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Thread: Joining up

  1. #1
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    Default Joining up

    When I first decided to go to sea a cousin of mothers gave me some advice.
    He had been a bosun for a number of years before coming ashore and taking a position on the Woolwich Ferries.

    I went up to the Pool in London and at the gate met by a guard who asked what a spotty faced little lad like me was doing there?
    I told him I wanted to go to sea and had come here on the hope of being able to sign up.


    He then directed me to the building where such interviews took place, saying be very careful in there!!

    I was ushered into a room which smelled of stale tobacco smoke and perfume.

    There the other side of the desk was someone, not sure what.
    He as it turned out was male, but wearing make up and obviously as camp as could be. I did not like the look in his eye, very sus I thought.
    I suddenly understood the warning from the guard.

    Very carefully I answered all the questions while at the back of my mind the warning from mother's cousin, 'you will see men who look like women'
    This one looked like a very old and stale queen from way back.

    I completed the interview and got out as quick as i could, the guard then asked me was I all right??

    It all worked out well in the end, got my papers to go to the Vindi, as they say the rest is history.

    Did anu of you ever experience such??
    Last edited by happy daze john in oz; 23rd March 2023 at 05:54 AM.
    Happy daze John in Oz.

    Life is too short to blend in.

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  3. #2
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    Default Re: Joining up

    I got my interview at Prescot St pool. The hardest question I got was "how did you get to this office?" I think it meant to describe the directions I took, but I said "on the train". Passed though.

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    Default Re: Joining up

    Reminds me of a chief Engineer I was with on his interview . He was ex RN , they asked him if he drank , his reply was don’t mind if I do , male it a gin and tonic no ice. I learned later in a Japanese bath house in Yokohama he said the no ice was a fetish with him as he was on the Malta convoys during the last war and the ice was made with dirty water and he was laid up for some time. Don’t think he got his gin and tonic in the shipowners office though. JS
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    Default Re: Joining up

    Reminds me of the very young girl who had got pregnant withe lad from school, the parents asked where the acts had taken place, and the girl said it had been in the front room, the mother then asked if they had taken any precautions, the girl then said, yes, we locked the door.
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    Default Re: Joining up

    I spent a day in Liverpool attending interviews with a number of shipping companies arranged for me by the shipping federation. The one I had with the Canadian Pacific was held in a small meeting area off the main entrance of their offices in the liver buildings, where the staircase down to the basements was. The personnel officer interviewing me kept disappearing to attend to other business, to such an extent that at one time he actually forgot about me and I had to grab hold of him to remind him what I was doing there. He arranged for me to have a medical by the company doctor (passed by his secretary whom asked her what she thought of me, lying naked on the examination table, her reply was, well he is not going to die tomorrow is he!. Got dressed and walked out with a pass. Eventually found the personnel officer, told him I had passed the medical. He then said ( so you want to go to sea do you), (yes, I said). So when can you sail then, he asked?, Can you sail tomorrow?
    Of course I couldn't as had to get all my sea going gear etc. So we agreed on two days time. Went home, organised everything at home and returned to Liverpool the day after. Eventually found the personnel officer who had interviewed me, who immediately offered me the job as 5th mate on the empress of England , when I expressed doubts about my ability to do that job he got a bit annoyed until he realised he had me mixed up with someone else. So I got sent across to Tranmere to join my first ship, a crude oil tanker.
    After that the rest is history, 41 years sailing around the world and would do it all again given the chance.
    Rgds
    J.A.

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    Default Re: Joining up

    Not joining up to go to Sea, but just thought i would post this of one of my Joining up times.

    It was in 1961 Feb. me and my late Brother Greg, went from Southampton to Paris, a hard trip as we had next to nothing in Cash, but managed somehow to make it there! Thats another Story.

    Anyway it was our plan to go and join up with the FFL.
    After a long trip we got to Paris, and after some enquiries managed to find the Recruitment Office in Vincennes. Up to those great big Gates and after a wee bit of chat with the Guard, we entered!

    We were ushered into a large empty Room, and told to just sit and wait!
    The Room was very barren, and rather scary at the time, but as told we just took a seat and waited!

    My nerves were a bit on edge i must admit, but after a short while i seemed to settle.

    I will not go on about what happend , as that would be too long a story, as this is just mainly to show what that barren Room looked like, this Pic is not at the Fort at Vincennes , but at the Fort Nugent, but it was exactly the same in every aspect, even to the Pic hanging on the wall. The Legion had this thing of everything must be the same.

    I cannot seem to find a Pic in the old Fort de Vincennes??

    And so our journey in the Legion Began, and all i can say it was the hardest time in my entire life.
    But even so i would not change things even if i could, as my life has been one of Excitement , Adventure and Love!

    Here i end
    Cheers
    Last edited by Doc Vernon; 23rd March 2023 at 09:26 PM.
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    Default Re: Joining up

    There is many a movie and fantasy made about the Legion Estrange Doc. It was said to be full of ex Nazis after the last war seeking obscurity , was there any truth in these stories ? Or just another Hollywood fantasy.? I know I was pleased to see them one night on the Horn of Africa when was picked up by them in the midst of street mobs and went back to their barracks to sample the delights of the bare or not barracks . Mogadishu was the name of the port if remember correctly. JS
    Ps . Ivan May know it as and just about finished our run down the Red Sea taking so called flour and aid to the Sudan courtesy of I think Bob Geldoff. Needless to say we had one hold full of spirits and liquor of every description for the government of a so called non drinking Nation. JS
    Last edited by j.sabourn; 23rd March 2023 at 11:36 PM.
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    Default Re: Joining up

    I never went to the pool, I wrote to the Shipping Federation, they sent me a form for my parents to sign, my Dad had left home and I had a hell of a job to get my mother to sign it, eventually after much pleading she signed it, they sent me a travel voucher for some place called Sharpness, never been out of Wales before that.
    Des
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    Default Re: Joining up

    Quote Originally Posted by j.sabourn View Post
    There is many a movie and fantasy made about the Legion Estrange Doc. Mogadishu was the name of the port if remember correctly. JS
    Ps . Ivan May know it as and just about finished our run down the Red Sea taking so called flour and aid to the Sudan courtesy of I think Bob Geldoff. Needless to say we had one hold full of spirits and liquor of every description for the government of a so called non drinking Nation. JS
    Hi JS
    Not knowing then , but could well have been the case, but there were many Germans in the Legion, wether they were N----- or not eluded us !
    As one joined and many with just Fictitious names , the Rule of thumb was no Questions asked about ones past! Yes we all knew there were mostly at that time lots of Crims, of all kinds and whatever other, it was as said just a silent code to keep Stum.
    After one signed up, your identity was changed and you took on whatever ID you chose!
    But there again, if one was straight up and honest, then of course there were many like that, and they just preferred to keep their real name etc.
    Things Today are very different , and a strict Check is taken of any new recruit.

    Cheers
    Last edited by Doc Vernon; 24th March 2023 at 12:08 AM.
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    Default Re: Joining up

    Quote Originally Posted by j.sabourn View Post
    aid to the Sudan courtesy of I think Bob Geldoff. Needless to say we had one hold full of spirits and liquor of every description for the government of a so called non drinking Nation. JS
    Mr Geldoff, a name not liked by AID societies and the World Food Program, he may have thought he was doing the right thing, the road to hell is paved with good intentions, but he put the self reliance program of Ethiopia and others back years and the results are still being felt today. Two shipments of AID don't relieve a famine, do earn you a knighthood you cannot use, awarded by people who had never been there and never understood the requirements or politics on the ground. Food shipments were gradually being reduced and fertiliser and agriculture machinery being increased, the machinery carefully vetted as nothing could be supplied that could be turned into military use and the country was becoming self reliant, then along comes Mr G with his free food and the politicians saw a way to increase port levies and labour costs, unfortunately those increased costs had to be paid out of the general budget for Aid, which meant less funds for food, fertiliser and agri equipment. There is too much to go into and I have written reams before. Far from being a saviour he was screwerupper

    Vessels carrying ordnance and/or liqour (usually Soviet/Soviet Satellite vessels) got priority over food and fertiliser ships, I had ships with over 90,000 tonnes of Aid which could not get a berth because of that scenario

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