Go on then, Crawshawbooth, talk away.

[MickyD]

@crawshawbooth. In another topic, you wrote

“I’ll tell you about Captain Michael Tennant Gordon.” 
 

Some folk on here know that our very early years were spent as next-door neighbours up to us being about 6 or 7 I guess. Our paths crossed in our teenage years when we shared mutual friends at around the time we left secondary school. Since then, apart from recently on here, we haven’t really communicated. I met your brother, embankment at Bury and our paths have crossed at various home and away games.

This topic is for in a pub somewhere though, preferably an away game. What I would like to do is tell me about Capt. M.T. Gordon. I knew he was a seafarer because I remember he was rarely home. Long stretches at sea, I imagine, mean you didn’t see much of him either. 
 

Go on, tell us about your dad.

[Mounts Kipper]

Be interesting to hear about Captain Gordon, saw on Twitter on embankments feed that his dad passed away a few days ago RIP.

I remember  Embankment second season of div 1 in 1980 chasing Liverpool fans in the embankment corner nearest Burnden paddock I was on the fence in paddock. 

Edited December 28, 2020 by Mounts Kipper

[crawshawbooth]

8 hours ago, MickyD said:

@crawshawbooth. In another topic, you wrote

“I’ll tell you about Captain Michael Tennant Gordon.” 
 

Some folk on here know that our very early years were spent as next-door neighbours up to us being about 6 or 7 I guess. Our paths crossed in our teenage years when we shared mutual friends at around the time we left secondary school. Since then, apart from recently on here, we haven’t really communicated. I met your brother, embankment at Bury and our paths have crossed at various home and away games.

This topic is for in a pub somewhere though, preferably an away game. What I would like to do is tell me about Capt. M.T. Gordon. I knew he was a seafarer because I remember he was rarely home. Long stretches at sea, I imagine, mean you didn’t see much of him either. 
 

Go on, tell us about your dad.

Thanks for that mick

yep living next door to you as ankle biters was always fun along with Paul and John over the road ,growing up with my dad was experience for me and any friends we had. When you first knew us he could go away for 18 months at a time ,in those days a company would not fly you home you just stayed on ship until you came back to the UK.

My dad grew up on the Isle of Arran and when he was eleven he had to go to school on the mainland .So on a Monday morning he would catch the first ferry to Ardrossan and stay on the mainland all week before catching the ferry back Friday afternoon.I guess it is what steered him into a life at sea. He left school at 15 and signed up with British Petroleum ,he worked for them until he retired aged 67. By then he had been a ships captain for more than 30 years.

He sailed all over the world from Alaska to New Zealand , spent years working around the Persian gulf running through the difficult years of the Suez crisis .Breaking the oil embargoes into South Africa , by the mid seventies company contracts improved and he got  a month leave for his 6 months work and home life became easier for my mother.

As a child i never saw anyone that had a dad like mine, get up, put a sharp suit on and then gone for 5/6 months working all over the world.Before the Falklands he did a lot of work with the Royal Navy to figure out the way to refuel naval ships from commercial tankers. BP produced a calendar

with photos of 2 huge ships sailing parallel transferring bunkers.

In the 1980s the Ayatolla returned from French exile and the Iran Iraq war kicked off , my dad was working for the Iranians under a BP flag. Iran paid to build the tankers , UK lads worked on them training Iranians ,they regularly had to get out of ports under gun fire , nobody wants to be on a 250,000 ton tanker when people start shooting. He was home on leave about 1982 , phone ringing then MOD at our house the Iranians had abandoned both ships and they were loose full of oil in the Persian gulf. He flew out that night with Navy personnel and a team of other senior BP crew and regained control.

Whenever he came home in those days within 24 hours MOD would be at the door . When Ghadaffi was being a pain my old man was in Tripoli harbour taking depth readings all over it.Eventually my parents moved away from Bolton to Devon where he retired to play golf and for more than ten years race yachts.

He joined a yacht club in Dawlish , no one in it had ever sailed across the English channel , from then on he would take them over to the Channel islands every summer and into the french canal system

when  i left school i worked on the tankers too for a while and it gave me a tiny insight into the  life he had, one with only 3 christmas days before i was 20 , never there for birthdays , anniversaries or funerals.

He did not get to attend either of his parents

When i worked in his industry i met so many people that spoke so highly of him to me ,but we brought them up from Devon this year and covid locked them in a care home.

Captain Michael Tennant Gordon ,RIP an extraordinary life lived to the full with a smile on his face and always an eye for the ladies

Edited December 28, 2020 by crawshawbooth
spelt wrongly

[Casino]

Cheers for that

Interesting stuff

Good that you got him back local and were able to be with him at the end

[Spider]

Wow

Just wow

Thats amazing

👏👏👏👏👏👏

[crawshawbooth]

4 minutes ago, Casino said:

Cheers for that

Interesting stuff

Good that you got him back local and were able to be with him at the end

i was with him as he took his last

[Leyther_Matt]

Fascinating read and a life well lived 👏  

[crawshawbooth]

4 minutes ago, Spider said:

Wow

Just wow

Thats amazing

👏👏👏👏👏👏

thanks , i just know that 90% on here would have loved an afternoon in the pub with him

[Casino]

1 minute ago, crawshawbooth said:

i was with him as he took his last

Yeah, i was chatting to your bro when you were in the midst of finding somewhere

Goid that you were successful

[victor meldrew]

what a story, sounds like a fantastic man.

RIP

[Escobarp]

2 minutes ago, crawshawbooth said:

thanks , i just know that 90% on here would have loved an afternoon in the pub with him

Sounds like an amazing bloke who would have had so many tales to tell. What a life he led 

[FrancisFogarty]

Very good read that. I find maritime stuff really interesting.

I was rejected for the RN at 16 due to my eyes. I always wondered what would have become of me if I'd been accepted. 

When I'm not on here I'm usually looking at the Duluth Canal Webcam watching the bulk carriers coming and going.

 

[jules_darby]

Very interesting read and very sorry for your and @bolty58’s loss

 

[Spider]

2 minutes ago, Francis Fogarty said:

Very good read that. I find maritime stuff really interesting.

I was rejected for the RN at 16 due to my eyes. I always wondered what would have become of me if I'd been accepted. 

When I'm not on here I'm usually looking at the Duluth Canal Webcam watching the bulk carriers coming and going.

 

Oops

 

Edited December 28, 2020 by Spider

[Boby Brno]

13 minutes ago, crawshawbooth said:

i was with him as he took his last

Same here with my Dad. I was also there when my youngest was born. 
Really puts everything in to perspective when you have seen life at its beginning and it’s end. 
Great story about your Dad.👍

[Burndens Bogs]

Sounds like a remarkable man, i enjoyed reading that. He certainly didn’t waste his life that’s for sure.

[Guest]

What’s the story about his middle name?

[Rudy]

That truly is Amazing. I bet he had some great tales 

[MancWanderer]

Love reading stuff like that. Just brilliant 

[jeep]

Lovely stuff. I bet Captain Gordon could tell some tales. 👍

[crawshawbooth]

4 minutes ago, boltondiver said:

What’s the story about his middle name?

His grandfather married twice , not the done thing pre war

they were Tennant Gordon, but my dad dropped it from our name 

i have kept up the connection by drinking extra tramp juice most of my adult life

just used to drink ordinary Tennants as a child

[Escobarp]

Tis the drink of champions tennents. Not a better tasting beverage out there 

[crawshawbooth]

2 minutes ago, Escobarp said:

Tis the drink of champions tennents. Not a better tasting beverage out there 

always loved it but harder and harder to find down her

making do with OJ black cans tonight

[Leyther_Matt]

10 minutes ago, crawshawbooth said:

always loved it but harder and harder to find down her

making do with OJ black cans tonight

B&M Bargains have cans of it. Only ever seen it on draught in Blackpool and, for some reason, a couple of pubs in Preston.  

[athywhite1958]

I enjoyed reading that, thanks for sharing it