Dunn Travellin'

Everybody has their own story to tell. It is just a great loss to humanity when a life story goes untold and all that experience and hard learned wisdom is lost. I do have the honour of meeting people who have seen and contributed to the social and economic history of the planet and also the luxury, sometimes, of being able to pause and listen to tales that are fascinating. Take Mr Dunn today. We did not get off on the best terms as I parked on his driveway and he came out to greet me. I was quite rude and ignorant in continuing with a telephone conversation and gave hand signals to the effect that I would be with him in a minute. His hand signal and body language did not bode well for our appointment. I can't recall what prompted him to tell his life story but what a story it was. In 1953 at the age of 17 he was a deckie-learner on fishing trawlers out of Hull but soon enlisted in the Merchant Navy and crewed all manner of ocean going vessels under the Red Duster and the Ellerman Wilson Line Flag also from his home City. Steel tube to the Eastern Seabord of the United States, Hard packed bales of wool from South America, Coal from Poland, huge tins of corned beef from Buenos Aries. Favourite ports included New York ,although on berthing there was the usual visit from the UnAmerican Activities Committee quizzing the crew on political affilliations and standpoints on Communism , Baltimore for revealing conversations with black dock workers at the height of the racial tensions and Hamburg where Hull crew and German Dockers could easily understand each other without reverting from their mother tongues,  In a quest to stock up on souvenirs from his travels he was offered, in Indonesia, a shrunken head which he thought was monkey but was definitely of human origin. Sooner or later there was bound to be an encounter with a Steward later to become Deputy Prime Minister but temperance and libel prevents me from recounting further adventures . On a period of convalescence for an injury on board ship there was a brief period of employment handing up rivets at Dunstons Shipyard on Hessle Haven. A more significant change in career was that as an Opal Miner in Australia involving a strange subterranean existence but with a constant temperature out of the debilitating daily heat of the surface. Between long voyages there were opportunities to be a tourist and activities included diving for cannonballs just off the Crusader Fortress at Famagusta, Cyprus and climbing Ayres Rock with the certifcate of acheivement still on display at his home. The afternoon spent with Mr Dunn flew past and we parted on good terms as though we had been best pals for years.