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[David Fox]

Previous comment removed in the name of political correctness.

Fraser did you receive my email re: Tacoma Star ? I have a photo of a model (that Tony made) of it now and was with Tony today. He is ex Union Cold Storage drawing office when they were designing fridge plants for Smithfield before he joined BSL as a cadet in '44'ish. He sailed on it when it was the Empire Talsiman also from new.

[Fraser Darrah]

Looks like the Hexham Olympic Torch Bearer should keep off the pies and Newcastle Brown Ale.
If our athletes look like that heaven help us. Perhaps she is part of the team "Eating for Britain"

That is rather unkind. Many of the torch bearers chosen are disabled in some way or other or have other health problems and have been chosen for their bravery.
They certainly couldn't do any worse that the overpaid no hopers that try to play football for England!

[Kevin Norman]

Lighten up Fraser , did you really expect no one on a merchant navy website to comment like this , I am only surprised there were not more in the same vein

[Redtaff]

I'm with Fraser on this one - there have a lot of very special people running /walking/sitting and even crawling with the torch. Pity they had to spoil it with popstars etc for commercial reasons. It was the only part of the Olympics I'm likely to see live.
John Cullen

[Jim Blake]

C'mon gentlemen, see the whole panorama....As Fraser says there are many brave, deserving people who feel honoured by the opportunity to carry the torch, but there are also a lot of bums and stiffs and hangers-on who would be no-where near the torch if the Olympics still represented the pinnacle of sporting achievement...sadly that is no longer the case. Go to Fraser's blog and look at the huge trucks, from the so-called "Sponsor" companies, that view this whole thing as a business opportunity. The Olympics has little to do with sporting excellence and everything to do with making us, the consumers, pay for free advertising for the likes of Visa and Coca-Cola. Would they be sponsoring the Games, with the high cost involved, if there was not a net gain for them? I don't think so! For example, if they were doing this out of the goodness of their corporate hearts, would McDonalds require that the organisers shut down local restraunts for the duration, so ruining true local business, removing purchasing choices from games watchers, but allowing them to sell more of their wares?

And look what they have done to East London....business unrelated to the games takes me to the Royal Docks frequently, and all I see recently when I go there is cheap tarting-up of an area that can barely support itself. This tarting-up includes putting companies out of business by demanding that, small though they may be, and though they are the sole form of income for LOCAL folk, they must get out and let the juggernaut that is the Olympics steamroller through, using the land they have occupied for years to erect structures like the ArcelorMittal "Orbit" (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/8855623/London-2012-Olympics-UKs-tallest-sculpture-completed-on-Olympic-Park.html#. I've seen less tragic sights beached on the ship-breaking coasts in India!

My concern is: "At what human cost?" Who will support all those east Londoners who have no jobs to go to because their factory has been absorbed into arena that have no clear use nor reason to exist after the next couple of months. What happens to the apprentices whose companies can no longer offer them training and a job? What use will the stadia (run up quickly and cheaply with no long-term plan) be this time next year? Go to Lillehammer, site of the winter Olympics a few years ago if you want to know what will happen: excellent local facilties sitting there doing nothing for much of the time...and in Lillehammer's case, at least it can offer snow for some of the year; who will go to East London?

The involvement of the little people, as Fraser says, is decent and honorable, but the overall purpose of the games now is to make a few people very rich (richer?) on the backs of the rest of us poor saps that have to pay for something that has completely lost its original purpose and ethos

[Kevin Norman]

I think that the ACT 3,4,5 & 6 were all converted in Japan at the same time , I was on the ACT 5 and the engines were Sulzer 7 RTA68 11430 kw,
I don't remember the engine builder.

[Fraser Darrah]

I fully agree with Jim Blakes cynicism with regards to the Olympics. I was completely against London bidding in the first place. It was done uder the auspices of an already overspent government, who wanted international glory, without having to worry about the consequences. After all they wouldn't be in power when it happened. The whole IOC is a self-electing body who think and do run roughshod over the host countries. Like FIFA they place impossible demands on the host, without incurring little or no costs to themselves.
As for the Olympics, as Jim says, it is no longer a test of excellance, but a commercial band wagon that seems to roll over all in front of it. I actually found the Olympic Torch Relay rather sickening. In what are supposed to be straighten times, why should the ratepayer have to fork out probably £10,000's so that a circus can sweep into town for approximately 9 minutes. With roads blocked off, miles of barriers, and countless police cars, motorcyle police outriders, policemen etc. taken off normal duties. Probably paid overtime and bonuses as well. As you say most of the relay seem to consist of sponsors, who can hardly be said to be connected to sport or health using it as a advertising opportunity. Namely Coca-Cola, Samsung, Lloyds TSB and Visa. The latter have got total monopoly on Olympic payments, such that only Visa (system) cards are accepted other than cheques. BMW who are also sponsers, obtain subliminal advertising by providing all the cars and motorcyles. After they had all left, it left a rather bad taste in your mouth and the local retailers out of pocket.
As for the games (for all), it is only the wealthy that can attend, as quite apart from the cost of tickets (if lucky enough to get any), the cost of transport and accommodation in or near London is beyond most peoples pockets.
I seem to remember that part of the demise of the Roman Empire was the huge costs of putting on the shows to keep the public entertained and distracted from the hardships of life. The Olympics and football is rapidly reaching the same level of expenditure when the money should be spent on more important things, or not at all.

A quick guide to Olympic budgets: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-18585209

[Jimbo]

Fraser, perhaps you and Jim could get together and write a summer version of Dickens's "A Christmas Carol" and call it "Last of the Summer Whinge"?..............Bah Humbug. Hahahahaha. Jim C

[Jim Blake]

Hey Jimbo, you have just proven the absolute benefit that those hours spent in "General Studies" at South Shields Marine and Tech.

How else would you have known about "A Christmas Carol"....it wasn't ever the subject of conversation in the "Westoe", or for that matter, the "Chelsea Cat"


Laugh? I nearly bought a round!!

Jim Blake

[Fraser Darrah]

Hey Jimbo, you have just proven the absolute benefit that those hours spent in "General Studies" at South Shields Marine and Tech.

How else would you have known about "A Christmas Carol"....it wasn't ever the subject of conversation in the "Westoe", or for that matter, the "Chelsea Cat"
Laugh? I nearly bought a round!!
Jim Blake

Wish I had never mentioned the bloody Olympics. Maybe I should have kept to a non-controversial subject like Rangers Football Club!!
As it was, I under-estimated the cost of the Olympic Torch Relay. It was in the local paper today that it cost £300,000 to tart up the route through Northumberland, just in case the TV cameras caught a pothole, worn white line or an out of line road sign.
After last nights down-pour they will have plenty more to spend the ratepayers money on! ~ Fraser