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I have received the following update from Terry Smith of our Bedfordshire Branch who has now added the one of Houlder Brothers to his collection. The full list of those available from him is:-

Blue Star Line.

Port Line (Now sold out, Terry suggests you keep an eye out on EBay).

Shaw-Savill.

N.Z.S.Co.

Union-Castle.

Royal Mail Line.

Houlder Brothers.

Prices are 'on aplication' from him on 01767 315388.or through the site WebsiteBosun@aol.com

"In 1939 the Admiralty issued an instruction to the Board of Trade stating that masters of merchant vessels were not to enter destinations or ports of call on the ships’ logs or the crew lists and agreements, for reasons of security. However, it was still important to know and record the movements of merchant vessels and to this end the series of cards within BT 389 was commenced by the Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen."

http://www.maritime-memories.co.uk/

Maritime Memories aboard the 'Discovery' for 2010

Des Cox has asked me to let you know that in the summer of 2010 we will do a special 'Around Britain' voyage of Maritime Memories, which should be fun, especially as we are going to sail into .... LIVERPOOL!

He writes

"That should bring back some fond old memories to a lot of us .... What was I doing that night in Lime Street!!?

This voyage will be out of Harwich and back to Harwich, and I'm sure it will be very popular with the Maritime Memories crowd .... sounds like a party all the way to me! Its ports of call will be St. Peter Port, Tresco, Cobh, Dublin, Liverpool, Oban Invergordon, Dundee, and back to Harwich.

So many of you have asked if we could arrange another Maritime Memories Voyage over the Christmas and New Year periods, so we're going to do one for Christmas/New Year 2010/11, taking us from Spain on a romantic, exciting voyage out east, which should be of special interest to all of you who used to sail to that fascinating part of the world. We do not have the final itinerary as yet, but you will get the choice of going all the way (The story of my life!) or joining and leaving to suit your convenience.

Brochures are still being prepared so I thought it best to let you know what we're doing well ahead, thereby giving you time to make your own plans, which I hope will mean you coming with us.

Personally, I thought the voyage we did over the Christmas/New Year period down to Buenos Aires was just fantastic, so come one, let's do it all over again .... Can't wait!

By the way, there are still some cabins left for the coming voyage in April, taking us from Istanbul, around the Black Sea and then back through the Med to the UK. This is going to be a lot of fun and there are over 200 of us already .... sounds like another party to me!

If you want to give us a call then please do so on: 01273 585391, we're always pleased to hear from you."

Roy is pleased to announce that an order has now been placed for a new printing which is due to be delivered to him in early Nov. '09

The cost of the book is only the same as it was ten years ago with the last print. It's £18+ £2 p&p UK, Europe £22.50 inc., and Overseas, including USA, Canada, NZ and Australia, due to the huge increase in postage, the inclusive cost is £27 airmail, or £23 by surface mail.

This will be a limited print run of only 300 copies and definitely the last reprint.

Please contact Roy by telephone on 01329-280982. or by snail mail 8 Delme Drive, Fareham. PO16 8SQ if you are interested. Cheques to be made out to R C Derham, and not the TSVA.

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From time to time, questions are asked about MN Pensions. It has recently been raised again and I was able to direct the enquirer to a contact link in the Department of Work and Pensions who deal historic schemes which have now closed. The DWP passed on the enquiry to the RMT Union, successor to the National Union of Seamen, who replied.

"Individual members of the Union were entitled to receive a "Retirement Benefit" called an Old Age Grant, but only if they retired from the sea and had completed 25 years of membership (of the Union).

An industry-wide pension scheme, the Merchant Navy Ratings Pension Scheme, was established in 1978. Pension entitlement for service prior to that date would have depended on being a member of an individual employer's occupational pension scheme which unfortunately few employers operated in the 1950's and 1960's, particularly for seafarers on the Register"

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Terry Smith, Secretary of the TSVA Bedford Branch, in addition to have some Blue Star lapel badges on offer, has also for sale, copies of deck plans of the following vessels. FSN: Cambridge, Durham and Gloucester, as well as Pipiriki of NZS Co. if any of our members are interested he can be contacted on 01767 315388 after 6.00pm for details, or through me via the website. Terry has already made a donation to the TSVA from the proceeds of the badge sales to date, and will do likewise if sufficient copies of the deck plans are sold.

On the subject of collecting 'Dole Money' during our time at the Vindi, I also can remember the two table system performed in the recreation hut at the camp. During my stay as a 'Deckie' in 1949, my Kit Account records that I added £4:14:0 to my £5 Deposit, and after the deduction of £6:8:8 for my kit, I paid off with the princely sum of £3:5:4. I think that any Dole Money was dependant on how much you had contributed in 'stamps' on your card during any employment you had, prior to joining the Vindi. Leaving school at 14 and joining the Vindi when I was turned 17, I had three years of contributions. School leaving age was raised from 14 to 15 in 1947, and from 15 to 16 in 1972.

I can't remember if the initial 'signing on' was done at the camp, or if we had to troop down to the little Labour Exchange, by the Post Office. I think that some must have done, as witnessed by the many names inscribed on its red brick wall which are still visible to this day.

In 1936, the school leaving age was raised from 14 to 15, (to be implemented in Sept. '39), but this was postponed on the outbreak of WW2. It wasn't finally raised until 1947, and raised again to 16, in 1972.

Registry of Shipping and Seamen
Maritime and Coastguard Agency
Anchor Court
Keen Road
Cardiff
CF24 5JW

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Shell Tankers

A site for all those who sailed with 'Joe Shell' is http://www.helderline.nl Just enter the name of the ones on which you sailed, to see if there are any photos or if other crew members listed have sailed at the same time as you.

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To any who either came from, or sailed out of Liverpool, can I recommend the pen-portraits of Liverpool life by '61 Deckie John Williams. I believe that I have read the latter part of his tale about being put ashore in Japan in some other publication, possibly Sea Breezes, but to read the whole piece, go to "Iron ships and wooden men" and then dip into some of his other, non-maritime recollections of living in the city. John is negotiating with a published to get his stories in print and would welcome contact with anyone who is interested in buying a copy.

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Downloads Available

An offer to all Vindi and G.S.S. Boys

Can you all remember the prospectus from the Shipping Federation, which told us about the wonderful training and food were were to receive at their illustrious establishments? The bottom half of the second page of this document was our Application Form for joining. I still have my copy of the edition in use in 1947, which Gordon Tumber of the GSS Website has kindly laminated for me, due to its fragile state. I have now scanned it in parts, and a download is yours for the asking at the e-address of this site and I will e-mail them to you as an attachment to my reply. WebsiteBosun@aol.com It consists of six half pages, three of which are photos; about 510Kb in total. The top half of the first page is shown below, but the downloaded version is clearly readable.

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Another download I have available is from Jack Gilbert, a Vindiboy from the very early years, who has had a delve into his own Ditty Box and has come up with a rare copy of a wartime magazine, called simply 'Illustrated'. This would appear to have been devoted to propaganda for the UK war effort. This issue is dated 6th September, 1941 and features a Vindi Deckie named Robin Alwyn Hall. Jack has offered it up to a wider readership and Tony Scott has kindly scanned the relevant pages of the piece and has enhanced the quality a bit as its condition of it is now in a very fragile. Anyone wishing to receive a copy of the download, please contact me through this e-mail link," Illustrated"

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I also have two pages of downloads available pages from Sea Breezes, published about the time the Vindi was sent to the breakers. If anyone would like a copy, contact me via this e-mail link.

Also available are downloads of Dave. Partridge's poem ' Heroes', and a setting of Reg Kear's 'Sea Shanty', given a Country and Western style setting.

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Severn Railway Bridge Disaster

I am indebted to Dave Partridge for passing on this link the a group of sites, featuring the accident which brought down two spans of the bridge on 25th Oct. 1960, with the loss of 5 lives. http://en.wikipedia.org/wikxxi/Severn_Railway_Bridge-

If you are unable to open the link, I can send it to you as a 13.6 MB file in MPEG format.

Pathe Newsreel clip of the Triton at Gravesend Seaschool in 1937

My thanks to Tony Scott for passing on this clip of nearly 3 minutes duration. If anyone would like to receive a download, please send me a request by this link It is of 2.7MB, so probably only suitable if you have a Broadband connection.

I have been asked if I would include a link to the site www.friend-ships.com This is a site with a fairly large remit as it covers ships, their crews, and even passengers who sailed on them. There is also a 'Grey Funnel' section. It has free registration of a user name and password, both of which have to be in numerals only, but I can't see any way of looking at their database for trips prior to 1950. The second page of the registration is a form for entering a ship search, but I didn't have any luck as it wouldn't recognise the name of my first ship.

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I have received a request from the Merchant Navy Memorial site, to draw the attention of readers of this page to their site. this can be accessed by clicking on this link

For those mariners who have an interest in the ports of London, Southampton, Liverpool, Bristol or Hartlepool, you might find something to interest you in the Port Cities site.

Looking for a photo of a ship? Try the archive of the Maritime Museum at Greenwich, or try this site.

For those who regularly read the magazine 'Sea Breezes, you may be interested in their new website on www.seabreezes.co.im , which is still in the course of development.

Photos of Sharpness and the Vindi in the mid-50's from the can be found on the website of the F rancis Frith Archive. Visit this link for an aerial view of Sharpness as part of the Millennium Mapping Project

This link will take you to the excellent MN site of Brian Probetts, where you can post details of the ships in which you served. There is now also another excellent general MN site, called "All at Sea"

Thanks to Bill McPherson, for giving me to link to a site listing all the 'Empire Boats'. All the ship historians amongst you may like to visit this list, complied by Ted Finch.

For hundreds of photos of ships, try looking on http://www.photoship.co.uk which also has on it a link on it to the Miramar ship data site

Of interest to anyone who sailed on the 'Fort' ships or their 'Parks' and 'Ocean' cousins, is the 'Fort Ships of WW2' site of Angela DeRoy-Jones.

There is a Vindi page on the site of www.friendsreunited.co.uk. Look for it in 'Gloucestershire' in the Southwest area and enter T.S. Vindicatrix, or look in the letter 'T' in the alphabetical index. There are 80 Vindi Boys listed at the moment.

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If any Vindi Boy would like to contribute details of their Vindi, Sea, and other Public Service, to Dave William's Vindicatrix National Ship Register, he would be pleased to hear from you. This is a archive he established some years ago, to try and collect as much detail as he can about who Vindi Boys were, and what they did after their training. David can be contacted either by e-mail or by writing to him at 3, Leigh Court, Crown Hill, Plymouth PL6 5YA Please give him as much detail as you can, including you Discharge Book number. This archive isn't online, but can be viewed at the Sharpness Reunion each year and copies are also held by the Branch Secretaries in the UK.

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