Gary served in the deck crew on three of the company’s vessels.

He is one of the very few people to have photographed much of his experiences and these can be found on the pages for:

Scottish Lion (2)

Edinburgh Universal

Scottish Eagle (2) at The Falklands

My fondest memory from my time at sea was of Ronnie Hanson (Bosun), he tasked me (an 18yr old edh) and one of the AB's (Ken Grindrod) with replacing all the wires on both the lifeboats. Tricing pendants, falls, etc etc. hard eye splices, the lot, served and everything. (I got my best marks at Gravesend for my wirework, loved it)

What I didn't know was that he had told Ken (who later told me) to stay with me while i did the first couple of splices to see if I was any good then if he thought I could handle it to leave me to it, which he did.

I never forgot that kindness, from either of them. there are probably 3 blokes I sailed with that had that kind of effect on me, people I remember for all the right reasons, Ronnie, Ken and the lad who made me a cake for my 18th on the Edinburgh Universal, Grant Tornberg, from Hull (he is still at sea, lives out in canada, chief cook on a boat serving the Great Lakes)

I sailed with Ken on the Edinburgh Universal as well, I can’t be the only lad who found him influential when we were trying to learn our trade.

People like him are what made the job easy, bloody good at his job and not afraid to pass on his knowledge to the youngsters.

With Stan Bradley aboard Scottish Eagle (2)

More recently in 2007