GP Crew

[Richard Cotton]

I joined the Br Centaur in 1967 as an EDH, after one trip I was offered the chance of going on a GP course in Liverpool, which I did. I stayed on GP ships until I swallowed the anchor in 1977, all with BP having obtained a Company Contract.
I'd been on passenger & cruise ships prior to joining BP and the contrast was huge. I enjoyed every minute of working for BP, especially on the GP ships. I loved the variety of the work. Usually a week on Deck, a week on the Bridge and a week in the Engine Room while at sea, then in port working when & where required.
Better living conditions and pay than on the passenger ships was a very good bonus as well as the warmer climes.
What did others think of GP Manning?
I didn't mind the lack of decent and infrequent runs ashore too much either.

[Keith Tindell]

Hi Richard, Welcome again, nice to meet a fellow crew member from the good ol IOW. I also worked fro a very very short period on Wightlink circa 1994, regards KT

[Richard Cotton]

I worked for Wightlink from 1998 to 2009. Mostly on the Cats. It got me back working on the water again at least

[Ivan Cloherty]

especially on the GP ships. I loved the variety of the work. Usually a week on Deck, a week on the Bridge and a week in the Engine Room while at sea, then in port working when & where required.
.

Welcome aboard Richard, for some us old timers to whom the letters GP stood for 'Getting Pizzed'

What did your Engineroom periods entail
What did your Bridge periods entail
What did your deck periods entail

We have a few on here who have sailed with or as GPs but no one has actually clarified what they did, although the term GP was alien to most of us, perhaps we actually missed out on some experiences, although we were of course proud of being 'on deck' in our era

[Richard Cotton]

Hi Ivan
One day someone had the realisation that on board a ship, the workloads of the Deck and ER crews were different.
The Deck Crew did most of their work in port, handling cargo, docking and so on, and lighter work was done at sea, fabric maintenance and so on. While the ER did the bulk of their work at sea, while the engines were running.
So what was decided was to train up crews to do both jobs, and in so doing reduce the number of the crew as the crew would not have so many slack periods while either at sea or in port.
This became possible when ships, tankers at least, became more modern and automated. UMS (Unmanned Machinery Space) was introduced into new tonnage, accommodation was improved, and pay increased.
The result, and aim, of these measures was to greatly reduce the number of crew on board, and thereby saving on the overall wages bill.
I usually worked 1 week about. 1 in the Engine Room, 1 on deck, and 1 Watch keeping on the Bridge.
Many of the tasks in the ER were automated, lubricating the engine's, manning the boiler and so on. So, The week in the ER was usually Day Work, cleaning, wiping down and generally keeping the place clean and tidy and so on, as well as assisting in any Planned and Routine Maintenance that was being carried out.
At sea there might be 3 GP1s in the ER.
Similar on Deck. 3 GP1s doing fabric maintenance at sea, and assisting with cargo handling etc in port.
In the Bridge there would also be 3 GP1s. Each keeping the traditional 4 hour watch. Lookout at night and general bridge duties during the daylight hours.
The whole crew would come together during busy times anywhere. Docking, tank cleaning major ER jobs like Scavenger cleaning, piston pulling, or whatever.
there would also be a couple of POs and a CPO on board as well, plus a cook, 2nd cook/baker and steward on the catering side.
I really enjoyed the variety of GP manning.
I always think of BPs GP ships as having a crew of 33. From the Old Man up to the GP2 or GP3 if we had one aboard.

[Ivan Cloherty]

Thank you Richard, your explanation appreciated, will give a lot of us a better understanding of modern shipping. In our day it may not have achievable having a GP system, as apart from tankers/ore carriers most of us served on ships with anything from 12 to 22 derricks plus jumbos and all their associated gear which kept us deckies fully occupied at all times and paint wasn't of the sophistication and durability as it is these days so we had little spare time at sea, then of course there were all the tween decks, dunnage requirements, hatchboard repairs, or wheels on macgregors, etc etc, which presumably are not necessary on modern tonnage.

Thanks again for explanation, but still glad I served in the era I did, although the wallet suffered with long stays in port (but it was worth it!)

[Richard Cotton]

I never worked on cargo boats. My Pool was Southampton, so it was mainly Passenger Boats on offer. I got fed up with them, and used to too and fro past Fawley on the way to the Pool, so I got the idea of joining tankers. I wrote to Shell, Esso, and BP simultaneously asking for a job. Never got a reply from Esso, but got one from Shell, asking for my Discharge Book, which I posted off. The following day I got a telegram from BP telling me to JOIN the British Centaur in the Isle of Grain. I phoned up Shell asking for my DB back asap, as I had the job with BP. They returned it post haste, and the rest is history.

[j.sabourn]

Never had the fortune or misfortune to sail with GP crews on British Ships. However I suppose you could call it an unofficial GP crew on various foreign flag where a crew member would quite voluntary change his job on the ship from deck to engine room to suit the purposes of the ship, and no big deal made of it. On going offshore in Australia in 1991 on vessels of less than 10 in the crew, supply boats and such, did not carry a cook, unlike British Ships which had to as was in the Regulations. I was told that prior to my time the unions had agreed with the shipowners to do away with to get a rise in pay. Whatever one reads about pay rises in the Australian Maritime Industry it is always two sided and one gets nothing for nothing as some would have you believe. I believe on vessels above 10 in a crew had to carry a cook and did so on the likes of seismic and survey vessels. About the middle of the 90"s a lot of seamen were doing I believe a course which lasted a number of months at the Maritime College in Tasmania, and this was paid for by the Seamans Union. After this all seamen on offshore vessels were what one called IR"s.. Intergrated Ratings. I believe they are also called the same on Australian deep sea vessels. They were taught as far as I know routines in the engine room and Radar Watches and such on the Bridge. Myself I was a believer in letting them choose amongst themselves whether they wanted to work in E.R. or deck, however as regards cooking they also had to decide as they used to take turns at this and one was very lucky to get someone who enjoyed doing and if so was usually left in the galley permanently by a general show of hands. GPs to my knowledge were brought about at the owners instignation and was in readiness for the reduced manning which they probably had the foresight to know about before anyone else apart from the government of the day. As regards changing jobs, on a chinese foreign flagged vessel had occasion to promote the firemans cook to 3rd. engineer believe it or not. Cheers JS

[John Arton]

I worked for Wightlink from 1998 to 2009. Mostly on the Cats. It got me back working on the water again at least

Richard
"Channel Watch" on BBC2 featured an episode where they showed those WightLink sea cats.
The Mate was a very smart looking female and her first job in the morning shift was to check over the engines, switch all the electronics on etc.
She and the Commodore! {captain to the rest of us} plus one other female who checked the passengers were the only crew.
The Mate was a real GP crew member, engineer, A.B. {she did the moorings} and bridge watch keeper as she also did the majority of the driving.
If interested you can watch it on the BBC IPLAYER.
rgds
JA

[John Pruden]

nice to see you posting again dick on the best shipping site on the net.. jp