# First port of call



## Robert M Hughes (Oct 16, 2010)

First trip 3rd R/O on Highland Monarch en route KG5 docks to South America my first port was Vigo in Spain embarking emigrants to Rio and Buenos Aires - late going ashore due to last minute work in the Radio room I wandered around - stopped by friendly Guardia Civil and shown personally where my 'shipmates' were - this turned out to be a very friendly 'bar' populated by many friendly young ladies.
If this is going to sea didn't seem too bad at all !! As in all good NOTW reporting 'I dressed hurriedly and left'

Next. Cheers.

Bob


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## Graham P Powell (Jun 2, 2007)

Hi Bob,
Did you know Jack Barter, Ted Winslow or and R/O called Rollason?. I sailed with them in RML and I think they were on the Highland boats. My first port was Vigo as well. At least I could stop being sick when we got there.
rgds
Graham Powell


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## Steven Lamb (Apr 18, 2009)

Me not so lucky ! Noadibou / Mauretania North Africa (edge of the Sahara)
Lots of picturesque Iron Ore heaps & obviously no shore leave !!
At least got a good bronzy down there - oh & by the way the fishing was good !!!


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## sparkie2182 (May 12, 2007)

Halifax N.S. December...... Cold.


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## Pat McCardle (Jun 12, 2005)

Avonmouth to Cardiff, my 1st foreign port. Having to get to the North Star bar to get the lads out & back safely on more than one occaision.


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## Mick farmer (Jul 19, 2006)

Dakar for a yellow fever jag before a two month cruise on the west african coast 1958


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## Gareth Jones (Jul 13, 2007)

Singapore - 21 years old and a bit of money in my pocket - thought I was king of the world !


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## Troppo (Feb 18, 2010)

Osaka Japan.

1980.

Exchange rate was 465 yen to the oz dollar...(I remember that well, as I got the QTC with the info..).

Fantastic.


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## Jacko123 (Apr 28, 2009)

Saint John, New Brunswick. Xmas day, 1958. I was one sad, lonely, c-c-c-o-l-d lil galley-boy. Peeling a bag of spuds by hand in freezing water, steam winches rattling day and night so they wouldn't freeze up. Dry State too. How did I stick it?


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## Mick Spear (Jan 6, 2007)

Barbados 1981 after sailing joining the ship at Barry. Was taken to the Zanzi Bar (spelling) at Nelson Street.
Mick S


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## Alex Salmond (Mar 7, 2011)

Pat McCardle said:


> Avonmouth to Cardiff, my 1st foreign port. Having to get to the North Star bar to get the lads out & back safely on more than one occaision.


Pat you poor bastid thats the trip from hell(EEK)the last time I was in Cardiff they were still performing human sacrifices you were lucky to get out alive talk about The Heart of Darkness !! bet you never fell for that one again eh!


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## gwzm (Nov 7, 2005)

Aqaba, Jordan, in 1963 after sailing from London on Brocklebank's SS Mahseer as 2 R/O. Not a lot to see except sand and nothing to do except swim in the harbour.

Happy days,

gwzm


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## skymaster (Sep 20, 2005)

*First port*

Glasgow to Antwerp Brocklebank Mathura Shore leave with some of the engineers[I was navigating cadet]Thay showed me the ropes!!!!!!

skymaster


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## steve Coombs (Sep 27, 2005)

Lobito Angola-Stuck there for two months at Anchor


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## sparkie2182 (May 12, 2007)

Lucky you, Steve.


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## 5TT (May 3, 2008)

Hamburg from Sheerness for me, pitching and rolling very heavily overnight, I thought wow, this is going to take some getting used to. My only concern was that some glasses had smashed onto the deck in the old man's office next door, and the pieces slid out through the door and back again under my door, so I was up a few times during the night picking this stuff up just in case I was pitched out of the bunk. Presented myself for watch at 8am and there was the 1st R/O looking very green, reckoned it was some of the worst weather he'd ever experienced at sea so if I was okay through that lot I've got no problem with sea sickness ..

= Adrian +


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## R396040 (Sep 30, 2008)

1948 MV Loch Garth RML. First port was Hamilton Bermuda. I thought Id arrived in heaven,sunshine,sandy beaches, no food rationing,sweets,icecream iced drinks,people in light smart clothing. I was 16 and all my earlier memories was wartime austerity and gloom.
Stuart H


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## sparks69 (Dec 18, 2005)

Little Aden, where I went ashore to Steamer Point to have a drink at the RAF Steamer Point beach bar with an RAF nurse I knew from home. Baby Sparks' street cred went skywards for at least a couple of days !


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## CrazySparks (Apr 21, 2008)

December 1976. Cardiff to Murmansk on the Gothland. when we got there the mate danced around the bridge in a pair of tights to demonstrate their thermal qualities.


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## Vital Sparks (Sep 19, 2007)

Joined British Wye at anchor off Lome (Togoland) in 1980. Docked the following day and sat alongside for a week while receiving cargo transfer from 3 other BP tankers. Then off to sit at anchor off Lagos for 6 weeks awaiting a berth, strange times.


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## Clive Kaine (Apr 8, 2008)

Anchorage, Alaska in December 1973, after joining ss Maloja/GDHQ in LA. Severe weather all the way up there, freezing cold when we arrived. I was not impressed.

Happily, we were soon on our way back south to Curacao, and a month of island hopping in the Caribbean!


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## Ron Stringer (Mar 15, 2005)

First port ashore was Kingston, Jamaica. The Bamboo Club proved to be something of a culture revelation. I was a first-trip junior R/O who had never been out of Lancashire prior to that.

My first port on a ship of my own was not such a culture shock. Three days from the end of a two-week radar course at Marconi's in Cardiff, I was rushed round to Avonmouth to join a ship in the locks, about to sail. Turned out she was bound for....... Cardiff.

First foreign port after that was Marseille, where I was disappointed to learn that nobody could understand my schoolboy French and I couldn't understand them. It was years later that I learned that French people in other parts of France could understand me (and I, them) but they too couldn't understand the people in Marseille.

Next port, a few days later, was Genoa - a wholly different experience and a very pleasant culture shock indeed. Restored my self-confidence no end.


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## stores (Apr 8, 2007)

*bamboo club*

brings back happy memories, !(K)


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## GWB (Jul 11, 2007)

First port of call Port of Spain Trinidad , very enjoyable, and quite a culture shock for a young jock in 1963. Rum and coke well that was start of an other tale to be told maybe.


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## Union Jack (Jul 22, 2009)

*First foreign port after that was Marseille, where I was disappointed to learn that nobody could understand my schoolboy English and I couldn't understand them.*

Well I never, Ron!(Thumb)

Jack


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## ART6 (Sep 14, 2010)

Durban in 1960 and my first introduction to the officers club in town. It was there that I first learned of the evils of drink, although I couldn't afterwards remember what they were!


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## Ron Stringer (Mar 15, 2005)

Union Jack said:


> *First foreign port after that was Marseille, where I was disappointed to learn that nobody could understand my schoolboy English and I couldn't understand them.*
> 
> Well I never, Ron!(Thumb)
> 
> Jack


Sorry about that, must take more water with it at lunch time! Will correct it, thank you!


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## ART6 (Sep 14, 2010)

Union Jack said:


> First foreign port after that was Marseille, where I was disappointed to learn that nobody could understand my schoolboy English and I couldn't understand them.
> 
> I joined the Foreign Legion in Marseilles and deserted the next day. Is this a record? (And yes, I did, drunk as a skunk!).


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## Peter Martin (May 30, 2005)

October 18 1968 MV Calchas Birkenhead > Antwerp. What a dismal hole don't think I set foot on land there; wait a moment! Went down accommodation ladder to read the draft fore 'n aft with the senior middy. Happily, it got better at the next port - Singapore.


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## Jacktar1 (Jul 17, 2005)

First foreign port of call in 1948.......Cagliari, Sardinia. Loading a cargo of salt for Japan. Met my first foreign girl friend, Marisa Sauric,
would you believe that a few years ago I tried to find out if she was still alive.......60 odd years had passed, it must have been love !!!
Anyone on here who speaks Italian ?.....Got an old letter from her, the ending says.....Quello e bella Addio ???

Cheers

Glan...[=P]


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## Jacktar1 (Jul 17, 2005)

skymaster said:


> Glasgow to Antwerp Brocklebank Mathura Shore leave with some of the engineers[I was navigating cadet]Thay showed me the ropes!!!!!!
> 
> skymaster


Antwerp.......did you visit "Danny's Bar" ???


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## Quiney (Oct 2, 2008)

Flew out to Bremen to join a bulk/car carrier, taking VW's to America. Newark, Baltimore and Savannah. 
Then Canada, St Johns New Brunswick and Stevenville Newfoundland, to load newsprint for the UK.


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## gwzm (Nov 7, 2005)

"Antwerp.......did you visit "Danny's Bar" ???"

Couldn't forget it! I sailed as Chota Marconi Sahib on Mahronda in '64 with the (in-)famous "Batman" as the Burrah Marconi Sahib who decided we should visit a few bars and ended up in Danny's Bar. I don't remember much except how ill I felt the next day sailing with a gash bucket between my knees and praying for death every time the ship moved. Sailing with the Batman was certainly an experience.

Happy days,

gwzm


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## G4UMW (May 30, 2007)

Quiney said:


> Flew out to Bremen to join a bulk/car carrier, taking VW's to America. Newark, Baltimore and Savannah.
> Then Canada, St Johns New Brunswick and Stevenville Newfoundland, to load newsprint for the UK.


Sounds like one of the "Troll" ships. I did a trip on the "Arctic Troll" (aka The Frozen Goblin).

My first port of call was Roadtown, Tortola, British Virgin Islands, on the "Booker Vanguard". Gave me my first experience of the laid-back lifestyle of the West Indies, where I seemed to spend an inordinate amount of my seagoing career.


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## Vic Heaney (Nov 2, 2009)

Machester Spinner to Halifax, NS and St John, New Brunswick. About March 1957. 

Didn't go back to Canada until almost 50 years later.


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