Discharged

Hi John.
On My father's first world war discharge book, one page has the ships name, in the first column, date and place of engagement in the next,rating in the next, date and place of discharge in the next, description of voyage next, then the signature of master. In the following page is a place for report of character and ability IF required by the seaman.
In my book it is all on one page and states on the top of the page that; Copy of report of character if DESIRED by seaman, so I take it you could have refused to have a DR stamped on your discharge book, don't know if this is the right interpretation?
Cheers Des
PS I never got a DR as I was a good boy, but wish they hadn't logged me so much.

Attachment 18517

No DR or VNC but a number of loggings. I fail to understand why I lost 5 days pay for being adrift 6 hours on sailing day from Cape Town homeward bound. Cpt. Patey had no sympathy when I tried to explain that I had been seduced by one of the local females who reused to et me go. Somehow he did not see brandy and frilly knickers as a valid reason for being late

#22... Have heard of that one before. just looked at my first book but does not state that, so must have seen in some Shipmaster Business Book. Believe you could even without that stated in your book say that you did not want a report entered in book and could have not required inserted instead. By todays standards re a persons rights and all these new fangled laws re. a persons libertys etc. think the old discharge system could be a legal minefield for anyone who wanted to follow through on. When you consider it is not even legally correct to insert a persons religion or photograph on application forms for employment. When the Martians land it will be incorrect to call them little green men. Cheers JS

My DR was beyond me,was'nt logged,never spoken to by the captain,never went near the bridge so you can imagine my surprise when I picked up my book at pay off.To be quite honest I don't think that I would've looked in my book why should I ??It was my fellow DR recipient that pointed it out to me.
Regards.
Jim.B.

Perhaps the skipper liked you Jim and that's why you got a 'Distinquished Report'

What did they call your fellow recipient Jim, was it Hardy. JS