Somethings never change Ron -my father used to relate to me (I was the child of his middle years) how in the late 1920s some of the crew became caught up in a S.American revolution -not unusual in those days I understood - and rather than sail without them the rest stormed the gaol and got them on board shortly before leaving, the Captain having developed a nelsonian eye.
Not a lot has changed on the South American coast since your father’s time. In his day, they were all Fascists. They now call themselves Communist. But the only difference between these two extremists, are their uniforms. I keep away from there, if possible. Some years ago, I was on a ship that ‘tramped’ around the SA coast. Prior to sailing, was like a scene from an old Ealing comedy. As soon as cargo was loaded, the only officer aboard, would ‘blow the whistle’ for five minutes. The result was hilarious. Men could be seen leaving bars on all fours, running into the street whilst getting clothed and hastily exchanging their personal possessions to settle the ‘bill’. 30 minutes after that whistle blew, the ship sailed, with —or—without you! It was also common practice, as your father stated. To raid the local jail where shipmates had been wrongly arrested on some trumped up charge to obtain money I wonder what the ‘Politically Correct' would do in such a situation? They would most probably stand around biting their nails and wondering if anyone would be offended! And in the process of bafflement, being shot! God, what a nation of ‘Jerks’ we’re becoming. A while ago, someone bought me a beautiful leather bound copy of ‘The Last Days of Pompeii’ By Lord Lytton’. It was a good story well written in the beautiful English of 1830. If I could send you the copy I would. You definitely would enjoy it. However, being so taken by the style of writing and the lovely prose, I intend acquiring the rest of his work from E-Bay when possible. His pre title name was Edward Bulmer. Alas, my two weeks leave, never materialised. I have had one day off, and sadly, that was to attend funerals and due to circumstances, I am desperately in need of a haircut. Beginning to look like ‘The Wild Man of Borneo’ In Alaska, I have found thick hair (with a head to match) an advantage, but in the Indian Ocean, a great disadvantage. I have no choice. My wife says she will cut it for me. –and she’s a lecturer! Best Wishes.
As I have explained to Ann, in the above note, that during my supposedly two weeks leave, I have managed only one day, and that was spent at funerals. I have, therefore, had no time whatsoever to research ‘Donald Watson’ and the Battle of Britain, and now, because of my restrictive schedule, I will not be free to follow up this enquiry until February next year. To-day, I sought a temporary compromise. I called down to Railway and the other roads and enquired what the old people had discovered (There were less old people to-day. The council has now evacuated 90% of the area ) Their story is; at the end of the 1941 conflict, Watson ,who was based nearby, was engaged in a ‘dogfight with a number of the ‘Luftwaffe’, during which he shot a ‘Dornier Bomber’ down. The German pilot landed it on the river Mersey off Rock Ferry, where it floated for some time. They say, his ‘plane was badly damaged by this time, and lost power. He had the choice of landing in ‘Victoria Park’ with the possibility of over-running and hitting a school, or to endeavour to glide towards the river and hope to belly-flat on the mud bank. He chose the latter; however, lacking sufficient power, he came down in the shore side allotments, and in the process, smashing into a number of greenhouses resulting in his body being shredded. If true, a sad ending to a very brave young lad. It brought tears to my eyes when they told me. Three of them, aged between 77 and 60. Had just left school and witnessed the plane plummeting down to earth. They also say his bloodstained body being stretcher away. I myself, through heresay, am aware of this story and about the German bomber floating beside Rock Ferry Pier. But I cannot verify that this was Donald Waston or his connection in any way with the above events, without proper research. Needless to say, all the old people insist it was and that they are right. I hope so, for if true, it is yet another story in our history of a brave young man making the ultimate sacrifice to save his country and a classroom of children. May I firstly conclude, with a tribute to childhood memories;-
The Simple Ways
Oh, give me the simple ways,
Of country fields and golden days,
When brier roses in the hedge,
Bloomed Fragrantly at the lane’s edge.
Green Willows grew beside the stream,
We lingered there, to rest and dream.
Soft breezes drifted o’er the fen,
The sun was always shining then.
Bright Butterflies kissed meadow flowers,
And children played beneath the bowers,
Oh, give me back the simple ways,
Of meadows, dreams and golden days.
By Pat Haigh.
Finally, as a small tribute to the men and women in the forces, who sadly, will not be coming home again for Christmas from Iraq or Afghanistan? An extract from G K Chesterton’s beautiful poem-
The Last Hero
Know you what earth shall lose to-night, what rich uncounted loans, What heavy gold of tales untold you bury with my bones? My loves in deep dim meadows, my ships that rode at ease, Ruffling the purple plumage of strange and secret seas. To see this fair earth as it is to me alone was given, The blow that breaks my brow to-night shall break the dome of heaven. The skies I saw, the trees I saw after no eyes shall see, To-night I die the death of God; the stars shall die with me; One sound shall sunder all the spears and break the trumpet's breath: You never laughed in all your life as I shall laugh in death.
Ron - thank you for updating me on Donald Watson. At least he died at home and there is no corner of a foreign field for him.
I was moved to tears watching Victoria Cross Heroes last night. It's not the sadness of the situation or the loss of life that gets me, it's the selfless courage of those who give or potentially risk their lives for their friends and colleagues.
We'll "see" you when you get back - thank you for letting us know this time!
Well folks -just got embroiled in a series of comments on one of the political blogs and I have to say what a pleasure to get back to reading Time Team Forum!
Why are people so personal when they disagree -obviously did not have a school debating society (only a Secondary Modern but it served us well it would appear)
One of the points was the -well best not go there but the uncharacteristic behaviour of the English at a certain time.
Time Team Forum -be proud of yourselves for upholding dignified and civilised standards in debate especially when holding opposing views.
Serves me right I just felt strongly on the subject and self righteous people always get up my nose!
For god's sake Ann don't be bloody ridiculous. And that dress looks hideous on you! Only kidding.
But what is characteristic English behaviour? Some of the 'Englishness' evident on this thread seems at times to consist of small-mindedness and bigotry. Much of it also seems nostalgic for a post-war idyll which I suspect never actually existed for many people. So what are the contemporary English characteristics?
Been busy Greenrug -so haven't tuned in for a while
-post-war idyll -well I guess what people regret is the sense of community. When people did not move around so much you were surrounded by extended family or people who had known you for years and that can give comfort -and safety. For instance there was a bloke in my village that everyone knew was a sexual menace and if he was seen in the vicinity of a young girl was quickly dealt with. I find many young mothers today are a long way from their own mothers and miss them.
No, the uncharacteristic behaviour was/is emotional outpouring of secondhand (for want of a better description) grief.
I think that together -English, Welsh, Scots we make a good whole, balancing out each others temperaments -but some people are hellbent on splitting it all up.
Contemporary characteristics - apathy until its too late, selfishness, envy, letting bullies get away with it.....but whatever they say about the young there are many inspiring youngsters out there.
We are having an unexpected break from work. We flew here on Saturday expecting to join a ship where a job awaited us. However, the ship has been delayed 3 days so we are making the most of it.
I see that the British weather is ´normal´. Suprisingly, Majorca is only 2 hours away and the temperature here is 80F.
We went to the beautiful and magnificant Palma catherdral Sunday afternoon where a Christmas carol concert was taking place. There was the resident choir and the English children´s choir plus an orchrestra and solo singer. The lovely background enhanced everything. A truly beautiful two hours.
I shall be back in England next week and hope to continue the conversation there.
I shall have to pick up the thread for Greenrug Ann.
I think we shouldn't forget that communities are chraracterised by bad points as well as good. I wonder how often the menace was not seen in the vicinity of the young and he got a way with it. Yes, there kinship links and support are often missing but then in the case of my family we were many miles from family and we made different relationships to fill the gap.
I do myself wonder about our new tendency to grieve for almost anyone as if we knew them. I don't get it. It feels like its just something else to consume to me. At the roots of our problems seems to be a rampant consumerism. Whilst socialist/communist have become dirty words a capitalist society is not one that is doing us any good either.
Originally posted by tapisvert: I do myself wonder about our new tendency to grieve for almost anyone as if we knew them. I don't get it.
I was 13 when Elvis died and I bawled my eyes out. I think that was acceptable in a child. But as an adult I find the whole idea of griving for strangers as pretty ridiculous. Pay respects for their lives, certainly. When the Queen Mother died, I found it inappropriate to work on the day of her funeral (I took it as proper holiday, by the way!) after what she'd done for her country during WWII and what she'd meant for my parents' generation in particular. I cried during her funeral but my dog had just died so I'm afraid my thoughts were largely on Gina rather than the QM!
But a comment on a TV programme about Prince William's and Price Harry's discomfort about "public ownership" of their mother also made me look at things from the other perspective as well. Famous people have family and close friends. What gives us the right to grieve as if we belonged to this inner circle when we clearly didn't?
A somewhat belated, Merry Cristmas to each and everyone of you,I trust that you did, and still are, enjoying it, Five of us arrived home a day late due to fog, and four, myself included, have spent the whole Christmas period in bed with a virus aquired in Palma. Anti-biotics being useless against a virus, we are just waitung it's departure. Best Wishes to you all.
A very late, but nevertheless sincere ´Happy New Year´to Ann, Jenni, Phil B, Steffan, and everyone else. My colleagues and I, are on winter leave until the 2nd February, therefore, having spent the 14 day Christmas period in bed with a virus, I have returned to Majorca where the sun is still shining and the day can be spent wearing shorts. We took advantage of the Spanish Christmas(6/1/07) watching the numerous floats in Palma and the thousands of sweets thrown to the crowds who had come to see the three Kings. In Magaluf, we entered a free treasure hunt on the beach and won a bottle of whisky. The prizes were excellent, including free holidays. Plus numerous bottles and a tin of biscuits,etc. I tried a 3rd world joke on two ladies, but they didn´t understand. I said that the consolation prize had not been won. It was three Rat candles and a box of pilot matches. I realised later that they had most probably never seen a green rat candle in all their lives!
I had a´dream browse´around Palma´s marina, where boats costing 2-3 milliom(any currancy) are as common as the hairs on a fisherman´s chin!. What do these people do for a living? The King of Saudi Arabia has a boat here. It is covered in a sort of cocoon. It has the name of the vessel in individual solid gold letters on both the bows and stern. Recently, someone ´pinched´ one letter, which has been replaced but with tightened security. Well, time to unship the oars and return to mine.
Nice to hear from you again and though rather late did you enjoy Christmas and New Year?
Unfortunately, due to work commitments we had to cancel our planned holiday and fall upon Majorca as a standby. However, the temperature is a constant 75 degrees with sunshine and a friend has loaned us a boat so everything has turned out quite nice.
You would be amazed at the free entertainment afforded the winter holiday maker from the tourist board. Various shows with a free drink and nibbles plus free tours, cinema and concerts etc. All for the purpose of enticing people here for the winter when the yobs are conspicuous by their absence.
A winter and summer holiday may appear excessive but because of our general unpleasant working enviroments and working Bank holidays, weekends etc I think the two breaks are quite justified and suprisingly everyone agrees with me
Since I've been working non-stop (except for Bank Holidays!) Christmas seems an awful long time ago now... But I think it was fun!
Fancy having to make do with Majorca! You must be SO disappointed at those temperatures and having to stay on a boat (I presume we're talking "yacht-type" rather than "rowing"?)
Better late than never -Happy Christmas - I hope that it was -and a Happy New Year to everyone.
My computer crashed just before Christmas and have only just got back on line!
Trust you are fit and well now Ron, ready to face another exciting year when we shall need Time Team to take our minds of the present!! (sorry some pessimism has crept in, its being forced to watch christmas TV)
They have just celebrated another Fiesta (Bank holiday) here in Spain, San Sebastion. Fireworks in Palma, also communal BBQs bonfires and towns on the Islands parade of animals to be blessed by the local priests. They have a hell of a lot of them,around 38 per annum, compared with our six.
"As we start the New Year, lets get down on our knees to thank God we´re on our feet" - Irish toast.
Originally posted by RonW: ...parade of animals to be blessed by the local priests.
My work colleagues here seem to think I'm odd when I take my dogs to the pet blessing service at our local church. Don't ask me why, as a non-churchgoer myself, I feel the need to do this, but it just seems to be appropriate, particularly as they approach their later years.
Seem to be developing a bit of a cough now though! 
But I think it was fun!