The American flagged Vehicle Carrier Courage of American Roll-On Roll-Off Carrier (ARC) seen yesterday leaving Southampton on a voyage to destination undisclosed, she was heading west in the English channel on the AIS at her last contact. A fairly rare occurrence to see the Stars & stripes flying on the mast these days in this neck of the woods, I even thought it was a Liberian until it passed a bit closer. The ship was once a Wallenius called “Aida” and the name has only been painted over. According to local information sources vehicles carried are often military vehicles and that is why it’s American. The website looks however normal enough http://www.arrcnet.com/.
Sooner or later you get caught. I thought that I had a great scam worked out, buy an article on the internet from the US and get it shipped by UPS to me. Great door to door service sign on the funny upside down screen with the electronic pen and Bob’s your aunties plumber!
Well if only life was so easy, VAT has to be paid of course on imports, now with the $US doing so poorly at the moment it is worth doing a bit of pricerunning to see whats what where, so I figured out the price and even if I got caught and how could I, with my foolproof scheme I’d still be quids in. So I clicked and clicked and 4 days later the big brown van appeared and my new camera in it in a brown box. Result.
No mention of VAT, or import duty. I opened up and still no papers relating to VAT and import duty and the days went on and my smile got bigger, YES! the scheme worked, I started telling people and showing off the flashy camera, people were impressed, dollar signs started clicking into their eyes also, I got enquiries, what website, how much did you save, etc. etc., I willingly parted with the knowledge thinking how had this scheme not been thought of before and how clever I was.
2 weeks later, a letter arrives with a bill for VAT and duty, my UPS friends had done me the favour of importing my camera and paying the VAT. Of course they had the taxman always wins. How clever was I then. My smile inverted rapidly, I had to ring frantically to all and sundry to try to stop their clicking and clicking, fortunately they had been more cautious than me.
I still saved a few Euros, thanks to the cheapness of the deal in the US and the dollar rate.
I like France and the French, even though I occasionally take a poke at them, ( VHF post )it’s all meant in the best possible taste as Kenny Everett used to say. I was doing a bit of surfing and I found the following French Article on the BBC’s web page.
Looks like the relationship between France and the USA has been rocky once or twice!
How is with the “Freedom Fries” now? I always thought that was such an irony with France’s everlasting gift to The US being called “Liberty”, perhaps the relationship is getting better again these days.
One of my old ships was on a regular run to LOOP or Louisiana Offshore Oil Port we transported crude oil from West Africa and the Persian Gulf to LOOP by VLCC and then the oil was then piped on to the mainland US for refining. This was my first experience of the US Coast Guard and US Pilotage, it was before 9-11 so the atmosphere of security was controlled but not as tough as it is for sailors visiting the US today. But back then you could still get ashore if you wanted to. We arranged for the agent to buy us Levi’s and other American goods, not that we were living in the Soviet Union or anything but because they were so cheap.
Anyway one of the Able Seaman was one Jesus Rey Fernandez from Cebu in the Phillipines, Jesus (which was pronounced Hay-soos by the Filipino sailors and Jees-us by the officers probably because of the novelty and Jay-zuz by me because I couldn’t resist) was an old sea dog with a woman and child in every port the ship managed to get to, he looked about 90 but was probably more in the region of 60, he nearly starved to death one trip when he managed to spit out his false teeth into the Suez Canal, he was only gobbing over the side but the teeth went sailing in with whatever he was spitting out, he stood at the rail for ages his mouth half open and shiny gums silently gnashing in disbelief, the cook didn’t like him as it was and he had to suck down all his food until a reserve set of teeth arrived.
We were sailing from LOOP and we got instructions to take bunkers (thats fuel for the land lubbers) at Pilot Town on the Mississippi, so we headed for the entrance and took on board our river pilot for the short passage up to Pilot Town. He arrived on the bridge out of breath and proceeded to light up a Marlboro before getting down to the usual introductions and how are you Captain and would you like a cup of coffee Pilot, after the first blast of Nicotine he calmed down ordered half ahead on the engine and a man on the wheel. The currents at the mouth of the Mississippi River are strong and can be unpredictable so a good helmsman is required, the old man wasn’t so old and probably put the wrong man on the wheel, so the ships head was a bit shaky approaching the entrance, the pilot got angry and shouted with a strong southern accent “Jesus Christ Cap’n, this is no time to put a beginner on the wheel” just then Able Seaman Jesus Rey appeared like an apparition on the bridge, the Captain said “Jesus, take the wheel!” The pilot raised an eyebrow, but said nothing, he was satisfied as long as the steering went well. We negotiated our way up to the designated spot which is little more than a bend in the river and anchored 4 shackles on the starboard and 1 on the port. The pilot made his way off after doing a professional job even if he was a bit rough around the edges himself.
Later on in the bar, the old man was giving his version of the story while sucking down our newly bought Coors beer, it was a little bit more exaggerated than reality, the pilot smoked more cigarettes, and spoke with a John Wayne accent and said “Truly this man was the son of God” when Jesus took the wheel,………not really as it happened but hardly the first time a story about Jesus got exaggerated……
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