Abuse at Sharpness Seamans mission

[Bob Dunkley]

Hi Des
that's fair enough, you only sailed with 2 in sixteen yrs, as Lewis only sailed with 2 in 43 yrs. Now Mike Hall, had 3 on his first ship, on some ships I sailed on we had over 20 .Especially on the emigrant ships to Aussie and kiwi ,and even on most ships you had one or two, the only ship I sailed on without one was the Dumurra Elder Dumpsters I cant remember any on there, and possibly the Glenroy / Demoducus a Bluey.So maybe it was a certain company or Run that you were on that didn't interest them or as you say they stuck with there own company, maybe all In the engine room, no offence to the greasers .or ginger beers

[happy daze john in oz]

ONly shiop I can recall without was the British Hawthorn.
With UCL there were arond 25% of first class crew whow ere gay.
But the worst I ever had was on the Paparoa, NZSC. A crew of 52 with no less than six plus two ex pat Aussies we were taking back and both of them were gay.

[Mike Hewitt]

The only experience I had of sexual misbehaviour whilst on the Vindi (1956) catering was a local guy who would takes some of the lads down to a small brook a short walk from camp and have them swim, then used to dry them off afterwards. Cant remember his name but what I do remember was that when I raised my objections some of the lads were all to keen on protecting him.

[happy daze john in oz]

The only one I can recall at the Vindi was the local hairdresser who came in once a week to cut hair.
Most of the lads would tease him and we often wondered if any went with him.

[dave moore]

I was on the Vindi in 1958 it was reckoned that if you Gave the barber (won't mention his name) a touch up you got a decent haircut instead of short back and sides I had the latter.

[dave moore]

With ref to gays at sea the RMS passenger liner I was on most of the first class stewards were gay the were always known by female names Jennifer Diane etc,if I remember rightly where their accommodation was it was known as gobblers gulch!!

[cappy]

The only experience I had of sexual misbehaviour whilst on the Vindi (1956) catering was a local guy who would takes some of the lads down to a small brook a short walk from camp and have them swim, then used to dry them off afterwards. Cant remember his name but what I do remember was that when I raised my objections some of the lads were all to keen on protecting him.

###after breaking his jaw i would have thrown the bum in the effin brook ......cappy

[Ron B Manderson]

Vetting is a great big Farce
I ran a project in Forfar for teen years.
As it was with youth I had to be vetted.
Up to the police station I go to be checked by them and the council.
I past and got the paper work and badge to say I was ok.
I then upset them by saying " all this just says I have not been caught and if I had all I had to do is change my name "
That didn't go down very well with them .
But lets face it . it's true.
To add any one who does this to kids etc should be hung by the short and curlers
I had membership of 110 kids and never once thought of any of them as sex object
Ron the batcave
.

[Captain Kong]

The only Pervs I came across were in the Bolton LADS CLUB, and the Bolton Swimming Club,
Fortunately me and our gang knew who was what, but I knew some lads who were `got at` by them and they used to be abused for five shillings or so, this was in the 1940s.

[happy daze john in oz]

With ref to gays at sea the RMS passenger liner I was on most of the first class stewards were gay the were always known by female names Jennifer Diane etc,if I remember rightly where their accommodation was it was known as gobblers gulch!!

We even had a couple of gay deck hands on the Pretoria Castle so they are in all walks of life.
At that time we considered it a bit odd as most of us had only seen gay catering and most of them in first class, as you say all with female names to the extent that in the first class dinning salon on the Windsor some of the female bloods would use their female version.