Lost Anchor

What yarn is in an object?

Where as it come from?

Why was it made?

It sits on the shelf, almost forgotten.

A wooden plinth  of many steps

Topped by a carved wooden anchor

The brass chain hanging loose.

Aplaque proclaims

“ Lost anchor 1967”. 

What is the tale behind this?

What memories does it bring forth?

To most people just a thing.

To me a day when the anchor fell

The chain came loose

And the ship ploughed on.

They laughed the engineers 

And made this memorial to that day.

In Helsinki we had to moor at the Ford berth. It was difficult to approach. The method used was to approach the berth and drop the port anchor using this to help the ship move sideways. and prevent the bow overshooting the berth area.

That day we approached the berth in exactly the way we had on many times. I was on the forecastle in charge of the anchor party and the forward mooring party. 

The Captain ordered the anchor dropped. I gave the order, the carpenter banged off the brake. The anchor fell into the water but the end of chain flew up into the air unattached to the anchor.

For a moment there was confusion  but we dropped the other anchor and used this round the bow of the ship to get us to the berth.

The dock authority did dredge up our anchor and we were able to lift it back in place with one of our cranes.

The engineers on the ship presented me with this trophy that night over drinks before dinner.

The Return of the Exiles

COMING SOON!!

Editing and checking 

Book 2 of the Rombuli Saga

called The Return of the Exiles 

before publishing alongside 

Book 1 The Teacher of the Rombuli 

on Kindle.

Liu Xiaobo and Liu Xia

The free world community must keep supporting and pressurising the Chinese Government over the continued harassment of LUI XIAOBO and his wife LIU XIA. Are the bunch of old thugs in charge of China so scared of a mild spoken non violent man and his supportive wife that they have to lock them away?
Raise your voices in proptest all you free people!

Eddie Gubbins Poetry: Galway Bay

Eddie Gubbins Poetry: Galway Bay: "We sing Watch the sun go down on Galway Bay But the rain poured down The clouds raced across the sky Waves beat on the shore. A Rainbow ar..."

tales from the sea: POETRY BY EDDIE GUBBINS

tales from the sea: POETRY BY EDDIE GUBBINS

POETRY BY EDDIE GUBBINS

POETRY BY EDDIE GUBBINS

I am publishing some of my poetry on www.eddiegubbinspoetry.blogspot.com.
Feel free to criticise, comment or praise.
Post your poems for comparison

A Ceremony Of Innocence

NOW AVAILABLE 0N KINDLE 
AS A 
DOWNLOADABLE EBOOK!!!


GET YOUR COPY NOW!!

A Ceremony Of Innocence


\by

Edmund Gubbins

Set against the political and industrial strife of the 1980's, this is a story  follows the lives of one family during one summer in 1981. 

Joan Brookes, the mother, is excited because her two sons will be back home together for the holidays, something that has not happened for what seems to her an age. All she wants for the holiday is her house filled with laughter, conversation and joy. In anticipation of the holiday she is happy.

Her husband Charlie is a shop steward at the Brents shipyard and at the same time as her boys are arriving home, there are redundancies announced at the shipyard. The workers led by Charlie vote to strike at the same time as his sons arrive home on holiday.

Jim, her youngest son is to graduate that summer from university with a first class honours degree making her feel proud and happy.  Left wing and loyal to his friends, Jim wants only to help his father in what he sees as the struggle for justice. Jim thinks of his brother as left wing and shy from the little he remembers of him when they were together at school ten years before. From this stand point Jim thinks his brother will help with the strike.

Mark, her oldest son, wants a quiet life while on leave from his travels as an officer in the merchant navy. He is skeptical about the strike and its effects on the community although he supports his father. Mark feels that because time is short while he is at home, he has to grab any opportunity for gain or happiness that comes his way. He is not prepared to subordinate his pleasure for the sake of the family over something that he sees as none of his business.

Against the background of the strike, Jim painfully finds out what his brother is like and is annoyed that Mark has enough friends to help Jim out of a brush with the law when the rest of the family were helpless.

What will be the climax, reconciliation or a final fractured relationship.

The book is available through Amazon in paperback.
It is also available on Kindle, iPad, Sony Reader etc.