Able seaman

[Robert George Young]

I’m sure an able seaman needs more skills now than previous decades?

Or is that wrong ?

Every job I know now requires more skills
Clerical
Mechanic
Etc

Would that apply to todays able seaman?

Thank you

[Doc Vernon]

Hi Bob
Sure you will get good replies from some here on this, but just to start here is a Link about the AB. May help??

I was not on Deck, worked in Catering!

The AB Rank was the equavilant to what i was in the RAF . LAC Leading Aircraftsman

Able seaman - Wikipedia

[Robert George Young]

Thank you Vernon

On other subject book I’m
Reading is life in the French foreign legion
Evan McGorman

[Doc Vernon]

"Life in the French Foreign Legion"

Bob You must remember that Todays Books on the Legion do not tell the way it was in those days , a lot has cahnged, possibly not the Entry details a lot, but the way things really were then and how they are now.
So dont go too much on what is told in the Book!

Cheers

[happy daze john in oz]

From what I have seen and been told when in the Port Melbourne mission there si no such thing now as an AB.
It would appear that on container ships, and there is little else beside tankers and bulk carriers, the tasks now are so varied and nothing like the ones we knew.
Now they are Jack of all trades style.

[Louis the fly]

Bob nearly all of the skills and experience of AB's were lost many years ago. Rigging, slinging, working aloft, derrick and crane work / maintenance, canvas sewing making vent covers etc. General seamanship and comradeship gone.
There is a big difference between AB's and people who just work on ships.

[j.sabourn]

The old ABs of yesteryear finished over 20 yeas ago Louis , they were called GP in uk ( general purpose ) and out here in Australia IR ( intergrated Rating). There were Senior and Junior IRs , however I still referred to them as ABs and ordinary seamen. Today they have to have different skills and like all government laws have to have pieces of paper to prove it. Certificates in FRC ( fast rescue craft) HLO ( helicopter landing officer) Radar Observer ,
Oil Recovery, HUET ( helicopter underwater escape techniques , Basic sea survival, advanced medical , various courses in gas alarms , these are just some of the offshore ones. When I worked with intergrated ratings used to take the easy way out and let them decide their choice of workplaces , the old greasers chose the ER, usually , and the deck men the deck. Anyone who fancied their chances as cook volunteered ,otherwise they cut cards. Today though I wouldn’t have a clue how they work it , as all the old timers will be like the dinosaurs extinct, and the present crews won’t know any different. Cheers JS

[j.sabourn]

The yardstick usually to calculate any seafarers capabilities as to his experience was usually the number of years he had under his belt at sea. Hence the sayings by older seafarers “ I’ve spent longer at sea on a piece of oily waste “ or “ I was in Baghdad when you were in Dads Bag “, plus many others . The whole of the BOT regulations regarding promotion was based on seatime. Today that appears not to be so important. I have never seen it but believe that you could get a junior officer doing his first trip to sea.I have misgivings about this , but am well out of it thank God , The sea life was a job that had to have most of its learning at sea., that at least told you if you were going to be sea sick all the time at the very least. Slight error there have seen junior engineers joining as first trippers , was the only way it could be done . They were usually sea sick as well. Don’t know what year engineering sea going apprenticeships came into being ? But I never sailed with such was always time served shipyard ex apprentices . Cheers JS

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Glaring mistake on Wikipedia, They say that a seaman became an AB after two years at sea, try four, two as deck boy one as Junior Os and one as Senior Os, EDH, then an examination for AB. As for todays ABs totally different kettle of fish, I would class them as deck mechanics. Can they row, skull, splice a rope, or wire, rig a Jumbo, hang off an anchor, plenty of seamanship measures that are no longer in use but in an emergency all these OLD things and many more now lost might come in handy in saving their lives, after all the sea is king.
Des

[happy daze john in oz]

Des, from experience I find half the stuff on Wikipedia a load of crap.
It would appear they will take any item and do no real checks on it.
Have found glaring mistake son numerous occasions to the point that now I very rarely use it.