The Life & Sea-faring Times of Richard Hendy, Mariner

Richard Hendy, aged 97

Richard Hendy is a Bristol man who spent much of his life at sea, starting as a galley boy (aged 14) in Atlantic Convoys (oil tankers) with the Norwegian Merchant Fleet. After the war he was on the first Elders and Fyffes ship to bring bananas into Bristol. Every child received one banana! As a steward or a stoker, he landed in most of the world’s ports. He even spent two years in the Australian Army, fighting the Korean War. He survived without a scratch. He is 97 years old, as sprightly as a man twenty years younger.  He still rides his bike.   “I was lucky,” he says, “I got away with it.”  This is his story.

The Life & Sea-faring Times of Richard Hendy, Mariner

“Seafaring was, and still is a very dangerous profession. Hardly any of us realised it at the time, we just knew we loved the life….and it could never happen to us……”

“Gulliver” on “Old Friends Plus”, the British Merchant Navy website