Confidential Reports.

[j.sabourn]

The Only use I had for such was to prove your seatime when putting your papers in to the BOT or the DTI. When applying for jobs with British Companies it was always the old Discharge Book they wanted to see. Where the certificates you held were inserted by the then Shipping masters at the BSF with the relevent numbers and where issued etc. When looking for my NHI Insurance number a few years back this was the only place where I could find. Cheers John sabourn

[Chris Allman]

"Works entirely to his own satisfaction"

I love that one Ivan, I really do. What a great comment.

Chris.

[j.sabourn]

Chris another one shown to me was from a Lascar seaman. Was a glowing report, but at the end said dont however pay him any money, hes not worth it. The poor bloke thought he had an excellent report, but had been written by someone with a macabre sense of humour. John Sabourn

[alf corbyn]

hi ivan. reminds me of the skipper who wrote in the log. the chief officer was drunk this morning. the next day the mate wrote, the captain was sober today. alf

[Captain Kong]

The best one I saw was, "This man consistantly fails to achieve the abysmal low standard he has set himself."
Brian

[j.sabourn]

May I say that I as well as others must have at some time, have sailed with masters who I did not see eye to eye with. Masters as well as other people are not infallible, do make mistakes and are not always as good as they should be at judging of character. However as the few masters I did not always agree with, I always respected their position, if not always the man. As the occassion was very rare where there was a conflict of interests, I feel lucky to have sailed with so many fine people. Others may not have been so fortuanate. There will always be a conflict of interests somewhere this is what makes us human, seagoing personnel I believe learn this at an early part of life and learn to live with it. I suppose this is what we call discipiline, a thing which seems sadly lacking in some shore industrys. Regards John Sabourn.

[j.sabourn]

As many on this web probably remember the sea at their time which seems to be mainly the 50s and 60s, which I also remember with the most affection. It was my experience if you were a good Ch. Mate and able to get around efficiently then you stayed as Ch.Mate. Mostly the masters I sailed with used to give a free hand to the mate if he was any use. I was with one master who told me that he was there only to take the ship in and out of port and to treat him as such. This was a very much used general attitude in those days and to a lot of masters it was a job for their declining years. To some extent I also saw this in the engine room where the second literally ran the engine room. On one ship the Chief was that incapacated that he even had to be assisted at times by the indian steward to the washroom. I turned down 2 offers in my earlier years as saw the role of master as tying one down to a specific ship and company and as my general attitude was then probably like a lot on this site was that variety was the spice of life, and every other ship was a source of adventure and challenge. However I found in the 70s things started to change and you were getting this newer breed of people who I called spunk trumpets, who wanted change and would go to any ends to get to the top. Things started to change then, and have proceeded to the situation workwise of today, which to me was 2002. I suppose it has changed even further by now, not for the better to my mind. However when people bring to mind occurences of earlier times, believe me things are not like that at sea anymore. The ships are run mainly from the office and the role of master is in a lot of cases that of glorified office boy. There mostly as a figurehead and to carry the can for any mishaps. This is purely my own feelings on this subject. Best Regards John Sabourn