Smoking at Sea.

[Les Woodard]

Can recall that smoking on lookout was shunned as they did not want any misleading lights on the bow. Mind you we still did by hiding the smoke in our clothes so that the bridge could not spot the ciggie glowing.

[j.sabourn]

I can’t really remember any paragons of virtue at sea , apart from the ex alkys , whose motto would be there are none so pure as the purified, their attempts at conversation was always alluding to the evils of drink. Every man had his own principles and allusions of self grandeur , on a ship though they were all lumped together , and if caused friction was best to try and break up , on short trips with continuous crew changes this was possible, on long trips on tramps it was not. So one had to develope a thick skin or go under. If you took slight at the slightest of what you thought was an arrow aimed at you, was best you gave the job away. Any youngster on thinking of a sea career should think of his own self survival among people of different levels in society be it monetary or educational backgrounds. One of the hardest jobs in any industry is handling people, and in a seagoing capacity it is there for 24 hours a day. So taking as an example if you can’t live with someone smoking which is not illegal as of yet, don’t go to sea. JS

[Chris Allman]

When I think of my bond bill for cigs when a Cadet, I shiver. To think of the money I must have wasted for sucking on a ciggy. I did not drink much, had my odd can when on board and a few rum and cokes when ashore but nothing heavy. The problem was the ciggys, which dominated me well after my sea time finished and until the 1st March 2000 when I smoked my last ciggy and have not touched one since. I did it too by will power which I am even more proud of. I have become a bit of a ' purist ' when it comes to smoking, extolling the virtues of avoiding the deadly weed and trying to persuade people to give them up. However I have certainly reaped the financial benefits of not smoking, especially when you see just how much a packet of 20 costs these days, which does not exactly do the pension any good. The only thing which does irk me is when the Doctor looks at my records on check ups and says " ah a history of smoking " I say " yes a history well in the past " and he seems to get the hint and leaves the subject alone.

[Keith Tindell]

The posts on nicotine stains brought it all back, teeth brown from smoking, scrubbing with the pumice stone on the fingers, clothes reeking of smoke etc. I gave up 50 years ago, and again it was from money point of view, married two kids etc. I can remember anchoring out at Ravenna, Italy with a cargo of grain, which had to be discharged into barges, until the draught allowed us to go alongside, and no bond, it took some time for this, and in the end the skipper asked the agent to bring out some Italian cigs, we would have smoked anything, we were that desperate. Mind you those Italian cigs were like smoking camel s*** and bus tickets. I'm the worlds worst now if an ashtray is anywhere near me,. I know we could not smoke on lookout, or on the wheel, but for the life of me i cannot recall if we smoked when turned to on deck generally, kt

[happy daze john in oz]

Was a big smoker before ever going to sea, Capstan full strength, but the low price encouraged me to smoke even more. In Las Palmas I used to swap Senior Service for Chesterfields.
Catering had time at the end of shifts and at the end of the day to smoke.
At one time doing as many as 100 a day when in port on day off.

Gave it away back in 1973 when I got the Flu, never looked back.

[john middleton]

Almost everybody smoked, in between sitting
all the wingers lit up, and if the 'Pig' was handy
got stuck into a pint.
In the Cunard we all smoked American cigarettes
we thought we were the cat's whiskers with our
Luckies or Pall Mall sticking upright on the bar
in front of us.
Packed it up 1963 the week end Kennedy was
assasinated.

[Fouro]

Re # 10.

I'm sorry to say that I am 'shocked' at reading the contents of this post.
The thought of anyone recovering cigarette ends from filthy ashtrays, the contents of such to be reused for making hand made cigarettes, makes me feel sick.

Fouro.

[Captain Kong]

I didn't start smoking until I was 21, I was brought up with fitness family, Dad was a weight lifting champion, One lift was unbroken for 16 years, and Uncle Ted was an Olympian Gymnast, so I got a hard time to stay off them, when I did start it was big time. When I was taking a VLCC from the Gulf, the RADARs failed, No Radar, in the English Cannel bound for Rotterdam in rain and sleet, vessels flying past on all sides, I had two cigarettes ,one in each hand puffing away.
In 1988, My son, who is a Doctor took me to the Hospital in Liverpool to the dissecting Room, he showed me a set of lungs taken from a heavy smoker, they were black like a chewed up welly, then he showed me the lungs of s child, they were soft and fluffy, They were in glass containers in a solution.
He told me that my lungs would look like the black ones after all those ciggies, He said if you wore your lungs on the outside , you would not smoke,
I had a new pack of 20, I just crushed them and threw them into the bin,
Never ever touched a ciggy since.
I have since had a few friends who have died of Lung Cancer,

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Re # 10.

I'm sorry to say that I am 'shocked' at reading the contents of this post.
The thought of anyone recovering cigarette ends from filthy ashtrays, the contents of such to be reused for making hand made cigarettes, makes me feel sick.

Fouro.

Hi Fouro.
When I was around six and seven we used to cut down this tube like plant and make a pipe then crush the leaves and smoke them, had a coughing good time.
Des

[happy daze john in oz]

Re # 10.

I'm sorry to say that I am 'shocked' at reading the contents of this post.
The thought of anyone recovering cigarette ends from filthy ashtrays, the contents of such to be reused for making hand made cigarettes, makes me feel sick.

Fouro.

Sorry you feel so rough about that.
Did you ever visit the 'Tiki Hoc' bar in Cape Town?
In there any ciggy dropped would be picked up by some one and put to good use no matter how rough it may have been as a result of being 'floored'.