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Re: MV Waipawa
As said John, 1 was Sos, and had been on the ship some 12 months at that time, our home port was Hamburg, and running to the Med. We were on the 6 month running agreement, and had paid off in Hamburg a couple of times, a certainly young lady was the reason i kept signing on . Finally i told the skipper i wished to pay of, as i had time in for my EDH, thats when he offered me the position of sailor, the pay was just below AB, so was a good pay rise for me. I have never met anyone else with that rank/position, but the the 60s were the beginning of strange times in the MN, kt
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Re: MV Waipawa
#21. The sea has always been strange , and what most of us took as gospel and had to be adhered to was not always conceived as we thought. Depending on the flag of a vessel and country of origin it had to obey that countries maritime laws . When a ship is in International waters it has to obey International law , all well and good.
As has been discussed on here previously an example of this is salvage . The reason why the master of the Flying Enterprise stayed on his vessel was not because he didn’t want to get his feet wet , but because his ship would be up for grabs for any other ship in the vicinity. He was proof of ownership of the vessel and it was only on a deal arranged through him that a towrope would have been put on board. The mystic saying about the master being the last to leave a sinking vessel applied to gentlemen and not to any law that I know. Captain Smith of the Titanic I can never imagine him as a hero going down with his vessel , this is for landlubbers to theorise about, he knew if he survived he would have faced a dismal future workwise . People like to fantasize and make heroic epics that really don’t exist. The Titanic would not have sunk to the music of the London Philamonic Orchestra , but have gone down with hundreds of screaming passengers and crew fighting for survival. British shipping however had the advantage of a manning scale and every seaman was designated a title AB was the starting top point , is immaterial otherwise to have such titles for pay scales, you can call a seaman under any title you want otherwise , I won’t repeat some of the titles I suspect as I have been called. Hopefully it wasn’t “ hello. Sailor “ Cheers JS
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Re: MV Waipawa
#21... Keith it sounds like he put you on the wages of a DHU which was probably in the NMB year book. Sounds better . especially to other foreign owners. Think if remember it took 2 DHUs the same as 2 SOSs to make up for 1 AB in the manning scale , So a ship that required 7 ABs could sail with 6 ABS and 2 SOSs or 2 DHUs. Someone with the NMB book would have the correct figures. Cheers JS