In 1914 he was serving onboard HMS Pegasus off Zanzibar, in the early months of the war, and found himself on the wrong side of some shrapnel from the Koenisberg; which wounded him, and eventually sank the Pegasus. Note, he still had the shrapnel in him when he died in 1972.
Honourably discharged he joined the Merchant Navy, and spent the rest of that war in the convoys. He was once spotted in civvies one day by a particularly daft female, who gave him a white feather (the symbol of cowardice); he wore it in his hat for the rest of the war.
You can imagine how "pleased" he was to find, in 1939, that he would have to go through the whole nonsense again. He was still in the Merchant Navy and ended up in the convoys again, this time my father was also drafted into the convoys (he had just turned 16 when the war broke out).
You see folks Britain, being an island nation, has strong connections with the sea.
Now why am I boring you with this mini potted history of my family?
Let me see, oh yes I remember.
Earlier this week it was reported that the crew of the Golden Vanity, a restored Brixham trawler, had to quit the Tall Ships Race.
For why?
Sailing north through the Bay of Biscay from La Coruna to Antwerp, the crew of 16 to 25 year old volunteers became seasick and gave up!
Pathetic!
My grandfather would be turning in his grave, and my father (who is still alive) will regale me with his views on the matter tomorrow when we go out for my mum's birthday.
Nanny has turned our young men and women into spineless selfcentered wimps.
I don't understand, if your on aship, how can you just give up?
ReplyDeleteI mean obviously you can throw yourself overboard, or you can become so ill or exhausted you can no longer continue. If you just give up though, won't you sort of drift about and either run aground somewhere or run out of provisions?
They should have just left them alone, it wouldn't have taken them too long to get over it and start sailing again.
A tall ship called "Golden Vanity" eh? Nanny's Girly Men couldn't have picked a better name. Excellent site Ken.
ReplyDeleteThis is the sort of thing you get when you wrap the little petals up in cotton wool!
ReplyDeleteAlthough I can swim in very rough seas without feeling ill effect I do tend to be seasick on small boats. The answer? Be a wimp and avoid sailing? Nah, 'course not. I just take a little white pill an hour beforehand.
ReplyDeleteSurely the organisers could have prepared for the very likely occurrence of seasickness by having on board some anti-motion sickness pills or patches? The latest drugs don't even leave you feeling drowsy.
Could this be down to the stupid Nanny H&S regulations that prevent "non-medically qualified" persons handing out over-the -counter medicines like aspirin? Even so, I'd have thought on a longish voyage such as this there'd have to be at least a First-Aider on board.
This sort of nonsense wouldn't have happened when I was a teen back in the 1960s - if you were seasick you took a pill. Period.
Pete
Don't think it's about feeling seasick - no amount of nannying will change the incidence of that - but about giving up.
ReplyDeleteMy first job involved going out on a converted trawler. The damn thing rolled even when there were no waves. I got very seasick, but still did the job - In between trips to the side of the boat.
BTW, I found that taking pills just gave me more things to throw up :-( Top tip: oranges taste the same in both directions!
Arrrrh! It aint loik when the navy was run by rum, sodomy and t'lash in the good old days.
ReplyDeleteHowever, my good man,I do seem to recall that Rear Admiral Lord Nelson was a mite sea sick, and he sure was a bonny wee fighter, as the bloody frogs could tell you.
My Grandfather was injured by shrapnel at Zanzibar too. His name George E Adams, he was a Shpwright.
ReplyDeleteHe lived until 1950 ish.