Knowing what I know now would I still go to sea

[Alan Hill]

Answer = NOFW

However !! It taught me an an awful lot and rectified my poor education (much of which was at boarding school and and the Worcester) because of having to pass various certificates. So I was lucky that I did go to sea.
Which just goes to show that you don't always know what's good for you !

[Doc Vernon]

For me the answer would always be ! Oh Yes i certainly would! If it were the same as Yesteryear!

Not only did it offer me a better life, seeing the World for free, Accommodation and Food provided, and as you say gave me a better education than any School could have then. I only did my Std V1 , and with going to Sea , i learnt so much more!

Also provided some of the best Mates i ever had in life, and many a nice Ladt too!
Cheers

[Rodney Mills]

I like many on this site, left school at 15.* I had to fill in work time*until I was 16 and could join the MN.* I had a number of jobs in that year, the first job, drilling holes in small bolts, I lasted five days in that, I broke too many drill bits. Next making bricks, (piece work) damn near killed me, quit after five days.* I finally ended up in a restaurant on the front in Southend-On-Sea, frying chips. And then my 16th birthday and Gravesend and then a Catering Boy in the Galley.* That's the start of my chosen Line of work leading to President and CEO of an International Remote-Site- Catering Company in an office on Madison Ave. New York, USA.

Timing is everything.* Union-Castle Line developed a four-year apprentice chef program. I was given 2 years credit for time served.* You had to do two trips on a UCL liner then go to the company school in Woolwich for a six-week training course.* Most apprentices hated it as they did not live in London, so it meant camping out at the Seaman's Mission.* So, most of them dodged the company recruiter.* I volunteered to go, so I was doing one six-week trip to the Cape and back, five days leave and in the school for six weeks as my future wife lived in London, and I could stay at my Grandparents home in London.* I not only got to see my girlfriend, but I was getting first class training at the UCSL school.* And I got my Ship Cook's B.O.T. ticket at 19. I was told I was the youngest ever to get a Ships* Cook's BOT certification.* With what happened to our MN I assume I still hold the record.

I never realized at the time that the M.N was dying.* For some a slow death, for people in catering rapid, with passenger liner companies closing down and scrapping liners.* I never saw it coming because I emigrated first to Canada at almost 21 then to the States at 23 to California.

The M.N. was a blessing to me.* We could receive training, see the world, learn how to relate to fellow workers in close, confined quarters, watch your mouth as no matter how hard you thought you were there was always someone harder; and to obey orders and to give instructions humanly.* So sad that those opportunities are gone. If not gone drastically limited. I backed the practical side of the food industry with home study courses in math and English.

Hard to say cheers, but cheers anyway, Rodney*

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Unfortunately family ties are to strong now, but at 92 I still think I could reach the cross trees, I was 70 when I stopped climbing over the side of a ship to paint the hull, and that only because we went to NZ for three years. Now I don't smell salt but snow, such is life.
Des

[happy daze john in oz]

Is there any better life??

Had it not been for joining no doubt my life would have been very ordinary main stream.
But it taught me new skills, how to look after myself , how to deal with others and disasters.

Taught me how to drink and how to get home after too much drink, how to deal with the ladies, and how to explain to mum what I got up to without getting a mouthful.

Like Rodders sent to Woolwich for 6 weeks, did me the world of good.

[Julian Norman]

I retired 3 years ago after 45 years at sea. 10 years deep sea with Cunard and Maersk followed with time in the North Sea on shuttle tankers, then dredgers as Captain and finally as a Pilot until retirement. Was able to marry, actually see my family grow up with a good standard of living. Wouldn't have swopped it, great times. Would I recommend it to youngsters..no way. I got in at the end of the good times. We leave it to others these days apart from niche jobs on cruise ships or super yachts, judging by my last course at a nautical college.

[j.sabourn]

Was that Maersk I.O.M. Julian ? JS.

[Julian Norman]

No Maersk London. Sailed on Maersk Cadet, Buchan, Angus and Ascension 1982 - 86.

[Johnny Kieran]

I think the question is impossible to answer really. First of all we all went to sea in bygone days, with bygone ways. Today, we see most ships calling into ports around the world for just a few hours, not like us, that spent a few days at least in most ports. Just imagine going to BA, or Kiwi, and spending a day in port, or even just a few hours.
I was talking to an English "bosun sort of" his words, on a cruise ship last year, and he had been on on cargo boat for some time. he said it was so boring going in and out, without even going ashore in most places, due to there being no time.
I remember the days when we were in Wellington for 3 weeks, then Lyttelton for a week, then Auckland for a few weeks, or vice versa. Ba was always a couple of weeks I'm sure.
No, I don't think I'd like to work on ships today after experiencing it in bygone days.

[j.sabourn]

#9. It was a job probably more attractive to a Nomad, a Gypsy, or dare I say a Wandering Jew. ? JS