The Shipping Forecast

[ladywood]

Thanks Alf.
I would send you an illustration I did about the story, but I can't work out how to attach an image.
Will plug away.

Ladywood

 

[ladywood]

Here goes.......................Advanced reply.........Manage attachments................??
I get to managed attachments, but all I have is a blank square that won't let me go to Add files [top right]
Any suggestions gratefully accepted.

ladywood.

 

[robert]

I was in Cromity last week.

 

[db84124]

Ladywood,
Thank you for taking my "corrections" so graciously.
When you first posted (Post #24) saying “I understand [the shipping forecast]. What would you like to know? It is something akin to a poem”, my immediate reaction was of complete bewilderment. I couldn’t imagine anything so precise and factual being poetic in any way. Having now read your “poem” several times, I fully understand and appreciate your interpretation of the “cold” names of the British sea areas and the dramatic link with the following disaster. Your essay makes wonderful reading. Very well done!
I would be fascinated to see the illustration of your writings. A lot of forum members seem to be having problems with posting attachments at the moment; please, please persevere as I can’t wait to see how you’ve accompanied your writings with a picture.
Could I please add that if you had posted your contribution under Original Poems and Stories, I would never have interfered. But because you added your fascinating story to the more “scientific” section entitled Films, TV, Theatre – and as Ragga had requested help in understanding the shipping forecast – I felt I had to point out the small errors, which in another section of the Forum could have been accepted as poetic license.
A brilliant contribution; thank you. Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones, David

 

[db84124]

Ladywood is smack on with other recollections. Go to Wikipedia and type in "SS Flying Enterprise". db84124
PS Finally succeeded in adding photograph courtesy of Wikipedia; I found the new system far more complicated than the previous method. db

 

[ladywood]

Dear DB, Thanks for your photo of the 'Flying Enterprise."
The picture in my head is from the Daily Express with Captain Carlsson [circled] on the bridge and the Flying Enterprise listing at about 40 degrees.
I have an illustration but I can't upload it onto this new system that BHF have introduced. But I will keep trying.
I think the Shipping Forecast is very akin to a poem.
Like all good poems it gives the reader or in this case the listener a powerful mental image.

Think about Julius Caesar about to invade Britain, or more specifically Kent................Dover.............Wight............Portland.......Cyclonic or southerly, 5 to 7 veering north, Moderate or rough, Occasional rain,......... Moderate or poor.

Or Nelson in October 1805. South Fitzroy,.............. Cyclonic 6 to gale 8, decreasing 4 or 5 later,...... Rough but very rough in the West..............Rain or showers. Moderate or poor.


Or look at how a poem invokes the 'Shipping Forecast.

'Cargoes' by John Masefield.

Dirty British Coaster with a salt caked smoke stack,
Butting through the Channel in the Mad March days.
With a case of Tyne coal.
Road-rails, pig lead,
Firewood. Iron ware and Cheap Tin Trays.

I'm not sure where the poetry begins or ends.


ladywood

 

[db84124]

Hello there ladywood,
I've just sent you an Instant Message (IM) with the various steps to post a photograph. It's rather long-winded so you'll need to print it out and follow each step carefully. I had prepared a more detailed set of instructions but the forum doesn't foresee highlighting so you'll get it in black and white. If you send me your email address via IM, I'll forward the easier to follow version. Good luck, David

 

[ladywood]

Thank you very much.


ladywood