Overtime at sea

[j.sabourn]

Rather than carry on , on a parallel thread on the same subject but with its different and own title and get knuckles rapped for going off subject....
Overtime on Tramp shipping was often the root cause of any dissentions on board.
Promises were often made at shipping office levels and never carried out.
Ships on the liner trades may have been different, but on tramp ships which were usually out for in excess of 6 months, and overtime being kept down to the bone was the main cause of argument.
A lot of men who went to sea had families to support at home and relied on overtime for this reason. As said I was mate for a lot of years, mainly on trampships and instructions from the office was they expected a small overtime bill at the end of Articles or suffer the consequences. Most people who had control of the overtime followed these instructions to the letter.
On the likes of Bisco charters these restrictions were eased as the overtime was payable in general by the charterers. The first ore carriers I was on were a Newcastle company who put a limit of 3 hours a day for non essential overtime, other company’s put 6 hours a day. When I worked for JIJacobs they put no restrictions and and trusted you to use your own discretion.
I think when the seaman’s strike of 1966 started this was one of the big moans of the industry. One of the ways some saw was the loss of sleep clause, this just muddied the waters , and caused a tournament between the two sides which brought in the de-manning by changing certain laws. The 1966 seamen’s strike I would say the tramp ship trade and lack of a positive earnings understanding had a lot to play on the subsequent decisions made as regards the British merchant fleets. The shipowner was as much at fault as the unions. JWS....

[Keith Tindell]

Most of the trampers I was on there was little overtime until homeward bound, then there was plenty, sprucing the old gal up. Most of the arguments I encountered was in alternating the watches. On one ship we had a big guy who having moved watches to give all hands a change from the dreaded 12-4, once he was on the 4-8 refused to change watches at one of the ports, and the bosun being week, would not organise these changes, after a little session on number 5 hatch by one of the ABs, the watches duly changed, kt

[Chris Allman]

As a Cadet I got 1 shilling and two pence an hour for overtime. We were generally given 2 hrs a day when at sea on weekdays. It certainly made up my pay packet at the end of the voyage as I was only on £14.10p a month. We also got overtime sometimes for Cargo Watching, which I hated. We were preferred by the Mate for overtime over the crew as we were obviously a lot cheaper. This sometimes caused a bit of jealousy with the crew, especially if we were working alongside them and we were on overtime and they were not.

[Anthony Allen]

As part of the catering staff on a ship, we worked a lot of extra unpaid hours, if we were paid the same as our shore side colleagues we would have been on a very good wage, which we weren't. It wasn't until I left the MN during the 1966 national strike, which incidentally I was against and went to work ashore, I realised what a poor deal we had.

[j.sabourn]

#2 That was because the owners expected the ship to arrive back in the UK spic and span. Have seen the superintendents come on board and run their hands under taffrails looking for rust. They would also sometimes bring copies of overtime sheets submitted to office during the trip and question certain items. Overtime was a pain in the ass. Today’s consolidated wages does away with all that , and recent joiners to what is left of British Shipping will wonder what all the fuss was about. Whether one considers the consolidated wage of today covers them for loss of overtime and of crew, remains to be seen, as will vary , as some are just there for the ride and others to make a living. I know after the seaman’s strike a lot of good men went and never came back. They took jobs ashore as painters or whatever , found they were better off and stayed ashore. Cheers JS

[Louis the fly]

The 66 strike was called for a 40 hour week to bring us in line with shoreside industries. Within days food prices were rising in the shops , despite the fact there were months of supplies stored in warehouses throughout the UK. Harold Wilson stated this was a communist inspired strike and we were holding the country to ransom. The average seamen had no interest in politics , it was never talked about at sea and the majority of seamen didn't vote because we were away far longer than we were at home , elections passed us by. The large shipping companies tried to break the strike by sending out letters saying the strike is ending tomorrow report to the federation.

With regard to overtime and tramp ships. Anyone joining a tramp realised they were not going to make a lot of money because all the jobs on the ship could be spaced out over a long period of time. Most of us joined tramps because of the relaxed atmosphere , the lack of BS found in many other ships and everyone on board mixing together far more easily. We are out for a long trip lets make the best of it. Also tramps went to ports not covered by other shipping companies. If your main reason for going to sea was to earn money you would make more by doing 6 week Medi trips.

[j.sabourn]

The 40 hour week Louis was also to increase the earning power by overtime . I was mate on the Ravensworth and the second ship out through the locks at Port Talbot , and the first thing a Maltese seaman said to me was ok we will all be on overtime this weekend then Mr. Mate. I said only the 6 watchkeepers, Two on a watch was immediately effected and no weekend work except essential duties. These were instructions received from ashore. So already reduced manning was underway. It was a well planned operation which the government must have been compliciant with. So much for Harold Wilson. The Maltese seaman’s reply was something like we’ve been effed again. Cheers JWS

[robpage]

I never had overtime all the time working for British and Commonwealth but with gulf oil we had over time after the 10th hour normally after your 8 hours of watches you ended up with a couple of hours a day overhauling the steam winches and believe me you only ever did the 10th hour so we did 14 hours of free overtime every week . I then joined British Rail Weymouth consolidated pay days and you got so much for shift in the ship so much every down the ankle went down so much for this and so much for that that the extras could actually double your wages . I think we could get 8 hours every Anchorage and we were going to Jersey discharge come out and Anchor the mail boat would go in we go back in do the same at Guernsey so you would end up with 16 hours extra pay every day

[Ken Norton]

Never got any overtime payments, the company used to call them "Field Days" when you worked over your hours. I used to work it out that they got most if not all their leave pay back adopting these methods of non - payment. If we were coasting the pump man could earn more than the Old man.

[Les Woodard]

No arguments concerning overtime on BSL as our problem was getting enough sleep LOL. Think that FG ships lost out after the strike and going onto a 40 hour week as did we not get weekend penalties with added leave when signing off so I really resented loosing my weekends at sea as we ended up just sitting around all day if on day work twiddling our bloody thumbs. As for rates of pay well for me I went for the life style not to make a fortune.