Speaker Meeting

DUDLEY BOTTING MAKES WAVES AT BEXHILL ROTARY

Bexhill Rotary members were fully entertained at their speaker meeting this week (16^th July) by Dudley Botting who talked about his 33 maritime years with BP.

After being nautically introduced by Bexhill Rotarian John Raeburn, Dudley Botting launched himself on the assembled Rotarians with a light hearted talk yet full of interesting facts, telling how he had been at sea (literally!) since he was 17 years old. 

It took him 9 years to become a Master Mariner after which he sailed the seas with BP who, when he joined the company in 1950, had 150 ships but these days that number has significantly decreased.  Dudley then proceeded to recount some amusing tales of when he was captain of various BP vessels like the time he had a new male second steward on board his ship who had had a sex change who appeared in a flowing dress, the problem was his deep voice gave him away, not to mention his beard!  Then there was the hairy escapade he had in Lagos when he thought at one point he was going to be shot! 

Dudley said that the largest ship he was captain of was 250,000 tons, the deck was the size of 2 football pitches and the anchor weighed 50 tons.  He said that it took 5 whole miles to stop the ship which was a big problem one time when there was a man overboard but fortunately, after some adept and skilful manoeuvring plus a huge bit of luck, the man was found and fished out of the water.  Dudley also told the story of one seaman who tried to kill another with an axe but mercifully he was unsuccessful.  He said that each voyage lasted around 4 months and being captain was very much like running an office, in his time he was on 30 different tankers. 

Dudley finished his talk by reading a letter from his grandmother which related the tale of being honked by angry drivers at traffic lights, however she just thought they were being friendly and wishing her goodwill and was totally oblivious to their anger! 

Bexhill Rotarian Keith Walter gave the vote of thanks followed by rapturous rounds of applause.

Menu:

Stuffed Beef Olives in a Peppercorn Sauce, with Saut