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Keeping the cost down you say John.Never a shortage of anything in CPR in fact there was a lot of waste.Ships were well over stored dry stores and meat for the sole purpose I'm sure for making up the store boxes for sale on channel night,some boxes went down the gangway at the stage onto Daley's wagons five bob to Daley to deliver right to your front door.
Regards.
Jim.B.
You were lucky Jim , on UCl it was hard going at times. We had one second steward who had mmarried into the Cayser family, tight, he used to squeak as he walked.
JimQuote:
Originally Posted by Jim Brady
I remember those boxes from when I was on the "Canada". When the steward came round asking me if I wanted a £5, £10 or £20 box, I did,nt understand what he was going on about, thought it was some strange sexual practise at first. The crossings season I was on her, the head Barkeep was always first down the gangway, before the customs came on board, with two cricket bags full of booze, dropping a couple of bottles off for the Customs, before leaping into his motor that his missus had come down to meet him in. Whilst loading the stores the shore gang used to help themselves to a carton of steaks, landing the pallet on the deck by the stores hatch just in front of the Captains cabin and helping themselves. I used to watch them doing this whilst I was on bridge watch and first time I saw it rang down to the Captains cabin to let him know what was going on. The catering super actually answered the phone and he told me to forget about it and let them carry on. Think everyone was frightened that if they stopped the shore gang from helping themselves, they would go on strike and no stores would be loaded and this would mean we could not sail. There was a lot of corruption on the Empress's towards the end of their life with the deck and engine crew being charged £1 if they wanted a steak for evening meals.
Later on when the bulkers and tankers went to 3 months storing, if we were in a European port Hardings of Bristol used to send a 40ft articulated lorries out to us with all the stores in them, with the refrigerated one first stopping off at the catering superintendents house to drop off some prime meats into his garage freezer.
On the Forest Product ships, after discharging in Tilbury, there was always a large amount of dunnage on the quay, consisting of construction grade plywood, the stuff that was only finished on one side, and lengths of 3 x 2 sawn timber left on the quay after discharge. As we would either be taking cement clinker or steel back out to the East Coast USA or going in ballast to load Phosphate in Jacksonville for Vancouver, this dunnage was just left on the quay in Tilbury. The foreman stevedore got an agreement with the MacMillon Bloedel , who were the importers, that he would arrange for the disposal of all this dunnage. He used to get it for free and then would sell it on to his contacts in the Building and DIY trade. Rumour had it he was making that much dosh doing this that this earned him more than his stevedores wages which were pretty dam good in the first place. If you wanted to get some nice timber home for any of your own projects he would arrange for it to be put onto a truck that was doing routine deliveries up to your home town and you would not be charged more than a couple of quid. Our U.K. discharge ports for these forest products were Newport for the deck cargo, Tilbury and Rotterdam for under deck cargo. All the wire slings for the deck cargo discharged in Newport were again disposed of each trip as if we had taken them back to be re-used for the next cargo in B.C. every one of them would have to have been tested ashore before being used again, so it was cheaper to use brand new ones each trip. Most of them ended up in the dock in Newport in the middle of the night. In Tilbury the same happened but again the foreman stevedore had a deal going with some outfit that he sold them all onto. The only things that remained on the ship were the lashing chains and bottle screws for the deck cargo. All slings and dunnage were waste so a couple of guys were making a very tidy living out of disposing all of that considering there were three ships on the run.
rgds
JA
The guy that asked about information on Chief Stewards has maybe not found any of the above comments useful or helpful, as he does not seem to have responded . Which has got me wondering how often people ask for help/info/advice etc. which is freely given and do not even bother with a polite thank you ?
Remember only once taking a store box home.The butcher was my cabin mate, so no charge.
Was trying to lug my gear and box down the gangway, when coming up was a custom bloke.
He actually helped carry my box down.
As I lived in Coventry, some of the crew came to see me off at Lime Street.
I put the box in the storage, and of course went off for a few Bevvies.
Some hours later, after missing several trains, I went to get the box.
A bit of a crowd of station employees were gathered around it. Blood was dripping out.
Had to open it up to prove that no human body parts were within.
Finally reach home. It was then that I remembered. We didn't own a fridge.
We had one BIG dinner that night
In reply to John Walker’s post.Quote:
Originally Posted by john walker
Thanks for all your many and varied replies to my questions, in the short week that they have been posted there has been a number of interesting tangents. Unlike so many of the “senior members” and “friends of the site” I do not have the time to logon on a daily basis to check for replies to my questions as I am busy with work and other things. To those who have attempted to give me factual replies, I say thank you very much. I do hope that there will still be some more factual replies to my questions. Particularly in regard to salary, seems that there does not seem to be a lot of factual detail on salary rate for Chief Stewards……was the covered under the Official Secrets Act? Lol.
I think John Walker did make a fair comment Stewart , there are many times details are asked for here and then there is no acknowledgement , but many people do live busy lives and I am sure we all appreciate that , You gave a ten year gap for the salary , and I would suggest that the salary equated on cargo ships and tankers very much to second mate / Third Engineer / Chief Electrician , but my own experiences tell me that in 1970 changing companies could add 100% to your salary , and the BoT/ DoTI / Pool rate was lower than any company , in 1968 I would expect it to be £120 - £200 pcm as a purser Catering Officer
I was'nt sure if I should answer this as I think our enquirer was a bit sarcastic with his reply.During those years the ships cook was on about £45.00pm so I imagine the chf/stwd was on about the same or maybe a little bit more.John Evans would know the ships cooks money around about then.
Regards.
Jim.B.
#36 There are certain ways of asking for help and sarcasm is not one of them. 'Senior members' and 'Friends of this site' gave a lot of years to this industry, I gave sixty working years, others have given similar and indeed more. We are entitled to time off for good behaviour, one day you will be old.........if you're lucky. And if you do reach your dotage you may have learned a little respect along the way.
Is there any particular reason why you want to know the salary for a Chief Steward? Monthly rates varied from Company to Company and whether one was on Company Contract. Also seniority within the Company came into play. Perhaps you could explain why it is important to have this information.Quote:
Originally Posted by Stewart Polson
Regards
John