crew salaries on cruise ships

[j.sabourn]

I have even seen crossing the date line where Sunday disappeared so no Sunday at Sea. Crossing the other way have never seen 2 sundays this would make history if it ever happened. Cheers John Sabourn.

---------- Post added at 11:56 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:49 AM ----------

Thats right Ron. Broken meal hour was an hours overtime. As said no more though, is reconized 12 hour day at sea now and no overtime. Is supposed to be all in Salary. Cheers John Sabourn

[Captain Kong]

I was on the Suevic in 1955 , we arrived in Beauty Point, Tasmania, early Sunday morning, The Captain and the Mate told us to turn to and clean the holds ready for Monday morning so the Wharfies could load the Apples.
In those days anything to do with the holds , hatches or cargo was a shore pay job, On a Sunday they paid
£1.+ 2 and 6d an hour, we were on 4 shillings an hour so that was good. We told the Mate, we will work on the ship such as sooging and painting etc but not touch the hatches as that was a Wharfies job.
The Mate got the Master and he said `if we dont turn to down the hold then he would call the Police and charge us with Mutiney`
The Police came and they appologised to us and said the Master was right that we were mutineers. I called the Wharfies Union, the man came to the ship and said It was a shore job to clean the hatches, if the Sailors did it then Shore pay would have to be paid.
We hadnt refused to work only the Wharfies job. So the Wharfies Union man said , `Clean the hatch and we will go on strike, so we cleaned it, and when Monday morning came the wharf was deserted, No wharfies,
The Mate and Master were going demented.
He stopped our subs, We were there for six weeks, the tugs had blacked us so had the Pilots.
The only pub in town said `If you paint the pub you will be on free beer for tha duration. We got the paint from the Paint Locker and every evening we painted inside and outside in Shaw Saville colours.
it was beautiful. The old man could not understand how we came back bevied every night and weekend.
After six weeks they let us out and we went across to Melbourne and the Captain was replaced by another.

[j.sabourn]

Ref. # 36. From Les Woodward. Les the 56 hour a week went out the window yonks ago. When I say there is no overtime now, what I mean there is no paid overtime, plenty worked as necessary. It is an accepted fact now that it is a 12 hour day, 7 days a week, which makes it an 84 hour week if necessary. If you are unlucky enough to hit the wrong ship this is what you work, enforcing it varies on the people who you sail with. My last 23 years at sea were in the offshore oil and gas industry, with the occassional escape back deep sea during times of lay offs etc. I have mentioned before in various posts re. offshore in UK. The master is expected when alongside rigs and platforms, holding the position for discharge or backloading, mainly when I was there with a twin screw and a bowthruster. The rig can enforce an 18 hour stint for such, I brought this up in another post re. Safety. Also during my time it was in the safety directives not to work on the weather side of a rig. I have often worked on the weather side snatching, knowing if I didnt the ship would have been put off hire. The working conditions and power to say no, were much more straight forward in Australia. As for the loss of the 56 hour week, I seem to remember it suddenly appeared in the agreement that an extra 2 hours a day could be worked on sanitary duties, boat and fire drills etc. Then Wham Bang it suddenly changed to 12 hours a day and this now accepted. All this was supposed to be included in new salarys. All I can say the unions made some terribly bad decisions. As regards maintainance we heard it would all be done ashore, this never happened, and less manpower tried to keep up as usual with such. Best regards John Sabourn. P.S. This is my own way that I see it others may be disinclined to agree. JS

[happy daze john in oz]

Not too sure about the week but have an idea that maybe 48 hours in the early 60's. As officers stewrad we got 4 hours overtime every day as we were on call for all the officers needs, so no complaints there with UCL. But with NZSC it mattered not how mnay hours you did, never any of them considered as overtime.

[j.sabourn]

John, referring to after 67. Prior to this if I remember was a 40 hour week, with Loss of sleep etc. weekends were overtime. Was a head ache making out the overtime sheets, especially when rates such as say 67 and a half hours at 3/9 an hour had to be calculated (arbitary figures) for about 12 men every week, no calculators in those days, you were lucky if you had a ready reckoner book. Used to work closely with the Bosun every week to transfer to Companys sheets. Some companys used to scrutunize very closely and did not want to be caught with egg on the face The ore carriers as a few on this web were on were on BISCO charters and as these were quite lucrative (government paid charters) on some of the ore carriers 6 hours a day was quite common. The only thing is when/if you did work 6 hours after usual hours you then ran into the complications of Loss of Sleep. Three hours was about the norm, as kept you out of these complications, although some received much more in different ships. The shipowner in this case was more easy going than normal, as the taxpayer was paying as Bisco as you know was a nationalized industry I believe at this time, so was not coming out of his pocket so to speak. This is I believe the only reason why the overtime was so good on the ore carriers. No overtime sheets on ships now makes some peoples jobs much easier, but on the other hand have been landed with other duties instead. Cheers John Sabourn. BISCO British Iron and Steel Corporation.

[Les Woodard]

Well as far as I know we where on four hour watches twice a day seven days a week and no overtime paid before the strike. Though we did get extra leave for the weekends at sea. Maybe catering was on different hours to us or some barsteward owes me a heap of overtime.

[j.sabourn]

Les, there must be someone somewhere who has an NMB book for that era. I think all of us has been done over by the shipowner at some period of time. Mine was on Nights on Board. In UK if a mate or engineer had to do a night on bolard re. fire duties etc. he received 1 pound. Supposedly. I put it down to experience and just dont trust the employer or if I do it is with trepidation. Cheers John Sabourn. PS Catering Staff may have been on different hours, ordinary shipping usually consisted of Ch. Stwd. Cook and 2nd.Cook/Baker, 2nd. Steward, Assistant Steward, and a couple of boys. Passenger ships may have been on different agreement outside the BSF agreement. JS

[happy daze john in oz]

I do think that it is possible catering crew did longer hours. Normal day was turn to at 0600, then work until about 1400 hours with maybe an hour off during that time. But the hour would be made up of maybe 20 mins after morning duties before breakfast was served. The rest would be between breakfast and lunch. Then either 1400 to 1700 with about 90 mins off, or 1700 right through until stumps which could be as late as 2230 hours. That was for wingers, BR would have had similar hours but different split, as would bakers, galley crew and bar crew. Many of the BR would do extra hours serving on the press at lunch and diner, some in the plate house as well. As officers steward it was 0600 turn to until about 1300, then two hours off or work until 1900, two hour off went on until 2100, the next day alternate shift. But as we were on call at all times we got four hours overtime each day Mon to Fri. Sat and Sun was all at higher rate.
The long hours for catering crew still apply today on the cruise ships, do not think deck do any more than eight a day.

[Doc Vernon]

Pretty damn Spot on there John!
I was fortunate also to get extra cash paid for doing little extras for the 2nd Stwd,like cleaning all the Silverware etc!
A job that many didnt like at all,however as you well know we all had to still do our own!
But as you i certainly never had any complaints with UCL,as i have said before i was always in pocket,and still managed to send a heck of a lot back to me Mum,who at that time was battling to make ends meet!
Cheers

[Louis the Amigo]

Hi shipmates I have an M .N. rates of pay book in my collection,{ very rare} with all about loss of sleep payments e.t.c. a N.U.S. book not for the public, from the union office in cardiff by pennyless point , not far from the peir head pub {still open}I will find it and tell you what the rules say? as soon as possible!!!