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Old 08-05-07, 19:35
Gunner Gunner is offline
T' Guns thank God t' guns
 
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Near Ottawa, Canada
Posts: 776
Default The new 'baby' has arrived

Yesterday was the big day! The Polsten Quad 20mm finally arrived in good form after weeks of sea and road voyage from Bristol, UK to Ottawa via Liverpool and Halifax.

Proud Daddy, Gunner Mike noted with a grunt, that the 'little' one weighs in at just over 6000 pounds!

Delivery was at Customs House in Ottawa as a bonded shipment at 0900 yesterday. The actual clearing of Customs was somewhat anti-climatic after the paperwork adventures to get everything lined up. Goes to show... do your homework, get ALL the paperwork done and in order and the process took seven minutes including a congratulations from the Customs House supervisor on bringing a unique piece of Canadian history home.

The most excellent trucking firm of Central Freightlines of Truro Nova scotia (call Jake for your shipping needs at 1-902-895-1858) picked the gun up in Halifax, in bond, charged me LCL rates (about $900) and after clearing customs in Ottawa, drove the gun directly to the museum where we unloaded with our own resources. Talk about great service at a great price! My special thanks to fellow MLUer, Brad Mills, for his advice and the contacts for East coast trucking.

I want to publicly acknowledge fellow MLUer Clive Law for his always excellent advice and assistance. Thanks, Clive!

The folks at DFAIT who handle this stuff were most helpful and put to shame the reputation our civil service has for being unhelpful. They took a great deal of time to explain all the paperwork to me and suggested corrections that would make things simpler... we did burn up the fax machines but thats what faxes are for!

I have to mention Bob Grundy of British Military Vehicles (BMV) near Liverpool. Bob was kind enough on 12 hours notice to provide storage space for three days and to allow the fumigators to treat the gun and its wooden crates to meet phytosanitary standards for importation. Bob was a great host and drove me about the area, found me a cheap hotel and is handling the next big project... the Windsor Carrier... watch for more under the Carrier forum.

Lots of other folks helped out and they will all receive personal letters or emails. Suffice it to say... this was not a lone effort; my eternal gratitude to all the folks who provided advice or assistance. Thank you all.

Mike
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Mike Calnan
Ubique!
("Everywhere", the sole Battle Honour of the Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery)
www.calnan.com/swords
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