On September 18th, Tim Eynon, our Club President, gave a talk entitled ‘Trapped in a Canal’.

Tim took us briefly through Arab-Israeli conflicts, starting with the nationalising by Egypt’s President Nasser of the Suez Canal in 1952, followed by the Suez Crisis in 1956 when Britain, France and Israel went to war with Egypt. After a UN-imposed ceasefire, Israel attacked Egypt in the Six Day war in 1967, capturing Sinai.

Fourteen merchant ships, two of them from the Liverpool-based Blue Funnel Line, were trapped in the canal. Tim’s father was in charge at some stage of both of them.

Sporadic fighting took place across the canal between the Israelis and the Egyptians during the eight years that the ships were trapped. The crews, from 8 different countries, organised themselves into the Great Bitter Lakes Association. They shared provisions, held social events and created their own postage stamps to send letters to their families back home.

The short Yom Kippur War ended in 1973. The British ships finally sailed home in 1975.