Question about salary

[John Arton]

Re#29
The Hamilton referred to is Hamilton, Bermuda. Nearly every ship I sailed on as cadet to chief officer for Canadian Pacific were registered in Hamilton Bermuda and even after C.P withdrew from the British shipping federation, our pay and conditions were superior to that of BSF vessels. The regulations covering surveys, v
Hull and machinery and safety equipment were strictly observed with annual surveys etc being carried out by Lloyd's classification appointed surveyors. C.P also had some ships registered in Hong Kong that meant they were no different to any of the other registered ships in the fleet. Throughout my seagoing life I sailed on ships registered in the isle of man, Georgetown, (Cayman islands), Haugesund, Cardiff but fortunately having only worked for two different companies, both of whom looked after their ships and staff very well.
Rgds
J.A

[j.sabourn]

#26 not particularly your post but someone was asking about salary’s on Foreign flagged vessels. My experience on foreign owned vessels the Universal maritime union which some quote I never came across . The owners of mostly Far Eastern vessels would pay you by your nationality and what they thought as compatable to what you would earn on your own countries vessels. However they were open to discussion on this.the chief engineer on a Malaysian owned vessel was on 2500 US dollars a month, well above Russian wages ,a polish 2 engineer on a sister ship was on 4000 US a month one was paid according to nationality. Others will tell you different as were with this invisible to me universal union. JS

[Bill McRobb]

I joined my first (Australian) ship in 1968. As a fitter I earned $67 per week. My wages as 5th Eng, (not salary) was $52 per week plus overtime. There was a huge form that we filled in each week to claim overtime, which included gear turns, curtailed meals etc. A big setback for cerificates was the split between Sea Days and Port Days. Only Sea Days counted towards cerificate time. Home port days you may get off but it reduced leave time. This all changed in early 1970 when we changed to salaries. Film star wages were a long way off. Of course Vestey was running Blue Star ships to Oz, famously known for their aggressive tax avoidence strategies. The common market also smashed this trade from Tasmanian apples to NZ lamb. I don't know how many UK ships are still running but we have about, down from 160, this included continual crew reductions, we don't even have an oil tanker. The main work is offshore. Early 70's the container run to Japan was split between 2 Japanese, 2 E&A (P&O Oz) and 1 ANL, (Australian National Line). Now everthing is all OS ships even iron ore to China out of W.A.

[Charles EF Stuart]

In 1968 as an Apprentice I earn't £18 9s 6p per month!

[Ivan Cloherty]

In 1968 as an Apprentice I earn't £18 9s 6p per month!

EEh Lad, tha wer rich, I earned £6 a month in 1954, with an allotment to me mum of £2 10s a month, Govt took NHI and had to repay Missions to Seamen monthly repayment of loan to purchase my uniform requirements, but would do it all again despite all the long hours and sh#te thrown at us and no overtime

[j.sabourn]

The shipping Federation Form C.Ac.of Apprentices Indenture of 1953 the sum of give the following pay scale for that year. How do I know, because I have the indenture hanging in my office to remind me daily of what was .
“ Not withstanding the covenant on the part of the Company hereinbefore contained for the payment to the said apprentice of the sum of 390 pounds in the manner specified . That is to say the sum of 480 pounds in the manner following , that is to say for the first year 90 pounds, for the second year 115 pounds, for the third year
130 pounds, and for the fourth year 145 pounds ( subject to the deductions hereinbefore specified. Together with the further sum of 25 pounds payable after satisfactory service for the term of the Indenture. This was a big rise and added on to the indenture in 1953 . So jumped from 390 pound for 4 years to 480 pounds for 4 years., we’ re in the money honey , probably where the song title came from., the bonus after 4 years jumped
From 10 pounds to 25 pounds. Then it was the dole at 35/- a week for 12 weeks only. School fees being a pound a week.JS.

[Des Jenkins]

Ivan
In 1949 the same as you I got 5pounds a month , two pounds home to Mum every month the rest I used to have a rave' not. It s why I spent so much time walking around in foreign ports enjoying the sights.
Des

[Ivan Cloherty]

Ivan
In 1949 the same as you I got 5pounds a month , two pounds home to Mum every month the rest I used to have a rave' not. It s why I spent so much time walking around in foreign ports enjoying the sights.
Des

Some how Des, we still managed to lose a bucket full of cherries and enjoy life without the use of any substances, I found that looking about 12 years old when 16/17, blond and blue eyed in S.America was not an hindrance

[happy daze john in oz]

Great rate of pay as officers steward.
We were paid four hours overtime per day at sea.
Chief officer Charnley said we had to be on call at all times should any officer have needs, grog, food.
Very rarely we got a late call so it was good money for little work.

[James Curry]

1969 £20 a week as first trip junior, 2 trips and got bumped up to 4th Eng £37.50 + £1.50 as night onboard while in port, the 3rd eng was a pisshead and wanted to go up the road most nights on the coast, so I did his nights as well if it suited me.
So as a nbaby junior engineer £1000 a year.
My last trip in 2013 £70,000 a year with NGSCO, but considering I was only doing 10 weeks on 10 weeks off , well paid as far as I was concerned.
But got sick of working with Arabs, I was doing a training roll my last 2 years. You could train a monkey quicker.