Getting on a bit – General Waffle!

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

I did it the easy and economical way – just went to sea and got paid for it.   Before I passed 17, I had already been round the world, and visited many many countries.   My wife was able to travel with me free of charge, and that saved a lot of money.   These days, we don’t even have passports –   We had our honeymoon voyage aboard RMS St Helena, small passenger liner with 76 passengers, UK to Cape Town via Canaries, Ascension and St Helena, with one call at Tristan da Cunha each year.    

 

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Good for you Bob, but not an option for 99% of the population. It’s either air travel or being confined to a rainy UK!

Colin

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

When I left school in the early 60s, the sea was open to all, whether qualified in anything or not, and we came from all walks of life –   and we had a whale of a time – This was Christmas Eve, 1967 – – RMS Windsor Castle – 

 

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

You obviously had a good time Bob but that was not open to UK holidaymakers in general. Back then the Isle of Wight was an exotic destination.

Our 2013 trip to New Zealand was wonderful but entirely dependent on air travel from the UK. Even if sea travel options had been available the long voyages to and fro would have ruled out the visit altogether. Most people don’t much like the idea of spending weeks on a ship to get to a destination which is quite understandable.

Colin

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

I meant working at sea rather than travelling as a passenger.   For many young people at that time, spending several years in the merchant navy was the equivalent of what they call “backpacking” today to see the world.      But I would never have had the confidence to go backpacking, and trundling around slowly in a steel box suited me fine, but it was better in the passenger ships of course.    But I couldn’t have got the qualifications to go to sea today if I was just leaving school, and would not want to anyway!     31 wonderful years in some of the finest ships afloat – all gone now, except RMS St Helena (II) in which I spent my final two years.    

 

 

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

When I got thrown out of school, I tried the Army as I wanted to fly helicopters.  They told me I could do anything I wanted in the Army, apart from fly as my eyesight was just below the required limit.  So, I tried the RAF and failed the medical!  Finally, my Dad dragged me down to the last shipping company he had worked for and signed me up as an Engineer Cadet.  Best thing he ever did for me.

As for helicopters I think they are the most amazing machine we have ever devised.  My first flight was in a very rickety bubble cockpit type when I visited the Queen Mary at Longbeach.  This thing tilted forwards on its floats and shot across the harbour at a couple of feet high before going above the ship for a sight seeing circuit.  The second time was when I was working up Anoach Mor installing a ski complex.  It had been stated that a service road was not allowed up the mountain so the main gondola lift was entirely installed by helicopters.  One day my boss asked if I wanted a ride so I quickly jumped in.  A much more plush modern version this time.  We lifted of a couple of feet and slowly slid backwards.  What I hadn’t realised was just how close we were to a shear drop so as we went slowly backwards, all of a sudden, this unbelievable view of the cliff face opened up in front of me.  Absolutely stunning.

When we consider nowadays the part helicopters play in search and rescue, ferrying crew to and from oil rigs, fire fighting and accessing otherwise inaccessible places after disasters such as earthquakes and floods its hard to imagine life without them.  I don’t think we will ever be able to find definitive figures for how many people have been saved by them as compared with how many people may have lost their lives because of them but I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that the former infinitely outweighs the latter.

Interestingly I did hear a very similar comment from a reliable source at the MCA many years ago who assured me that more people had lost their lives as a result of ship’s lifeboat accidents than they had saved.  That led to many interesting discussions about ship design.

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

This is our little Wasp and her maintenance & flight crew.   Normally kept in a large hangar fitted behind our funnel on the flight deck.    

 

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