Sea stories from the good old days

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Those who sailed in the good old days before A/C may relate to this story from Dave Kirkham:

All at Sea | Here we are on a damp morning Part 30 -

PS> Dave has posted a lot of interesting stories from his time as a Cadet and Mate in the 1970s on the FB Group All at Sea.

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One contraption that was commonly found in the galley, at least on Norwegian ships, up to the time UHT Milk took over in the 1980s was the Iron Cow;

This Iron Cow was used in Longyearbyen. It is in a slightly different league from the one commonly found on board ships:

In connection with the closure of the barn in the early 60’s and lack of air freight and the possibility of fresh groceries, the iron cow made milk from milk powder, water, unsalted margarine and vitamins. The product was reminiscent of skimmed milk, and was picked up in buckets at the various delivery points in the city. Eventually, iron cow milk was moved to the new Svalbard store in the city center. In the summer of 1995, air freight picked up, and since the store could then deliver (albeit twice as expensive) fresh milk, it was the end of the iron cow.

PS> The Iron Cow is today at Coal Miners’ Cabins (https://hurtigrutensvalbard.com/no/hoteller/coal-miners-cabins),
a pleasant and popular accommodation in Longyearbyen.

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Here is an article that appeared in Larship.no today, but was written in 1965:
THE CAPTAIN OF A SHIP HAS A DANGEROUS AND DEMANDING POSITION
https://larship.no/http-www-larship-no-p123-172/?fbclid=IwAR1sTXQUL_OxLPdMBhSuJZtIOUEFY9KhqBQRKIoiVDmZJI__dp-pSJVrZho
In Norwegian, but translation to several languages available in upper right corner of headline

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A story told by I Ivar Haug:

[quote]
"An older Norwegian sailor used to muster in New York, and while waiting for a new boat stayed at the sailor’s home there. In the evenings he went to his regular bar for a beer or two. And there he became friends with two Swedish sailors in the same situation, and the three of them met and went to the bar almost every night.
Then the Norwegian died suddenly. He had no relatives back home in Norway who wanted him home, and he was therefore buried at the international cemetery. And the two Swedes naturally followed their Norwegian friend to the grave.

After the funeral, the two Swedes sat in the bar again, and remembered their deceased friend over a glass or two. One says: “He was a bit strange, that “nordbagge””.
-“Do you think so,” said the other. “Well, he had two holes!”
-"What? How do you know that”?
-“Yes, every time we entered the bar the bartender said: Here comes the Norwegian with the two assholes”.

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Venomous snake visit onboard TS Kingsville (1966-68):
This happened while on the USWC-FE run. After departure from Bangkok on a trip along the Thai coast with destination Singapore, As the Chief Mate I, among other things were also the ship’s “medicine man” (with responsibility for, among other things, the medicine cabinet) were alarmed because one of the salon girls had had a severely swollen, painful left leg after feeling a sharp cut in the calf as she passed the 3 hatch between the ship’s two midships on her way from the galley. On inspection, it turned out that she had received two strong red bite marks on her calf, which could probably be caused by a snake bite. Back then in the 1960s, in the open sea you had to “deal with” acute medical challenges as best as possible on your own. In this sense, in the absence of possibly available aids in the medicine cabinet, we thought perhaps at least try something and that Penicillin injection could possibly “best case” slow down the possible spread of poison and bite infection somewhat and was therefore immediately initiated/performed.

At the same time, some of the guys were encouraged to hunt for possible poisonous snakes that might have crept on board, perhaps possibly from the river and up the anchor chain. The snake was found under one of the winches and was taken care of. On arrival in Singapore the next morning, an ambulance was prepared telegraphically and was waiting on the quay and the patient was immediately transported to hospital in all haste together with the killed snake so that the hospital could determine the species of snake and thus more easily find the right antidote.

Fortunately, it went well this time and she was allowed to return on board just before departure with feedback from the hospital that the bite was indeed a life-threatening bite from a venomous snake. And that we had made the best of the situation in advance by possibly slowing down infection and spread, as well as quacking and sending the hose along so that they could use the correct antidote relatively immediately. A little pleasant poison-long visit on board, fortunately not common, but I suppose it could happen from time to time on some ships.

The snake:

T/S Kingsville:

Source: https://www.facebook.com/groups/606669159393098/permalink/7289904117736202/
Inge A. Strand