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#1
12th December 2021, 08:58
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Believe it or not
Hi all. I was just searching Google to see if I could find a weather chart for the North Atlantic in Novemeber 1966. I had no luck, but I found this forum and thought you'd like to hear my story:
In 1966 I was 17, fresh out of high school in Montréal and pining for the country I had grown up in, Belgium. I decided to work my way across the Atlantic on a freighter. This was something that was done quite often back then, and after many months of trying and many disappointments, I finally found a ship that would employ me for passage. It was the Sunclipper, a smallish freighter flying the Norwegian flag. We sailed out of Montréal on November 9th, 1966, headed for England, carrying bales of onions, barrels of grease and ingots of aluminum ... and me and my guitar. I won't go into the horrors of the crossing here. Suffice it to say that the North Atlantic in November is no place for sissies at the best of times, but the Sunclipper snapped a huge steel rod that connects one of the pistons to the propeller shaft and we floundered for six hours in the middle of a mighty storm while they replaced it. Yes, they had a spare! The crossing, which was supposed to take 9 days, took 12. I was sure we were all going to die out there. But we didn't. We reached England on the 21st of November, sailed up the Bristol Channel headed for our port, Avonmouth. It was a beautiful morning and I distinctly remember spending that morning up in the prow of the ship. I was so anxious to get off that ship, to get my feet back on solid ground, that I had positioned myself as far forward as I could, as if maybe that would get me there sooner. Our docking at Avonmouth was just as dramatic as the crossing as the captain couldn't get the engine room to reverse the propeller to slow the ship down as we neared the dock. I will never forget the dockworkers who were waiting for us all started to slowly move backward, away from the edge of the dock, as they began to realize what was happening. We hit the dock at a shallow angle and eventually, through much noise, friction, dust and snapping cables, came to a stop. But that's not the point of this story. A few years ago, I was thinking about all of this and wondered if there was an image of the Sunclipper online. I had done a search before but nothing came up. This time, however, a thumbnail of it appeared in Google images. I clicked on it and I was taken to a page at ShipSpotters.com. There it was, a beautiful crisp photo, black and white, of the SS Sunclipper. I drank it in for a few minutes. Then I noticed below a caption with some of the details of the photo. "SUNCLIPPER ....passing Portishead on 21st November 1966 inbound for Avonmouth" I couldn't believe my eyes! That was the year, the month, the crossing ... I was on it. I immediately looked at the prow of the boat and saw a small figure, chest, shoulders and head, and I knew, without a doubt, that that was me up there, 48 years ago. After picking myself up off the floor, I noticed that there was an email address for the photographer, who evidently was a dedicated ship spotter with over 600 images at that site. So I wrote him. He responded! His name is Malcolm Cranfield. He was 18 on that clear cold November morning in 1966. He is as amazed as I am about this. He told me that was one of his first ship photos and that he'd email me a higher resolution image. The 1000 dpi file he sent only confirmed my belief that the figure in the image is indeed me -- was me -- 48 years before. I could even make out my Beatle hairdo. I now have a framed three-foot-wide blow-up of that photo on the wall of my office and I have told Malcolm that if I ever get back to the UK I will seek him out and take him to his local pub for a pint or two. Last edited by planetalk; 12th December 2021 at 09:01. 
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#2
12th December 2021, 09:43
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An illegal immigrant or a boat person?
Handcuffs and straight off to the Bridewell.
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#3
12th December 2021, 10:13
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Welcome to SH - great story Planetalk. What a coincidence with that photo and contacting Malcolm. I take it, as you are a musician - a Guitarist as you hinted in your post? Me too.
JJ.
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#6
12th December 2021, 12:27
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Welcome aboard.
Great story. So what happened next? More seafaring or did music become your way of life? Stick around, I think that you will find like minds here whatever.
__________________
The Mad Landsman
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#8
12th December 2021, 22:01
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Thanks for the replies, yes it is an amazing story. I was thinking that maybe Malcolm, the photographer, is a member here ...
Yes, Jolly Jack, I've been a guitarist all my life. I love slide guitar. You can hear some of my playing on my YouTube channel if you're interested. I still get out and gig, pandemics permitted, but I mostly teach online now.
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#9
12th December 2021, 23:31
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Great story, and yes Malcolm is a member of both sites. Funny thing I kind of had a feeling when you said you were heading for Avonmouth and passing Portishead that that it was Malcolm the man with the camera. He is a fine fella and I hope you can contact him, or send him a PM.
John.
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#10
13th December 2021, 00:00
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Quote:
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#11
13th December 2021, 04:09
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Click on members link or click on any of his photos in the Gallery and you can contact him with email or private message.
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#13
13th December 2021, 07:09
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Great story. Malcolm has contributed a lot here and elsewhere.
__________________
You can call me Tunatownshipwreck (Eric), just don't call me late.
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#14
13th December 2021, 09:50
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Great story with a happy ending. I couldn't help thinking about all the people who object to having their picture taken by CCTV, but here is someone who is clearly delighted that his picture was taken without him knowing about it until many years later!
Welcome to the friendly community Planetalk.
__________________
"You do not ask a tame seagull why it needs to disappear from time to time towards the open sea. It goes. That's all." Bernard Moitessier.
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#15
13th December 2021, 10:32
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Quote:
Regards, John.
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#16
13th December 2021, 16:28
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#17
13th December 2021, 18:37
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It is a small World I recently managed to contact two of my sailing buddies from the early 70s and another from the same period contacted me can't wait to meet them for a few pints once covid is hopefully gone.
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#19
15th December 2021, 23:07
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Quote:
__________________
If Global Warming is so prevalent why are there so many snowflakes around?
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