Becoming an ordinary seaman when one's inexperienced

[cappy]

#76... One of the questions I asked myself from the self Examiner and answered of a sort Q. What is an AB under 1952 Regulations. A holder of a cert. of Competency issued by the MOT. Q. A vessel requires to have 5 ABs or EDHs, only 4 can be acquired, how can ship be manned. Answr. By the inclusion of 1, 4th. year apprentice or 1 senior Ordinary Seaman, to comply to manning scale. This was in 1963 again, what it is today, don't know and don't really care, but whatever it is, is bound to be less than what it was then, as have had an exercise in de-manning going on since the middle 70"s. The manning scale varied from ship to ship, but may have been say 5 ABs, 2 Senior Ordinary Seamen, 2 Junior Ordinary seamen, 2 Deck boys. Usually on trampships there were 4 Apprentices and these could and were often classed in the manning scale as Ordinary Seamen or ABs depending on their sea service, there were no flies on the shipowner. Not forgetting the inclusion of the Bosun who was classed as one of the ABs if necessary, think the Carpenter may have also been on the manning scale then, today he is not. JS

###on the mabel warwick ore carrier we had a dhu he wasa decent skin ...he was mebbe 25 30 year old he had been RN but in submarines......he wished to carry on a life at sea but of course had no seamnship skills for an ore carrier...he did take some stick ..but what option was open to himsurely he couldnt go as deck boy .....his name also went against him ...it was rook he was from the south of the country amongst a load of geordies .......but there where also folk with ABs tickets who where not up to the job ..as seen when we dropped lifeboats to look for a lost over the wall apprentice......it was a comedy with the ship still under way and the man forward letting go of the falls before the man on the after fall let go......and all that followed....regards cappy

[Keith Tindell]

I can remember sailing with DSU,s, and when i was a SOS always resented them to a degree, i was anxious to get my time in to take my EDH ticket as soon as i could, and there was these guys drawing nearly AB money, and could not do half that us OS could, i remember one who could not take the wheel entering or leaving port, kt

[j.sabourn]

You got all sorts at sea Cappy, my first trip we had 3 Deck boys all ex Borstal, they turned out fine. Then you got the odd AB who was always throwing wobblers. My first trip as Mate the second and third mates were old firts and con men. Tried every way for me to eff up. Got rid of them in the finish. Among the good people at sea there were also the bad, who thought they were getting away with it. If they knew it was harder to dodge doing the job than just getting on with it, they found to their dismay they were down the gangway without realizing it. There were more good men at sea than bad, but you get one stirrer and he can make a very unhappy ship. Do you think there would have been any survivors from the P.A. if there had been dummies there. Anyone who has copies of newspapers of that era may remember the press put one article out of some seaman 7 miles away on another ship claiming money for being traumatised by having to watch. What use would he have been if was involved. The DHU'S were in general ok as well but for the minority who just thought what an easy time as nothing to do if they didn't want to, they should have been on no more money than a JOS and not so close as an ABs wage. Whatever junior minister came out with that should have been pushed to the back benches. Cheers hear you've been having some bad weather lately. JS

[cappy]

as you will know john we had the wellesly nautical colledge in blyth i think they were i think i am right in saying it was a reform school we had a few boys from there some goodns some not one nicked one of them cycle hot dog carriers in LA riding up and down the quay drunk as a skunk ...till it whent off the end into the water even old roberts was reputed to have laughed but never grassed him up cappy

[j.sabourn]

As regards the two mates I mentioned in #83, their toes must be well turned up by now. I was 27 and they were in their 60"s, the one mentioned from Shields had no certification whatsoever but went around dressed like an Admiral would never get his hands dirty, wrote for a Shields paper under the title of The Happy Wanderer, was responsible for getting at least one Master sacked that I knew of by writing to the MOT about being inebriated. Over in Oxelosund one Xmas he took a photo of me looking bleary eyed with a family I had made friends with who lived there. Said he was going to put photo in his column in paper, told him I would sue the pants off him if he did and also told him his life story. The other one an ex MN converted during the war to Naval purposes as many were, used to boast about how he took the fleet down to Sydney, he had a mates ticket, I checked up on him and he spent most of the war stationed in Sydney in the QMs stores, he also expected everything done for him and wouldn't get his hands dirty. Two old has beens never was"s. But boy could they stir, in their case wisdom didn't come through age, when I came to taking 4 weeks leave. The Superintendant asked me if the second mate was capable of relieving me, I said no, and as soon as he had gone went and told the second mate he wouldn't be getting the job, and took much pleasure in giving him his life story as well. Two birds with one stone they were well rid of. This was the Pennyworth which believe Jim was also on, this was in 1964. Could go on about these two, but they are not worth the time and effort. Cheers JS As said previously lived close to St. Marys Lighthouse and used to pass the Wellesley School if going into Blyth, it was only someone mentioned to me that it was a remand home that I knew. Could have been sea cadets for all I knew as used to dress the same. Cheers JS