Pay

[happy daze john in oz]

Pay was one of those illusions created by ship owners.
You work your ass off for a pittance, but of course the ship owners must make a profit !!!!!

[Ivan Cloherty]

You work your ass off for a pittance, but of course the ship owners must make a profit !!!!!

Well anyone who went into any kind of business not to make a profit would be bleddy stupid. Personally I am glad shipowners made a profit otherwise I would have had no ships to sail on, new ships have to be paid for somehow.

[j.sabourn]

It is usually for any industrialist or the likes of a shipowner it is his workforce who makes the profits for him. I have seen the true profit records for tax returns for a well known shipowner itemised from the end of world war 2 to the late 1950s . The lowest claim for tax purposes were wages and food but about the only thing the shipowner had control over. The highest claim for a ship is depreciation on hull and machinery next is insurance. Bringing up the lowest claims have always been wages and feeding. I was on a small vessel for a number of years on bareboat charter to the government for 10 years but I was only there for 4 before being moved on , the owners had no outlay or very little for the ship and she earned 10,000 pounds a day. The same with the Bisco ships which were on even more plus very generous overtime simply because they weren’t paying for it.A 10,000 ton trampship in 1948 if she had 2 cargoes a year then the second cargo was as near as can be said all profit. All my time on trampships I can never remember having only two cargoes a year. I dont decry my 50 years in the industry but honest enough to say it should still be there if had been managed better by the country and political will , it was a necessary factor and still is for any island country. Britain no longer rules the waves and never will again unless it is in some swimming pool with a wave making machine in it. Cheers JS

[Johnny Kieran]

The only reason I went to sea was for the adventure, I only realised how bad the pay was when I left it. You get kind of hooked on a life at sea as a young man, and it becomes very hard to jack it. I was lucky when circumstances caused a serious rethink about the future, and listened to my Dad for a change.
I had the best of both worlds thanks to him. Think I posted about that some time back.

[j.sabourn]

#54. The same as most 15 and 16 year olds Johnny we all looked at it through star studded eyes.By 17 or 18 we had knowledge of the world far beyond our years be it carnal or economic geography. It’s what made us what we are today , just like all most old men of whatever background talking about our past working lives. JS

[Des Jenkins]

Hi John
I didn't go to sea to make money as I knew from my brother it wouldn't happen, I went because I wanted to see the world and get away from working for peanuts in a Tinplate works
Money wasn't the object as you can see by my last account of wages deep sea, after 10 months and 15 days I received the amount of 108 pounds 19 shillings 8 and a half pence. I loved the job the comradery of the other semen who one could always trust. But the love of a good woman finally ended it it,, but with no regrets.
Des