Originally Posted by
John Arton
All of us, irrespective of company or trade, when at sea were acutely aware that there was a finite amount of stores and water etc. on board and if you ran short of an item it was not a matter of just popping round the corner to the local shop/supermarket to purchase a replacement. Even when making up purchase requisitions for stores to be sent off the head office, you were always aware of the zealous purchasing clerk with the red pen who would remove or cut down the quantity of any item he thought frivolous or excessive even though he most likely had no experience of life on board, he would do this in order to impress his purchasing super (who maybe had sailed) who had to sign off on the requisition, how many pennies he had saved the company.
On board, even if you had a fresh water distillation plant fitted or a decent slop chest, you always made sure that you got the longest life possible out of your razor blades, squeezed the last bit of toothpaste out of the tube, only used enough shaving cream to give a decent shave, did not linger in the shower for hours on end, etc. You know the score. The only publications on board were supplied by HMSO or other Nautical Publications supplier. Log Books (Deck and Engine and Cargo), Bridge and Engine room night order books, bell books, compass error books, radar log books etc. If you needed scrap paper, unused crew lists, stores declarations, company letters etc. were torn up and placed on a hook consisting of a bent piece of wire on the chart table. Requesting scrap note books from the purchasing dept. would have led to that red pencil coming out and woe betide you ordering foolscap lined a4 books for use as sight books or diaries.
Now
After being forced to give up sailing due to ill health I had a couple of jobs before eventually retiring, one of which was lecturing in Nautical Science's at Shields College to O.O.W. (2nd Mates) and Chief Mates students.
The amount of paper wastage was tremendous. Every student was provided with a full course notebook, I had to draw up schemes of work and individual lesson plans for each subject (Construction and Repair, Bridge Resource, Cargo Management etc. These had to be reviewed each term and updated as necessary with new handbooks being issued. When I sat in lectures for all my tickets I provided my own notebooks, took my own notes and drew all my own diagrams from what the lecturer gave us from his overheads etc. Occasionally we would be given some pre printed drawings as handouts to keep but they were few and far between.
Contrast that to when I was lecturing to students for Chief Mates and I was asking them to copy a diagram from the screen I had put up, only to be told by the Head of Department that asking chief mates candidates to do their own drawing was a no no!!!!!!!!!
Now
Even a home, living with 3 females I find that I am going through an inordinate amount of razors, shaving gel and don't ask me about toothpaste!!!!! why cannot they learn to squeeze from the bottom of the tube?
The razor and shaving gel consumption is down to them discovering fathers razors and gel are great for their legs, underarms and other areas so why bother buying their own.
Then there is food and toiletries. Fridge is constantly stuffed full, loads tossed away as its sell by (not use by) date has gone, enough deodorant is sprayed around to cause a hole in the ozone to appear above shields and as for netty paper, forests are cut down to keep my lot in supply.
Yes living life ashore is so completely different to what we lived aboard and if you dare mention the words "use less, or buy less" you are immediately labelled a "stingy old fart"
rgds
J.A.
