A game of two halves

[Keith Tindell]

I think we are about to enter an era when we will wish we still had a MN, dependant on our own ships to bring in goods worldwide. Its an absolute disgrace to be an Island nation with out your own fleet of ships. maybe they will calling on all us old seafarers to bail them out with crews !!!1, kt

[Tony Geeves]

Summed it up exactly, it mirrored my time at sea exactly!.............live for the remaining days..........cheers.

[j.sabourn]

#40... I was 41 years of age when I went into the offshore industry and even then Was considered too old really. I started off as mate on the Winpey seawolf after being deep sea for 25 years , 14 of them as chief mate and relieving master a couple of times. The transition from deep sea to offshore is no piece of cake as some might think, it is a totally different ball game and means another learning curve as quickly as possible. I was taught by ABs who knew that part of the job a lot better than I did, and was very pleased they were there, when there are only three of you on deck discharging containers or other commodity’s in a force 6 , there is little room for error. As far as I was concerned the most experienced of the trio led the way. No place for all this rank or rating business.
The. Same on tankers you can’t walk off a cargo ship onto.a tanker and expect to know the job. This present situation of people getting qualified in a classroom leaves me cold. The way one learns at sea is by experience and doing the job and always will be as far as I’m concerned. Going to school is necessary only to learn the theory if there is any, seamen are taught on a ship. I was brought up on tramp cargo ships and that part was drummed into me at an early age so could pick up the reins there any day of the week. The likes of offshore ,anchor work and towing is another ball game and requires experience, and if you haven’t got you have to get from whoever is willing to teach you. Which offshore was and probably still is the ABs. Cheers JS

[robpage]

I got to 39 and under the British Ferries banner with the crazy idea of the Portsmouth Cherbourg channel Isle run was absolutely insane and I can see no future with British ferries by that stage the cargo tramp had all but disappeared the passenger liners were a thing of the past I certainly didn't fancy cruise ships Union Castle was a brilliant passenger Fleet and I thought anything else would be lesser than so I decided it was the time to start going home .every night dig the garden occasionally and job ashore loomed . I can honestly say it wasn't an easy transition there an awful lot of hi Lee skilled Royal Navy Seafarers in this area retiring by the day and a lot of Shore employers seem to regard you with a degree of suspicion that you might just get wonder last after 6 months and vanish the job I had that up with I was in it for over 25 years and would occasionally go and sit at the top of Portsdown Hill and watch the ships come and go I think that I had one of the best jobs in the world at the time that it was coming to an end and by 1986 I think the changes ahead we're just going to be more than I wanted

[happy daze john in oz]

John #44 you are right, the only way to learn the job is on the job.

But with the modern way of doing things many such opportunities are gone.
Imagine a brick layer, chippy or sparkie not learning on the job, be a bit of a mess no doubt.

So many tasks that are hands on are being taught in the uni now. Nursing is one that is failing by being taken out of the hospitals for training.