Louis there were 5 of us on a small vessel with at least 37 survivors I say 37 as this is what the official figure put out not by me as believe at a rough guess there were more. Who passed personal gear to some of them as they were short of clothing. The second engineer itemised this gear with an estimated value at a later more convenient time, and this was passed to the owners. About 8 months later I was still sailing with the same crew that is the ones who didn't pack it in. They kept on asking me when they were going to get their money, this was in a different company by this time. All that was passed on by me was an old pair of shoes which had been standing beside my door and had a value of 5 pounds put on them. I should have taking more notice of what was being asked of me but for the sake of 5 pounds I wasn't worried. Apparently others were as they didn't have much. So I approached my union who said they couldn't do anything as the company wasn't a union ship. I then approached the oil company in question who were very upset as said they had passed the money on to the owners immediately on receiving the itemized list. When the company was approached about 8 months after receiving the money, their reply was you should have applied to us for the money we have it in the office. It was really only coppers to them but to a couple of them it meant a lot as you know how poorly paid those vessels were. Apart from the principles involved is another fine example of a shipowner. I never asked the company for my 5 pounds, as far as I was concerned they could stick it up their jacksy, but each man if they wanted their few pounds had to go and apply for it from their ex employers. This I am sure was in retaliation for leaving their employ which was all perfectly legal and all had put their proper notice in. They acted like small kids the owners and that was about the limits of their intelligence. Then when people decry unions and I say you are better with one than without, those who don't know any different think one is a strong socialist. JWS