Creature Comforts

[Tony Wilding]

I enjoyed my time as a Fireman, was an easy job, change and clean the burner tips, rake the Carbon build up, sometimes that was a pain with big build ups, was mostly on Scotch Boilers, firetube Boilers, only water tube boilers i worked with was on TSS Ceramic Steam Turbines. all others were Steam Reciprocating, amazing machines, my favourites. used to pass the time cleaning and painting, or sitting reading a book. only got busy if lots of telegraph movements, shutting down and flashing up fires. once Full Away was rung it was a doddle.

[happy daze john in oz]

Same thing happened to me...........

Dear John, well as your name is Den maybe she got mixed up?

[Captain Kong]

Sometimes they never bothered to write a `Dear John.`

[Kenneth Kenny]

Hank Wiliams the Country Western great singer sang Dear John in the late Forties and early Fifties,great song Died January 1953,your girl friend gave you your first name,but it was always called a Dear John.Ken.R634898

[happy daze john in oz]

Sometimes they never bothered to write a `Dear John.`

Then there was the other kind of dear John. "That made in China condom did not work up the duff, what you going to do about it'?

[leratty]

That Vesty lot were certainly an odd family & steeped in old UK class lines (wonder if Lord V bought his Lordship, could it be sadly a not sure of the term off hand, on going one?) as to the way they treated in the main their crew, even in the 60's. From a deck point of view their bridges were very poorly equipped navigation wise, no radar, auto pilots etc nor other what I am sure masters believed were standard for the time equipment. I guess the masters were not able to to have any influence over management when ships were built & fitted out. Must say a few years ago whilst in London the headlines in the press were of a Vesty descendant, possibly great grandson getting done for the families Co's serious tax avoidance which had been ongoing since the 60's. As I recall they just got a smack on the wrist, what's new one muses just like the bankers of today? Hmm best not throw stones in glass house ):
Still he, the original Vesty (I seem to recall there were a set of brothers who started with butcher shops?) was a very innovative fellow-fellows, certainly in the meat side of things what with cattle lots in Argentina, Australia, Canada etc along with meat works & ships so one can only admire him even if he was a mean bastard! Richard

[leratty]

John I concur as to the many things the Aus union did for seafarers even to ensuring still today ships with appalling safety conditions etc along with crew who are treated badly are looked after. Ironic really as Australia used to blame the UK union delegates when it seemed they were the ones always involved as spokesmen in regards some of the horrendous strikes from the 50's through to the 90's. Post Office & Beer Petrol always at Christmas (: There was an Aus who was head of the dockers union in San Francisco, very famous over there & highly revered. My experience with Aus unions in the mining industry was enough to put you off unions for life, per example, striking on a gas pipe line job as there were not enough flavours to chose from in the child milk fridge, or Pepsi instead of Coke in the drink machines. The swimming pool at a camp in FNQ was too warm, living away from home + remote area allowance.....your a ferkin miner you pratts. The best ever was a group setting up the camp site in W.A. they were instructed to excavate for the water lines to the ablution blocks, well it was very stony hard ground thus hard hot work, even with machines. So in their collective wisdom they laid the cold & hot water pipes on the surface with a light cover of overburden. Ha when they came to use the showers a few days later the cold water was almost steam! Did we laugh, yes we did & put the same crew back to do it properly. I recall watching one guy in the canteen on a W.A. site eating two huge T bone steaks, four eggs, sausages, chips, tomatoes & toast twice for his breakfast, & this was apparently every day! From what I understand they just may have shot themselves in the foot with the pay scales, conditions etc what with fly in fly out becoming the norm & foreign workers being allowed in? Unions do have a place & in China-Mongolia-India they are needed quick smart as what you see is Dickensian, worse horrifying conditions let alone the safety + many of the operating-management Co's are Western too.

[Tony Frost]

That Vesty lot were certainly an odd family..

I fully agree.You did not sail with BSL for the "Creature Comforts"(or the money) but the great runs(ashore) before the Common Market put the mockers on it.You could say they last longest out of all the company's running to the Antipodes.

[leratty]

Tony quite agree with "but the great runs(ashore)." You know I reckon we must have been paid a lot less than similar level people ashore but I did not care as I loved it for the time I did it. Best trip I ever had was the Mendoza Star, great run backwards & forwards via the Magellan Straits for both coasts of Sth America. She was beautiful little ship, good food, crew, conditions etc. Still no radar or auto pilot though....Lord Vesty would have had palpations thinking about the cost of all those weird new devices. Wonder if he lived to see computers ? (:

[Peter Trodden]

It was said that when you had your Sunday roast Beef or your corn-beef sarnie,nobody but a Vesty worker had touched it. He owned the cattle ranches and slaughter houses in Arg, the Shipping comp,s to transport his goods,and if they docked in Liverpool, he had his own stevedoring Firm (L-pool Maritime Transport) to dicharge to his own cold storage warehouse.
Then the housewife would go to His shops to buy (Dewhurst the Butcher) And yet,we payed more Tax than he did.