Shipwrights

[Keith Tindell]

Thinking back to my time at sea in the late 50s, we always carried a Carpenter ? shipwright ?, on board, does that still happen today ?. The only two ships that i was on that did not have a carpenter , but a handyman, ie one of the ABs, he did the soundings etc, this was on the United Baltic shipping boats. Are there any Carpenters on this site ?, or is this a rank that drifted away with time, kt

[Chris Allman]

Good question Keith - I sailed with some very skilled Carpenters who taught me some woodwork skills I still have today. Valuable and knowledgeable seamen. One wonders in these days of plastics and perspex, if there is just very large tubes of COPYDEX and UHU in a glass case marked ' For Emergency Use Only ' in ten different languages.

PS Sorry I forgot the ' Gaffer Tape '

[vic mcclymont]

When I joined the Clan Ranald she carried a Carpenter, once we got the Unmanned Certificate, the position was no longer required.
Vic

[Samuel Denton]

I think the rise of the box boats did for the chippy. Even tank soundings are at the touch of a computer. About the only tank soundings these days might be fuel tanks pre bunkering and during bunkering, hold bilges likely rely on an alarm.

[Ken Trehearne]

The chippie's know-how came to the fore on the SS Boston City way back in 1950 enroute from Bristol to Port Tampa, when I was an EDH thereon. Dampness had been sighted on the hull interior within a hold. Chippie scraped to check on a possible leak but put his knife right through causing more than dampness. Chippies cement box kept most water out while we made for Savannah for urgent repairs. Entering dry-dock meant complete off-loading of cargo with 'urgency' falling away when rivets would not hold adequately in adjoining too-thin plates. Spent several weeks in Savannah welcomed by the locals even to the extent of our crew having football games with a local team on a genuine sports field. Can't recall the goal results though they would certainly not have been favourable to us.
Ken T
R412277

[happy daze john in oz]

Not sure about containers and such but most cruise ships have at least a plumber, if you can call them that.
Now classified as engineers of sorts.
Plumbing on cruise ships with the evac toilet system can be a nightmare when it goes wrong.
Wrong things down there and it blocks, then the 'engineer' is called to fix it.

As to a chippy, well some in the galley, but have not seen one as such but here men who do work that at times we considered to be their work.

[Tony Taylor]

Good question Keith - I sailed with some very skilled Carpenters who taught me some woodwork skills I still have today. Valuable and knowledgeable seamen. One wonders in these days of plastics and perspex, if there is just very large tubes of COPYDEX and UHU in a glass case marked ' For Emergency Use Only ' in ten different languages.

PS Sorry I forgot the ' Gaffer Tape '

Chris, I think you may be referring to Thistlebond (ha ha).
When Shell removed all the oxy acetylene sets they were replaced with "sophisticated repair kits" I still remember that phrase to this day.

[Keith Tindell]

This is a short story from an old ships carpenter from liverpool, as i recall the *chippie* was a job that answered to the chief mate, not the Bosun. This guy obviously misses the sea, much the same as the rest of us, kt

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtzuQvPaZ7w

[david mckaig]

Shell Tankers, back in the day, had a bosun, carpenter and a deck storekeeper as "petty officers". Shipwright not much use on a steel shell (pardon the pun), but the others were definitely not to be messed with!! Also had crew of about 35'ish, so plenty of jobs for all three to take care of.