Watchkeeping

[Louis the fly]

When the long strike ended in 66 I reported to the Pool and the next day was outward bound on the Pizarro.
All the ship owners wanted their ships back at sea as soon as possible and we had sailed two men short on deck. I was on watch with two cadets which was ok as we were all teenagers and got along together well. When we arrived at the Canal two Panamanians were signed on so the cadets could catch up with study work. One was a tall skinny guy like a basketball player the other a little shifty eyed character.
Trying to teach the three man watch system is hard enough , with two men who could not speak a word of English was impossible. The watches had changed I was now 4-8 so it could not be worse. Wheel , lookout , farmer , call the cook and stewards , call the bosun and lampy, call the 8-12 watch and the third mate. Sometimes there were three of us going to the wheel or lookout or three of us going nowhere. The skinny guy had a white sock he wore on his head , when it was dark all you could see was a white shape coming towards you.
They must have fooled or bribed the agent saying they were seamen because they could not do any of the work on deck. The West coast of South America is a great run but I was glad to get back to the Canal , see the back of them and get back on watch with the cadets.

[Red Lead Ted]

This is a problem prevalent to today's deck crews Loius, South American fisherman are poles apart from Merchant seaman, But of course cheaper to employ, There where 200 Indian crew members aboard the Costa Concordia along with seaman of Peruvian fisherman nationality, And admin staff from every corner of the globe. It was noted after the inquiry and brought to the fore that so many different crew members speaking every lingo from the world over caused a breakdown in communication as regards to abandoning ship, A lot of disabled passengers lost there lives through exactly that no leadership or communication aboard. Plus the fact Shitino the Italian captain got ashore before anyone didn.t help. Could you honestly see the same fascicle episode ever happening aboard any of the many great ocean going liners from our Merchant Navy. I cant given the fact she listed and not sunk, British Officers and British seaman would have been much more efficient in there duties and i believe there would have been many more lives saved. That,s today's shipping companies for you mate Terry.

[Keith Tindell]

I think a lot of it on the cruise ships Terry, is they don't go to dedicated life boats or a muster station, the lifeboat drills on most of them is in the theatre, and conducted by the entertainment crew, dancers, singers etc, certainly not seamen, its a recipe for disaster. this is second hand info, because i would not go on one, but i always question anyone who goes on a cruise, what procedure they had. the last guy i asked, said they did not even don lifejackets. It will happen one day, kt

[Red Lead Ted]

Kieth, Hear is one picture that caught my imagination, Bare in mind the ship is going know where she has hit rocks to close to the the shore line and listed, The souls aboard wern,t to know this crew included, But i would hazard a guess that those life rafts have been thrown over the side and rendered useless by passengers hanging on the pull lines and made fast. Any Merchant seaman in our day would throw them over the side and pull the inflated line after they hit the water as we where trained to deal with an upturned inflated life raft, Further more there would have been deck officers in attendance, To over see this exercise conducted. Total chaos and panic overtook the crews own survival and passengers where left to there own devices to survive. The reason i say it would never have happened in our day is because British Merchant officers would never show boat the way shitino did. Always safety first and of course B.O.T. Regulation was always the order of the day. Terry.

[Les Woodard]

Article in our local rag about the amount of container ships loosing not only their containers but also ships. Was it not the idea that containers where to stop pilfering which was a complete flop as now whole containers are nicked besides the amount lost at sea. When are these bean counters going to start realising that they need to go back to the drawing board and look at past practices where maintenance aboard ships was carried out at all times. How many mishaps are going to occur between ships and submerged containers. Regarding watch keeping well? Used to fecking love look out in the summer months in the pacific but detested it in the winter months in the atlantic. Being look out on a balmy night all on my pat malone (as was the case for all of us) is where I found religion and how it all worked. Not the BS crap that is on shore that puts so much restrictions upon a person to keep total control over one. Yep the best church was stuck up on the prow with all the noise behind one and the gentle rythm of the ship under ones plate of meat. How lucky where we? When you consider that there where thousands of us and a big hand would descend down and pluck twelve or so of us out of that group and no matter who or where they came from would function as a well oile swiss watch every bloody time. Mind you I am only talking about the buggers on deck.

[happy daze john in oz]

Boat drill for passengers on cruise ships varies from company to company.

P&O along with Carnival, Princess, Cunard and a few others carry it out in muster stations,
This could be a lounge or bar depending where your cabin is on the ship.

With Royal Caribbean all muster drills are carried out by the life boats. You go to the one allocated according to where you are on board.
On one cruise saw a couple turned off before sailing as they had not attended muster, have heard of others doing the same.

Crew drill when in port regularly takes place, on a 14 day cruise there will be ta least two all full ones with the lowering of life boats.

[Red Lead Ted]

Article in our local rag about the amount of container ships loosing not only their containers but also ships. Was it not the idea that containers where to stop pilfering which was a complete flop as now whole containers are nicked besides the amount lost at sea. When are these bean counters going to start realising that they need to go back to the drawing board and look at past practices where maintenance aboard ships was carried out at all times. How many mishaps are going to occur between ships and submerged containers. Regarding watch keeping well? Used to fecking love look out in the summer months in the pacific but detested it in the winter months in the atlantic. Being look out on a balmy night all on my pat malone (as was the case for all of us) is where I found religion and how it all worked. Not the BS crap that is on shore that puts so much restrictions upon a person to keep total control over one. Yep the best church was stuck up on the prow with all the noise behind one and the gentle rythm of the ship under ones plate of meat. How lucky where we? When you consider that there where thousands of us and a big hand would descend down and pluck twelve or so of us out of that group and no matter who or where they came from would function as a well oile swiss watch every bloody time. Mind you I am only talking about the buggers on deck.

Absolutely Les, I echo your sentiments to the letter, I sailed with many mixed crews from every corner of the U.K. We all had one thing in common we all spoke the same lingo, And had each others backs at all times. It worked like clockwork as you say because we where all on the same wave band, Regards Terry.

[Red Lead Ted]

Boat drill for passengers on cruise ships varies from company to company.

P&O along with Carnival, Princess, Cunard and a few others carry it out in muster stations,
This could be a lounge or bar depending where your cabin is on the ship.

With Royal Caribbean all muster drills are carried out by the life boats. You go to the one allocated according to where you are on board.
On one cruise saw a couple turned off before sailing as they had not attended muster, have heard of others doing the same.

Crew drill when in port regularly takes place, on a 14 day cruise there will be ta least two all full ones with the lowering of life boats.

John, I still maintain the first duty of any seaman in our day before you cut the deck of cards for your watch or turned too was to check and familiarize yourself with the boat you where allocated to and your fire station which you found on the muster list soon after you signed articles regardless of what type of ship she was { Do they do it these days } Apparently not Terry.

[happy daze john in oz]

Terry, all cruise ships are required under international law to conduct boat drill prior to sailing.
It is taken very serious by the crew, and all passengers must attend at their allocated muster point.


There was a time when you had to take your life jacket with you to muster drill to be shown how to wear it.

But under international rules now that no longer applies, just a crew member showing with his how to use it.
It was stopped as a number of persons were injured, some seriously, when they tripped over the trailing lines of the life belts.
Some passengers after taking it off did not bother to tidy it up and went off trailing the lines.

But at one muster I had to bring a crew member up for his instructions.

He said it was OK to put the jacket on before entering the water and just to make sure there were no encumbrances in the water before jumping off.

I told him in front of about 300 passengers that doing that you could well break your neck when hitting the water.
He then re-frased the statement saying you should lower your self in.

He spoke with me after and asked what I knew about life jackets, I showed him my MN badge which I was wearing at the time telling him it was something we learned at sea school.

[Red Lead Ted]

Very true John, A lot of reports of seaman jumping over the side with the old style life jackets and as you say breaking there neck entering the water Terry.