Leaving and rejoining the MN

The VNC discharge was nearly as bad. As straight away it put doubts as to why it was there, whereas it could be quite genuine and person could have been hospitalized. As regards # 18 I assume by breaking the contract you mean jumping ship. In 1970 I would imagine this was guff put out by the Federation. Don't think the real loss of shipping was at its height then, as I had no trouble getting a job in 1971 when coming back into Federated shipping after being away for nearly 5 years. It was still the law of supply and demand. JS

I missed the Emp.of Britain in Montreal and travelled home DBS on the Beaver Elm,worked and took a chance on getting paid,I got paid.Chf stwd asked me to do his victualing book,he was happy with the result said the 2nd stwd was a dope,when we docked in Liverpool I was asked to go back in her as 2nd stwd so the VNC didn't put the chf stwd off.Joined King Henry DR conduct away 5 months I was asked to stay with them Clan Line and sail as Asst.Purser/Chf Stwd.
Regards.
Jim.B.

I missed a Ellerman boat going round the coast from london to Hull, myself and the other guy, both OSs decided if we went to Billingsgate fish market, we could catch a lift on a fish lorry up to Hull, dumb idea, after 24 hrs we decided to go to the Ellerman Papayani office in London. There we met a super guy in the office, who could not help officially, but said out of his own pocket he would loan us the money for train fare and a meal. He gave us a letter to the skipper to explain that he had loaned us the money and was to be paid back out of our wages. When we went aboard in Hull the skipper immediatley told us to leave the ship, before we could explain, luckily we gave the mate the letter, and assume the skipper was talked round, as we were allowed to rejoin.We both behaved ourselves for the next 4 months, and the money was deducted from our pay, and we both paid off with VG,s. The biggest regret i have to this very day, is that i did not contact this guy in the office and thank him profusely , but young and silly and bad mannered i have to own up to. Thinking back to the skippers of those days, and what responsibilities they had, crew of young testosterone filled youngsters looking to make pratts of ourselves !!!! kt

Keith cappy fell into the empty apple barrel and fell asleep. The barrel was landed ashore and he woke to find the ship gone. Nobody would believe him. Some fair damsel then took him under her wing and it was a long time before he realized it was an emu. However things turned out ok and a kind hearted shipowner brought him home on the star ship Avonmoor. Previous to this of the same ship that cappy worked his passage on most of the crowd went ashore for a walk and got lost. So the shipowner got a free crew to bring his ship home from Oz to Blighty. It used to be one of my jobs to go the Custom House in Oz and see how many DBS "s they had waiting for ships. You"d be surprised how many there were. Cheers JS