The Memoir was completed some while ago after 20 years in the making, all of which was composed while WORKING on 3 different Oil Rigs (Stena Hunter, Borgland Dolphin and Buchan Alpha) in the North Sea.
Ostensibly for the eyes of my 4 dear Grandchildren alone and comprising of 1,838 foolscap pages, 714,917 words and 10,757 photographs we do, from time to time revisit to further proof-read, relive some of our yesterdays and share the odd snippet with our
‘Valued Readership’.
Why this little Sea Story should have appeared over the horizon was pure pot luck!
A newspaper artical concerning the 'second commision' of Tribal Class Frigate
back in 1965 / 66 when embarked on a one year stint with the Persian Gulf Squadron.
MIDDLE EAST VISIT TO MASSAWA, (in those days) ETHIOPIA
During January 1966 HMS Eskimo (Commander E. R. Anson, RN) wearing the Flag of Flag Officer Middle East Fleet, Rear Admiral P. N. Howes, DSC, visited Massawa on the occasion of the Graduation Ceremony of the Eighth Course of officers at the Ethiopian Naval Base which was attended by His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia and His Majesty King Olav of Norway. After the ceremony a grand march past of Ethiopian, British, American, French and Russian Naval contingents took place and the salute was jointly taken by the Emperor and the King of Norway. The British contingent consisting of the crew and Royal Marine detachment of HMS Eskimo (Lieutenant P. Clough, RM) led by the band of the Prince of Wales Own Regiment, who gave a superb display of precision marching and will long be remembered by the multi-racial spectators, also earning the heartfelt thanks of the small British community. An account of the Sports day held the day after the ceremony reads:- The highlight being a rowing race in what were described as twelve oared mahogany boats. The foreign warships were invited (at short notice) to compete against the cream of the Ethiopian Navy, but only the USS Lawe and HMS Eskimo took up the challenge. With the advent of the Three-in-One (motor powered) Whaler, we were fresh out of oarsmen and a frantic dash round for twelve volunteers ensued, with the Flag Officer Middle East declining gracefully. There followed a quick practice session in the unfamiliar boats, just two hours before the race, and Eskimo was in business. We arrived at the start full of enthusiasm if little else, the USS Lawe were next to arrive and our hearts missed a beat; as each one of them had the physique of a Harvard rowing blue, while their Cox, in full kit, made noises like he had done the job before. Next to arrive were the Ethiopians, as they took up their starting position they peeled off their sweaters and exposed twelve bodies rippling with muscle fighting fit after two months of training. By this stage of the game we were beginning to think we were in the wrong line of business as the Starter's boat upped and backed us in the appropriate manner, but was dogged by a succession of miss-fires of his starting pistol. The Cox of Eskimo's boat, by this time feeling somewhat exasperated, shouted out “for God's sake just say GO” and 'GO' it was; the race was on. At the halfway stage it was Eskimo and Ethiopia neck and neck, USS Lawe had, to our great surprise, slipped back about half a length. Abreast of our ship, who had cleared lower deck and were cheering us on to a man and with just fifty yards to go a superhuman effort was scraped from the bottom of the barrel with the Eskimo crew crossing the winning line just two seconds ahead of the Ethiopian Navy. HMS Eskimo thus became the Ethiopian Boat-pulling Champions of 1966. The prize was a magnificent Silver Cup and a Gold Medal for each of the crew.
This alone, standing just 2 feet away from 2 world leaders at the time, was inspiration enough to research the 2 dignetaries but more particularly
His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia
No such luxuries in those days such as the Internet it was a bout of serious book-work in the Weymouth library that enlightened me to the fact that the 4 foot tall, most decorated person in the world was also considered to be God personified by the Rastafairian Nation. This further whetted my appetite so much so that wherever or whenever encountering a Rasta I just had to touch base! This served me well in years to come when travelling through the Carribbean and Central America and particularly across 3 visits to Jamaica. Only short stays, agreed but every single evening found myself in Trench Town, the name deriving from Irish immigrant and livestock farmer Daniel Power Trench. It was a no brainer to visit the humble home of legend Bob Marley at Nine Mile but there were also one or two and sometimes a few of the other luminaries of the Reggae Movement knocking about. 3 particular instances emanate from that the first being our inaugural visit to
Saint Lucia with my then 'pash'
with us both having our sights set on 2 'endemic' birds at least, step forward Lawrence the Rasta Taxi Driver who took us to high ground where he was almost guaranteeing them??
(no, in the background you bounder)
CARRIB GRACKLE
before he directed us to walk along the muddiest path in the world, where we would find our prey while he waited at the car.
2½ hours later, and sludged-up to the eyeballs, we found the Big Man in jocular mood pointing to a bough above his head and chanting repeatedly, "yer shoulda seen him man, big as a chicken, sat der for ages, yer shoulda seen it man"! He had seen one of the target birds while we had seen the other ENDEMIC
WE WILL ENDEAVOUR TO KEEP UP THE MOMENTUM!
To be continued..............
