The urge to go to sea

[happy daze john in oz]

Talking of some afraid to go ashore for fear of being seen in a pub. Here in Port Melbourne still stands the Seaman Mission, very little changed from the first time I entered it in 1964.

But there is one small change, it now has a bar and when the ships are in port very often with Asian crew you will find them all sitting around the bar.
Maybe they work on dry ships?

[j.sabourn]

I went back deep sea on a couple of foreign flagged ships in 1987 And saw none of the Hu ha experienced on British Flag ships at that time. Seems at the same time it was another excuse for the British Owner that every seaman was a raving alcoholic. Seen more drunks and alcoholics ashore in 15 years of retirement than ever saw in 50 years in the shipping industry. Cheers JWS

[John Arton]

The title of this thread got me thinking of what made me chose the sea as a lifetime career, to which I cannot really answer.
My Father was at sea as Captain in Blue Star (where he started his career as cadet) but on his side of the family there is no sea going members. His father was works manager in engineering companies in Salford and later Leamington Spa. Going further back on his side I have traced his ancestors to Hull (South Cave) but there is no connection with the sea on his side.
On my dads mothers side there is a seagoing connection as before marriage she was a Sutherland. Her family were a mixture of Suiter's, ship owners in Maryport, Cumbria and Sutherlands, fishermen and farmers from the Shetlands.
Perhaps what set me on my choice was being offered and taking up, the chance to experience a coastal voyage with Blue Star when I was 14. I visited Dunkerque, Hamburg, London, Avonmouth and Liverpool on two Blue Star ships but most of my recollections from that voyage centre around stealing bicycles in Dunkerque with the Cadet in order to get back to the ship quickly with the bottle of brandy for the Aussie 3rd mate who had sent us ashore to purchase it, being sea sick on the way up to hamburg, being threatened by a knife held by a Chinese bosun in London and causing the death of the Captains parrot (in association with the junior sparks) on the way round from Avonmouth to Liverpool.
On leaving school I had been offered a job as a trainee Quantity Surveyor with Sir Alfred Macalpines. Our next door neighbour at the time was a retired surveyor and the stories he told of building dams and roads in the likes of Rhodesia made it seem quite an attractive job to me.
Whatever, for some unknown reason one Tuesday in September of 67 I found myself in the shipping federation office in Liverpool and they arranged a number of intervies for me with 4/5 shipping companies who were taking one cadets. By Thursday of the same week I was joining my first ship after having been able to phone my mother at home to tell her where I was and what was happening. My father had died at sea some years previously but mother seemed quite chuffed that I had decided to follow in his footsteps, so off I went with her blessing.
The decision to chose the sea over surveying was one I never regretted for one minute, even when puking my ring up in the Bay of Biscay first trip.
Every day I spent at sea, there was always something different to see or do. Long nights on watch in the middle of the oceans, days spent chipping and painting under a blazing sun, knocking huge chunks of ice off rigging in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the joy of watching Dolphins and Whales surrounding your ship, looking forward to arrival in port even if it was a crappy oil or bulk terminal where 48 hours was considered a long stay.
All of that plus thousands more memories made me so glad I made the right choice for whatever the reasons were behind that choice I made and given the chance I would definitely do it all again.
rgds
JA

[happy daze john in oz]

John #42 raises an interesting point.

Here in Melbourne almost every Friday and Saturday night there are fights and other incidents occurring in the CBD. Police and others claim it is alcohol that causes the problem.
Yet as most of us will testify there was very little of such with most merchant seamen, many of whom drank far more than some of these pansies of today do.
But of course there were very few drugs in our time.

[Louis the Amigo]

Hi shipmatesI had a reason to be near ships and the sea again after many years ashore, a few years ago, I was working in southampton again, on the docks, I had an excuse to go on all the real ships in the round the world tall ships,race you know the ships with sails? Not the ones with engines and canvas hatches', So after work I when looking for one of my old pubs {called the hole in the wall} famous with all the seamen world -wide in my time? {long ago}? it was not there anymore, a policeman told me it was closed down due to fighting/drugs and the vice girls and boys, he said I was part of docks history, as they was very little trouble in my time, but it became big trouble for the law. shame I had some great times in that pub/bar.

[Ann McKinnon]

My dad kept running down to the harbour as a young boy,and kept being returned to my granny almost on a daily basis! As he was an only child his parents were against him going to sea, but they eventually saw his passion for the ocean waves and agreed to him joining the Benline as a cadet and that became his life for the next 45 ,years and he loved every minute of it .

[John F Collier]

#46, Thanks for sharing that Ann it is a lovely story, best wishes. JFC

[j.sabourn]

Chalk and cheese... whatever drove us to sea be it choice or force of circumstances it produced a gap which grew wider the longer you stayed in the seagoing industry between yourself and a person ashore.
Going to sea was a way of life , what other work puts a group of men living on top of each other in conditions which some might find adbondable , in weather conditions of heat and cold and frequent violent movement. This for month after month would either make or break some. There were very few secrets among seamen and confidences which norminally would be confidential would flutter around like a page from the Daily Mirror. It bred a certain type of person who was more adept at compromise, and adaptability. Finding a way around situations that most would throw their arms in the air. Most of these people are now gone , never to return. Most of us can and did curse the sea and ships at various times , but we also know we are who we are because of them. When you eat sleep and pass ships in your daily ablutions is hard to forget them, for better or for worse. JS...

[happy daze john in oz]

I must get my glasses fixed, thought it said the urge to go for a Pee.

But yes once you have lived a sea life no matter how short or long your outlook on life changes.
You are set with daily challenges such as not seen ashore, working with persons you do not know but having to do it as a team.

Going to countries where life is cheap and seeing things that so many will never see or even know about.

It has produced men, and some women, who can take life in their stride without missing a beat, just getting on with the job and life, taking what ever is thrown at them without complaint.

Pity more could not do it now, might just improve the attitude of so many on this planet.

[happy daze john in oz]

Just read an interesting article on the 'Net'.

It was about the dangers of working long hours.
Interns and Registrars at hospitals were some of the people mentioned who work more than 40 hours a week.
According to the article working more than 36 hours a week reduces your ability to work competently.

Some have been seen to work 100 hours a week and this has a detrimental effect on their health.

But I thought back to our time at sea, it was either on watch at various times with sleep at maybe unusual hours.
For catering it could well be a 12 or more hour day.
Yet for all of that I do not recall any health issues developing.
Is it that the modern day society does not have the capability of hard and long hours, or have they become soft and incapable of coping with stressful situations?