Becoming an ordinary seaman when one's inexperienced

[John Pruden]

chris with all the medication pills and potions we would have to take with us we would all be in nick for drug smuggling.

[Chris Allman]

Yes John you are probably right, but hell whats a few pills amongst friends

Chris

[John Cassels]

Sorry if I'm missing something here gentlemen but I fail to understand how having to do the most
terrible and dirty jobs on board would prepare one for later life .

The reasoning escapes me.

The only defence I can think of is that when the time came that you were in the position to issue
such orders then you would know what you were ordering the poor lads to do.

A good grounding for later life ? . I beg to differ.

[Don Rafferty]

Becoming an ordinary seaman when one's inexperienced

Taking the OP's original question as a statement, isn't that what DHU's were in the '60s - Deck Hand Uncertificated, or Dinkydoos.

I believe the only qualification was to be 18 years of age and there was a bit of resistance to them. I think they were on the same payscale as an SOS.

[Tony Morcom]

Sorry if I'm missing something here gentlemen but I fail to understand how having to do the most
terrible and dirty jobs on board would prepare one for later life .

The reasoning escapes me.

The only defence I can think of is that when the time came that you were in the position to issue
such orders then you would know what you were ordering the poor lads to do.

A good grounding for later life ? . I beg to differ.

Even a jockey starts out by shoveling horse poo John. Any good apprenticeship entails learning from the bottom up (puns intended) and it helps teach you the correct ethics for life.As cadets / apprentices we were all theoretically destined one day to rise to the top of our professions and be able to pass our knowledge on. Practical experience always outweighs theory.Although I only stayed at sea until I made second mate I have never regretted for one minute the 3 years practical experience I had on ships prior to taking my ticket.

Once I got ashore I used those same ethics to firstly run my own business and then later as sales manager for a national company.

Hope that goes someway to answering your doubts.

[Captain Kong]

DHUs or Deck Hand Uncertificated started in 1955 when the strike was on, It was used to help take out ships during the strike. They were almost on the same pay as an AB that took 7 years to get on top pay. same overtime rates. They were not allowed to leave the deck, so could not go aloft, over the wall on a stage or on a stage doing the fore part of the bridge etc.
I joined the Empress of Scotland after the strike and the ship was full of them, they were useless,
They were mostley ex Army, and we as ABs had to do everything whilst they stood around doing nothing.
The three funnels were soogied every trip, 17 days, alongside the landing stage in Liverpool before sailing round to the Gladstone dock. only half a dozen of us and twenty on deck watching. One made my gantline fast while I was sooging in the chair and Then stations fore and aft and I was stuck up there for near three hours, could not lower myself down. until I was seen shouting when we had made fast in Gladstone. Bloody useless. they were a menace.
Brian.

[Captain Kong]

[B]Don Rafferty [/B]Becoming an ordinary seaman when one's inexperienced

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Becoming an ordinary seaman when one's inexperienced

Taking the OP's original question as a statement, isn't that what DHU's were in the '60s - Deck Hand Uncertificated, or Dinkydoos.

I believe the only qualification was to be 18 years of age and there was a bit of resistance to them. I think they were on the same payscale as an SOS.




DHUs or Deck Hand Uncertificated started in 1955 when the strike was on, It was used to help take out ships during the strike. They were almost on the same pay as an AB that took 7 years to get on top pay. same overtime rates. Higher pay than a good Senior Ordinary Seaman who could go aloft.
They were not allowed to leave the deck, so could not go aloft, over the wall on a stage or on a stage doing the fore part of the bridge etc.
I joined the Empress of Scotland after the strike and the ship was full of them, they were useless,
They were mostley ex Army, and we as ABs had to do everything whilst they stood around doing nothing.
The three funnels were soogied every trip, 17 days, alongside the landing stage in Liverpool before sailing round to the Gladstone dock. only half a dozen of us and twenty on deck watching. One made my gantline fast while I was sooging in the chair and Then statioins fore and aft and I was stuck up there for near three hours, could not lower myself down. until I was seen shouting when we had made fast in Gladstone. Bloody useless. they were a menace.
Brian.

[Louis the Amigo]

Hi Shipmates I was never D.H.U. can I go as one? or will I have to go as a deck boy J.O,S. S.O.S. again and do my life boat ticket in london? or can I go as peggy again or will I have to open the hatches not those scottish ones, but the ones with bits of wood and iron bars and the folding stuff on the top? and play around with those big things with the wire on them on the steam thingey or maybe not? I will just go as super cargo thats the best way to go to sea

[Keith Tindell]

Hi, I have an unusual stamp in my discharge book, on the Baltic Trader in the early sixtys, Hamburg was our home port, and at the end of a 9 month stint, i decided that i had enough seatime for my edh ticket, i was an sos at the time, the skipper said if i did one more 6 month stint he would sign me on as SAILOR, which i did, and my pay was just below the EDH rank, so i went for that, and took my ticket at the end of the 6 months, regards Keith Tindell

[blue whale]

Becoming an ordinary seaman when one's inexperienced

Taking the OP's original question as a statement, isn't that what DHU's were in the '60s - Deck Hand Uncertificated, or Dinkydoos.

I believe the only qualification was to be 18 years of age and there was a bit of resistance to them. I think they were on the same payscale as an SOS.

To precise my first post, I wished to ask this question because from the research I've done on the web, it seems possible [ The Profession of Ordinary Seaman (OS) on Ship | Marine Insight ] to become an OS in the US and Canada "just like that"; and thus I wanted to know if this was the same in the UK