The Pool

[John Arton]

Joining the MN as a cadet with CP the only medicals I ever had up until the time CP folded was with the company doctor who must have been accredited by the DTI to issue medical fitness certificates.
My first ever medical was held in CP's offices in the Liver Buildings. The Docs office was off the main entrance, where you were greeted by a liveried doorman who escorted you over to a huge wooden reception counter where you stated your business to one of the receptionists. On entering the docs office I was told by him to strip naked and lie on the examination couch. He put the blood pressure cuff on my arm and started inflating it, at which point his female secretary came into the room, without knocking, causing this 16 year old naked chap some embarrassment. She had papers for the doc to sign, which he did whilst still inflating the blood pressure cuff, which by this time was becoming extremely tight around my arm. As he was signing the papers held by his secretary {all the while still pumping up the cuff} he said to his secretary "what do you think of this one on the couch then", she looked me over and replied "he doesn't look like he is going to die tomorrow does he", to which the doctor replied, " I suppose so, o.k. son you can get up know, you've passed". He released the blood pressure cuff without even taking the readings, signed my certificate and sent me off with it to the pool to apply for my first discharge book. I still have "issued on entry into the Merchant Navy" and signed by a person called Walters {must check that} if I recall.
My memories of that place are a bit vague as that plus the time a day or so later when I returned to pick up the discharge book was the only times I visited the pool but I do recall it being down a grim alleyway with a very Victorian looking inside with tired looking staff behind a desk fronted by wire mesh separating them from guys waiting for a ship to sign on.
rgds
JA

[Jim Brady]

John A #71 that very much sounds like Cornhill Liverpool 1 where you went for your Discharge Book and not the pool.
Regards.
jim.B.

[Captain Kong]

Cornhill was the place to pick up discharge books, ID cards, and Certificates as well as signing on ships.
.
I think it is now a Norwegian Embassy or something similar I walked past it a couple of years ago on my way top the Cathedral.
.
The Pool in Liverpool was first in the old Sailors Home and then around 1956/7 transferred into the new building in Mann Island opposite corner to the old White Star building, then PSNC Offices and now the new Hotel.
Cheers
Brian

[Jim Brady]

Brian would you believe Cornhill is now full of apartments for sale and to rent.Place names like Chandlers Wharfe.
Regards.
Jim.B.

[Captain Kong]

hanks for that Jim
I think it was in 2010 The day the Cruise terminal was opened with the QE2 alongside when we walked up there past Cornhill , So the Embassy didn't last long.
Cheers
Brian.

[Captain Kong]

I found this on the google, on a site I was once on, about the old Sailors Home in Liverpool which also housed the old POOL.
.

I first stayed at the Sailors Home in 1952 as a green Deck Boy. Wow what a culture shock,
It was rumoured at the time as once being a prison with the galleried balconies going around the inside with wire netting across each floor, in case anyone fell over the balconies. This was wrong as it had been purpose built as a Sailors Home.
I had left the Vindicatrix Sea Training School in Sharpness, Glos. and had to await nearly six weeks to find a job on a ship.
The price was four shillings a night for bed and breakfast for men, Boys were about three shillings. It was just a bare cabin. wooden panels, painted green on the walls, iron framed bed and a chest of drawers. a communal bathroom and toilets, There was a room for the breakfasts, Sausage [these were usually thrown out of the window, they were awful. always a big pile of them outside the Home.]
egg and a piece of bacon, slice of bread and a mug of tea.
Alongside of the home was a bomb site from WW2 and at night the plonkies and winos would doss down for the night amongst the rubble, with a bottle of Meths or cheap plonk.
One night, I was 16 years old, I was walking back in the pouring rain, to go into the Home. a plonky shouted to me, "Hey lah, av yer gotta room there." I said "Yes". "Its cold and wet out `ere, let us sleep on the floor in yer cabin." Being a bit soft I said `OK`.
Then six of them got up from the rubble and followed me in, when I opened the cabin door, two crashed onto the bunk, two slid under the bunk and the other two curled up on the deck. I was stood in the doorway, couldnt believe in what I saw. There was no room for me.
I went back down stairs and back into the rain, the only place I could go to was The Gordon Smith Institute for Seamen across the road and round the corner. That building is still there. I got a bed there for three shillings and six pence in the Dormitary, a large room with about twenty beds in, all occupied, with the sound of snoring and other types noises coming from them. they Night Man told me to lay my suit and any money under the mattress and shoes under the pillow or they wouldnt be there next morning.
Next morning I had a breakfast there and then went back to the Sailors Home and had the other breakfast I had already paid for. Then I went up to my room, all the plonkies had gone, amazingly all my gear was still there.
I stayed there many times over the years, it was very handy for somewhere to stay when in Liverpool, I lived in Bolton. When I joined a ship in Liverpool and after the end of a voyage of four or five months and we paid off in London we would all get the train back to Liverpool and have a few bevies up on Lime Street, the Sailors Home was ideal for some where to stay before going home the following day.
The ground floor of The Sailors Home was the Shipping Federation or more better known as "The Pool". A place where seafaring men went to to find their next ship.
The door on the left hand side of the Pool opened into a large room with a long counter, This was covered with wire netting to prevent some of the Characters attacking the Staff if they got a bum deal from their last ship or if they were turned away with no job, if the man was approved they would open the turnstile to the next room.
Sometimes if the Man wasnt looking we could drop onto the floor and slide underneath the turnstile and into the inner room. There was a counter for each department, Firemen, Catering and Deck, again wire netting covered the three desks. Behind the desks stood the Man who gave out the jobs or number of men required by the Ship owner for each ship.
These Men were legends at the time. Mr Repp, Mr Griffiths, Mr Slater, Mr Deakin and so on.
While stood there you had to learn to read the book upside down to see what name of ship he had on the page, you got to know what ships were good and which were the ones to stay clear of in case you got Shaghaied for a two year trip. If Mr Repp or Mr Griffiths called you by your first name you knew he had a bad ship for you. Sometimes Mr Repp had his hand over the bottom of the page where he had some good jobs for his favourites. the trick to find out what ship he was hiding. If you were given a ship he gave you forms to take for a Doctors inspection then you went into the next room. The Doctors assistant would call you in then you dropped your trousers and he held your right groin saying `Cough`, then the left side, cough again . open your mouth to see you had some teeth, `OK you`ll do`, he would say and sign the form then you signed on the ship and went to sea.
Some of the old guys had no teeth, and a fellow would say . "eh lah give us a go at yer teeth" and the other fellow would take out his teeth and he would put them in, didnt matter if they didnt fit, he had teeth, so he passed the Medical, on the way out he would give the teeth back and someone else would borrow them.
After the Sailors Home closed the new Shipping Federation or Pool was at Mann Island. now gone.These Characters and events are now gone , just a fading memory of the few of us still hanging on. The Home should have been saved, it was a fantastic design, that Classic structure would have lasted for centuries, and a great memorial to all the Sailors who passed through its doors, now just a memory of a by gone age that can never happen again.
The people who demolished it should have been gaoled.
Cheers
Brian

[gray_marian]

#71, John, Re your medical, surely that wasn't normal practice? I had a similarly embarrassing
medical for the GPO aged sixteen also. Discussing it a few years later with other telephonists, learned that most of us had been taken advantage of, sorry now that I didn't report him back then.........

[j.sabourn]

Marian you can only hope it wasn't some seaman masquerading as a doctor from around the corner at the pool. Cheers John S

[gray_marian]

#78, Unfortunately John, this supposedly professional man was sordid in his behaviour towards an naive and vulnerable sixteen year old. Never told my mother as my baby sister had a brain injury at that time and my parents were distraught. My father's sister advised not to tell as she implied dad would annihilate him. In the 70's it appeared you put up & shut up. Now when I look back I am angry, because by not reporting him he most probably continued.

[j.sabourn]

#78 was a pitiful attempt at a joke Marian... Sorry. We had offending teachers at school but always knew who they were and used to joke on about them. There were a couple of girls had a crush on one of them, how far he went I don't know, then there was one who preferred the boys. Maybe we were more hardened to life at an earlier age. What comes out now as supposedly big exposeys has always been there, going back 40 50 and sometimes 60 years proves nothing, and is mostly for financial gain and repute. Rolf Harris was one among many thousands I would imagine, but was singled out for his celebrity status. You sound like a well adjusted lady so suspect no serious after effects have occurred. Regards John S