re:compo...?

[Jack Jenkins]

Hiya lads,Way back in the dark ages (1962)at a Tunisian port,one of the deckhands lost 4 fingers when his hand got snagged on a wire rope and got dragged through a pulley,he was a Spanish national,got took ashore to hospital and never returned to the ship,I often wonder if the man was compensated,and what would be the story nowadays,what with ''Elf n safety'' hard hats and hi-vis jackets,would the company be liable ??
Jack

[Keith Tindell]

Hi, I sailed about the same era , and recall at times being told that wearing gloves caused that sort of problem, your glove could get caught in a snag and pull you through. If you didn`t wear gloves your hands would be ripped to shreds as some of the winch wires were in a terrible state, also springs. I suspect today elf an safety would make the wire changes more frequently. We never gave it a lot of thought, just got on with it. Regards Keith

[Jim Brady]

I often wondered about this myself.I seen three people being put ashore through accident's on board (not sickness which i imagine would be a different matter).An AB lost a couple of fingers in the winch gears, a baker who had his feet scalded by the galley boy scrubbing down and a carpenter who was down the hatch when a hatch board fell down and hit him.My take on it would be,not only did they not get compo but their wages were most probably stopped forthwith.
Regards.
Jim.B.

[Chris Allman]

With regards to wires, I too can remember being told not to wear gloves when handling them and also any rings worn should be taken off. I met a retired AB who was a docker. He had lost a finger because a snag had caught in his wedding ring and ripped his finger off whilst he was lowering a derrick. It does not bear thinking about.

Chris.

[robpage]

I spent the last 25 years of my working life as a Chief Engineer on a large plant , and had as a part of the job to deal with the insurers as well as the ambulance chasers . I had an engineer , fully skilled, fully trained , put his finger in a pneumatic actuator and press the start biutton in a m,oment of stup[idity , after he had isolated the safety circuit to test the machine . We paid him £800 for a severly bruised finger , because it was contested that we ( I ) had never instructed him to not put his finger under an actuater when testing it . If we took it to court and won our ( the Insurers ) legal fees would be £10,000 , if we lost £25,000 , so £800 was a cheap way out for a self inflicted idiocy . Another operator who sat in front of a testing station all day took us to the same procedure because the p[roduction manager had caused him stress by shouting at him , he got £65,000 the legal fees would have been £60,000 to win , because of the "Expert " evidence needed and a QC in court double that if we lost , so the £65, 000 was cheap . A contractor whp stood in a puddle of 35% Caustic soda and burned his foot to the bones got £25,000 quite rightly and had eight weeks off work and plastic surgury . A fork lift driver who had the tines of a collegues fork lift driven through his thigh received a similar sum . The Insurer weighs up the win/lose court costs and often a settlement out of court is the cheapest way . At sea I know of guys who died and the Widow got what ever was in the tin at the end of the day after his mates had a whip round .

The reason that there are so many courses is if you are trained it is harder to claim . I wonder if the Safety Elf has such a hard time in China and India . Life was too cheap and we needed regulation in teh building and mining and seafaring sectors , but it has all got out of hand , fuelled by consultants on a £1000 a day , who tell you how you need more of them when often you don't need them at all , and common sense saves lives . Trouble is common sense is rarely written down

[Jim Brady]

Funny early on I was sceptical regarding shipping companies paying compensation to crew members being involved in accidents at sea.Couple of pints and talking about the subject with a mate of mine an other old seaman I recalled a guy that lost his toes on the Aussie coast.He was a engine room storekeeper,all I know is that they had a steel plate on some kind of a lift when it carried away and took his toes off on both feet.He always blamed the 2nd engineer,well before his retirement age he had dosh,and good dosh so yes compo was paid out.
Regards.
Jim.B.

[happy daze john in oz]

Things have sure changed since those heady days. Now on the cruise ships the guys letting go the lines wear hard hats. Harnesses when window cleaning and all manner of other safety gear. Ashore here in Oz there have been so mnay cases of injury that just about every week a new law will emerge to protect the worker, or to at least prevent litigation.

[Les Woodard]

That was the first thing I learnt that when working with wire not to wear gloves or rings as it was easier to wait until your hands healed up than to loose part or all of your hand. Sure there where accidents on board but glad I was not on some of the ships that a few of you where on as there seem's to have been a lot of accidents that should not have happened on them. Fact of life really if working with moving parts larger than a pen and paper some one will get hurt no matter what rules and regulations are in place. Just glad that I do not have to work under these rules today. Why is it that we seem to be talking about this in a negative way as there where quite a few minor accidents and some serious one's that where very funny after the incident and would keep us all laughing for weeks after the event.

[alf corbyn]

on the esperence bay we used to scrub the pantry deck with boiling caustic soda water with no shoes on. it used to make us jump about and stung our feet but got the deck nice and clean (red tiles with diagonal grooves) the drain was in the middle of the pantry instead of near the ships side which meant constant sweeping to lose the water. we also had one of the pantrymen have the boiling caustic water accidently thrown over his legs. his screams brought the two bakers rushing in. they immediatly grabbed him and stuffed his legs into the ovenfor about five minutes, with him yelling all the while but afterwards he had not a mark on his legs. alf

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Hi Jack.
I often wondered what happened to a bloke called Albie who fell of the mast of the British Piper in Port Pirie in South Australia in 1953, The mate and captain had issues with the crew, sent us up to paint the masts while discharging petrol, I was up the foremast, he was up the main, he fell about 50 feet onto the main discharge pipe, smashed his legs and back, was still in hospital when we sailed, never did hear anymore that i can recall. Today he would have had around a $million, then they would have probably stopped his wages when he hit the deck.
Cheers Des