Ab and competent crew

[Keith Tindell]

Hi Cappy, When i retired i for a short time took youngsters out on a sailing school vessel, these kids were 12=14 year olds, and had 5 days on the yacht and came away with competent crew, that is in my opinion the very basic qualification by RYA, and any AB would eat it. When i took my Yachtmasters ticket i learned navigation, ok not to the standard of the deepsea boys, but i thoroughly enjoyed that, never dealt with navigation when i took my ABs ticket. The most testing part of naviogation on a yacht is in my opinion , tough, getting thrown all over the place, on a very small navigation table etc. I know these days GPS is fitted on most yachts, but have to say i really enjoyed the basics, well at least when you got it right, KT

[cappy]

cappy he is an 8st lab retriever and the only thing in Liverpool that walks slower than me we will take him for ballast{along with your wallet} jp

now feeling very sick someone mentioned my wallet ....cappy

[j.sabourn]

It is very hard to compare the duties between a hand on a yacht and a seaman on a merchant vessel of bygone years. For starters the duties are quite different, as hold and bilge cleaning, deck maintainance not seen on a yacht, crawling around double bottoms and along hatch box beams and spar ceiling, securing of different types of cargo, all these and many more did not exist on a pleasure craft. The only jobs compatable to the two would be the tying of hitches, the splicing of rope and the steering of the vessel. Nowadays most ABs at sea can take a watch, plot a target on the Radar, have a limited radio licence, have the licence as Cox"n of a FRC, be able to act as landing officer for a chopper, have many 1st Aid certs. and in general be able to take a watch, not yet legal but am sure most are quite capable of doing so. I met up the other day with an ex AB I had sailed with out here, he was the cook on the ship last time I sailed with. He is now 2nd. Mate on a ship dare I say turning the illegal boats back. I cant say too much about the cert structure as not interested enough to find out about, but these masters 3 4 and 5 are not too difficult to obtain and I would assume most ABs with their own experiences would find easy enough to obtain. Cheers JS PS Cappy I found your wallet, your credit card is now in the red. Cheers JS PS If my memory serves me right when Master 2 3 4 and 5 first came out, think sometime in the late 70"s for those who had been sailing uncertificated in a certain rank could claim such certificate, before a certain date, and after that an examination had to be sat. JS

[happy daze john in oz]

My mate, now gone to Fiddlers Green, sailed competitive yachts in a number of race styles. I have seen some of the work involved with some of them and it is not for everyone. Sailing in seas that almost swamp the yacht is not the ideal, but thye enjoy and one must admire the skills they develop in this sport.;

[John Arton]

I have in my possession the journal of a 16 year old lady whose father was captain and owner of a Liverpool sailing ship and it records a 6 month plus voyage taking coal from Swansea, around Cape Horn and up to San Francisco where they back loaded for home. Some of the entries are quite remarkable regarding almost running out of food and water, catching sharks and albatross to eat, days spent attempting to round Cape Horn. One line reads "lost the poor little ni**er boy overboard last night, father has put me in charge of keeping the cabin fire burning!".
I also have a number of her letters home as she recounts the sights and scenes of various European cities as she was doing the "Grand Tour of Europe" that many Victorian ladies undertook before being married. She was one of 4 sisters, none of whom married and came from the Crosby area of Liverpool.
rgds
JA

[John Pruden]

john Crosby is only 5 minutes away from me try and get the name I might get a bit of history on the family please.. jp

[cappy]

that is the sort of journal that gives a true vision of sailing ship life and times.......i read a similar thing in instalments many years ago in sea breezes.......in one of the vindi books by roy derham there is some good log references of men demoted as they could not steer a ship correctly .......which of course was what it was all about in sail ....also the skinning out of various crew members and there wage structures.....the treatment of seamens diseases and and the death of one from the same burried in wallaroo....plus the losing of boys and men over the wall......also interesting was the mixture of crews ...a lot of germans finns russians west indian yankees etc who appeared to drift round the world.......it makes interesting reading.......regards cappy

[John Pruden]

cappy there were lots of coloured/black seamen manning royal naval ships during nelsons days because they were treated equal to all other sailors on board one even made sailing master there is a plaque in London and coloured seamen are carved on it along with white crew.. jp

[cappy]

Had a west indian bosun on an ore carrier in 59 came from liverpool .....if i remember name of haj a great guy....and of course many black abs and firemen out of shields best cook i ever came across was a west indian guy from sunderland ......alll hands inc the old man just wanted to eat his curry once a day iether breakfast lunch or dinner ....if he opened a restaurant he would have made serious money.......proper curries not store bought crap regards cappy

[Ivan Cloherty]

It is very hard to compare the duties between a hand on a yacht and a seaman on a merchant vessel of bygone years. For starters the duties are quite different, as hold and bilge cleaning, deck maintainance not seen on a yacht, crawling around double bottoms and along hatch box beams and spar ceiling, securing of different types of cargo, all these and many more did not exist on a pleasure craft. JS

I was thinking exactly the same, but we had to be seen to be doing our duties, but talking to a deck hand in Nice a couple of years back, he said you're supposed to do your work whilst remaining invisible to the owners/guests, think I'd still prefer trying to secure deck cargo in heavy weather than working on a gin palace