Cabins

[Captain Kong]

The cabins for Sailors and Firemen on most tramp ships were like an after thought. The ship was built just for carrying cargo and making a profit for the owners.
I sailed on ships in an `open` focsle, in the fore peak below the chain locker. The `BEECHFIELD`, see Swinging the Lamp Thread. Two Sailors and two Firemen and a coal bogey down a verticle ladder and under the water line.
On the average tramp the Sailors and Firemen were down aft next to the Steering gear, a steam engine and a quadrant clattering and banging away. no sleep in that cabin. On deck on the poop were two messrooms, one each Sailors and one for Firemen , usually Lascars, two bathrooms, One toilet, one shower and one sink.
Down below on the tween deck were three cabins on either side, On the Port side, Two ABs and one Ordinary Seaman in two of them and the cabin next to the steering flat had two ABs one Ordinary Seaman and the Peggy. Each watch of two ABs and one OS were in each cabin. The bunks were first come first served.
The Firemen on the starboard side had three men to a cabin for three cabins. The Lascars usually had their Prayer mats outside the cabins in the small alleyway where they would be wailing five times a day to Allah, so not much sleep for the watch below with all that noise going on.
The Catering dept, were usually berthed amidships down the Starboard side and Engineers berthed down the Port side. The Engineers had their own Mess Room and the Mates, Captain and Sparky had their own Mess.all on the main deck, the Mates and Captain and Sparky were berthed in one man cabins in the Bridge housing forard of Number Three hatch in the Fort, Empire, Park type tramp.
The Galley was just abaft Number Three hatch.
On the SAM boats the Sailors were berthed in Four berth cabins on the Starboard side and the mess room and catering Dept. .were on the Port side, The Galley was in the middle and the Officers Saloon was across the fore part, the Firemen were berthed down aft. Mates and Engineers were on the boat deck.

[John Arton]

Hi
There are international regs. regarding cabins and there size,
i.e.
Captains and Chief Engineers have to have a min. square metres
Officers and petty officers also have a min sq. metres per cabin as do all ratings.
Once these cabin sizes have been determined and placed in the ships plans, then it is basically up to the ship builder (in liason with the owner) to decide what rating rank appears above what door. Obviously for the Officers their cabin distribution is fairly obvious.
Petty Officers will be grouped together and the remaining ratings cabins will be grouped by department.
Who actually occupies each cabin is usually dependent on who is relieving whom, i.e. deck ratings would obviously take over cabins formerly occupied by the deck rating they are relieving but there are no hard and fast rules usually when it comes to what rating occupies what cabin, just common sense.
brgds
Capt. John Arton (ret'd)

[John Cassels]

Just about the only gripe I ever had re the accomodation was that on many ships I was on , the 2nd.mates
room was always sited either accross from the smokeroom or on one of the cross alleyways !.

Great when trying to get some sleep before midnight .