Crew Interface

[Tony Wilding]

A few Ships i was on it was almost a State Secret where the next Port was, we allways found out by various means, just seemed stupid not to tell us.

[Captain Kong]

When I was Mate and used to have dinner in the ABs mess, the Captain, ex RN, objected, He said to me,
"One may talk to the Ratings, BUT, One must never listen to them".
it must be a typical RN thing.
Cheers
Brian.

[j.sabourn]

Tony a good example of this was the post about the Suez Canal searchlight. Why anyone should keep anyone in the dark about why the forecastle head had to be cleared out for transit of the Suez Canal beats me, must be some people have a perverse sense of humour or want to see how much unrest they can cause. Cheers John Sabourn.

[Capt Bill Davies]

To widen this thread a little and please do not read any 'Oil and Water' interface into this Rob I was always aware in British ships of Engineers arriving on board as fully fledged officers having just left some shipyard where they would have been found perched above some disused prop shaft drinking tea out of a dirty mug and having a bag of chips or a S&K pie for lunch every day. The 'airs and graces' were unbelievable and must have been difficult for the Catering staff having to explain the menu.

Standby!!!! I'm off for the papers!

Constructive responses please.

Brgds

Bill

[Ray McCerery]

To widen this thread a little and please do not read any 'Oil and Water' interface into this Rob I was always aware in British ships of Engineers arriving on board as fully fledged officers having just left some shipyard where they would have been found perched above some disused prop shaft drinking tea out of a dirty mug and having a bag of chips or a S&K pie for lunch every day. The 'airs and graces' were unbelievable and must have been difficult for the Catering staff having to explain the menu.

Standby!!!! I'm off for the papers!

Constructive responses please.

Brgds

Bill

Nearly wet myself

[Roger Dyer]

Hi Bill,

Some help here please ! When commencing this thread regarding 'mixed crews' was it your intention to elicit response from members who had sailed with :-

(a) crew-members of a different nationality.

(b) crew-members from other parts of Britain,

or

(c) crew-members of a diffferent social class (percieved or otherwise).

I raise the question because, thus far, the responses of my fellow members seem to touch on all three points and, frankly, I find it confusing (am I the only one?).

Bill, please don't construe this as criticism of you in any way, that is certainly not my intention. I believe that your thread is a good one, but feel that, perhaps, by not being a little more specific it has the potential to become too broad in scope, making continuity difficult. Sincerely hope I have caused no offence to you or any other member by making this post.


.....................Roger

[j.sabourn]

In that case Roger it would be easy to answer in my case would be yes yes and yes Cheers John Sabourn

[Capt Bill Davies]

Hi Bill,

Some help here please ! When commencing this thread regarding 'mixed crews' was it your intention to elicit response from members who had sailed with :-

(a) crew-members of a different nationality.

(b) crew-members from other parts of Britain,

or

(c) crew-members of a diffferent social class (percieved or otherwise).

I raise the question because, thus far, the responses of my fellow members seem to touch on all three points and, frankly, I find it confusing (am I the only one?).

Bill, please don't construe this as criticism of you in any way, that is certainly not my intention. I believe that your thread is a good one, but feel that, perhaps, by not being a little more specific it has the potential to become too broad in scope, making continuity difficult. Sincerely hope I have caused no offence to you or any other member by making this post.


.....................Roger

Roger,

I usually think of threads when sitting atop a MF or doing other chores around the the place or reading someone else's post triggers another thought.. Generally I try to word the initiating thread as generic as possible with a liberal amount of 'tongue in cheek' as I have no wish to offend others on the site.
My last post was just that, as I did see a fair amount of people who were struggling in certain areas (make of that what you will) and not forgetting the deck was the only department that required examination to make the transit from rating to mate. There was of course the professional uncertificated 3rd Mate but they were not too common.

Following the thread too closely is never to good as it is restrictive in thought.

Just be careful with the O & W Roger


Brgds

Bill

[j.sabourn]

Roger I can give you one incident of what I would perceive of the social cast system. A friend of mine was sent by the pool to join a passenger vessel as 4th Officer. It must have been a one off job as always imagined such passenger ship officers were all ex public school boys ( thats me doing the class thing so I am just as bad) I rather think it was the Green Goddess forget the name for the moment. He had to call into a Office I think in London before joining,and was actually inerviewed before joining. He was asked what his father did for a living, so he told them his father was not being employed for the job. After much more questioning on his social background to long to go into, he was told to get a tube and bus to the Docks. As he had a trunk and seabag, he told them he was getting a taxi and they were paying for it. He finally got their agreement. Sometime after arriving on board he was approached by a tailor to fit him out for mess kit which was great until he found he was paying for it. The time he was on her he was never allowed on the main deck as he didnt have a cap and had third mates braid on his uniform, he was kept down in the freezer decks. I think he lasted a week and was transferred to the cargo division of the company. Did one trip and gone, not his cup of tea. This was in 1957. There was in those days a great deal of the social caste system in evidence. This was as far as as I am aware more prevalent in what one would say was the posher companys. But was also there on most other ships also. Cheers John Sabourn

[John Arton]

In all my time at sea I only ever sailed on three ships where everyone was the same nationality.
I sailed with around 10 different nationalities and would not have changed it for anything as it exposed me to all the different cultures. Some of them I was not happy with but without experiencing them I would not have been able to form a considered opinion of there culture.
Of the three ships where we were all British on board, one was a white Empress that I joined straight from a Carribean run on an rather chatty Beaver boat, with long hair and a sunburn. As we were not allowed to mix with the passengers I got by with only having my blues uniform and although the hair brought some comments and glances, managed to pay off with my flowing locks in place (wish I still had them).
Never saw any oil/water as nearly everyone in C.P. when I joined them as a cadet, came from a different company as they were going through a huge fleet expansion.
The other two ships were both Beaver boats, one with a London crowd that was certainly an experience for me and the other one had a Bristol crowd on it.
Always tried to make sure that I treated everyone that I sailed with, with the respect they were due either from rank or experience and it seemed to have served me in good stead as I never experienced any real crew unrest beyond the usual grumbling that all seafarers engaged in.
rgds
JA