Merchant Seamen

[j.sabourn]

Was there for 12 months, different stewards at different times. I think the longest seaman there when I left was the chippy, was in the days when every ship had one, he looked after all the ballast and was from Middlesborough. His house got raided by the Customs and of course found all sorts of bottles rum and such. He had taken his docking bottle home every trip and not drank. All was confiscated which I thought was a bit unfair. However the Customs have more power than the police and dont even have to have a search warrant. Dont know if the law is still the same. Think they even fined him as well. Cheers John Sabourn.

[Tony Wilding]

You are correct John,Customs do have more powers, VAT is part of there domain now, can raid any business without a warrant, was personally involved in one of there checks, too long to tell, but i won, they really do interrogate you, watch for months befor they pounce. i knew some really bent Customs when on Coasters. but we were all happy, they got what they wanted, so did we.

[Red Lead Ted]

There is no way unless you have experienced a trip especially if it was a long one explain the channels, To any landlubber it was an experience that you lived rather than felt. Although i must admitt towards the end of my time at sea i started packing my old kit bag after docking to pay off. I think for me the worse day at sea was aboard a new ship first time at the helm which you had to get the feel of. But you soon got into the swing and the feel of a ship after sailing and started dumping dunage, storing mooring lines, packing away heaving lines, washing down decks, Before long you new whether you were in with a good crowd of lads,Or a bunch of loner,s i think the ice breaker was your first visit to the mess for a nose bag. after your first few smoko,s you new how good a feeder she was, how good the cook was, what the mate and bosun were like. And most important of all were you all on 3 hours a day overtime. Happy days lads Terry.

[Duke Drennan]

As the old saying goes Terry, and words to live by, "There's nothing worse than a bare week".

[Lou Barron]

I have sailed on three ships that carried wheat in bulk and bagged when we went to Vancouver to load wheat they sent us to Vancouver Island to get shifting boards put in the holds i think it was Oregan timber they used for the loading of bulk wheat .Would i be right if the wheat is unloaded what happens to the timber i presume it was perks for who ???? same on the other ships i was on . I know that even paint ,ropes and even food was flogged

[Charlie Hannah]

have experienced Cock Roaches , Flies, Hornets, Mosquitos at sea, never heard of a Steam Fly ?

"Jaspers" Tony is what steam flies were called.

[Tony Wilding]

Looked it up on the net, Steam Fly, another name for the German Cockroach.

[Keith Tindell]

Hi Lou, i also remember fitting shifting boards in Holland, all done by shore crew, and intended for sugar, but we were diverted to Durban SA because of the Cuban crisis, and used for grain. This was discharged in Japan, and as far as i can recall the timber was disposed of and dumped. When i think of the thousands of tons of dunnage dumped at sea, must be illegal now. Regards KT

[happy daze john in oz]

Looked it up on the net, Steam Fly, another name for the German Cockroach.

And what was different about German cockroaches? Did they do the goose step or something?

[Tony Wilding]

Had white crosses on there wings John, got too many legs to goose step.