crew salaries on cruise ships

[j.sabourn]

Keith you must have been getting loss of sleep money to accumulate so many hours in so short a time. I thought Loss of sleep money didnt come out until about 63, but maybe I am wrong. Cheers John Sabourn

[Tony Wilding]

My lady friend is from Cebu in the Philippines, was working 6 x12 hour shifts as a cleaner in a chinese owned hospital, having to help at posr mortems also, got 2000 pesos a week, thats 27 pesos per hour, 33 pesos is 50 pence,so she earnt roughly 40 pence per hour,, no overtime, no sick pay, no holiday pay,so 75 pence per hour is double, u can buy a new 1 bedroom bungalow in cebu for £7,500.

[Captain Kong]

Keith you must have been getting loss of sleep money to accumulate so many hours in so short a time. I thought Loss of sleep money didnt come out until about 63, but maybe I am wrong. Cheers John Sabourn
.
I dont recall ever getting `Loss of Doss` money tho` this name for it rings a bell, how did it work?
Cheers
Brian

[j.sabourn]

Had to have 8 consecutive hours off in every 24. Say if the chippy was called out to drop the anchor at Midnight ( believe also there was a mininum of 2hrs overtime for a callout) Which would be officially 2hrs overtime, plus 2 hours for loss of sleep. Probably dropping the anchor would be a 20 minute job. However would get 4 hours overtime for this. Dont think this works today. All the ships I have been on in latter years there was no such thing as overtime, as everyone was on Salary. Most people on ship were 6 on and 6 off, would certainly be better off with overtime on the old system. As would be getting 6 hours a day for just doing a 12 hour day. If my maths is wrong please excuse, but that is the system which was out in the 60"s I beleive. On a previous post I mentioned the N.M.B. Book which was the shipping federation bible on all these matters, anyone still having a copy of this for those years, it is all in there. Chhers John Sabourn.

---------- Post added at 04:04 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:48 AM ----------

Brian in addittion to previous Loss of Doss, you must remember when the crews came back after the 67 seamans strike, where they were really let down by the Wilson Government of the day. The laws were changed overnight re-manning of ships. We left Port Talbot on the friday and were 3rd. ship out through the Locks. Up until coming back off strike the seamen had always got overtime for the weekend, there were usually 3 on a watch, 2 if you had automatic steering., and the dayworkers were usually given the option of same. All of a sudden if you had a bell from bridge to messroom it was ok to have 1 on a watch. Also instructions were received to cut out weekend overtime and only essential overtime to be worked. I imagine other companys used this ploy as well. Whatever rise the seamen got viz. generally was cancelled out by this sudden stoppage of overtime, or at least I was told by various seamen it was. I do know that quite a few of very good men packed their hands in after this, and shipping was the big loser. I had no hesitation shortly after this than going Foreign Flag for the next 5 years where conditions in general were much better, although you could also pick a bummer, which I did on one occassion. Best Regards John Sabourn.

[happy daze john in oz]

So working on that scenario John means that they are getting tips plus wages to purchase a house in about twelve months from people that could possibly still be trying to pay of a mortgage. Seems a bit screwed up to me that. How must some feel to find out about this after they have scrimped and saved for a cruise.

I can see your point Les, but you must take into coinsideration the living and earning costs in countries such as Philipines. There are also crew from many of the poorer mid European countries and their situation is the same. One drinks waiter told me his pay for six month contract would buy hima top of the range motor cycle in Croatia where he was from.

[Les Woodard]

From memory before the strike we where on a 56 hour week and used to get extra leave for each weekend at sea when we signed of. The other one was we would get another hours overtime if we went one minute past the hour. Many a time we would be tying up with one eye on the drum end and the other on the watch and the mate on duty would be pushing us to finish. It was always a wonder how the bridge clock was slower than our watches every time. Still maintain that if the crew levels had stayed the same and maintainance was carried out as much as we used to that the shipping companies would save heaps because the ships would be well looked after. Much the same as your car if you do not do services on it then it will not last and replacing parts that are not serviced are a lot more. I still think that the strike was engineered to reduce crews.

[Ray Whent]

in the news Carnival pay 75 pence per hour to Asian and Philippino employees, now they want to have there tips paid direct to the company in advance when u book the cruise at the daily rate they stipulate. slavery still exists.

When I started in 1947 as a Galley Boy on the BP tanker British Tradition we did a standard 10 hour day, 7 Days a week and got a half a days extra leave for every Sunday spent at Sea. Amazing how many ships increased speed and managed to slip into port before midnight on a Saturday! We did lots of overtime but at end of trip the overtime pay was posted up starting with Ch/Cook getting paid the most hours down to the Galley Boy the least. I had to do all the dhoby for the cooks and then they gave me a tip at end of trip when they were paid.

Any old lads of my time can contact me of raywhent@talktalk.net

[Keith Tindell]

Hi, I finished sea in 64, and we were getting loss of sleep money then, however, mostly if we had a good chief we never claimed it, as he used to bung a couple of hours on our total each week. On one ship the chief was an a***hole , so we hit him with loss of doss money right at the end of voyage, hoping this would stuff him with the final tally. As i recall we had to get the union down for him to cough up. I dont think that a lot of chief mates were aware of loss of doss payments, Cheers KT

[Tony Wilding]

a funny story regarding overtime, on a certain Ellerman Wilson Co ship, when we were sent for to sign our overtime by C/E , he was alcaholic, went to his cabin, his steward was there, the C/E had the D/T,s imagined there was a Camel in his cabin,steward said to me .make out you are chasing the Camel from his cabin, which i did, went back inside, C/E calm now, he said do you agree with these hours, i looked at the hours i supposedly worked, was shocked,about 50 more than i actually worked, i quickly agreed and signed and left.

[Don Rafferty]

I seem to remember 'broken meal hour' as well as loss of sleep.

When on the 12-4 and entering port around 0500, as soon as you'd finished your watch you'd turn-to to get the ship ready for port and once alongside, go on to daywork, then around midday, someone would say 'right-o lads, half-day'.