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Sharpness.

FOLLOWING an appeal in the Advertiser asking for people's memories of life on the Vindicatrix training ship in Sharpness, a Redditch man has shared his recollections of life serving in the merchant navy.

Michael Docker, 72, of Church Hill, was working in the New Victoria Hotel in Birmingham as a page when someone suggested he join the Merchant Navy, with a view to becoming a purser.

In 1952, he headed off for eight weeks training on the Vindicatrix, which was a former sailing ship moored in the Old Arm at Sharpness from 1939 to 1966, to provide a base for training boys as deck hands and stewards for the merchant navy.

During his time serving on ships, Mr Docker sailed all over the world, and one of his first voyages was around the Mediterranean.

He said: "When people think about having a job sailing around the Mediterranean they probably presume this was a wonderful experience but my time on the ships was far from glamorous.

"It was very hard work, most of the work revolved around looking after the crew, and there was a hell of a lot of scrubbing to be done.

"We were very young and we did what we were told to do, when we were told to do it, without question."

While with the merchant navy, Mr Docker served on many ships, and his job took him around the fjords of Norway, as well as the West Indies and India.

Michael Docker's identity papers.

But it was when he was on a ship sailing back through the Suez Canal that something happened which was to decide Mr Docker's future.

"We were one of the last vessels to sail through the Suez Canal before the crisis started and I became very ill.

"When we docked I ended up being taken to hospital in London where I spent about three weeks. I never really knew what it was but it was some sort of bug I had picked up.

"My then girlfriend told him I should not return to the merchant navy, so I decided to return to dry land for good, and returned to work at the New Victoria Hotel."

The T.S Vindicatrix Assoc-iation is seeking people who did their training on the ship to join them for a reunion.

For more details, call Bryan Williams on 02392 583896.

11:52am Wednesday 7th May 2008

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