Hogan plus Vowles

My Father went to sea in 1912 as a Boy on board a Sprits’l Barge owned and operated by the British Admiralty. He was 14 years of age. Three of his brothers were already sailing out of the Medway and William, the eldest Hogan, was already captain of the Sailing Barge “Egypt”. The vessels were all engaged in the carriage of high explosives and munitions to Royal Naval ships and Ports in Europe; Britain had a huge fleet in those days. My Grandfather, also William Hogan, served in H.M. Admiralty Dockyard in the Gun Wharf, Chatham as blacksmith. In 1914 at the dawn of the Great War, my Father was 16 years of age in September and by then he was sailing as seaman/cook. These hard working sailing vessels were manned by 4 men, a Master, a Mate, a Seaman/Cook, and a Boy. The Seaman/Cook worked the sails and cargo with the others and then cooked food for all hands. Hard work but hard work was the way of the world at the start of the twentieth century. This year, 1914, was a terrible ...

  Greg continued the family tradition set up by his Grandfather, Tina's Dad, Leslie Vowles, seen here in the old picture taken in 1932. Pomp, as he was known, is to be seen on the extreme right of the picture with his hands on his knees in the middle row by the chap in plus fours. Sad to think some of them died in the Second World War like many fine rugby players.   Anyway, Mike Charles, an old friend of Greg, sent this other picture  taken 1979. Greg is stood behind the Captain [holding the ball] on that guy's left. [he was a blond bombshell in those days!]    Gerard followed Greg and played with him and went on to play in Newfoundland. Gerard's son, Talan, continues the tradition in Havant. And Jack, Velia & Al's lad, plays in Ottawa. Velia never played but chased rugby balls from a very early age!

  When I completed the recent blog concerning the Dutch shipbuilder who sailed with us and fell in love with English puddings I went back on line to research his company. So I typed in IJesselwerf etc. and found this old friend.    The ship is now called the "Ocean Service" and now sailing under the flag of India and is registered in the port of Mumbai. At midnight yesterday the vessel moored in Sharjah in the Emirates. And, yes, it is the vessel "Ocean Shore" that I had the privilege to commission and command all those years ago.    She was a happy ship and performed all of her tasks well in those early days in the development of offshore oil and gas. She worked hard on the limits of the Norwegian Trench, a treacherous area to be anchor handling; Tina had a comfortable visit in Aberdeen - I had a nice day cabin, comfortable bedroom, and small neat shower-room, [she enjoyed the offerings from a superb cook/steward!]. The vessel went through ...

  This is a story about a new ship, a Dutch shipbuilder, and old fashioned English puddings.   In 1972 we had returned from Nova Scotia to Somerset. The Company [a subsidiary of Cunard] considered posting me to Norway and then decided to send me to Holland with the launch and commissioning of a new class of tug/supply ship. This coincided with the search for oil and gas offshore Norway and the Shetland Islands. And so I went to Capelle aan den IJessel, near Rotterdam, and stood by the commissioning of the "Ocean Shore". This ship was , and is, a really great ship and it was a privilege to be the fist master and see my name there in fine script on the Certificate of Registry. It will be there now. Anyway back to this tale of a man and food.   The crew were recruited in Hull, a tough but competent bunch of seafarers and former fishermen, that included the brothers, Bert and Frank. Bert was the Boatswain, a huge guy with a broken nose and cauliflower ears, who had a...

    Back in the 1950's I sailed with Ulf Larsson, Boatswain, who had a most jaundiced view of politicians [and clergy] and stated, most emphatically,that they should all be consigned to one of the many near-wrecks afloat at that time and sunk mid-Atlantic.   Ulf Larsson came from Sweden and was a real old sailor man. He had visited Exeter on a topsail schooner with timber from the Baltic, loved the United Kingdom, and so ultimately sailed out of the Bristol Channel during the war. He was torpedoed, captured and imprisoned by the Japanese. He resumed sailing out of Cardiff, post war, but had no home, each ship was his home. He completed a voyage, signed off, and immediately signed on for another voyage to anywhere in the world. His views were gained by seeing the world first hand during and after a war. He went to many countries but they were not tourist havens; he visited the real world.   During bad weather the apprentices would be detailed forwar...

Sixty-seven years ago, in February 1946, Tina's Dad was stationed in Nordhorn, Germany, at brigade headquarters. [He's stood at the back on the left back with "x" above his head.] The man in the centre is Brigadier Routledge C.B.E,M.C,M.M, his boss and his hero. Germany had been defeated in May 1945, the previous year, and by November they had moved into Nordhorn.   The following is an extract from a War Crimes Trial in that region where the Brigadier was the Judge Advocate. These Germans had killed a British Airman and a Dutchman giving him shelter. It will give you an idea of what was going on. "VERDICT AND SENTENCE Sandrock and Schweinberger were found guilty on both charges, Hegemannon on the first charge and Wiegner on the second charge. Sandrock and Schweinberger were sentenced to suffer death by being hanged, Hegemann and Wiegner were sentenced to imprisonment for 15 years. The sentences were confirmed by the Commander-in-Chief, B...

  This story happened back in the 1960s when I was working for Sammy Collins in the Neutral Zone, the buffer state between Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. This was before I joined Offshore Marine,  the Cunard company.   When I was given command of the "Sarah", the Saudi-flag tug supply ship, I inherited a perfect Arab crew. This included the Steward/Chef, Aboud Yassin Abu Shama pictured above with the knife in his teeth about to fillet harmour or grouper. He was a magnificent chef and, not surprisingly, came from the ancient town of Nablus famous for its cuisine in Palestine. Now Nablus is about 40 miles north of Jerusalem on the West Bank occupied by the Israelis now, and at that time. Aboud had a wife and young son  in Nablus and could not communicate with them in those troubled times, he could not send a letter, money, or a gift from Saudi, the Neutral Zone, or Kuwait to Israel. Any communication would have been confiscated. Similarly his wife and family could not s...

  You just cannot legislate against old ladies. Gordon Brown certainly found that out and was lucky to get away without a clip around the ear besides losing an election.   There is an apocryphal story hereabouts in Somerset that tells of a Viking raid into Uphill where the marauders left their boats in the pill [harbour] and charged inland intent on rape and looting. They ignored the little old lady as they ran inland after the villagers. She took exception to this hairy bunch, she was not impressed, and so hobbled down to the pill, cast off all moorings, and let the tide take the longboats out to sea. This all lead to the Vikings to panic and so on, local populace gained heart, and the marauders got eighteen bells kicked out them   Well now, according to what I hear I think something like this is going to happen to David Cameron. He seems hell bent on this gay marriage thing for example and it is not going down at all well with this group of ladies. It is apparent t...

This is one of Tina's stories from when I was Harbour Master in Castletown Berehaven, West Cork, in the far west of Ireland at the entrance to Bantry Bay. It all started by chance. This fishing port is the first point of landing from the Atlantic Ocean and the major fishing bank offshore to SW Ireland, Porcupine Bank. One day a big Factory Freezer Trawler came into the outer harbour with a sick man and other issues. The Captain needed an Agent, a Shipping Agent, to do all the things needed, contact the hospital, deal with the Customs, post mail, get good fresh provisions, lubricating oil, etc, etc.  There was no Agent in the town to do this, he looked at Tina, the Harbour Master's wife, said why don't you do it?  And she did! and she did this back in those days in the beginning of the 80's just before we went to Newfoundland. Tina needed a Boatman, a good man with well-found fishing boat to help in running out into the bay to visiting shipping, and she found a ge...

I have this cousin, Allan, who comes from my Mother's side of the family. He's older, good looking [like me!], non PC, happily married, and can be a pain in the arse [just like me] but often times sends me something which is so well worth reading. I urge you to read this, it will make you think and it will give you insight into what makes us 70/80 year olds think. Do read it.   GEORGE CARLIN  (His wife died early in 2008...and George followed her, dying in July 2008)        Isn't it amazing that George Carlin - comedian of the 70's and 80's - could write something so very eloquent...and so very appropriate.      A Message by George Carlin: The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider Freeways, but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degree...