Hogan plus Vowles

  With the advent of the New Year it is the custom in the United Kingdom to honour heroes, and the great and glorious, in the New Year's Honours List. This set me to thinking of some of the heroes, men and women, whom I have been privileged to know as friends, colleagues , and indeed Family.  My Father and Tina's Dad were heroes, my Dad was decorated for bravery on board a ship that was on fire and loaded with high explosives, Tina's Dad was on the beach at Normandy. Then there was the incident when both Dads disarmed a  Doctor's murderer in Bath and the policeman subsequently got the medal! But that's a story for another time.  Odette Churchill, the British spy tortured by the Nazis, was my Aunt's friend, she was a heroine and I met her in Culmstock. Later I had the great privilege of working with David Shannon in Cunard [Offshore Marine]. He was the youngest of the Dam Busters winning 2 DFCs and 2 DSOs and ended the war as a Squadron Leader with the Pathfin...

Once upon a time I was one of the world's leading masters capable of taking charge of moving Oil-rigs. This was in 1973 when I was 36 years of age, Tina a year younger, Greg was nearly 13 and Gerard 10 with Velia definitely a twinkle in my eye! I had finished a tour of duty in Nova Scotia with the family joining me. There I had command and management of a fleet of ships working offshore including around Sable Island, the Graveyard of the Atlantic. In 1973 I had commanded the "Ocean Shore" from its launch in Holland with subsequent hard work off Norway, Shetland, and particularly Newfoundland. Later I came ashore to London to work with the boss, David Shannon, [Dambuster,] in Cunard's offices when we severed links with a German fleet. As December came David gave me an assignment from Shell UK calling upon my particular experience - they wanted a semi-submersible oil-rig "Sedco J" moved from the Norwegian sector of the North Sea to UK waters off the Sh...

I have told much of this tale before however it is well worth revisiting the story in this age of the fear of terrorism. It is funny; it really is hilarious at times. But then stop and think of the hideous outcome of 9/11 and ask if the Americans were going too far? I will repeat telling the events of December off Norfolk Virginia and you are the judge. In November 1954 the “Eastern City” sailed from Cardiff for Hampton Roads for Orders. We knew that would mean a full load of coal for a port in Japan. Hampton Roads is the nautical term for the body of water and Norfolk area that surrounds it in the southeastern part of the State of Virginia, USA. It is one of the world’s biggest and best harbours and is used by the US Navy, US Coast Guard, US Air Force, the US Marine Corps, and the US Army. It has many big shipyards, massive coal piers, and hundreds of mile of waterside properties and beaches. It is one of the major centres of the industrial and military might of America. ...

Another Voyage Commenced T he “Eastern City” arrived in Cardiff on November 19 th 1954 with a full cargo of iron ore for the Llanwern Steel Works and thereby completed my second voyage on this tramp ship. We paid off the crew but again I did not leave the ship; I was required to stay and prepare for the next voyage with the officers. It does not take long to discharge 10,000 tons of ore when each bite of one of five grabs takes 40 tons of the very heavy rocks. So there I was just 17 years of age and having to grow up in a hurry but in retrospect, it did not concern me. I had left home in February that year and briefly visited Falmouth in August and not gone home. This time my Father was not at home but at sea too in the North Atlantic supervising the shakedown of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary Vessel “Retainer” with NATO Navies and the Royal Navy. I think he was in Norway at this time. My Mother, who I missed so much [and so quietly] had died two years earlier. There wa...

It was October 27 th 1954 in the port of   Vittoria   do   Espiritu Santo,   Brazil where I had my encounter with a Duenna and Margarita. We had discharged the wheat from Russia in Rio and headed to this port to queue and thence load iron ore for South Wales.  And so it was just three days before my 17 th birthday when I had this adventure. Since we were waiting the Master, Captain Harry Marshall, gave me permission to go and see the town with three other apprentice lads. And so we set off and ended up outside the beautiful building that was, and I believe still is, the university. We could hear laughter and, in looking for the source of the amusement, found a group of young people looking up at us from a classroom that was below the level of the steps. It was a class of students studying English. The cause of the laughter was the size of our feet and in particular mine! Apparently all Latin people are small footed compared to Anglo Saxons. The lectu...

St Brendan's Prayer Shall I abandon, O King of mysteries, the soft comforts of home?  Shall I turn my back on my native land, and turn my face towards the sea? Shall I put myself wholly at your mercy, without silver,  without a horse, without fame, without honour?  Shall I throw myself wholly upon You, without sword and shield,  without food and drink, without a bed to lie on?  Shall I say farewell to my beautiful land, placing myself under Your yoke? Shall I pour out my heart to You, confessing my manifold sins and begging  forgiveness, tears streaming down my cheeks?  Shall I leave the prints of my knees on the sandy beach, a record of my final prayer  in my native land? Shall I then suffer every kind of wound that the sea can inflict?  Shall I take my tiny boat across the wide sparkling ocean?  O King of the Glorious Heaven, shall I go of my own choice upon the sea? O...

ADVENTURE & LAUGHTER. It was the 27 th September 1967 when I started what turned out to be one adventure after another and laughter from start to finish. Oh yes it was hard work but so much fun, so much a challenge. I joined Collins Submarine Pipelines in Khafji, the Neutral Zone between Kuwait and the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. I had returned from South Africa to Tina and the family in Clevedon unemployed. But I had acquired some reputation for seamanship in the salvage of a Korean Fishing Vessel on the Skeleton Coast of Namibia. I had been encouraged to contact Mr.S.V.Collins a Texas maverick, who was dredging diamonds from the sea off the African Coast. [The following link will give you that story http://shillingfordslate.com/page29.htm ] He offered me a job as Master on a former German Salvage Tug tending the operations off the Skeleton Coast. Now I was big tough [had played rugby in South Africa] and certainly knew that coast but I did not relish the idea of taking a v...