Page 5
Leaving all these lovely warm countries behind us it
was now off to our destination, and that was the port of Stanley, in the
Falkland Islands. Yes its true, the weather did start to change as we neared
its shores, so away went the whites the shorts, and out came the long johns
and the winter blues, and in my case the fur boots (Which my mother had
given me prior to leaving), she must have guessed the weather better than
I did.
On arrival at Stanley, there were no flag waving crowd's there to meet us,
only a couple of the locals to greet one of our stokers who was from that
part of the world. Yes we had arrived at what seemed the ends of the earth,
or not far from it.
Looking ashore from our anchorage point, it didn't look all that inviting,
so there was no real rush from the crew to get ashore.
Port Stanley Falkland Isles South Atlantic
Shore leave for myself was to be a bit awkward whilst we were down there.
Of the five killicks that left good old Blighty, one was lucky enough to
get the job of Engineers writer, and one was picked to do the upper deck
stokers job. The three remaining like it or not, had to share the watches,
four on, eight off. If we were lucky enough to strike a port where we could
tie up alongside with power, then we had liberty the same as the rest of
the crew, but that didn't happen at most ports we visited.
The town of Stanley was not all that big, it was an Island where they had
sheep, lots of them, and peat. They had a whaling station, but we never
got to see it, we did sail around the Islands and went ashore at a couple,
and it was at one of the Islands that one of the crew got shot in the eye
while out shooting ducks I think it was. That meant he had to be shipped
home, which meant a rush to the mainland, and Argentina. But as for anything
else, there was not all that much to see. Yes we too had our fair share
of lamb and mutton, but provisions were soon topped up when we did go to
the mainland. I must say though that the people there in Stanley were really
friendly, and made us welcome all the time we were there. I made a lot of
good friends and kept in touch with a couple for many years after leaving
there.
Dave Morgan, Ken and Ernie returning to ship Falkland
Isles.