MN News Snippets

[Ivan Cloherty]

From the "The People" April 29th 1945

DOUBLE RATIONS FOR THEM

Merchant Seamen who have been interned in Germany will be repatriated in the same way as members of the Armed Forces, the Ministry of Transport announced yesterday.

It is hoped to send all fit officers and men home within 72 hours of their arrival at a reception camp in this country. They will be given railway warrants for the journey and the leave will be for a period of from one to two months, according to the time they have been interned.

The food ration books will entitle the holders to purchase double current civilian scale of rationed food supplies for the first six weeks of the leave.

It will not be possible for relatives to meet repatriates on arrival or to visit them at the reception camp.........end

I wonder if any of our war time veterans have any comments on the above, it doesn't seem to be over generous, considering some Veterans were away for years. I would have thought that double clothing coupons would also have been an absolute necessity for these captives, from my recollection the clothing coupons allowed little to be purchased.

Ivan

[Denis O'Shea]

Ivan, they thought they were being generous with the rations, when you consider that merchant seamen went off pay when they got torpedeord put down VNC, and landed with nothing but the gear they went overboard with.
Rgds Denis O Shea

[E.Martin]

Ivan, they thought they were being generous with the rations, when you consider that merchant seamen went off pay when they got torpedeord put down VNC, and landed with nothing but the gear they went overboard with.
Rgds Denis O Shea

I read just recently if they had any leave due the time spent in the lifeboat counted as their leave.

[Keith at Tregenna]

In Memoriam

Merchant Navy 1939-1945

No cross marks the place where now we lie
What happened is known but to us
You asked, and we gave our lives to protect
Our land from the enemy curse
No Flanders Field where poppies blow;
No Gleaming Crosses, row on row;
No Unnamed Tomb for all to see
And pause -- and wonder who we might be
The Sailors’ Valhalla is where we lie
On the ocean bed, watching ships pass by
Sailing in safety now thru’ the waves
Often right over our sea-locked graves
We ask you just to remember us.


Quote:

“When a merchant ship was sunk, the seaman’s pay stopped on the day of the sinking. He did not receive any more pay until he joined another ship. The seaman was given 30 days survivor’s leave, dated from the day his ship was sunk. This leave was unpaid. It only meant that he didn’t have to report back to the pool for 30 days. If he spent 10 or 15 days in a lifeboat, or on a life raft, that time in the boat was counted as survivor’s leave. There were many merchant seamen who joined the Navy because it was extremely short of experienced seamen. They joined under what were known as T124X and T124T agreements. These men were in naval uniforms on naval ships under the White Ensign, with naval officers and subject to naval discipline. They received naval rates of pay. At the end of the war, they were not allowed to claim any compensation or any benefits, because they were discharged as merchant seamen”.

K.

[DeepSea]

They received naval rates of pay.
K.

Keith,

MN serving under T124 Agreememts kept their MN rates of pay.

[Keith at Tregenna]

Stand corrected, was a qoute, but would prefer to get all right.

Thanks K.

[Lou Barron]

hi guys when we arried home in 1945 we was on double rations i think it lasted till i went back to sea also my pay stopped after our sinking as we where presumed dead it was not till after two and a half years that they found out that we was pows of the japs i got all my pay when i returned home we got a measly 26 pounds for the loss of my gear and belongings they also deducted post war credits out of our pay it was about five years after that i got it all back they also deducted money that was suppose to be money the japs was suppose to give us according to the geneva conventoin but all we got off the japs was a few dollars that was near the end of the war it was not worth any thing but after a few months i got it all back i all so ended up with a war pension of 7shillings and 6 pence a week but when i went back to sea that stopped but when i came to new zealand and i joined the nz ex pow assc the best thing i ever did they where a great bunch of guys and the welfare officer siad to me that i should go and get my pension back that would be about 1995 he got all tjhe pspers for me and i got my pension back but i believe that some of the other guys did not fair so well excuse the mistakes i have a stinking cold just as well i have the right medicine