Obit: Des Newton - Ship Bottler

Subject: Obit: Des Newton - Ship Bottler
From: GUEST,Blowz sans cookie
Date: 02 Feb 09 - 07:54 AM

Those of you who have attended Maritime Festivals in the UK will, no doubt, have come across Des - one of the foremost ship-bottlers in the country. He worked at the Maritime Museum in Liverpool for many years and only retired a few years ago. He continued to visit festivals, demonstrating his craft and was an excellent raconteur and a genuinely lovely man.

Sadly, he lost a long battle to cancer, at the weekend. More information, as it becaomes available, will be posted on Bitter End's website, at http://www.shanty.co.uk

Subject: RE: Obit: Des Newton - Ship Bottler
From: SPB-Cooperator
Date: 02 Feb 09 - 10:10 AM

So sad... one of the nicest people I've ever known.

Subject: RE: Obit: Des Newton - Ship Bottler
From: GUEST,Peter Shillinglaw
Date: 03 Feb 09 - 04:11 PM

Sad news indeed, myself and Frank Brereton Chairman at New Brighton Lifeboat Staition paid him a visit a fortnight ago in Clatterbridge Hospital,we had a long chat and swung the lamp for an hour or so, he seemed fine at the time and was lookiing forward to going home.He will be sorley missed.

Subject: RE: Obit: Des Newton - Ship Bottler
From: The Sandman
Date: 03 Feb 09 - 04:47 PM

sad news.

Subject: RE: Obit: Des Newton - Ship Bottler
From: GUEST,peter on marina
Date: 06 Feb 09 - 02:01 PM

des will be missed on st marys marina he was a nice guy

Subject: RE: Obit: Des Newton - Ship Bottler
From: open mike
Date: 06 Feb 09 - 02:50 PM

here is some more info on this fellow..

Click here

and here

thanks for posting this..

please explain/translate "swung the lamp"

----------------------
Links fixed. JoeClone

Subject: RE: Obit: Des Newton - Ship Bottler
From: Charley Noble
Date: 06 Feb 09 - 07:10 PM

I never met Des Newton but perhaps this poem by C. Fox Smith that I've adapted for singing would be appropriate for a memorial service (copy and paste into WORD/TIMES/12 to line up chords):

By Cicely Fox Smith, from SHIP MODELS by Cicely Fox Smith,
published by Conway Maritime Press in 1972. p. 87
from an original Country Life publication of 1951;
First appeared in PUNCH,1920, p. 230
Adapted by Charlie Ipcar 8/2/07
Tune: after Old Orange Flute


A Ship in a Bottle


C-------------------------------------G------------C
In a sailormen's restaurant down Rotherhithe way,
-------------------------Am--------------G------------G7
Where the din of the docksides rings loud all the day,
--F----------------C-----------F--------------C
A-mong the stale odours of hot food and cold,
------------------------------G-------------C
In a fly-spotted window I there did be-hold –
---------------------------F
A ship in a bottle some sailor had made
------C------------------------------G----------------G7
In his watches be-low, swinging South with the Trade,
-----------F-------------------C-------------F----------C
While his messmates were mendin' old dungaree suits,
-----------------Am----------G----------C
Or patchin' up oilskins and leaky sea-boots.


Chorus:

C---------------------F
A ship in a bottle a-sailing away,
---C-------------------------------G-------------G7
In flying-fish weather through rainbows of spray,
------F----------C------------F-------------C
Over oceans of wonder, by headlands a-gleam,
----------------------Am------------G----------C
To the harbours of youth, on the wind of a dream!


That tiny full-rigger predestined to ride
To its cable of thread on a green-painted tide –
In its wine-bottle world while the new world rolled on,
Tho' the sailor who made it was long ago gone;
His fingers all roughened, toughened and scarred,
With hauling and hoisting, so calloused and hard;
So crooked and stiff you might wonder that still
They could fashion that ship with such cunning and skill. (CHO)

In fancy I saw him all weathered and browned,
Deep crows'-feet and wrinkles his eyelids around,
The hairy forearm with its gaudy tattoo
Of a bold-looking female in scarlet and blue;
In fancy I listened, in fancy could hear
The thrum of the shrouds and the creak of the gear;
Then I thought of my youth with its pleasure and pain,
And the shipmate I loved was beside me again – (CHO)

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Obit: Des Newton - Ship Bottler
From: GUEST,steve and penny webster
Date: 07 Feb 09 - 03:41 PM

known des for nearly 20 years saw him just before xmas and kept in touch while he was in hospital, we have lost a true gentleman and a good friend, our love and thoughts go to Dot and the family

Subject: RE: Obit: Des Newton - Ship Bottler
From: GUEST,Phil & Shell Webster
Date: 07 Feb 09 - 04:40 PM

We will always miss that unmistakeable voice in the tent at hull.He'd been with us from the start,showed me & my brother the art of ship bottling & then my own daughters.Your safe in the harbour now mate & going to be dearly missed.

Subject: RE: Obit: Des Newton - Ship Bottler
From: GUEST,Peter Shillinglaw
Date: 09 Feb 09 - 01:16 PM

High openmike.swinging the lamp ,is when old or young sailors get together and swop old tales of the sea and of the ships they sailed on .allthough Des never went to sea he was a sailor at heart and we swung the lamp to gether.
I will be at his funeral on thursday
Regards Peter.

Subject: RE: Obit: Des Newton - Ship Bottler
From: GUEST,Andrina and Patrick Boyle
Date: 10 Feb 09 - 05:13 PM

Des was unique...his skill, his humour, his patience, the way he could communicate with one and all. We first met him 20 years ago at the Maritime Museum and will never forget the buttons he gave our son to sew on his sailor outfit. That was the kind of guy he was. Always a joy to be around and a great fundraiser for the RNLI. Will miss you dearly Des. RIP.

Subject: RE: Obit: Des Newton - Ship Bottler
From: Blowzabella
Date: 13 Feb 09 - 07:05 AM

Just wanted to say that Des' funeral yesterday was, as far as these things can be, a great 'do' an certainly a real tribute to him and his life. A wonderful man whose fund-raising went way beyond what I'd realised. He will be sadly missed - not least by his wonderful lady, Dot.

The maritime scene seems to be losing too many of its crew at the moment ........

Subject: RE: Obit: Des Newton - Ship Bottler
From: GUEST,Adrian Thompson (Marine Artist) Lesley and F
Date: 14 Feb 09 - 06:06 AM

A Truly Great Friend and will be Sadly Missed, "May the Harbour lights guide you on your next adventure" God Bless.