Chief Stewards Info

[Captain Kong]

This one ship I was on, Fyffes Banana boat,,, in the 50s.I wrote it in Seafaring Stories thread.


One of Fyffes Banana boats, in Garston for a voyage to Tiko in the Cameroons in West Africa. The day we joined we had to load all our stores, Plenty of boxes of food, sides of beef and lamb and so on.
The following day we sailed down the Mersey, it was lunch time, and as we sailed close past the Pier Head all the girls from the offices were there cheering for us as we sailed close by.

We had a six day run down to Las Palmas where we stopped to load bunkers, It was during the night, a lorry came alongside the gangway as we finished rigging it. Then we were told to carry the stores we had loaded in Liverpool down the gangway and onto the lorry. And at the end the Chief Steward with the Mate and Captain pocketed a wad full of notes. We got nothing. We had 12 passengers on board so we thought there must be plenty of food left on board. There was for them. The feeding was bad after that, we went hungry. Every meal was made of bananas, fried bananas, grilled bananas, roasted bananas, stewed bananas, boiled bananas, sauted bananas, mushy bananas, frappe bananas, and we were going bananas.
We couldn`t sleep at night because of hunger pains.
The Captain, `Mighty Joe` was a huge man, and when I was on the wheel he would be on the wing of the bridge lifting a 300 pound barbell, `Can you do this ` he would say to me.
`If you gave us some food I could, I am weak with hunger.`
`Don`t be so soft ` he would say.
All we had for evening dinner one night was a thin soup with bananas instead of potatoes, called Irish stew.
I was voted in as the one to go and kick to the Captain, `Mighty` Joe .
I went up the boat deck with my plate of "Stew", I knocked on his door and he opened it, towering above me, `What do you want` he said, `The crowd want to complain about the food, it`s diabolical. This is supposed to be Irish stew`. `What`s wrong with that?` he said. Me forgetting he was an Irishman said `It`s alright if you`re Irish, but`…...... ? .
and with that he smashed me in the face with a big iron fist and I did a somersault down the ladder to the boat deck and ended up under a life boat. My face covered in blood from my nose and lips. I crawled down aft and all hands laughed at the state of me. They had eaten theirs, mine disappeared somewhere over the boat deck. So I went hungry again.
There were quite a few ships like that in the 50s, mostly obscure London Greeks, One was so bad , the Captain, Mate and Chief Engineer skinned out in Port Lincoln, On many we were on our Pound and Pint, Fresh meat was goats on the hoof. The galley boy had to kill, skin and gut as and when required. Chief Steward with his thumb on the scales when weighing out your individual stores.
Blue Star boats with 15,000 tons of meat , lamb and beef, on board and we were Hungry.
Used to go down the hatch at night and lift a case of corned beef or pineapple and eat it in the cabin.
Would not have missed it, that was what seafaring was all about.
Cheers
Brian

[John Gill]

#61. I did a couple of trips on a Skin boat late 50's- the Changuinola- don't recall her being a bad feeder although The Banana diet was quite popular. I worked in the shore canteen in Garston as a kp waiting for a berth, and certainly saw some jiggery pokery with victualing some vessels. The skipper on both my trips was a guy named Cruickshank- a very apt name perhaps if he was a dodgy dealer like Kongs 'Mighty Joe'
Gilly

[Captain Kong]

Hi Gilly,
If you were in the Catering Department you had a better chance of some decent food than the crowd, sailors and firemen, down aft.
I did several skin boats, Tetele, Tilapa, Corrales, Pacuare and Matina.
Corrales, and Pacuare were on the Tiko, Cameroons, run and they were the ones that Starved us, because they stopped at Las Palmas outward bound to sell all the stores. The others were on the Jamaica run so there was no place to sell the stores.
That was the difference.
Cheers
Brian.

[happy daze john in oz]

This one ship I was on, Fyffes Banana boat,,, in the 50s.I wrote it in Seafaring Stories thread.


One of Fyffes Banana boats, in Garston for a voyage to Tiko in the Cameroons in West Africa. The day we joined we had to load all our stores, Plenty of boxes of food, sides of beef and lamb and so on.
The following day we sailed down the Mersey, it was lunch time, and as we sailed close past the Pier Head all the girls from the offices were there cheering for us as we sailed close by.

We had a six day run down to Las Palmas where we stopped to load bunkers, It was during the night, a lorry came alongside the gangway as we finished rigging it. Then we were told to carry the stores we had loaded in Liverpool down the gangway and onto the lorry. And at the end the Chief Steward with the Mate and Captain pocketed a wad full of notes. We got nothing. We had 12 passengers on board so we thought there must be plenty of food left on board. There was for them. The feeding was bad after that, we went hungry. Every meal was made of bananas, fried bananas, grilled bananas, roasted bananas, stewed bananas, boiled bananas, sauted bananas, mushy bananas, frappe bananas, and we were going bananas.
We couldn`t sleep at night because of hunger pains.
The Captain, `Mighty Joe` was a huge man, and when I was on the wheel he would be on the wing of the bridge lifting a 300 pound barbell, `Can you do this ` he would say to me.
`If you gave us some food I could, I am weak with hunger.`
`Don`t be so soft ` he would say.
All we had for evening dinner one night was a thin soup with bananas instead of potatoes, called Irish stew.
I was voted in as the one to go and kick to the Captain, `Mighty` Joe .
I went up the boat deck with my plate of "Stew", I knocked on his door and he opened it, towering above me, `What do you want` he said, `The crowd want to complain about the food, it`s diabolical. This is supposed to be Irish stew`. `What`s wrong with that?` he said. Me forgetting he was an Irishman said `It`s alright if you`re Irish, but`…...... ? .
and with that he smashed me in the face with a big iron fist and I did a somersault down the ladder to the boat deck and ended up under a life boat. My face covered in blood from my nose and lips. I crawled down aft and all hands laughed at the state of me. They had eaten theirs, mine disappeared somewhere over the boat deck. So I went hungry again.
There were quite a few ships like that in the 50s, mostly obscure London Greeks, One was so bad , the Captain, Mate and Chief Engineer skinned out in Port Lincoln, On many we were on our Pound and Pint, Fresh meat was goats on the hoof. The galley boy had to kill, skin and gut as and when required. Chief Steward with his thumb on the scales when weighing out your individual stores.
Blue Star boats with 15,000 tons of meat , lamb and beef, on board and we were Hungry.
Used to go down the hatch at night and lift a case of corned beef or pineapple and eat it in the cabin.
Would not have missed it, that was what seafaring was all about.
Cheers
Brian

Was that a Banana split when he hit you one?

[Brian Charles Williams]

Chief Stewards on cargo ships in 1957 were on 63 pounds per calendar month.

[j.sabourn]

#65... Brian the same year 1957 a third mate with a 2nd. mates cert was on 47 pounds 7 and 6 pence a month on A agreement. The BOT was below this with overtime but no ticket leave. 2 years later a second mate with a mates ticket was 76 pounds 7 and 6 pence on the same agreement. and in 1963/4 a 1st. mate was on 101 pounds 7 and 6 pence a month, with 27 pounds 2 and 6 pence a month in lieu of overtime. In 1966/67 I went out to Canada and worked for the US dollar and was on if remember correctly 750 dollars U.S. per month with various bonuses and 3 months leave after a year. From then until 1988 was on various salary structures the lowest for any seafarer I would imagine would of been the stand by boats in the North Sea where the wages for an AB varied from 16 pounds a day to about 22 pounds a day with some companys 1 day leave a week away. Conditions on some vessels would be hard to describe and barely enough water for yourselves never mind anyone else. The medicine locker consisted of a biscuit tin with elastoplasts and bandages etc. Was normal to be out up to 6 weeks and if above 60 North wasn't very pleasant in wintertime. I think Ivan at 13 doing such trips must have been the making of him as it didn't put him off. Also most companys you had to pay your own travelling expenses, you had to go to the mountain at your own expense. JS

[Ivan Cloherty]

#65... . Was normal to be out up to 6 weeks and if above 60 North wasn't very pleasant in wintertime. I think Ivan at 13 doing such trips must have been the making of him as it didn't put him off.

or perhaps John I was too young and stupid to realise what I was doing, then again when you are young you are fearless and nothing is going to happen to you, it may happen to others, but not to yourself, it's only when you are older you realise how precious life is. But I can look back and think 'I really did that' and yes it did stand me in good stead for a later life, but I couldn't have made a life of it like others did, so many went out, never to return home, but it was always 'the others'

Life is so mundane now, shopping and dancing, sometimes at the same time if I'm in that 'up yours' mood

[Captain Kong]

so many went out, never to return home,

That was the real price of fish.
Brian

[Bill Morrison]

#68
Hi Brian. Not just Chief Stewards. Trawl Owners were just as devious, substitute fish for bananas.rpf 001.jpg

[j.sabourn]

#67... One bad year in the North Sea had to watch and listen to a f/v go down with all hands only a couple of miles away. We were going backwards being blown south. there were plenty of ships around but weather that atrocious couldn't even get a boat away. We were struggling to stay afloat ourselves. Think she had carried on fishing in the bad weather and was a sidewinder. When not fishing some of them trawlers were very comfortable in most big seas. However getting somewhere was a different story. You could bet on it every year there were fatalities in the North Sea, if it wasn't a helicopter down it was some supply or offshore or fishing vessel. It got very little if any reaction in the media. My best mate was drowned and wasn't even told until went back to the ship and found out for myself from the person I was relieving. The enquiry was called and all over , I was the last master to have been with him except for the one who relieved me who was only there 2 days before he was over the side. I wasn't called to the enquiry or anything and as said wasn't even told. Was as mad as a hatter about it. This was another nail in the coffin of that company who wanted me next trip to sail with one man on deck and I told them to stick it. This was after the recommendations of manning of service vessels by the Cullen Report. JS