PWSTS Forum for Old Boys, Family and Friends

Hello everyone,

Please find below some more snippets of information received since my last circular went out on 10^th January.

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Remembrance Travel ( Royal British Legion)

2008 Pilgrimages and Battlefield Tours

Tim Brant has just received the Remembrance Travel ( Royal British Legion) brochure regarding 2008 Pilgrimages and Battlefield Tours.  Anyone wishing information, please contact Tim.

Tel:  01472 851130

Blackpool Veterans Day 2008 the January edition of Veterans Day Newsletter and the proposed events of Blackpool's Veterans Day which will host the National Veterans Day event on 27 June 2008.

Our web site www.veterans-uk.info has also been updated and more information can be seen on the site.

Julian Mineur
Event Consultant - Veterans Day (MoD)
Room 8101D
Government Buildings
Norcross
Thornton/Cleveleys
Lancashire
FY5 3WP
Tel: 01253 333882
Fax: 01253 332347
Mob: 079000 86761
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FUNDING for Veterans' Day.

If anyone is requires funding for Veterans' Day (27 June) events, see:

 http://www.veterans-uk.info/veteransday08/index.htm

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The Merchant Navy Veteranâs Badge. Update.

The Ministry of Defence have announced that there is now no date limit for the badge (it is up to the present).  The qualification is still that it is a survivor's badge and MN Seafarers and Fishermen must have served in a vessel at a time when it was operated to facilitate military operations by HM Armed Forces.

For further information, see: http://www.veterans-uk.info/new_badge/merchant.html

Tim & I have the latest application form if required.

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 West Norfolk Branch

 The Branch has got off to a good start with a full page in their local paper "Lynn News" - well done Gordon. 

See: http://www.lynnnews.co.uk/news/Heroes-of-the-ocean-waves.3693956.jp

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 Snowbow - Maritme Memories Vogages

Bookings are now being taken for Vogage 9 starting 26 April 2009 in Istanbul for a 29 days (15 days option available) cruise into the Black Sea, through the Mediterranean and on to Harwich.  A 43 day trip is available starting at Safaga (Red Sea) and a trip through the Suez Canal - a place we remember well!

If you are interested, please contact Snowbow - tel: 01273 585 391 or 01273 584 470.  See their website:  www.snowbow.co.uk

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World War I - Merchant Navy Day Commemorative Service brochure

In this year's brochure, it is intended to mark the 90th anniversary of the end of World War I with some interesting Merchant Navy articles.  If you have a story or article that you wish to be included in the brochure, please send to John Sail or me.

Thanks,

Tim

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For those at peril on the sea

By David Osler (Lloyds List)

Monday 4 February 2008

ONE of the few occasions this humble little industry of ours makes it into the mainstream media - in Britain , anyway - is when there are casualties in UK waters. And in January and February each year, there always are casualties in UK waters.

This year has been no exception, with the Ice Prince incident generating an instant improvised lumberyard on Worthing beach, Riverdance adding to the out-of-season attractions of Lancashire âs premier proletarian seaside resort, and Horncliff losing 60 boxes somewhere southwest of the Isles of Scilly.

It was in January 2007, of course, that MSC Napoli hogged shippingâs exiguous ration of airtime, following a deliberate beaching in Devon

Unless humanity comes up with some way of controlling the weather, it will be ever thus in winter.

Nevertheless, casualties always equate to bad PR; no wonder the general public often has a poor image of shipping, when all it ever sees on telly are the inevitable instances of things going pear-shaped.

All we can do is thank our lucky stars that there have been no serious oil spills in Britain since the mid-1990s; look across the Channel to see what that can do for shippingâs street cred.

Then again, there is another way of looking at all this. These seafarers who go out to sea in atrocious conditions, to make sure that the public gets it supplies of everything from consumer durables to oil are heroes. Indeed, sometimes they pay the ultimate price.

It would be nice, wouldnât it, if that was the aspect of shipping casualties that broadcasters concentrated on. Perhaps we should do our best to remind them of this salient fact next time a boxship goes belly up.

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Information on ANZAC Eve (24 April) in South Australia .

More schools and families from across Adelaide and as far away as Leigh Creek are expected to participate in a poignant and moving event on the Port River on ANZAC Eve

2008.

Thanks to a $3000 grant from Port Adelaide Enfield Council to the Merchant Navy Association South Australia, the Gallipoli tribute ANZAC Light on the Water will be staged at the Queens Wharf pontoons on the night of April 24.

The success of ANZAC Light on the Water last year has led to it becoming an annual ANZAC event.

Additional funding is being sought from the State Government to enable more South Australian schools to take part.

With special emphasis on the merchant seamen who rowed the troops ashore for the 1915 Gallipoli landing, the event involves school students and families in making paper and cardboard lifeboats.

The paper and cardboard lifeboats containing lit candles are launched on the Port River as a symbolic tribute to all who have served in wars down the ages.

More than 500 paper and cardboard lifeboats were launched from the Queens Wharf pontoons by Surf Lifesavers, who manned the pontoons in the inaugural event, and many of them had the names of those who had served at Gallipoli on the sides of them.

Most of the lifeboats were made by students at Peninsular schools, but one of the main contributions was from Pinnaroo Primary School students.

The Port River was one of the main departure ports for merchant navy troopships during World Wars I and II.

Families whose loved ones were lost at Gallipoli brought family albums and other mementos to the first ANZAC Light on the Water to share with other families.

Information kits will shortly be provided for distribution to South Australian schools and they will contain instructions, templates for making cardboard lifeboats and supplies of tea light candles.

Also involved in promoting the ANZAC Eve event with the The Merchant Navy Association are Semaphore Port Adelaide RSL, the Vindicatrix Association SA, Port Adelaide Enfield Council, Education Department, Port Adelaide Visitor Information Centre, Port Adelaide Sailing Club, Maritime Museum, Port Centre Co-ordination Group, Land Management Council and Navy South Australia.

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Hitler's 'lost fleet' found off Turkey

Adolf Hitler's U-boats dominated the seas during World War II, earning notoriety by sinking hundreds of Allied ships.  Now, 60 years on, the Nazi dictator's 'lost fleet'âthe resting place of three German submarines â has been found in the Black Sea off the coast of Turkey .

The hulls of the submarines â U19, U20 and U23 â were discovered by a team of researchers who established the boats' positions through research in German archives and by sonar studies of seabed, The Sunday Telegraph reported. "It's one of the least well known stories of the war but one of the most interesting. It is a quite incredible story. To get to the Black Sea these boats had to be taken across the land, and once they got there they had no way out,â said Turkish marine engineer Seluk Kolay, who led the team.

The submarines were carried 2,000 miles over land to attack Russian ships during World War II, but scuttled as the war came to a close.

The vessels formed part of the 30th Flotilla of six U-boats, taken by road and river across Nazi-occupied Europe, from Germany 's Baltic port at Kiel to Constanta , the Romanian Black Sea port. In two years, the fleet sank dozens of ships and lost three of their number to enemy action. But in August 1944, Romania switched sides and declared war on Germany , leaving the three remaining submarines stranded.

With no base and unable to sail home â the Bosporus and Dardanelles were closed to them due to Turkish neutrality â their captains were ordered to abandon the U-boats before rowing ashore and trying to make their way back. However, all the German crews were caught by the Turks. Source : Times of India