In the seventy years since I left Lisburn I have watched the sun set all over the world and have always thought how beautifull it is. In places like Darwin Australia. Lagos West Africa, Oahu Hawaii, to name a few but to me the most spectacular sunset and sunrise was at the North Cape on the northern tip of Norway while on the cruise ship "Caronia" this is just inside the Artic Circle and to see the sun go down touch the horizon and then start to rise again was really something to behold. Mauri

Regarding your northern Norwegian experience of watching a sunset which gradually turned into a sunrise, I experienced this once.

It was on a flight from Vancouver to Heathrow, on our way to Norn Iron and we were sitting on the port side of the aircraft. I think that's the left side Mauri, if your are facing the pointy end. The flight took off from Vancouver around sunset and during the long polar route flight, we had the pleasure of watching it almost set before rising again, the next day, I guess.

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Forty Coats. At the time of watching the sun set and rise at the North Cape I was working on the Caronia which at that time was "THEE CRUISE SHIP", we had left New York and made our first port call in Iceland then over to Sweden Finland Norway Poland Germany Scotland and the south of Ireland then to Southampton.

One funny incident that happened was while we were anchored in Zoppot Poland I was on the top of the gangway assisting passengers into the launches to take them ashore when this older American lady said to me "What part of Ireland are you from" when I said Lisburn she replied Do you know the Barbours who have the mills.I of course said I know of them but not personally??? "Well" I am related to them she said, never did tell me what the relationship was, she was from South Carolina. Mauri

Mauri, I've been interested in old ships lately and often wondered why some crews refer to their vessel as a ship, as distinct from a boat, it must be a size thing.

Some time ago I was surprised to learn how the word "posh" came into being. Apparently in the good old days, when the upper crust were visiting India, they would ask for posh cabins. This indicated they wanted Port Out Starboard Home location, meaning they could enjoy a shore view coming and going rather than have to look out at the Indian Ocean.

Another thing I learned recently, is that TSS preceding a ship's name meant Twin Screw, I had thought it meant The Steam Ship up until then.

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Fortycoats, I'm trying to imagine where and why you are amassing all this new information. It's never too late to learn and I'm not knocking it, just wondering if you have taken up a new hobby or what. I myself am hooked on a Word Brain game on my tablet. I have now reached 90 per cent and I'm not looking forward to when I finish this. I have to get my fix every day and even Dominic has become involved and helps me out when it gets beyond me. Anyone have any suggestions on new word-type games?

Mauri, only getting around now to reading your recent posting. I can't help wondering what relation that lady was to the Barbour's. If you had been a woman, you would definitely have questioned her on this. We'll never know now, but another interesting post.

Fortycoats, In the Navy and Merchant Navy a ship, was a ship, was a ship.boats were lifeboats, launches,cutters,whalers and so on.with one exception, in the Navy submarines were called boats, don't ask my why tradition I guess.??? Mauri

Ann, If I remember correctly an Irish steward on the Caronia mentioned something about the lady in question to the effect that she was a neice of Milne Barbour though how true that is I am not 100% sure. Mauri

Ann, my recent spurts of interest in boats, Oops! SHIPS, sorry Mauri, started a few weeks ago when I was looking through a family album and came across a copy of the ship's Manifest which noted my father, at the tender age of 26, venturing to the USA

I could not quite make out the name of the ship and enlisted Mauri's help in trying to do so. The Ship's Manifest is a fairly detailed sheet of information and is typewritten. Unfortunately the typist on this occasion has overtyped the letters forming the ship's name, looked like some sort of code. I suppose this problem arose when they were trying to align this huge piece of paper on some giant typewriter.

Anyhow, a relative solved the problem and advised the name of the ship as being the SS Celtic.

From there I proceeded through the Internet to collect pictures of this vessel for the family album. I also have pictures of the steamers in which he returned to Norn Iron briefly in 1929 and then his sailing again to the US, my mother following a few months after on the SS Cameronia.

I also have the Manifest of the TSS Caledonia on which mother and I left USA to get to N. Ireland, in 1932, followed by dad a few weeks later.

Mauri had given the names of a few ships he had sailed in on this forum and this started me retrieving pictures of these old vessels. I had sent him a picture of the Saxonia and he quickly told me that it was of an earlier vessel, I found another more recent version, which happened to be the right one. I also discovered that "my" steamer was in fact the Caledonia IV

There is quite a lot about this ship on the Internet including its conversion to an armed freighter in 1939 and being renamed the Scotstoun before being sent to the bottom by Heinz Bedhun in his U25

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I have seen a few sunsets in different parts of the world . Two stand out in my memory:
Standing on the harbour of a small village called Invergordon in north - west Scotland looking west and trying to fight off the midges, and on a warm October evening on Horn Head in Co Donegal looking out into the Atlantic Ocean.
An added memory is of seeing the Northern Lights, a display of green and blue I shall, forever cherish, also from the north-west coast of Scotland.

Low Roader, Invergorden sure brings back memories for me, it was a Royal Navy anchorage and I was in there several times on the aircraft carrier HMAS Sydney and also on the battleship HMS Vanguard. I was only a youngster then so didn't pay to much attention to the scenery though now I wish I had???. Mauri

Mauri, I'm sure if we put all our memories together we could come up with an awful lot of interesting topics. I gauge this just from the postings over the years.

Ann,

The Forum is our book of Memories that will live on after we are gone from it, hope every reader enjoys it.


Pat