Mercantile Marine Shipping Offices / British Shipping Federation

[Keith Tindell]

Now Brian, dont get me going on Lord!!! Prescott, i am already on too many blood pressure tablets, must go and sit down KT

[Tony Wilding]

Hi Brian.
Sir Tom Yates if you please, knighted for disservises to Merchant Seamen. Story went he bought his daughter a Rolls Royce on her wedding day from union funds as a present from British seamen.
John .
It often puzzled me about the people in the pool office in Swansea; in what thier uniform represented, There was one bloke in there who must have been all of sixteen who had stripes on his sleeve, and a right prat.
Cheers DesAttachment 10331

I often wondered what the Uniform was also, i was on KG5 Pool London most of the time, hated going there, never a smile or hello, just seemed to look down there noses at us, or sarcastic remarks, when i was Donkeyman i was offered a job as a fireman on the old Queen Elizabeth, i refused it, had heard of 12 or 14 to a cabin, the remark from the Pool man was , you are fussy , ! ended up on the Riebeeck Castle, thats another saga.

[Captain Kong]

In the Liverpool POOL the men behind the counter all wore 2nd Mates uniforms.
If they had the chance, they would have worn Japanese Admirals Uniforms.
Evil they were. If they spoke to you by your first name you knew he had some diabollical ship for you.
Brian.

[Tony Wilding]

As much as possible i got my own jobs, the Pool was not too happy about that either, , but the atmosphere was not good there, was allways happier walking out, am sure they had there favourites, have no idea how you get a ship these days, maybe direct from the company, i think a lot of Seaman from the Philippines are from Agencies there, my Lady Friend in Cebu tells me many Agencies there advertise for Seaman and workers to go to other Countries.

[Ron Kendall]

Not all bribery and corruption went on abroad, I found out too late that those in the pool offices were partial to ciggies and rolling tobacco, and that is how you got a decent ship, or were shanghied!

[David Parry]

Ref. The first MMO. Do these still exist today? .................

I'm not too sure how this works!
I was interested in the blog about the 19th century Masters and Mates. I am presently taking a Masters Degree in Maritime History. My Dissertation will be on the history of the Certification of Masters and Mates. I'd therefore be most grateful if any of this audience can point me at any relevant literature, references, archives etc. or, even better, attributable anecdotes.
sorry, ex RN but also Conway and first to go in Navy from long line of Liverpool-based MN family members. Also have Masters Cert of Service so severely criticised but quite rightly in some respects. However, as ex Conway and RN specialist Navigator I do (did) know Marc St H!
With thanks in anticipation
David Parry

[Tony Morcom]

Welcome to the site David. Thanks for stopping by to introduce yourself and tell your story. I am sure that there are many on here who will be only to happy to give you some pointers. Good luck with the dissertation and Masters Degree.

[denniswalker]

After leaving gravesend,nov 81,went down to the leith pool,was toldthat they had no jobs for a jdr,so i started looking for a job. Walked into the benline office,got a job straight away,i remember the guy phoning the leith pool to inform them that i was in employment,and the guy in the pool went off on one saying that thee was four deck boys in front of me,the air was blue believe me.
regarding agenties,after i left shell i signed with clyde marine, got a job with calmac. I was paided 120 pounds a day,but had to pay my own tax and national insurance and travel to and from the ship,i dont know what the going rate is now. Luckily forme i got full time employment after a few months. Looking the telegraph recently there a few agencies looking for men. Cheers dennis

[Jim Brady]

Did the job of Shipping Master include stamping Discharge Books with VG,DR etc.I remember paying off the Pennyworth in Middlebro MMO and there were a few double DR's and single DR's tobe given out and it was the Ship/Mast. who had the stamps,he was just about to stamp the books when the captain called to him OK VG's all round.Were passenger liners allowed to carry their own stamps,imagine docking day and all those books having to be stamped,there must've also been more than one S/M to stamp his signature in the books.
Regards.
Jim.B.

[cappy]

in shields pool iwould stand outside with mates and as folks came out i would ask what was goingif it was british tankers shell tankers hogarths or chapmans i wouldnt go in but as this was the 50s nd 60s there was always plenty ships in shields pool
still got pushed ito btc and shell 2 times each bloody hated them best jobs were orecarriers own cabin and really good feeders once got offered a job on southern harvester a whale factory ship i didnt go but my mate went he just survived asinking and 2 days in fog in a lfe boat up the baltic
and then went on the whaler he was so long onthe ship and then on south geogia i thin 2 and a half years away
came back and wouldnt come of the bleeding colliers i didnt blame im either

regards cappy