Brothers in the Ocean!

[CDT]

Hello there fellow seafarers. It's your big brother here, the Royal Navy. (just kidding ) ...Anyway you might find this question fairly strange, but I thought I'd ask it anyway, just to see.

I was having drinks with some fellow crew, and friends, last night and we got onto the topic of beards. Now, I have a full beard in the RN(as do many other officers), and no one says anything about it. But one of my friends is a Deck Officer (can't remember what rank) and says he's not allowed a beard or any facial hair on board his ship. I thought this was outrageous for any seaman. Obviously these people that say you're not allowed a beard, have never worked out in the North Sea in winter eh?

Is this the case for the entire MN, or is this just suspect to the company you work for? Surely with today's devices and such, you must be allowed to have some facial hair? What if it's against your religion? Obviously it's as long as it's presentable, some people just can't grow presentable beards, I understand that.

Yes, it's a very weird and out of the water question, but it was on my mind. And we were drunk when the question arose.. Don't judge us

Regards,

Lt Cdr Maxwell.

[Ivan Cloherty]

Well CDT, first of all welcome aboard this good ship "Lollipop" and its motley crew, hope you enjoy the experience. In all the ships I sailed on starting in the 1950's it was never against regulations (what the hell are they?) to sport facial hair, but all my ships were cargo ships. It may be different on passenger ships and those floating blocks of flats that purport to be ships these days, where Officer rank is in close contact with passengers, but it would be a foolish man who would tell a Sihk that he cannot have a beard, ships in the Indian Navy and Merchant Navy must be down by the head with beards

WE have a few passenger Masters among our crew and perhaps they may throw some light on the subject, but it sounds more like an individual company policy than anything else

Keep enjoying the drink and keep asking the questions

[Jim Brady]

Did not the Captain of the "Titanic" have a beard?
Regards.
Jim.B.

[moktay]

It's all about equal opportunity, since there are female officers and they can't grow beards (not going to go there for all the jokers on this FORUM) the men can't either {sarc}

[Tony Morcom]

Welcome to the site CDT No formalities here aboard our good ship. Whether Admiral or Cabin Boy, most prefer first name terms as we are all friends together It is to be hoped that you enjoy the content here which you will find is as varied as the members. As for hairy faced merchant seamen, it was never a problem to my knowledge although I do know that some chemical tanker officers preferred to be clean shaven because of the need to wear gas masks when dealing with the cargo.

[j.sabourn]

There is no law in the MN regarding beards. I believe in the R.N. it had to be a full set or nothing? However if you want to be employed in the offshore industry it will probably be a condition of service that you are clean shaven. This is to make the airtight bond when donning certain face masks. It is purely up to your employers, and is a safety issue. Best Regards John Sabourn

[Captain Kong]

In Cunard, the Commodores, Ron Warwick and two others all had beards.
A few years ago I had a full set.
Cheers
Brian

[Lou Barron]

Tried to grow a beard but the gale force wind blew it off while on lookout

[happy daze john in oz]

.
A few years ago I had a full set.
Cheers
Brian[/QUOTE]

Now you got dentures like the rest????