UK Customs Checks

[j.sabourn]

They went ashore with the sole intention of selling the clothes off their back to pay for a night of wine women and song. There was a market for clothing as well as other things. Seamen weren’t rich but they did see life as for tomorrow it never comes if one can help it.
JS

[Allen James Jones]

Not sure what dates you are working from Brett but the Customs border staff where mixed in with the newly formed Border Protection Service. I travelled from NZ to do a voyage (passenger) on a Grimaldi car carrier some years ago and at the voyage end at Southampton we had to get a taxi to the airport to check in. I think the system is more about saving money than promoting efficiency.

[happy daze john in oz]

Our customs here in Oz also work in conjunction with Border Force, the ones responsible for keeping the illegal boats away from our shores.
Thye do not stuff around with any boats they see coming our way, turn them back

[Austin Carl Largan]

When I was 2nd Stwd on cargo ships running out of Liverpool I saw.....the black gang desperately crawling bilges trying to find a hidden stash and bust hard working sailors for a few extra packets of cigarettes while the clearing officer was sitting in with the Purser Chief Steward deciding how much of the bonded stores he wanted on the Jerque note and how much he wanted as 'float'. The 'float' was all the non company booze the Purser Chief had purchased on his own nickle at the last port of call, and the Jerque note was how much was officially in the bonded store. The float was for sale after arrival Liverpool. Substantial amounts of entertainment grog was swilled during this time. When the details were ironed out a seal would be applied to the bonded store. However, sufficient slack was left in the seal strap so as to allow the Purser Chief space enough to unlock the bond and open the door sufficiently enough to allow him to get his arm inside and access the cases of booze and cigarettes which were stacked from deck to as high as he could reach. Every three or four days the boarding officer would swing by for lunch, a pleasant chat and spend the afternoon swilling entertainment issue grog and swinging the lamp. A visit to the bonded store ensued so the Purser Chief could rearrange his stack of cases, the seal woud be re-applied and the process was repeated. He never had to leave the ship to accomplish any illicit sales, rather that all his customers would come to him, in the form of every rank of port official you could think of including customs, and police....both uniformed and non-uniformed. What do you think the contents was of all those official looking satchels with the Royal Coat of arms on the side? Ships papers?? When I say I saw this happen, participated would be more correct as for the most part it was me who did the legwork between the bonded store and the Chief's office. As they say in the military, R.H.I.P my man.....rank has its privileges.

Austin

[j.sabourn]

Ref. Your time in Trinidad what year was it. ? I am going back to 1967 and was there every 6 weeks for the best part of a year. We had a Trinidadian crew so knew Port of Spain pretty well. I was mate on the Sunprincess a general cargo vessel with the usual 12 passengers. Years before my time there she had been involved in a collission with a Harrison vessel in the Little Bocas she still had a bad name with the people of Trinidad due to the loss of life.
My skirmish with the civil servant at the High Commissioners office finished up with him receiving a black eye which I received an apology from 12 Downing Street for , think they were embarrassed that I had to exert myself, his nose was the original target. The British community living there always gave me a wide berth after, so the word must have got around. JS
A brief reason for the misunderstanding he had the passport in his hand and in the other hand my Dis. Book and said I want your ship in this book. My reply that is a British book and that ship is Liberian . If that goes in book I will be blacklisted by the BSF as it was at that era in time. He said you could be a great train robber so I’m not giving you the passport. This from a clerk with a size 8 hat. The second engineer waiting for the same interview came rushing in to see what the commotion was he was about 6 Ft. 4 inches so the heavy squad threw us out minus both passports. JS

[Des Taff Jenkins]

HI John.
So that is why every time I went into a pub in Aus there was a sign somewhere saying JS was here.
Des

[j.sabourn]

The pubs closed too early Des , not even time to get a decent bevy in before 1800 hrs. And 6 deep at the bar took time to get within service range. JS

[Des Taff Jenkins]

HI John
Freemantle was the worst, it only took the wharfies a few minutes to get to the pub, by the time we had changed and got there we ended up outside the door trying to push our way in., then trying to carry six schooners out was total war.
Des

[Austin Carl Largan]

Hello J.S.
Gawd, what year was that??? I am thinking it was around late 80's....somewhere around that time. I was base manager for a 4 vessel oilfield supply boat operation and I had a nice apartment in P.O.S. but there was a lot of commuting for me. The vessels would go to Chaguanus to take on bulk and then when fully loaded head on down the coast to San Fernando and stay there about a week, loading up. I also had to go to Port Galeota, which was a long drive on Trini roads.
Before I was transferred there I had to visit a couple of times to get the boats ready for USCG inspection and at that time the Captains were acting as Captain/Managers and were left to their own devices. Naturally it just turned into unsupervised party time and the expenses incurred were more than our profit margin. My boss said to me"get down there and sort it out". Upon my very first visit I deliberately arrived unannounced to see what was going on and my first stop was Chaguanas. It was a short launch ride to get there and the loading station was right there by that big prison island they have. The vessels only had two US crew, the Captain and the Chief, the rest were Trini nationals and when I arrived the Captain was not on board, only the Trini mate. So I started asking questions as to his whereabouts and what the situation was. The mate told me that the Captain was ashore using the company taxi, staying at the company hotel and did not join the vessel until sailing day, in San Fernando as he was a very busy man with company business and stuff.. Upon my asking who took the vessel down the coast the mate proudly stated "I do sir." I said "OK, lets see your papers" The only document he had was a torn out page from a receipt book issued by the harbour master of San Fernando which stated "Captain of Motor Launch" Fee Ten Shillings. This was the receipt issued to get a bit of revenue from day trippers puttering around the harbour in launches on a Sunday day trip. It got worse. He had no seamans book nor any other form of mariner document. It got very much worse.....neither did any of the entire crew and I had a USCG inspection coming up in 4 weeks time. If you think it could get worse than that it did. I had four boat loads of them, all in the same state of no documentation. Our joint venture partner, who was responsible for local crewing just crewed all 4 vessels with roustabouts from his on shore drilling operation and none of the so called Captain/Managers had the common sence to advise the office about it. That show came to a rapid end and I mean overnight. My boss told me to find somewhere to live.
I was then faced with the task of getting four boat loads of landlubbers some sort of documentation before USCG got there and shut down the whole operation. My only hope was Panama so I approached their embassy there and got together with their man on the spot in charge of marine stuff and we got together and fabricated a huge dossier of absolute fiction attesting to the seaworthiness and competence of all said landlubbers and for a special extra consideration I was able to expedite the processing of such documents, as under normal circumstances, as I was assured by the man in charge there....that under normal circumstances such a process took considerably longer.
Do you think things could possibly get worst for me??? They did. Just as I was bringing this deal to conclusion I had a visit at my apartment one afternoon from a very sanguine gentleman from the US embassy who worked for some obscure department usually associated with putting their noses into the internal affairs of other countries politics and who was, quite astonishingly enough to me, fully aware of what I was trying to accomplish and at exactly what stage of the proceedings I was at. Accompanied by a little bit of naughty boy finger wagging at me and a couple of "tut-tuts" He advised me that I just couldn't do that. When I pleaded with him that it was all above board really in the big picture and that the issuing agency was quite happy with the deal he went on the advise me that my little bit of jiggery pokery and rule bending had not gone un-noticed but it was not really the big issue here. He went on to say that the State department was not really happy with me doing business with Panama and that I would have to stop being naughty and go somewhere else with my pack of lies......NOT Panama. He left it at that and departed with a friendly "Ta-ta".
Do you think it could have got worse? It did, I had to start all over again with Vanauatu. ......Vanu-frikken-uatu.
Two weeks later the USA invaded Panama. All the best

Austn
p.s. that will give you an idea of the date

[j.sabourn]

My only experience with the US coastguard on a one to one basis was in Milwaukee . I was in the cocktail bar of a hotel in the afternoon when this matelot came in with his usual briefcase. Sat next to me on a bar stool and tried to make conversation which was quite acceptable , but further into the dialogue I had to mess it up by asking if it was correct that all coast guardsmen had to be over 6 feet to enter the service . Nah he drawled who told you that and why.? I replied so if the ship sinks he can walk ashore. He wasnt amused
So shortly after I excused myself to go to the bathroom and hence departed to seek less dangerous ground . He was well over 6 feet so probably took it personally.JS