Keith Adams

[Ivan Cloherty]

#20, Ain't that the truth, not many deck boys worked 16/18 hour days without compensation, you forgot the uniform requirements (most of them nonsense) as an apprentice, took me nearly six years to pay back the loan from Missions to Seamen to purchase the bloody things, can't repay much out of £6 per month and a low wages of a 3/M, especially when leaving your mother money as well. Do I regret it? Naw! do it all again, if the era repeated itself, but not the present MN

[cappy]

#18. Well I was a council house boy as well and signed indentures That hawse pipe always looked the easiest and best way to do what had to be done. JS

the apprentice had an awful job
niether fish nor fowl
the mate was always shouting
and the bosun always growled
they never got to go ashore
and get drunk like the rest
but only had to stay aboard and take another test
a very hard and no fun life and never know there fate
but you should give them true respect
as one day theyd be mate........cappy

[Keith Tindell]

Totally agree, i was offered an apprenticeship when i was a JOS on the Saint Merriel, the skipper said he could swing it for me with HQ, he gave me all the details, wages, uniform etc, sod that, i would be losing a lot of money as an apprentice, so a polite decline on that. No regrets on that decision, as another 5 years on, change direction and went ashore, but even had i reached the dizzy heights as a skipper and stayed at sea, the years after i left the sea, it seems most were no longer needed, kt

[Keith Adams]

#18 Gordon, You are right to some extent as Liverpool Nautical would only accept you for the test if you old get a Company to accept you on course completion. Even then i had to wait 6 weeks for a ship and actually had approached Elder Dempster for a job when PSNC’S appointment letter finally came. I had walked all the offices in Liverpool so just got lucky one day.
A Wallasey Tech school chum of mine (our Class brain) only wanted to sail with Blue Flu and couldn’t get them to sponsor him (had their own Cadet Ships) to L’pool Nautical with me so he went to the “VINDI” and sailed on Deck only on Blue Flu ships. Gave up 18 months in as other sailors kept throwing his self study books over the side. I always knew he was smarter than myself and rather embarrassed of my success when we met on and off later on.
On one of my PSNC ships the Bosun’s son was Peggy and he was basically a Cadet when it came to the few study periods we were allowed and on the rare actual Nav/Chartwork instruction. No idea if he ever made it.

[happy daze john in oz]

Apprenticeship's now in many industries area thing of the past.
Many industries where they were no longer have them.

Here in Oz there is a shortage of brickies, chippies, sparkies and dunny divers, why, because many are now self employed one man bands and as such are not allowed to take one on.
So now we import them if we can find them.