Discharge Book numbering from WW 2 to 1972 for British seamen

[j.sabourn]

Hi Des good morning, I have a feeling I sailed with a master from Glasgow when on a foreign flag ship and think he served his time with Hogarths and went all the way to the top. I maybe getting mixed up with the company’s but didn’t they sell out to Lyles the sugar people. Think he went with them then He was one of the first on the redundancy list when they folded , due to putting one of their ships on the reef coming out of one of the sugar ports in FNQ. I may be totally wrong here as memory over the years can be wrong, but that’s how I remember it. He had a chip on his shoulder about it and got a daily sermon on the wrongs done to him for the 6 months I was there with him. His discontent extended to his lack of interest on the ship we were on , I left in Montreal after 12 months and he shortly after . Being a foreign flag vessel money wise the ship was run on monthly portage account and when I was there used to do it for him or assist as necessary , after I left he didn’t bother . So he was met at Heathrow Airport by a delegation from the office wanting all the portage accounts he should have sent in but apparently had not , he handed in the ones I had assisted with saying there’s your so and so accounts , short of course . Don’t think he was asked back. His wife who he had on board during the Great Lakes run he sent home after coming out . When I got home I received a phone call from her saying on arrival London the customs found 100 rounds of pistol ammunition in her luggage belonging to her spouses personal firearm , he hadn’t told her it was there. Don’t think that marriage lasted too long after. Apparentlly was more disturbed man than I thought at the time. You always remember all the very good people but also those whose middle name was trouble . Cheers JS

This master was at least 10 years older than me which makes him born in 1927 so could well have been an apprentice during the war years , I will not divulge his name as apart from still being resident on this earth, others may know him and maybe too personal , stranger things have happened at sea. JS

[j.sabourn]

#382 Think it was the same bloke who I described in another post reference to Aden. He was master on some ship and may of even been one of Hogarths. They were at steamer point in Aden taking bunkers during the troubled era of Mad Mitch , all ready to sail pilot on board and singled up to the bunkering buoy. News came from the shore of riots and various other problems and was told to return ashore. Which he did. The master then told the mate on the focsle to chop the head line , he then went full ahead to get clear of the port and in the process sank the pilot cutter. Then told me he couldn’t go back to Aden as would be arrested . Quite an interesting career what with
Being in contact with reefs and pilot cutters . JS

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Hi John
Can't make out the name of the skipper, looks like Bavingo or something. He was a bit of a weirdo, we had just arrived in Melbourne from Kwinana, finished discharging and for two days just sat alongside, then the agent came down and asked the mate what the ship was still doing there, he said because we can't find the skipper, h turned up that night and w sailed none the wiser as to where he'd been. that was in 54.
Des

[j.sabourn]

Re. Hogarths another later apprentice of Hogarths was the younger brother of a bloke I went to school with surname Young. He went to the top in same company as well. However must have left sometime in the 70s I assume . He later turned up going with the initial fleet to the Falklands . They put anyone they could get their hands on to the Merchant vessels and signed them on as navigators. A few years later I read in the local paper at home he had died with a heart attack on the deck of a supply boat up the Persian Gulf. He must have only been in his late fourtys. Believe Donald was his first name. JS
PS if you were on any of their cargo ships Des you may have bumped into one of their skippers a Peter Turnbull. Or an engineer who was second on another ship with me, he was an ex B Special from Belfast , and as chance would have it so was the chief , hard luck on the poor 3 Engineer from south of the border ( down Mexico way)
Seconds name was Norman Hutchinson and was a neighbour of mine in WhitleyBay , chiefs name can’t remember, the third engineer was a joe Christmas a real gentleman . JS

[Des Taff Jenkins]

John.
The only other Baron boat I was on the skippers name looks like G. Dawson.
Des

[Malcolm Bennington]

Mine was R760284 issued at Hull Nov. 6 1961

Malcolm Bennington.

[Patrick Collins]

Hi All , my discharge book no was R587805, 1953 TS Vindi, a time I shall never forget,

[John Richardson]

I've done some research on Discharge Books and Discharge A numbers from WW2 to 1972 to try and get an idea of the turnover of British seamen over the period.
Typical numbers issued for various years are

1940 R 217400
1943 R 230000
1945 R 310000
1956 R 658000
1965 R 816000
1972 ??? Was R prefix still used at this time.

I would be grateful for feedback on whether these numbers look reasonable and also for some information on the numbers issued around 1972.
thanks
David Snook

Hi David,
Mine is R851800 issued May 1967.
Best regards,
John Richardson

[Paul Piddock]

My number is R911665 issued whilst at Gravesend STS 1971

[Reg Mercer]

R831814 1966