Union fees

[Roger Millard]

#33... coming from the neck of the woods that you do Roger you will probably know Mickey Slack an old Wimpey man, then ? Maybe you also know Mickey Reed though he wasn’t with Wimpeys he came from Lowestoft .The last time I saw him he was standing on the quay seeing to one of these stand by /fishing vessels as he was the supt. For same and hadn’t been ashore very long. JS.

The dates and names that come to mind JS started in the OS industry Nov 66 left Oct 68 our home port was Gt. Yarmouth. Claim to fame was guarding the gas leak from Sea Quest rig, warning trawlers and other vessels away from the area so they didn't sink which some found laughable then carried on supplying here at Bridlington where she went for shelter then to rotterdam for repairs. The names you mention i dont recall however one famous one was Cap, Brownrigg & Peter Staunton. Keep safe Cap. R.

[Tony Taylor]

#31... can you remember the name of ship Tony.? Nomis the managers of the Silver Pit were owned by a Norwegian Company. As have said before the company name was Simon backwards . Maybe some family Christian name ? I used to think of Simple Simon. Thinking back they already had 1 purpose built ship then working in the British Sector. Maybe that was a second one , or maybe still the first. Cheers JS

cant recall, I was shown a picture and a layout of the whole ship, it had facilities for about 270 casualties or thereabouts

[j.sabourn]

#25. Like most certificated officers Ivan you have the same thoughts as most of us. I negotiated my own wage on foreign vessels , however I had something they had to have. Coming back into British Shipping on federated Shipping it was the maritime year book. But ieven there, there was a chink in the armour which I had no hesitation in using and that was the seniority rates , although not large I insisted on , that was the deep sea ships , offshore was different as I was a newcomer to that. The seniority rates were I think supposedly there for long service with one company , as far as I was concerned by that time they were all jumping the fence. We really didn’t need a union, but there were many seamen who had nothing to sell , so a union to speak for them was an advantage. Cheers JS.