Union fees

That’s for the regular no moans as such Shipping Keith , put the same hours of work on half the wages and in the worse scenario 3 days paid leave a month served at sea. Granted the actual work was not so labour intensive , but it was 12 hours watchkeeping a day as only carried a skipper and a mate. Also In most cases in hand steering as well. I am of course referring to the stand by vessels . JS,

John, like you and many others have at times taken all manner of work to earn money.
When we first came here over 40 years ago it was fairly easy to find work if you wanted it, but it was not always in your field.
I spent a month selling house cladding to tide us over until the position I had secured came available.
After leaving the Uni too young to retire so took all kinds of hospitality work, did well from it though.

Yes we have unemployed who are genuine, but also a lot of dole bludgers and so called homeless who beg ion the streets and go home at night, every city has them.
My brother came here as a sparkie but had to spend six months at night school to get his Australian qualification, took what he could and spent four months building wooden crates, but it paid the bills.
He now works for him self, but the other thing that has come about from Union pressure is the business of 'out sourcing'.
Get a company from out side to do the work as needed and not carry such as permanent employees.
My brother is doing very well from this practice.
e

Just to clear up the confusion on hours worked on supply ships. All AB's were on daywork no watchkeeping. Once arriving at the rig you worked until all equipment had been discharged and backloaded with items to go back to shore, usually containers and skips. This was normally a quick procedure but it did take longer if pumping water, cement and diesel up to the rig. Working in pairs only two men were needed on deck to discharge and load, if the weather was bad the other AB's lashed the cargo as it landed on deck.
When anchor handling, once the job had started you worked until it was finished because there was usually a narrow weather pattern to complete the operation.
Towing, this involved three supply ships or powerful tugs, when the tow wires were connected to the rig and towing commenced it was relaxing time until the rig was at it's new position and anchor handling would start.
I never worked 12 hour days 7 days a week, one day could be 12 hours or longer the next day could be 4 hours. Everything depended on weather conditions.
Arriving back in port the fun and games began.
Unlike JWS I was never on stand by boats, the conditions those crews lived in were terrible. I was used to hot showers good accommodation and the best of food so not for me.

Offshore Supply Vessels. For Roger M. John S. Louis T.F. I have been looking over all my old correspondence as to agreements on wages and conditions reached between employers and the various maritime unions.
When I left deep sea in 1970 to join I.O.S. supply vessels my wages were £104/month as 4th Eng. In the interview for a position as a 2nd Eng. with I.O.S. the wages were quoted as £65 which would have been a large drop. I nearly fell off the chair when they said per week. It was 5 weeks on and 2 weeks off and a two week holiday period for reasons I can't remember.
In 1975 when with Seaforth Maritime terms and conditions improved and have copied these extracts and over the years, I was there conditions were good.
Bill

#54. Too faint for me to read Bill. Think when I went with Seaforth in 78/79 it was one on one off. After a couple of trips on the Jarl and another one , I got sent to the Clansman on MOD charter and was quiet happy to hide away there for 4 years as mate. With brief appearances back in the North Sea during leave periods. Went master when got dragged out by the ear from my safe haven , then went master on the Victor ,Commander, Sovereign and Viscount after another apprenticeship as mate. Then according to my discharge book got made redundant in Sept. 86. Went back deep sea . Next time in North. Sea was a year later on a stand by vessel a converted whale catcher.
However I think the salary in 1986 was 18000 a year in Seaforth for a junior master. Plus of course there were bonuses for all as to the towing and the number of anchors up and down. I know I was better off than deep sea in the supply boat side of the Industry. No two ways about it. Cheers JS

I often wonder what rates of pay are now on the likes of Container ships, bulk carriers or tankers.
With most now crewed very often by those of third world countries I suspect not much.

I know with Cruise ships the pay for most crew is reasonable and some of the senior officers do very well.

Before I retired in 2013 on LNG carriers the master & C/Engs were on £90k and 10 weeks on 10 weeks off. I also know of retired Masters and other ranks free lancing via agencies doing relief work for £20k a month. I did one 6 week trip after retiring doing relief work £17k. I was still being offered relief work until 2017.

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Originally Posted by Ivan Cloherty

I have found through life there are doers and there victims, some like being victims. Someone once told me on here it was alright for me because I had the advantage of a University education, must be two of us, as the only university I attended was the university of life, the educational university passed me by, something for which I shall be eternally grateful having seen some of the results of late. Education passed me by with the help of Hitler's mates bombing me out three times and sometimes no school to go to, the school I eventually went to after the war was miles away and it was a walking job both ways. I went on trawlers at 13 to get money to aid my family as dad was in hospital, the same at 14 and 15. I was told I would never get a job as a cadet in a certain company, at 15 I got on a train in Hull (not so easy in those days) went to Liverpool without an appointment, I was told no one would see me, so I just sat there until someone did, I saw two Supts, they gave me a job (to start when I was 16) and my train fare home and something extra for food. That has been my mantra throughout life, if someone tells you that you cannot do it, prove them wrong. I was made redundant at 48, started my own company and told by my previous employers that I wouldn't last a year, my first big job was in competition with them, I got it, because the people realised that I had been the catalyst in that field in that company and not the MD. The 12 months turned into 27 years until I retired, I was never a millionaire, but didn't do too bad for a boy from a Council Estate with no formal education, but never once did I consider myself a victim. Some said I was lucky, but I did find that the harder I worked the luckier I got!

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Have to agree with Ivan here, I was working very hard then luckily enough I won the lottery, so I stopped working very hard.

We all have targets in life Louis because we are told we should have. Very pleased to hear you achieved yours. Mine was just to achieve retiring age I achieved mine as well . JS.

I was lucky never had any problems getting decent jobs with reasonable money. I was offered work in the North Sea. I thought was being interviewed for supply boats as Chief Eng. It was for Standby vessels. I cannot remember the wages but I can remember my reply to the guy on the phone, You must be ducking joking I would not put a boiler suit on for that money. I could see how things were going so went into LPG/LNG vessels.