Britain's Biggest Training Ship HMS Worcester | Lost & Found Nº3 | British Pathé 

Great adventure story........... Waterloo Sunset brings up a lot of magic memories.....Cheers.

Thank you for sharing

My cousin was in her in the 60’s. Went on to captain container ships etc.

She looks very old. I'm glad you had the opertunity to go on her.

i had a customer who had known some old timers who'd worked on sailing ships; he asked them wasn't it dangerous and they said no, the way it was set up you really couldn't fall off; but, you couldn't wear gloves doing it and the wind, salt and rope would make your hands callus up so much you couldn't move your fingers much, so that was a price they paid. He said the merchant marine, union workers, were looked down on by the WASP's that made up the Navy Officer ranks; he said he wanted to hit one once, the guy was with his date and disparaged his patriotism as he walked by. Made him mad because he knew a lot of guys who were dying taking war supplies to England, way more dangerous than any Navy officer's work. Meadowcroft was on ships carrying cargo to the Pacific Theatre, not as dangerous. He was in Japan right after the war ended, and he called a Japanese bartender by a Korean name because he looked so much like a Korean bartender he knew; the Japanese fellow was so offended that he came over the counter trying to hit him! He said the Japanese were like us, very racist. He had a Japanese girlfriend for years and years, but when it came down to it he was never going to move to Japan and she wasn't going to move away, so that's how it ended. He said he was on a ship delivering cars for the Diplomatic Service, like 1946 Lincoln Town Cars, museum-worthy; but the Japanese could reject the import of cars they found defective, so they would come out on the dock in white lab coats and silk gloves, and go over these cars until they found something no matter how minute, and back the cars would go for 'repair'! Said he and his buddy would stand at the ship's railing and watch, it was pretty funny. He ran cargo to Vietnam, and one time he was told to leave all the civilian stuff on the dock,out in the open where it could be stolen. He complained to a Marine 'guard' and finally the guy told him "Look, these decisions are made at a level so much higher than anything I could affect" and sure enough all the refrigerators, TV's furniture etc were lost that night. He said coming into the Philippines they had to pay a bribe each time to the harbor master; one new captain refused and got in, but ever after that they would refuse that guy permission to come in, so the company had to hire a second person to captain the ship in to just that harbor, way more expensive than paying the bribe. Harry Meadowcroft had a pretty interesting life!

@supernumery when my dad was on the Worcester in the fifties two boys fell and died.

On this side of the pond, Sunbeam an appliance manufacturer, made just such a unit for the home. Ours (circa 1956) had two 10 inch brushes and could be operated with one hand using the other to keep the electric cord out of the way. We lived in military housing which had lino squares covering all the floors. When vacating the premises the floor had to be Marine Corp. clean. Narragansett Bay

Belay my last reply. The appliance was manufactured under the name of Johnson (Johnson's Wax). The brushes were used one at a time: one for rough cleaning, light sanding, wax application; the other for buffing, shining and or burnishing. Narragansett Bay.

They are commonly sold in Spain, used to polish marble floors. They are however extremely powerful and need someone strong enough to control it.

Yes, you can see she is steel built: the previous ship was wooden (ex- HMS Frederick William dating from 1860) and payed off in 1948.