Artillery Lane

[tome]

Nostalgia

Yacht cruisng may be either a pastime or a sport. To sail from port to port by easy stages in picked weather is a most pleasant pastime. To make an open sea cruise in a seaworthy little yacht, neither courting unnecessary risks nor being unduly anxious as to weather, and having confidence in one's knowledge and skill to overcome such difficulties as may arise, is, to one who loves the sea, the most perfectly satisfying of all forms of sport.

Claude Worth 1910

So what's really changed, apart from the obvious loss of JD Potter et al from the Minories?

 

[Mirelle]

a favourite quote, that one.

Mind you, Armstrong has changed since he patented his windlass!

 

[Gunfleet]

Re: Nostalgia

Tome,
We have lost. Walking down the Minories (I did it often, I was born less than a mile away) you had the feeling that you were walking in Conrad's footsteps - or frankly my own grandfather's. I was brought up in Tooley St, you could see ships from my bedroom window. I am the son of a sailor who was also the son of a sailor and that feeling of life that shipping gave to that part of London finally ended when you couldn't buy a book about boats any more in the very epicentre of London shipping. Kelvin Hughes' decision to close the shop in the Minories was the end of an era, even if KH hadn't reigned over all of that era. As for the shop in Artillery Lane... I thought it was manned by rude young men expressly put there to fleece people with more money than sense who worked in the city. 'the old order changeth, yielding place to new and God fulfills himself in many ways.' Soon kids will walk past the merchant mariners' memorial opposite the Tower and wonder, so why is it there?

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by JohnM on 11/10/2002 00:33 (server time).</FONT></P>

 

[Twister_Ken]

Merchant marine memorial

I can look at the Cenotaph and not even sniff, but lookling at the Tower Hill memorial always brings tears to my eyes. Maybe because they weren't ever 'warriors' in the way that the other services were.

Had an uncle who was a DEMS gunner. Fortunately he survived two torpedoings. He would never talk about it.

 

[Gunfleet]

Re: Merchant marine memorial

Although if you heard my Dad describing being taught to fire a Oerlikon on Shoeburyness... I don't think there ever was a more merchant sailor than him! HE was also sunk a couple of times but bobbed to the surface, luckily for me.

 

[jimi]

Re: Who on earth buys that stuff? nm

Wifes! I have lostr count of the amount of crap I've been bought for birthdays & Xmas. "Thank You Darling, its just what I wanted!"

Jim

 

[steve_cronin]

Oh yes they do....

Look on any lake, reservoir or river at weekends and you will see masses of dinghies & dayboats crewed in the most part by good working class people of very limited means. I bought a Topper for our lads a few years back from a council house in Mansfield. It was sailed by a lass who is now involved in serious global sailing and she started sailing on the Trent. Many charter crews are folks who wouldn't ever have the opportunity of owning a boat. Ask sunsail.

This is a far cry from the days of yore when anyone sailing for pleasure would have been at least a professional gentleman (& no ladies did it at all!)

Steve Cronin

 

[RichardPerou]

I think this has been the most delightful thread I have ever read. The way it meanders from bankrupt chandlers via nostalgia to the class war is the way things should be.

I am all for nostalgia but heaving a dingy down the hard at Queenbrough (the tide goes out a long way) and then traipsing back for the weekend's food and drink was more fun then than now.

I prefer to look back through a glow of not having to put up with it any more. Reading old pilot books is the best approach. Try Captain Denhams books on the Med.

 

[jimi]

Re: Oh yes they do....

Good to see the good old class structure alive and well .. as far as I'm concerned I and everybody I know are working class ie we all work, or have done, for a living.

Jim

 

[tome]

Re: Nostalgia

John

I understand what you're saying. My wife had to drag me away from the steam train in Kingswear recently as I took in the familiar sounds and smells of my childhood.

I still have the discharge book given to me by my ex father in law - he was torpedoed an incredible 4 times and on one occasion spent a couple of weeks in a lifeboat mid Atlantic before being rescued.

Makes me proud to fly the red duster, and wonder why people have this urge to fly a blue one - but that's a contentious subject around here so Ill quickly backtrack and say each to his own.

Point I was making is that what Worth was saying in 1910 is as relevant today as it was in his day.

 

[jimi]

Re: Nostalgia

Tom, I must ask .. Is that really a picture of your wife?

Jim

 

[tome]

Re: Nostalgia

Ain't she a little darling?

 

[jimi]

Wow ...

Just my type of woman! Do you race Hobie's with her?

Jim

 

[tome]

Re: Wow ...

Thames barges actually!

 

[steve_cronin]

hOW IS THAT RELEVANT TO WHAT i POSTED?...NM

??

 

[jimi]

Why?

Och stop shouting, ye'll deafen me! What's wrong with Tome's wife? You're chust jealous 'cos your's ain't big enough!

Jim

 

[steve_cronin]

What?

Are you replying to the correct posts?

Steve

 

[jimi]

Who said that?

You're not trying to pick a fight again are you?

Jim

 

[steve_cronin]

Re: Who said what?

Ever tried hot olive oil then syringing?

No neither have I but they say it works!

 

[Mirelle]

No ladies?

RT McMullen ("Down Channel")'s wife usually sailed with him - this was in small boats from the 1860's to the 1880's. Claud Worth's wife usually sailed with him, from the 1880's to the 1930's. My aunt sailed with my uncle from the 1920's onwards.
A much better example - Evgenia Ransome sailed with Arthur Ransome from the 1920's onwards.

I fancy there were always plenty of women and girls in small boats.