Pay

[John Swan]

1st wage as apprentice in March 1953, Border Regiment, was £7.10 (old money) per month. 1st wage 3rd Mate £43.10 pm. Last wage 3rd Mate 1960. £63.15. Had bought a bungalow,new, for £2,160 and had a baby boy so packed it all up and came ashore. Regretted every minute I had spent at sea at the time when struggling to find work ashore, but now look back on an experience never to be forgotten. Finished up working for Shell and retired at 54 on full pension, happy days.

[Kevin Murphy]

I have an old payscale for T&J Harrison, Dated January 1957.
CADET3yr cadetship) 1st yr=£13/month, 2nd yr=£16/month, 3rd yr=£20/month
CADET4yr cadetship) 1st yr=£10/month, 2nd yr=£13/month; 3rd yr=£16/m, 4th yr=£20/m
3/O-Uncertificated From £40 to £41 /month
3/O-Certificated From £47 to £48 /month
2/O From £58 to £66 / month
C/O- From £70 to £84&10shillings / month

I found this amongst paperwork in ROPNERS office in Dartford after the Darlington office closed (and all the Ropners people left) and they were managers for Dart Line Freight ferries, no idea why the bit of paper was amongs various boxes full of Ropners archives.

[Laurie Ridyard]

As a 1st trip Deck Apprentice with Hain SS Co 17th March 1959 Wages £108 per year £9 per month overtime 1s 3d per hour 44 hour week usually 3 hrs per week day overtime plus 12 hours Saturday & Sunday watchkeeping. Sent my dear Mama £4 per month allotment. Fags 10/- for 200.

[Noel Kelly]

No idea of wage scales except my own. Went to sea in December 1953 as a junior engineer officer with Royal Mail Lines and my pay was 30 pound a month.

[Chris Newton]

As a Cadet with PSNC joining in 1958 I was on a rate of £12 per month increasing over the 4 year apprenticeship to £20 However in 1961 was appointed uncertificted 3rd Mate on one of their new supertankers. I seem to rember that my salary jumped to £140 per month but that seems high compared with other people at the same time. Was i lucky or was it my memory?! Fondest memories of nearly 60 tears ago of that period.

[John Miller]

Very interesting reading on the wages. When I joined in 1965 as a Catering Boy. £27 a month, but my overtime came to a lot more. I used to send an allotment of £15 a month home to my mum. She kept it all for me in a Post Office Account. When I became Assistant I really thought I was rich £56 a month & again the overtime came to a lot more each month. Still miss my Bowater years.

[happy daze john in oz]

JS, you are once again correct mate.
The day will come when ships will all be automatic, no crew.
But will the shipping companies be happy then, somehow I doubt it.

[Ken Trehearne]

When I joined my first ship as a Deck Boy, after the Vindi, in August 1948 the monthly pay was 7-pounds per month. When I left the sea in 1957 the pay for an AB/QM, or either of these, was 24-pounds p.m. I don't recall the rate for either JOS, SOS or EDH between those years. I always had an Allotment to my wife though I don't now know how she received it though she certainly never had to collect it. Neither of us had a bank account in those days though we did have a tiny amount in a building society.
Ken T
R412277

[tom wilson]

1960 £14 a month catering boy (Bell Boy) on Pendennis Castle, still got my payslip.

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Hi Ken.
If I remember correctly the shipping Co used to send a type of postal order, not the same as the proper one, I remember coming home one time and my mother had most of them saved up. They could be changed in shops, pubs etc, she used to pay the local Pop man for a dozen bottles, he would give her the change less a bit to bank the form.
Des