Shore passes

[j.sabourn]

Thinking back to the 50"s 60"s and maybe the 70"s. Seamen when visiting the following countries had to have special passes for going ashore. The Argentine, The U.S.A., Germany, Japan, There must have been others which I cant remember. However as far as I am aware even in those bygone days and declining parts of the Empire and the U.K. no restrictions were made on visiting foreign national seafarers. Of course the uk has not changed its stance on this I believe. Even now with other nationals apart from seafarers there are little or no restrictions placed on such, judging by the enormous amount of illegal residents. I suppose it gives the various government departments jobs trying to count them. Cheers john Sabourn

[Jim Brady]

John,I remember the shore pass in Lisbon and I'm sure that you were restricted to a certain area and if you were found outside that area you were in deep trouble.
Regards.
Jim.B.

[John Arton]

John
They still exist
USA as we all know crew mans landing permit
Japan..same
Germany..same
U.K...nothing.
All shore passes issued only allow you to go 25 miles from your ship unless you request special permission.
Germany is the only European country that still issues shore passes, even if you are an EU citizen and in Europe there is no real check on the 25 mile limit so seafarers can wander anywhere..if they had the time!
rgds
JA

[Ivan Cloherty]

John, still have mine from the 50's for USA it is called "Aliens Landing Permit" I kept it in case we were invaded from Outer Space and I could pretend to be one of them

[Peter Trodden]

I was on the Newfoundland (Furness Withy) in '65, on a regular run to Boston. What I found strange there was, the Yanks would take our British MN. ID off us and give us that little scrap of paper as a shore pass and ID. Did anyone else encounter this in the USA.?
ttfn Peter.

[alf corbyn]

sorry lads i started in 1948 and never saw a shore pass in any country. and i went to north and south america, canada, germany and round africa, etc. i did have a little spot of bother in i think, mombasa, as the askari's tried to stop me and my mate going out with our bikes (no licence) they threw thier truncheons at us.

[j.sabourn]

The old seamans I.D. card (Green one) had all your fingerprints on. Would this be against the civil liberties now? There could be a chance that we have our prints on file somewhere so can find us without D.N.A. Cheers John Sabourn.

[John Arton]

My fingerprints are on record in the good ole U.S. of A.
Does that make me a criminal?
rgds
JA

[Frederick Lacey]

Reading this tread, I remembered I still had a crewmans landing permit for New York, but to put it mildly I'm a bit flummoxed,
on it it has my full name, home address, discharged book No., place of birth, height- weight etc.
MV. "Port Macquarie" c/o Funch Edye's. New York. dated 2-11-55. now here's the rub, I don't ever remember going to New York on
the "Port Macquarie" the date mentioned contradicts my discharge book as I did 2 Home Trades about that time,
"Port Montreal" Hull 15th Oct to Victoria Dock 23rd Oct, and "Port Napier" Victoria Dock 19th Nov. to Liverpool. 25th Nov. both 1955.
but i do remember going to New York on the "Port Adelaide" in 1952. so looks like the US Immigration Officer got his dates wrong, I
do remember the hysteria at the time with Senator MacCarthy and his cronies.

Fred.

If anybody does remember me in New york on the "Port Macquarie" let me know, then I'll know I'm not losing it.!!!!

[Bob Hollis]

Fred that date of 2-11-55 in US of A speak is February 11th 1955. Would this make any kind of sense to you?