Sailor Barney Bear wants you to look at one of the T Shirts his little Grizzly Cousin Kevin was given on a Cub Bear exchange trip to the High Point Forest,New Jersey. The year was 1976,not only Americas big birthday but also the year of the Boys Scouts of America Bicentennial Camporee.

Cousin Kevin was a Grizzly cub but none the less Cub Kevin was of Bear Trader stock and smelt a good deal when he saw one, even at the tender age of 9.  While the other kids were trading Chicago Cubs baseball cards Kevin was exchanging English Top Trump cards for T.Shirts with Cubs from all over America. 

Barney Bear ended up with them in his duffle bag when Kevin took a free ride home in the engine room of the Sealands Services container ship bound for Scotland. Sailor Barney was the 3rd Engineer of the brand new SL-7, the fastest commercial container ship on the Oceans. Sailing out of Port Elizabeth Barney Bear picked up Cousin Kevin after the Camporee had ended and the last verse of the traditional Cub camp song "Bear Necessities" had been growled.

In exchange for free passage Barney Bear took possesion of four of Kevins now extremly rare Boy Scout of Americas T Shirts. One is even still in its original bag!!!. These are serious collectors pieces ,

Friends in Japan will be able to see Barney in October if they drop him a Bearmail. These really will be snapped up in Tokyo Sailor Barney Bear has connections !!!

This is one for the history books according to Sailor Barney Bear !!! Make no mistake he'll tell you this wonderful canvas rucksack must be loved and respected or you can't buy it. 

In 1943 Barney Bear was stoking engines again but this time for the Kings Schilling and daily tot of Rum, not even honey rum but this was wartime after all.In peacetime Barney Bear had enjoyed being pressed ganged, he always had, two random Salty Old Bears in a dockside bear pit buy you Honey shots and Cheap Honey beer to wash it down all night, then walk you to a nice warm bunk cave. And a job at the end of it, result. Much better than working the Woolwich ferry on a wet London June day.

But this was war and Barney Bear had joined up like all good Sea Bears did. Boarney Bearwas bound for Suez when he woke up in his bunk to find himself surrounded by snoring Desert Bears from the 2nd Battlalion Witshire Regiment sleeping on tanks and on the backs of yellow dessert camo painted trucks. Now he knew he was in the Royal Navy and Sailor Barney Bear had a job to do.

Chatting with the other stokers Able Bodied Stokers, Sailor Barney Bear learnt that the Sea Bears are to make sure the invasion of Sicily goes to plan. Critical to the operation is the Sea Bears strength and stamina in the engine room. 

Operation Husky required Sea Bears to keep the engines at full steam from Suez to Sicily, a good voyage for any group of Sea Bear Stokers but Sailor Barney Bear and the other stokers of the Eastern Naval Task Force were hand picked for the job. They'd all crewed in the Medditerranean Fleet on different ships but now they had a job to do and they were a Sleuth.

The young cubs of the Wiltshire Regiment liked to listen to the old Sea Bears stories and tales, Barney figured it helped them to forget what lay a head in Sicily. One of these young lads made firends with the Old Sailor Barney Bear and on the eve of the Operation Husky landings the two companions promised to keep in touch. Bear Battle Bravado, to be expected after a few precious tots of honey rum, the last of the bottle Sailor Barney Bear had brought on board at Chatham. 

Sailor Barney Bear stuffed the now half full bottle of Honey Rum into the young Cubs rucksack and proposed a deal, the of Honey Rum for the Cubs rucksack, which Bob had admired since Suez. On the condition he sends it to Sailor Barney Bear on his return to Wiltshire, the trade was agreed and the two pals shook paws.

And the young Cub did keep his word, eventually , but not until 2013 when the Desert Cubs Grand daughter showed up at the Battle Street Boatyard a few months ago. The young cub had survived Sicily, the war and before returning home a spell in West Berlin. She told Sailor Barney Bear he had told her that he'd carried that rucksack all over Europe with a bottle of Honey Rum safe in a pair of his wooly socks packed inside just in case of emergencies.

Why the Cub had hung onto it for so long after his return , who knows? but one of his last wishes was that she find Sailor Barney Bear  and complete the trade. No sodding Honey Rum in it though packed in a pair of smelly old socks Barney Bear thought !! And he was right of course.

Many artefacts survived the Bolshevik revolution and the transformation of Russia into the Soviet Union and perhaps this exquiste pastel sketch of a beutiful young child is one of them?

Saved from the flames of Lufftwaffer bombs in Kent in 1943, nearby to where  sailors told tales of how Anastasia the only surviving member of the Romanov family had lived out her old age. 

When Sailor Barney Bear drove an ambulance on shore leave in 1944 Barney Bear listened to stories told at the Royal Chatham Dockyard of the Russian Queen being smuggled up the Medway after crossing the chanel under cover of a winters night in early 1918. Told by the old Master Ropemakers who were boy apprentices when talk of Revolution gripped the dockyards and ports of Europe.

Bob saved the life of an old Russian Sea Bear in an air raid at Chatham and in exchange they celebrated with Heather Honey Vodka and gifts, of which this picture was Bobs for saving this old Russian Imperial Bear from a rotton death for a bear.

Sailors travel light, some carry duffle bags and Sailor Barney Bear has had his far share of those, denim, canvas and even once a leather one given to him by a camel trader in Rabat. 

When on his holidays or when he's working with some great clothing brands Bob likes to carry his NYC carpenters canvas and leather bag. He's had two in his time. One an old Klein Tools bag now well worn and too tired to travel anymore. So these days Barney Bear uses a lovely brand new one bought in a hardware store in NYC on one of Barney Bears shore leaves in the Big Apple.

Years back in the late 1970's early 80's Sailor Barney Bear spent a few years on dry land hanging around the Brooklyn Navy Yard working at Coastal Dry Docks repairing and converting US Navy vessels.

There was a real New York Huggy Bear working in the shipwrights office at CCD, not a part of the yard Barney Bear was authorised to hang around. But in the bars around Wallabout Basin  Barney Bear got to know Huggy, pretty well the coolest Black bear in the whole of the 5 Boroughs. 

Huggy carried the tools of his trade in his Klein bag, all sorts of cool stuff he liked to share around the yard Bears when out drinking Honey Beer after a long shift.

Late in 1958 Sailor Barney Bear was hauling nets on a shrimp boat off Puerto Vallarta Mexico with an old wartime friend he'd met on the North Atlantic runs. One warm night the two bear pals took the bus into Guadalajara for some Cactus Honey Tequila and to catch a movie. They'd been told by a sleepy Jarlisco bear there was one movie house in town that played English and American movies and this particular week he told them it was playing an English movie about Sailors.

The thirst for Honey Tequila had to come first and then onto find the Cinema Oro movie house. Not an easy quest for the two bears who had not only drunk too many Honey Tequila shots but they had also developed a taste for the local tobbaco while staying in Puerto Vallarata and found the Guadalajara Black most agreable too. 

And that is the reason why the front of house poster is for the Spanish dubbed production of Cruel Sea not the original English as they had excpected it to be.Neither bears even noticed until the end of the first reel, but they were chilled, the mellow bears had already seen the English version many times so just pieced it all together the best they could.

And that was the start of the Cinema Oro movie night and led eventually to Sailor Barney Bears treasured collection of Mexican Front of House movie posters. Keep an eye out sometimes he puts a few up for sale but never "Mar Cruel".

Ask Sailor Barney Bear how he managed to smuggle out the posters and he'll smile and say "all a bear needs to do is set a Honey trap and the treasures will follow" , too much Guadalajara Black Hubert would say if you asked him !!!

 PS Invite Barney Bear Bob to tell you about the time he lost his big claw on his left paw to Bandits in a Puerto Vallarta baroom brawl.

" A Cave of treasure rich with the aroma of warm bees wax" is how Sailor Barney Bears friend Cyril the Bi Polar Bear on one of his better days described Bobs Archive Cave, or Barney Bears Arscave as Cyril also once quiped during his drinking days. On one of Cyrils not so good days he also described Bobs Archive as "A B*****g mess, you don't know where to look first"

Barney Bear liked that and incase you don't know where to look he suggests you look at the pictures in crayon on the wall of a young sailor leaving home.

Barney Bear met many a young Cabin Cub going to sea for no good  reason, broken hearts, broken marriages,broken promises and a few with good reason too.

You have to forgive Sailor Barney Bear for his ham fisted photographic skills. He takes all his own images and as you can see he has a rather unsteady paw, not to mention a quite often slopping honey eye.

There was a time when the world began to change from Black and White into the start of the glorious days of synthetic colours, fabrics and nights out. Except in one or two out posts of the drab post war years where black and white might have been a romantic improvement in a moody Foreign language movie kind of way.

Before the war Sailor Barney Bear had spent some wonderful years visiting family in the Russian forests and had enjoyed the best Salmon and caviar in his entire sea going days. One year in the spring of 1962 he travelled overland to see family again, in those days it was still possible , just about, to travel freely accros Europe by paw, if a bear took a fancy and in 1962 the fancy did just that to Barney Bear. 

By the time Barney Bear had decided to head off to sea again he had traded an old silver cigarette case he'd decorated on a boring hot voyage around Ceylon for this painting of a Soviet train yard, he loved the Lenin portrait and the steam engines reminded him of India. Worth the trade for the silver ciggie case,especially as Bob got it back many many years later.

When Barney Bear got stopped crossing into Poland by a rather attractive lady Russian Border Bear this painting and its partner were sandwiched between two portraits of Lenin and Marx. The attractive Lady Russian Bear smiled wished Comrade Sailor Barney a good day and waved what she thought was a another happy Soviet bear off on vacation to spread the news that all bears were now equal.

Smuggled goods by a Soviet artist who once exhibited at Moscow National Gallery cost a lot of Levis and Wrigleys but Sailor Barney Bear will sell them to you for a new pair of Levi 501

A print very dear to  Sailor Barney Bears heart, you'll know why if you know

When Sailor Barney was working on a trawler out of Falmouth on the rare occasion he got some shore leave he'd go sailing with an old pal he'd met during his days driving for the Royal Navy Service Corp in East Berlin.

Barney Bear found this wonderful print when shuffling around the Ferry Boat Inn Helston, it was amongst a small collection and as well as reminding him of his old sailing pal the prints are doubled sided. Clearly from a rather special picture book, you can almost smell the greasy bear cub paws still on the edges, you might find a paw smudge if you look close enough.

Before Bears worked in the engine rooms of the greatest ships and Ocean going liners to have ever crossed the seas there was a time when boats didn't have engines and were made of wood.That was the time when Bears made use of their natural skill with wood and built the ships to be sailed by sheet back and forth between the old and the new countries. Sailor Barney Bears Pops GrandBoar had been a carpenter and had bulit some of the finest wooden ships to have ever set sail. Some survive to this very day cared for in museums around the globe.

This was why most Bears even today that live and work in the towns and forests should be pretty handy with a hammer and a chisel.Certainly in Barney Bears days every self respecting Bear could do more than just put up some lousy shelves. Barney Bear was no different , his Pop had passed on the finer skills of carpentry to him in case as his Pop always said " One day being a carpenter will be a valued skill and city slickers will pay a fortune for you to put up some lousy shelves for them !" 

In directly thats how BarneyBear came across Frank M Wests store in Stamford Connecticut in 1966, he was buying timber for a wheel house he was repairing as a favour to an old pal at the Harbour.By the time the wheelhouse was finished Barney Bear had struck up a friendship with the yardman at the store and spent many a night playing the accordian with him at Zavras Deli in town.

It was about this time that rumour had it that the city was finally going to start the renewal programme it had been battling with residents about for years. This meant Frank M West "Builders Hardware" was to be demolished to make way for the Park Row you see in Stamford to this very day. 

Seeing an opportunity Barney Bear blagged this great promo apron from his friend the Yardman for an accordian lesson, a good trade one Barney Bear can sell with fond memories of Honey Crab BBQs on the beach and Ice Cold Honey Beer by the Harbour. But these Barney Bear memories don't come cheap on account of how unique his memories truely are.