The 'fill it up to the roof' and then sit down and read the paper brigade. :wave:

You are quick on the uptake YM, I think you have the makings of a good Stoker. As well as reading the sports pages you have the time for a leisurely Jimmy or Tom.
Don't be a Luddite all your life, put your trust in Messers Bailey, Hagen, Foxboro-Yoxall, Verolme Elektra or Decca Isis; they won't let you down.

Thank you ES.
I continue to work on my technique to blow smoke rings from the funnel but the main property of the cheap Indian coal that we have is not to make steam or smoke rings - just green smoke and little steam.
You, not being a Luddite, would know this; would it help to mix some uranium with the coal do you think?
Is it worse to be a Luddite or a dinosaur? Think that I might be both!

You have to get used to that shovel. Its made in H&W secret workshop and is fitted with a Sturmey Archer 3 speed device.

If it's anything like my pushie I seem to be using ever lower gears these days. :jester:

TmaxBritish Steel tells me it is definitely a Belfast spade and the Sturmey Archer is like the Bridge Telegraph: Dead Slow, Slow and Half. He was quite vague about Ahead or Astern but I'm sure YM will master it soonest. Liaise with him.

YM's rule for those who ride pushies (Sturmey Archer or not)!

Either look where you are going or go where you are looking.
I was doing neither along the path at Port Melbourne Beach one summer many years ago and broke two ribs. It must have been spectacular to watch.
All in the name of getting ship photos for you lot of course.

Great Watt! Even in stoking there must be guidance from the 'lectric. I have the instructions and there will soon be a repro Kilroy Stoking Indicator for your guidance (sorry, I forgot guidance is for wise men. I meant obedience).

Apart from installing the thing will you be moving in down here to maintain it? Can I therefore assume that you will be able to give me a spell sometime? Don't forget that this is a NO SMOKING area however.

ES has previously pointed out my aversion to modern, unnecessary, electrickery things and the complications that come with them. Many such are merely solutions in search of a problem. Nevertheless, should installation ever be completed I have a sweaty ready in hand to stuff into the gong thingy immediately.

I have already disconnected the H&W designed and built Sturmey Archer gearing from my finely balanced, highly polished shovel with the best Australian hardwood handle engraved SS Mundrabilla. It works much better now.

And of course nothing to do with the Bikini girls an the beach.

BB,
There were only 11 of them in that particular area at the time. ..............

YM, a quiet word in your shell like............

Captain BB, The Hon Tmax, The Earl of Varley, Malcolm G of that Ilk and the Maharaja of Serang stiffen when referred too as "You Lot". We accept the easy familiarity of our Australian Cousins but you must be aware of the invisible line you must not cross. A "Double DR" awaits you if this behaviour continues. You may not be invited to Henley Regatta or Cowes Week and your social diary will be as arid as Ayres Rock.

Better to have crossed the line than the bar, I suppose.

ES I am rather partial to the desert - bit like Brer Rabbit and the Briar Patch I suppose but I gratefully accept your wise counsel and I will be more respectful in future. Perhaps the potential for promotion mentioned a while ago carried me away.

The phrase used in these circumstances in my own industry was:

'Fined 10/-. Cautioned and warned that any repetition may be recorded on your Record of Service'.

As to Ayers Rock it can get stuffed as we are not allowed to climb it anymore.

Is that funnel soot covering their whites? :cloud: 'Oh dear, how sad, too bad, never mind'.

The appropriate signature line goes like this I believe:

'Your humble and obedient servant' .... :wave::jester::jester:

A quiet word generally does the trick, Captain BB, The Hon Tmax, The Earl of Varley and Malcolm G of that Ilk can be terribly stuffy and I applaud you for bursting their pomposity, Cheers YM you're a Ripper.

Pompous? Who? Harumph!

:applause::jester:

Well I've heard it all now, YM shovelling HFO and blowing smoke rings up my funnel.

ES what the hell are you doing? you have let the underling injuneers run amok down in the pit. As for bursting my pomposity, have you ever met a stuffy H&W wallah?.... I fear you need to be chastised with the liberal application of my flogging spanner in your nether regions. :huh:

stewards are quiet and smiling, my deck technicians (cut outs) are on the ball, the Engineering staff are.....well....they are engineering staff of the highest quality and labouring away below doing that wat engineers do. my electrical officer is in the shack as can be seen by the cloud of cigar smoke comming out of the port hole. Captain, first and second mate, bosun, chippy, commodore and the cook are still missing so vacancies must be filled and soon.
we have to vacate this berth tomorrow morning so where to go next is the question.

He's the Ripper? I have been receiving all sorts of telegrams about an Ethel Neave. Are you sure he isn't of Family Crippen?

(I can do a bit of cooking myself, beef Nelson being a speciality, but a third string to my bow might be seen as a boast - anyway I am short of ingredients. Fortnum's has stopped delivering to the Island as their 'delivery partner' is struggling with Brexit - I do hope they haven't confused us with enemy occupied Hibernia. I am to to a barbeque 'up north' on Sunday, I will have to harvest some local garden detritus to sprinkle on my raw-inside offal tube sandwiches).

'... Well I've heard it all now, YM shovelling HFO and blowing smoke rings up my funnel. ... '

I thought that sweeping up had become somewhat more difficult recently.

• When did we convert to oil?
• Why wasn't I told?
• Nobody tells me anything.

As the YMs :flowers: frequently tells me:
'I'm not a mind reader you know!'

Ah poor old Ethel, she moved to Canada, a fate worse than hanging, and married a Mr YM Toronto.

She will have known the Lone Ranger quite well, then.

I knew the IOM had a Kemosahbee somewhere, probably in the plains of Sulby. And I was right.

I don't know about that Korean(?) delicacy but we do have a Japanese restaurant, in Castletown. I think fermented cabbage would be a bit too rich for the Sulby Glen Hotel although they do a good carvery of a Sunday.

Captains Log, Hangoverdate Tuesday 29,; Day Dawns Bright and Clear. Only me and Herr Anschutz showing a leg. Frau Anschutz advised Not to do so as strong passions are rippling just below the circus, Woops the surface.