One of the highlights of my Vindi "experience" was being chosen as one of the boys that was sent up to London for the coronation of H.M. the Queen.  As I remember there was about eight of us picked, we were chosen because we all had been members of organisations such as the cadets or boy scouts, or as in my case, the "Boys Brigade", it was assumed that we all new a bit about foot drill and marching. We were kitted out with new uniforms, and I recall they changed my blue coloured shirt, the ones that the deck trainees wore, for a much smarter looking white one. They sent us up to Gravesend sea school a few days before the big event where we were treated as guests, what a change from the Vindi. A few of us were taken aboard a Royal Navy warship that was anchored in the Thames, I can't remember her name, and given the grand tour.  It was quite an adventure for a young lad from Scotland, the pomp and ceremony of the great procession of royalty and politicians, Winston Churchill and all the other famous people that passed by.  I'm afraid that I just did not, at that time, truly understand that I was watching history passing in front of me.  I do recall though letting an American guy rest his movie camera on my shoulder to steady it as he filmed the procession, he gave me two quid, a fortune at the time and a kings ransom to  a Vindi trainee.  Needless to say there was a great feasting for a few days after that for me and my closest mates.  All too soon it was back to the Vindi and harsh reality.  They took back the white shirt and the uniform, the magic coach turned back into a pumpkin and I was no more an honoured guest.  It wasn't much later though I was made a trainees bosun's mate, and life was a little bit easier for the rest of my stay.

My merchant navy career was very brief, after leaving  Sharpness I sailed on an old Greek charter, the "Poplar Hill" out of BWI docks in London bound for the West Indies.  We went to Trinidad, Barbados, and what was then British Guyana and some of the other islands in the Caribbean sea.  The trip was very eventful.  We had a crew that was made up from the flotsam and jetsam of every country in the world, English, Scots, Maltese, Canadian,

African and some Arab "donkey" men, we should have been flying the jolly roger, it was a motley bunch of brigands.  A few days out we ran into a very bad storm in the Atlantic ocean which we rode out for about three days.  It  was a very wild thing,  I was literally tied into my bunk to get some sleep, water was pouring down into the crews quarters and our gear was floating around all over the place.  I'm sure that old ship was spitting rivets as she was pounded by the gale. The bosun, who was gnarled and weather beaten and looked like a tattooed oak tree, knowing it was my first trip, just kept puffing on his pipe and assuring me that it would soon blow over, but I couldn't understand why some of the crew were hanging on to their rosary beads and muttering prayers.  It did blow over of course and and we lay off the Azores for a day, dead in the water, as some repairs were made to our engines.  I could go on and on about that trip, my near run in with a" Portuguese man-o-war" while swimming as we lay at anchor off Barbados, getting crippled for a few days because I walked into a bunch of "Sea Urchins" (Spiky things that roll around the seabed like hedgehogs and fire off their quills at anything near them) nearly drowning in a lagoon on one of the islands, but I'll save the rest for another day.  When we docked in Port- of-Spain, Trinidad, five of the crew were arrested for breaking into the cargo hold and plundering the cargo, they had tried to flog it to some dockers but had been spotted by an undercover cop. They each got six months in the local nick (I often wonder if they are still there).  Anyway I made it back to the UK, safe and one hell of a lot wiser about the life of a British seaman, some first trip!

I next signed aboard the "M.V. Runa", sailing from Ardrossan, Scotland to Sweden and the other Scandinavian countries, she was due to sail on Dec.31st,new years eve, Hogmanay, a high holy day in Scots culture.  I'm afraid the old man was not pleased when a mate and I went celebrating and he missed the tide, but again that's another story.  It was about then I got caught up with some stuff ashore and I guess I swallowed the anchor a bit prematurely.  I went into the army for my "National Service", the Royal Signals.  I was a radio operator, Morse code and all that kind of stuff.  I did well in the army, finished up with a couple of stripes and when I left I decided to go back into the MN as a radio op.(sparks).  That was when cupid struck and, as they say, the rest is history.  My wife Pat and I will soon celebrate 43yrs. of blissful???marriage, we have a son, Steve, and a daughter, Diane.  They are both married and live nearby and we are blessed with two grandchildren, Sara, aged 3 and Ryan,9mths. I have really enjoyed being a member of the world wide fraternity of "Vindi Boys" and especially the Can/Usa branch, a great and fun loving bunch of people. Thank God for          computers they have extended my reach into the far corners of the world and hooked me up to a whole crew of tremendous guys. I have attached a "before" picture, I really don't know why as I look like a deer caught in a trucks headlights, the Vindi can do that to you.