Description of Voyage

[john walker]

I have just been looking through my discharge book and noticed one entry of U.T.A. instead of the usual Foreign,H/T etc. I have 3 discharge books covering 64 discharges from 42 ships most of them foreign going and this is the only one with that entry. Does any one know what U.T.A. stands for??

[Ivan Cloherty]

I have just been looking through my discharge book and noticed one entry of U.T.A. instead of the usual Foreign,H/T etc. I have 3 discharge books covering 64 discharges from 42 ships most of them foreign going and this is the only one with that entry. Does any one know what U.T.A. stands for??

What's the name of the ship john, can you remember what you were doing/trading. Are you sure it is UTA and not URA (under running agreement) which was used widely in the collier trade.

[john walker]

The name of the ship was Rebeka Oma, a bulk carrier She was owned by an American and sailed under the Hong Kong Flag normally loading swarf from Detroit to North Spain during the Great Lakes season and in the winter loading in either Baton Rouge or New Orleans .

[Ivan Cloherty]

The name of the ship was Rebeka Oma, a bulk carrier She was owned by an American and sailed under the Hong Kong Flag normally loading swarf from Detroit to North Spain during the Great Lakes season and in the winter loading in either Baton Rouge or New Orleans .

Well I did answer this earlier but it seems to have disappeared. Well that probably rules out Running Agreement (RA) although Manchester Liners did trade on RA Articles on their trans-Atlantic trades, so still a mystery but Hong Kong did have the same rules as the UK at the time, if voyage pre 1989

[Louis the fly]

Universal Trade Agreements

[Jim R Christie]

It means Unlimited Trading Area, used to state the ship was engaged in worldwide trade.
Similar common acronyms used in discharge book entries are LETA (Limited European Trading Area) and EETA (Extended European Trading Area). These two more or less replaced the old Home Trade and Middle Trade designations respectively, as the descriptions reflect the official terms used in various regulations, e.g. certificates of competency, seasonal/stated trading restrictions etc.
Of course none of this is enforced to any degree, hence how it's far more common to see "FGN" or suchlike used as a voyage description rather than UTA, however LETA is very commonly used on coastal vessels and ferries.
Use of R/A or permutations thereof to signify running agreements are now extinct as ship's articles/crew agreements have been abolished near worldwide and replaced by Seafarer's Employment Agreements which were introduced by the Maritime Labour Convention.
One oddball description in my first book was FNC R/A(U) which stood for Foreign Near Coastal Running Agreement (Unlimited) - this on a ship which exclusively worked the Aussie/Kiwi Coast and Pacific Island trade at that time. I've never heard of or seen it used since.

[Ivan Cloherty]

Thanks for bringing us up to date, FG/HT/RA/MT are probably the only letters engraved on us oldies brains, apart from VG/DR/VNC, never had the latter two!

[Doc Vernon]

Me neither Ivan we were good Boys or just lucky! LOL
Me good ??? Naaaah!!! I think there were many of us oldies who experienced the clap trap mate! Cheers

[happy daze john in oz]

Me neither Ivan we were good Boys or just lucky! LOL
Me good ??? Naaaah!!! I think there were many of us oldies who experienced the clap trap mate! Cheers

I wonder Vernon if the good old VG/VNC/DR and double DR are still in use today?
Indeed do the ships of today even have discharge books or ID cards?
As far as I can tell speaking with cruise ship crews they have an ID card but that is all.

[Ivan Cloherty]

Me neither Ivan we were good Boys or just lucky! LOL
Me good ??? Naaaah!!! I think there were many of us oldies who experienced the clap trap mate! Cheers

I was lucky on all counts, although have given a few jabs when in charge of the dispensary!