In southern Scotland there is an area that used to be called Peebleshire, until 1975 when Scotland abolished counties as local government areas. Robert Barclay of Glasgow, founded an engineering & ship building company in 1818, and and over the years it grew in size. In 1875 he built the first four-masted, iron-hulled fully rigged […]

Our driver arrived five minute early, I do love efficiency, and at 3.00 am we had the fastest drive ever to the airport, which was just over twenty minutes instead of the normal 45 minutes. Check-in went smoothly and our bags checked through to Rome. We were given vouchers for a hotel near Dubai airport, Le […]

We were picked up from the ship at 7.30 am for another day of sight seeing with TJ Travel. Our first stop was the the souvenir shop owned by the agency so that we could pay for our two day’s of sight seeing. The shop was quite large and the items on display interesting and […]

From the beginning the ship attracted a certain type of boy. 1860 Mathew Webb went on to be the first man to swim the English Channel. 1861 Warrington Baden Powell  later in life was the founder of the Sea Scouts. 1868 Admiral Sir  Sackville Carden Carden KCMG RN  was asked by Churchill, who was First Lord of the Admiralty, […]

While in Prague we stayed at the Hotel General, where all the bedrooms are dedicated to different military generals. Hotel General – Prague – http://www.hotel-general.com/en/  the building dates from 1890 – and was converted to the current hotel in 2007. This hotel is out of the tourist area, which is a positive, because the evenings were quiet […]

HMT Dunera (B.1937) She is shown as a troop ship when visiting Malta, I think the photo was taken in the 1950’s. A couple of years ago Maureen and I completed a road trip around NSW, South Australia and Victoria. During the trip I planned to drive from Beechworth to Mildura; both towns are in […]

While researching Prince of Wales Island (now called Penang) for the sequel to Ice King (aka Triangle Trade) I came across details of the German cruiser SMS Emden, which had links to Penang. Maureen often says that I am more interested in the research than the act of writing, which to an extent is correct. Little […]

As I sat in the transit lounge at Tehran airport & scanned my ticket – it was a BOAC ticket, but the the airline was Qantas. As was the boarding pass The aircraft in 1968 was a B 707 /138, which had been modified by Qantas with a turbofan and they renamed their modified aircraft […]

This blog is aimed mainly at Australian readers, so I apologise to my other readers. I am tired of the multi-coloured banner across the top of my blog, even though I’ve tried to have it removed, and investigated how to remove it myself, but I don’t have the computer knowledge. It is obviously a banner […]

In late 1968 I resigned from a life at sea and decided on a life with B.O.A.C. B.O.A.C coat of arms So life would change from water to air. BOAC VC 10 at Manchester Airport BOAC – B707 BOAC B707 freighter – my introduction to containerisation. The airline pallets (containers) can be seen loaded on […]

Blackman’s Swamp in 1870 We had five nights in Cowra and planned to have three nights at Blackman’s Swamp. We left Cowra on Friday, but after we received a phone call that Maureen was booked into hospital on Tuesday we decided to cut our visit to Blackman’s Swamp to just two nights. Just to make […]

I The Calcutta & Burmah Steam Navigation Company was registered in Glasgow in 1856. One of the first ships of the company  was Cape of Good Hope, built in 1853, (420 gross tons). She was a steamer, but also rigged as a brig. At 190 feet long, she still managed ninety days from Southampton to Calcutta to […]

Uniform button from a BISNC uniform – we still wore the Company’s uniform even though the ship was sailing to Japan to be scrapped. Of course, we wore our caps when required, mainly in port when we were duty officer. I did sail with captains that required the officer of the watch to wear his […]

What do people think of when they hear of a mutiny? Perhaps cinema’s effort to re-enact a mutiny helps us to think of – the mutiny on HMS Bounty, in April 1789 might come to mind. . or would it be the Indian Mutiny of 1857. . or a later mutiny aboard the Russian battleship […]