Newsletter Late June 2020

Snowbow/Maritime Memories Newsletter Happy Days Are Here Again

Oh how I wish those Happy Days were back again, but when looking back at the wonderful old shipping posters on the main part of this newsletter, nothing in today’s world could ever hope to equal the happiness we knew back then… Oh to suddenly find that we have somehow managed to  travel back in time, and are on our way down to the docks to join a great ship like the ones in those posters, a magnificent ship that would take us on a truly exciting voyage, just as in that famous old song; to faraway places with strange sounding names… Oh well, at least most of us experienced those magical days; days that we will never forget, but at least we still have each other and our Snowbow newsletters to hopefully bring us some joy and we now have a wonderful ocean liner that will allow us to experience again, just what it was like to go to sea, during the Golden Age of Ocean Travel… Hooray!  But more about that in a few moments.
So many of you have been ordering DVDs from our Award Winning video series, The Great Liners, and here’s some great news… We still have so much rare film to work on and restore, so you will be able to continue enjoying those amazing maritime scenes from the past, that’s of course as long as we’re able to fund the work, which without help from UK Heritage interest organisations (I don’t know why either!) makes it extremely difficult for just Ulla and I to do it all, but it is important work and if we don’t do it, then no one else will and then all this wonderful old film will be lost forever… But, what makes it all worthwhile is knowing the happiness these DVDs bring to so many people all over the world, and also, in doing this we are also ensuring that the history of our once great maritime past will never be forgotten.
Coming up in the not too distant future are some unbelievable old films including; a pre-war cruise aboard the Carron Lines ship the Forth, sailing from St Katherine’s in London to the Firth of Forth in the 1930s, so if you really want to experience a sea voyage slightly different to say one aboard the gigantic, all bells, whistles, entertainment, lights and sounds of today, then make sure you watch this DVD when it comes out, and see how they enjoyed themselves back in those pre-war days.
What else, well hopefully we can follow a family emigrating to Australia in the mid-1960s, travelling down from their little house up north, before arriving at the great port of Southampton, crammed full of great ships including Sahw Savill’s magnificent Northern Star for the then so exciting voyage through the wonders of the world all the way to their final destination, Freemantle.   If I’m not mistaken, when stopping at the Canary Islands we actually see the QE2 there whilst on her maiden voyage… another rarity.
In Freemantle we pause to look at more rare film sent to us by another of our treasured followers, showing so many ships arriving and sailing, as well as some great footage of old buses and steam trains, which I know many of you enjoy as well and, one of our American followers, who served his time at sea with  President Lines, actually filmed almost every voyage he did and what’s more, did so on a wonderful 16mm camera, and even more, what’s more, he has sent all his film to us, which is many boxes, all of which we are working to restore, so at long last we can show you just what it was like to have sailed aboard those great President Line ships.
All this wonderful film is, along with all the other rare footage we are currently working to restore, creates an almost never ending task but we must, whatever happens, make sure we do this work and do it well.  Other rare film we’re working on, all of which has never been made public before includes footage of oil tankers, coasters, tugs, famous transatlantic liners, ordinary passenger liners, cargo liners,  traditional cargo ships and even convoys including a big one returning from the Far East at the end of WW2, and you should see all the famous ocean liners in that convoy.  What else? Oh, and just to show that us ship lovers also appreciate the ships of the Royal Navy, we have found amazing coloured film shot aboard a British Aircraft Carrier in the Pacific during WW2, with spitfires taking off and landing on her decks… plus going through the Panama Canal on her.
Thank goodness we do have so much film to restore because there will come a day when we will have come to an end, but for now we can all look forward to seeing lots more amazing maritime footage and all we’ve got to do is to make sure we live long enough to do the work, and you lot, you will have to make sure that you all live long enough to watch them… Mind you, we are gathering more and more young people who are developing a very keen interest in the ships of yesteryear and at the same time, in the lives that all us ex-seafarers lived when we were part of the biggest Merchant Navy in the world. As one young person said to me the other day…”You really looked as though you were enjoying life back then, and you all had so much freedom!
Just an important word or two about our up and coming cruises we have so carefully chosen for you to enjoy; we’ve discovered that as Coronavirus seems to be coming to an end, people are now hurrying to book their cruises and it looks as though there is a bit of a rush on, especially for the ones we have selected to do, with the Med ones booking heavily, so if you want to come with us and have fun after all the rubbish we’ve had to put up with of late, then do book early, for there is nothing worse than calling us one day to say that you wanted to go but when you tried to book you were told that all accommodation was sold out!  Then there’s our October cruise, which is only a nine nighter, but that’s long enough for us to visit some great places and for us all to meet up and have a ball.
Latest on that record I released… In the last newsletter I told you that it had topped the European Top 100 Charts, which is no mean feat and had me swallowing tranquilisers by the bucket full, to try to keep me calm, but now… guess what… I went and topped the World’s Top 100 Indi Charts as well, which is even more amazing, and the very latest, hot off the press update came in a call from America last night, to tell me that I am also in the top five of every other chart, mind you, they didn’t quite say what charts, so knowing  my luck perhaps instead of hit record charts, what they were referring to was the World’s Most Wanted Man charts!         
Thank you all for being you and all the pleasure you bring to us that really helps to make our lives that much more enjoyable and in return, we hope that we have been able to bring a few smiles, wonderful memories, and fun into your lives as well.


Best wishes,


Des and Ulla.

Newsletter June 2020

Snowbow/Maritime Memories Newsletter

Now it has been a very busy time here at Snowbow/Maritime Memories, with so many things happening, so, here is a brief summary before we get on to the main purpose of this newsletter, which is to show you an article I wrote for Sea Breezes, but just before we get to this let me tell you about the illustrations above…. Now the artwok for these record sleeves capture me in caricature form by that great Swedish artist, Ulf Sandberg, and the reason for this is, well, apart from me prefering to look at myself as a cartoon rather than as I am in reality, is because so many of you asked if I would record some of the comedy and songs I do on stage when we’re on our special Maritime Memory Cruises… You know, when I have one of my turns and I don’t mean one of those ‘call the doctor’ turns, but turns when I clamber up on stage and try my best to entertain you….
 
As someone wrote to us to say the other day… Comedy in today’s world, especially on our TVs is totally without humour, and how we loved coming to your shows on the ship and leaving with tears of laughter streaming down our happy faces… Yes, it’s true that most comedy is without humour, whereas I’m told that what I do is funny, well except when people start chucking rotten veg and shooting bullets at the stage!  But at least I never swear and in truth, people do laugh and that’s what it’s all about, so I’ve been and recorded a double album based on those live stage performances and as with those performances, everything I have done has been ad libbed, and the end result is two hours of stand up jokes, impersonations and lots of original songs varying from  rock ‘n’ roll to country rock, ballads, folk  psychedelia… Yes, I’m serious, which is probably because of the strange effect some of you more wayward ones have on me when you’re sitting down the front puffing away on that wacky baccy stuff… Makes me go all peculiar it does
 
Oh, and there are lots of funny songs as well, and here’s the reason for the lovely artwork, I’ve actually released one of the tracks  as a single… I just couldn’t cope with trying to deal with a modern day Record Company, full of red tape, political correctness, and everything, so I just went ahead and released it myself.  Then after a couple of days I forgot all about it until the other day when I got the shock of my life, because… suddenly from out of nowhere it was being played all over the world and had…wait for it…wait for it… had made it into several global top charts and… and even made it to Number One in the European Top 100 Indi Charts! 
 
Isn’t that amazing, so if you go to our website and our new Music Page, you will be able to hear the record and see the promo film as well, and then, if you really, really like it then you might just put on a balaclava and go out in your back gardens in the middle of the night and, when you’re sure no one’s looking, you could dig up that old safe of yours and take a few bob so you can buy a copy!
 
And now back to Sea Breezes and the article wat I writ for them, which is all about Maritime Memories and gives away all your personal secrets, secrets that you thought you could trust us with, and ones that you never imagined would ever  become public!  

No don’t end it all, I’m only joking, but it was written in response to emails and phone calls from all over the world, asking so many questions about ships and the sea, and especially of the golden age of shipping and in particular, asking if I could I tell them what the main differences were between going away to sea back then and going away to sea as it is today.
 
Now I know that if we had this conversation when onboard one of our Maritime Memory cruises we’d still be discussing it a month later, but here now is that article in which I do my best to give a brief and hopefully clear understanding of just how huge those differences were and are.  Oh and by the way, something I believe to be very pleasing is the fact that most of the people asking these questions and especially this one are young teenagers!  Isn’t that good to know.
 
I hope you enjoy the article below, which will appear in Sea Breezes in all its glory soon, so get a copy for yourselves and if you want me to sign it then of course I will, but if you don’t like the article and want me to +”*%@¬*=O then I might decline the request!