Bond and slop chest

[John Arton]

I have been going trough some papers of mine in an attempt to have a clear out. One paper I came across is the Bond and Slop chest list of one of my last ships and it set me to thinking about how times have changed, even down to the contents of the slop chest.
When I first went to sea the only items I can remember in the slop chest would be toothpaste, shampoo and maybe deodorant and possibly the odd can of sweets. Bond of course would be fully stocked with beer, softies and all manner of spirits.
Now on my list in a Company that had a strict alcohol policy and with a crew of only 14 in total of at least three different nationalities, working the coast from the Baltic down to the Medi. with chemicals, I had
Beer
Whiskey
Gin
Vodka
Rum
(The above was a company requirement for entertainment in port of shore officials and could be sold to crew when at sea only and no sale 18 hrs before arrival in port to crew)
But
Chocolate ( at least 5 different types, Cadbury's, Ritters, Nestle) Baltic states lads loved English Chocolate, the Filipinos were more partial to the Ritters)
Chewing Gum
Various packets of sweets (Wine Gums, Boiled sweets etc)
aftershave
razor's
shaving foam
deodorant

you name I had even though we were only a 7,000 tonner. Even had tee shirts and believe it or not greetings cards.
Looking back I feel a bit like Noris in his corner shop in "Coronation Street".
Why did I have such an assortment? Don't know, some of the stuff would have been purchased by my sharing partner Captain but even so, corner shops on a ship?
rgds
JA

[cappy]

bond in thev50s cigs and beer never known a slop chest

[j.sabourn]

What I remember of the slop chest in the 50"s if the master so desired to have one , were toothpaste and toothbrushes, toilet soap and washing powder, sweets. All sold at a profit. There were no beer and spirits on the average ship in the 5o"s that came later in the 60"s. There was usually a tot once a week usually given out by the Chief Steward to supposedly those over the age of 18. The master had spirits supplied by the company for supposedly entertaining purposes in foreign ports and to pay off customs and immigration officials which they used to look for especially in South American ports. If there had been drink on board the vessels this may have cut back on so many going adrift when they finally got shore leave. Think this was the reasoning behind the thinking of alcohol on ships at a later date. Tobacco on most ships I was on was the masters bond. At the time that cigs were bought at 12 to 14 shillings a carton the out of bond price in Rotterdam was 38 shillings a thousand ( 5 cartons) Cheers John Sabourn

[Gulliver]

We always had well-stocked Slop Chests(part of the Bonded Store locker) on my ships in the 80's and 90's-all under the jurisdiction of the Chinese Chief Steward(under the Master of course).As John said it was a veritable 'corner' shop',akin to Rita and Norris's 'Kabin' on Coronation Street. The Filipino crew would have a set day or days during the week for issues,probably on Saturdays,linen change day,just after morning Smoko.

We officers would leave a chitty in the Chief Stewards office 'box' any morning and then it would be delivered to your cabin later that day by your steward. The full Slop Chest available list was posted regularly outside his office. Slop and Bar Bills were of course forwarded monthly to the Co.along with Cash Advances given,and deducted from your monthly salary. I think the crews advances and bond bills were deducted from their monthly pay by the Chief Steward and carried forward to their eventual pay off.
If you were going to be signed on for 6 or 8 months you could always ask the Chief Steward to get a particular item e.g.I smoked Salem menthol king size at that time (Smoking.gifwhat else! hysterical.gif)and he would order enough to last you.

I must admit a chunk of Cadburys Dairy Milk, or a gobstopping triangle of Toblerone(the big ones) made those lonely night watches or off-duty relaxing time,that much more homely and civilised! Yum.gif

Aah Memories......

[Ivan Cloherty]

Slop chest on the PSNC ships early 50's, usual chocs, toothpaste. razors etc, upon leaving Panama outward, also white 'Arrow' shirts. khaki trousers, shorts and shirts, (cheaper on board than ashore as no local taxes to pay) Yardley's soap and toilet water, these latter two items to be used as currency against favours from bar girls who seemed to have a fetish for them. As cadets for some unknown reason we were issued with a bar of Yardley's soap every week, which of course we saved for future favours, having stocked up with Lifebuoy for everyday use prior to sailing..........memories

[Captain Kong]

By Gum
Some of you had it good reading of your Bonds and Slop Chests.
On the London Greek tramps I sailed on in the 50s, had `NOTHING`. `SS Commodore Grant` of JP Hadoulas of Athens, `Nicholas K `of Kyriakides of Athens, and so on.
We were lucky to get fed. On the Pound and Pint, stores weighed out for each individual,
6ozs Fresh offal, 6ozs brackish water per man per day per haps. The Steward with his finger on the scales as he weighed out the tea leaves, sugar, butter etc. In the heat the butter would melt into oil, no fridges.
One tin of Conny Onny per man per 10 days, A hell of a job to keep the cockroaches out of the tin.Tried to block it with matches. Water constantly rationed with a pad lock on the pump, the Mate would unlock it for an hour per day.
Christmas in Cochin, India, ordered fresh meat, A man turns up at the gangway, with 12 goats on the hoof, "Wheres the fresh meat"?, `This is very fresh meat Sahib`, up the gangway and made fast on deck, had to make pens for them, one at a time the galley boy gets a cut down oill drum under the awning spar.Hits it over the head with a hammer and hangs it up from the spar by the back legs, cuts its throat and bleed it into the drum then skin and gut it. Chop it up and a handful of curry powder and we had a decent meal, When all that had gone the next poor animal was taken by the Galley Boy. No fridges for meat on those.

You dont know your born, I say you dont know your born these days.
That was Seafaring.
Happy Days tho`
Cheers
Brian.

[j.sabourn]

As 2nd. Mate on one ship I was on the Master used me to do the signing on/Paying off and all accounts and making out pay off slips. Every port I had to work out how much each man had in the ship bar his leave pay. He was then allowed to sub up to this amount. Even to the Bum boats going through the Suez had to work out how much each man could spend and supply the list to the master and the head bum boat man. For this I received 2 half crowns off the bum boat man. On going to the old man to report that everyone had not spent over their limits he was sitting there and showed me the very expensive camera he had received from George Robey or whoever he called himself at the time. The amount of extra work the accounts involved on all the other duties I had would make the work load of the present day so called navigators look very miniscule. Usually the overtime on tramps was kept to a minimal and most seamen only paid off with their leave pay. Therefore many re-signed on again purely through financial needs. On top of this as believe I have stated before a seaman was only allowed to leave a maximum of 50 per cent of his wages as an allotment to his wife or whoever and as British seamen were never paid large wages this amount was not what most wives expected and more than likely thought their partners were holding back. We can all talk about the good times, but when you go into the realms of advance notes and things in the small print the British shipowner did not give too much away. Still as most of us on this site agree with one thing in common it was a better life then than now. Cheers John Sabourn

[cappy]

you call that hard brian now when we were on them galleys rowing.........to that tune that was hard

[Tony Wilding]

on the mv wanstead we had a big slop chest run by the chief steward, you could buy new boiler suits, work shoes, dhobi dust, decent soap, tins of boiled sweets, also cadburys chocolates that had turned white, tasted ok, many other little luxuries. We were allowed 3 beers a day at sea; but many kinds of fanta soft drinks. That was the only ship i sailed on with a slop chest, maybe because over a year away, tony w.

[j.sabourn]

The feeding rate as per the company I was with was 8 shillings per day. All below this was the Chief Stewards bonus given to him from the Company. On the face of it this was a reasonable amount in those days. However everyone else fed off the back of seamen. Ships Providors in particular. A good chief steward for the company kept the rate way below the allowance, a bad Chief Steward for the ship however as the cook could only work with what he had in the fridge. I only ever sailed as said once with a poor chief steward and never in those days with a poor master. Nowadays as ships are run from the shore all the perks must be going to those who manage such. As Brian says about water rationing, this would have been due not to the lack of tank capacity, but to the fact it was cargo tonnage on most tramp ships and a hundred tons less water was a 100 tons more cargo with a deadweight cargo. The present day sailorman lives in luxury compared with the 50"s, as regards job satisfaction however there is little there as far as I can see nowadays. The advance in conditions was partly due to the Unions and to the shipowner trying to encourage seafarers to stay. Nowadays he has taken the last option not to carry the men and calls it reduced manning. John Sabourn