool which had to be sent. It was an arrival message – things being a little tense there at that time. We also had to send a message as soon as we cleared the pilot out bound. Both were considered top priority.

Well that’s the lot. 

Hawkey01


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## 40907 (Sep 26, 2009)

I thought they were a very interesting view of life at sea. Thanks.(Thumb)


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## Naytikos (Oct 20, 2008)

Interesting stuff and fits the 'nostalgia' description nicely.
Would join in but don't have any letters. 
My mother and father kept the letters they had written to each other during the war when she was in the WAAFs and he in the RN in Oz. Could never bring myself to read them!


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## trotterdotpom (Apr 29, 2005)

Good to hear about Roger Cliffe (later to become a veteran of the "Gothic" fire), Neville. Was Alan Hardcastle a ginger haired lad from Bradford or somewhere?

Re China and mothers .... I recall writing home and telling my mother that we were heading for Wan Kin .... the letter was long gone before I realised the joke. Wonder if she noticed it?

John T.


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## Troppo (Feb 18, 2010)

Great stuff - thanks.

I have all my old diaries from my time at sea.....fascinating.


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## hawkey01 (Mar 15, 2006)

JT,

To tell the truth I cannot for the life of me remember. There were two brothers who were both at Brid: but I cannot bring them to mind except the name. Yes I had totally forgotten that I had been in touch with Roger until the old letters surfaced. My only regret is that there are not more of the old letters, there must have been dozens. Also in hind sight I wish I had taken more photos and kept a diary. Just have to dig deep into the old grey matter.
Like the name - your Mum was most likely like mine and it would never have occurred to her to see the joke or maybe not!

Troppo,

thanks for the reply - now you will have to start letting us have a few anecdotes from your diaries - clean ones of course!

Reef knot,

thanks for the comment.

Naytikos,

I am so pleased now that my Mum kept lots of what I once thought of as rubbish - Most did not come to light until after her passing. I keep trawling through the old papers to see if there is anything of interest.

Neville - Hawkey01


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## 40907 (Sep 26, 2009)

Troppo said:


> Great stuff - thanks.
> 
> I have all my old diaries from my time at sea.....fascinating.


Well! I have one word for you, Mate! Share, please! (Oh hells bells! That was 2, wasn't it? (Cloud) No good at maths either.)


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## Bob Murdoch (Dec 11, 2004)

Neville,
Most enjoyable. Cant add any myself as each wife/girlfriend had me destroy the last one's letters!
OK, I mean one girlfriend followed by one wife, while at sea. Cant fit too many into four years. I do have a diary/letter I wrote for my wife for three months of my winter time in the Antarctic, however, dont think it would transcribe too well and the photographs are getting a bit tatty.
Bob


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## Robinj (Jul 20, 2005)

My wife kept most of my letters (from before we were married) and what a load of porkies I told her. She knows the truth now. Kept a letter I got from a young lady!!!!! in Japan for years wish I kew what happened to it. Also found a load of old postcards I sent of various parts of the world.


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## hawkey01 (Mar 15, 2006)

Some more from old letters from friends. 
Dave Gunn RO, who was on a radar course in Hull in 1966. He went down with the flu and missed two weeks of the course, so he decided to jack it in. He decided that he could not catch up. He was ex BP and was looking to join GTZM, being fed up with tankers. They were short – as always – and hence he got a job with MIMCO and joined the City of Worcester. We were very good friends and stayed in contact for many years. In fact I was his best man when he married for the first time. Unfortunately that came to grief and they parted. At that time he was with British Rail at Dover. He left and moved to Denmark and we lost touch. I have tried many routes to find him but to no avail.

Next from Taffy Hayes RO. He left Bridlington when it closed and moved to Hull Tech. Obtained his 2nd PMG and joined GTZM March 1966 and his first ship was the Duncraig.
I had called GTZM for some reason and was answered by the Willowbank – Taffy’s ship – so we had a good yarn. That must have been around the Caribbean. When at Bridlington Taffy had an Austin A90 Atlantic, I was in the fortunate position of having an excellent grant by this time and money was no problem. So he let me use the car a lot. I of course kept it in fuel. It was a great motor to drive, very sporty, as he had replaced the engine with a more powerful one. 

Letter from my good friend Leigh, 3/O on the Blanchland. The trip after I left. I regret not rejoining but it only meant a couple of weeks leave after 14 months. The ship loaded in Glasgow with a full cargo of Whiskey. It then went to the US, L.A, San Francisco, Seattle, Vancouver and then back to Osaka, just for starters. He promised to look up – my bird at the Windmill – Ah! Happy days. Another person I have lost touch with and have been unable to trace.

My very good friend Russ Weir. We were together on the Opalia when he was 5th Eng. From SS. Heldia off the Irish Coast. 9th Nov 65. Just been in Cardiff DD. Except for a couple of days off it was a complete flop. Worked 82 hour B’week. Bound for Dublin, will see if I can get hold of Jack Norton – he was my first boss on the Opalia. Glad I found this letter as I had completely lost his name. A good man. 
He wished me a good North Atlantic trip, light ship on the Blanchland. The Blanchland was not a happy ship when light with a fore draft of about nil – bounced around and pounded. Luckily in the time I was on her she was very rarely light. There was a bad story of the previous trip when she rounded the Horn light. Saw a few horror photos of that one. Tragically my friend Russ was murdered in his home town of Wishaw. He was attacked on his way home one night and he never recovered. 

A Gas bill from Southern Gas for a house I shared in Bletchley when working with the Government. It was for £14–9s–10d this was 1968. Why would I have kept a gas bill! Just found another letter from my house mate explaining that we had a rebate of £3-11s-3d so the bill was £10-18s-7d for 4-1/4 months which was for everything including the central heating – flash for 68. So that is why I had the bill. He had settled it after I left and sent it on to me. I must have paid him my share. He was about to be posted to StHelena.

Well I reckon that is about all for this thread. I can’t find any more bits of interest, the rest being family related.

Hawkey01


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