Mutiny on Merchant ships.

[j.sabourn]

Hi Tony was just saying to Gwen we hadn’t seen you for a long time hope you and family ok. Yes 1962 was a long time ago . I remember you were on the forecastle head with chippy and me before we left in haste after dropping the anchor did you get thrown off or were you pushed. How far did you get down the deck I got as far as the bridge front and had one leg over rail ready to jump before she came upright again. Give us a call on the blower when things get back to normal. Are you still living in the same place ? If you read the letters page in yesterday’s paper you will see a piece about the sheep boat in freo. The follow up hasn’t been printed up till now. Gwen still remembers the cup of greasy tea you brought her when she was being seasick. See you later. John S.

[j.sabourn]

Going back to old posts and the one about my worst Xmas at sea. The poster describes the murder on board the Rosewood off the coast of Chile. Previous to this when I was mate on same ship the master was knifed by a crew member an incident which believe I have already described. The post as mentioned with the murder and two attempted murders I know well about and the circumstances surrounding it , as the master at that time I knew very well. Although he was one of the targets of the miscreant himself, and after summoning armed assistance from the Chilean navy who wanted to shoot to kill , he stopped this happening. Maybe in those days observance of maritime law was observed , not like the present as one sees naval boarding parties boarding vessels in areas with no political persuasion or international waters without permission , so maybe international law has changed ? Life at sea was not all one bed of roses as shore people might think. But I must say in general what was the general feeling years ago was that what happened at sea was handled at sea and was a seamans business, and was a last resource to call for assistance. JS.

[Evan Lewis]

Firs Trip ,as Deck-Boy,'49. Having gone previous Trip as Cabin Boy, QUOTE .Port Talbot ,Pool -man . said. "Take this one ,at Sharpness , and I;ll put you back as Deck, When you return.. Anxious to Get away> .Off I went. to Sharpness. .

Had not long left the Joint, three months there at the Vindicatrix. So wasn't too enthused.. After the 3-4 weeks Trip .returned to Sharpness Bristol Crowd, Paid Off..

I signed as Deck-boy/ . New DEck Crowd A.B's ,were from Port Talbot. They had been ,through the War. for different periods. .At least three. were on this Tanker .Hanging round the Coral Sea.
V.E. Day had been May 8. some months earlier. V.j. was in .Aug.

The Tanker's Crew..decided, enough!
They were Put aboard .H.M.S. Ark Royal. Charged with Mutiny , Taken to Sydney

Must have been some Latitude afforded them.. AS they were there ,To Talk about it.

[j.sabourn]

#13 Evan whichever way you look at it a seamans life was for only a particular type of person. Most like myself were drawn into it by a sense of maybe adventure and the unknown. My particular idols were those in the so called Yangste Incident and the incidents involving HMS Amythist .Kerans I think was the figure held up by the media at the time. In later years I found out from someone who knew him from the war years , that he was a chair bound sailor and was mainly in the consular business in the roll of naval attache , which dampened my liking of the story at the time. But by this time was well into a life at sea and committed to the same as a livelihood . The only regrets I have is the loss of family life which can never be re-covered. They used to say that sparkys went round the bend after 5 years at sea and blamed this as having dots and dashes as companions. What about others who put in a lot more seatime. I did a course in London on the mental state of people on ships and one of the subjects on such was painting of inside colour schemes of cabins for mental health. In our time was getting enough room to put a bunk in. As regards Port Talbot you may not have known Cindy who was probably after your time, but I reckon she had more seatime in than a lot , and wouldn’t have cared about colour schemes. JS.

[j.sabourn]

#10.. Tony have been wracking what little brain have left to recollect the problems you mention about. The water. But to little avail .There was always problems on most ships about water re every deadweight cargo so assume it would have been the shortage of domestic water , also the hanging around in the South Atlantic ? For your info. Gerry Screen who was the mate and who I was friendly with went to I believe Common Bros or Souters when Moor Line folded and went back to Anchor line , and I met him a few times when in various iron ore ports in the Uk as both of us were on ore carriers myself on the Pennyworh and Ravensworth belonging to Dalgliesh . Gerry died at an earlier age than he should have done with I believe cancer round about 1970 , I was then on foreign vessels so didn’t hear about it until a much later date. Cheers JS

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Came close to mutiny on a couple of ships over the food, solved by the firemen tipping the food over the chief steward, didn't improve the food though, I'm sure he scrapped it up and sent it back to the galley. I think that at the time I started, in 49 there were many blokes who had gone through the war who wouldn't stand for the poor food dished out. Which when you think about it, we were taking wheat from the US to Germany while Britain was still on rations would have rubbed a bit raw.
Des

[j.sabourn]

#16 Seen that done also Des. Some of the feeding on ships was no doubt due partly to the maxims placed on Chief Stewards by the Ship owner. The feeding rate in 1953 in the company I was in, was 7/6d a day , but. There was a stipulation that everything under this amount the. ch.stwd. Received a bonus. This was a carrot to a donkey ?
Most guaranteed that most went for it. On. Most foreign flagged ships I was on whatever the feeding rate was , this was paid to the ch. stwd. Or butla for the feeding of the mates and engineers in cash, the same as to the Bosun and Number one. fireman who fed themselves , this was paid at the end of every month. As far as the stewards went straight into their pockets and they fed off us. This I suppose was a similar system to the UK coastal ships but don’t know as was never in those circumstances . There were of course 3 galleys on most of this type of system
I never saw complaints on Hong Kong ships unless of course the master was not distributing the cash correctly , which in one case I saw Go unnoticed. Like most things at sea Trust was a big thing in a small restricted community. The feeding rate was sometimes bigger than the wage rate on some foreign vessels.
Another good financial reason for reduced crews I suppose. JS

PS... The.Mystic East , the fallacy about fatness or obesity being a sign of beauty , to my mind is rubbish, it is a sign of wealth , and the reason it was very rare to see a fat Chinese or Indian seaman. Give him 10/- a day and he would feed himself on 5/- and even less if possible. JS.

[Evan Lewis]

Re .Post 14.
Yes .knew Cindy reasonably well.
Never thought I'd say this about ,the Girls that used to frequent Ships,or Sailor's Pubs. But Here Goes. Cindy would be one of the nicest Persons .I've known
And that/s been many and varied including.From a Four Star General's daughter, to Operatic Principal,etc. etc.
She was never ridiculed by the P.T. lads to my knowledge. who lived near, Rather! protected.
P.s.
Sorry.!
Wrote a lot more regarding Cindy.
Lost it somewhere? Run out of time now , maybe continue Manana

[j.sabourn]

When Cindy got married she obviously settled down . I agree with you she had the heart of an angel and many were glad of her during the strike as she bought many who were broke a pint. 0ne of our ABs was very close to her and I always used to make sure she was off the vessel beforehand re the usual traffic coming up the gangway. I was in that bit of a nightclub in Port Talbot one night with the old man and she and her fiancée came across to our table to join us and she introduced him. She gave me a wink and said we could tell some stories couldn’t we ? . No airs and graces and lived her life as she saw fit. One time in Narvik saw painted on the Quay Cindy was here and panicked in case she was still onboard the Ravensworth but she wasn’t so heaved a sigh of relief as would have put us all in a bad position. Cheers JS

[happy daze john in oz]

Not just mutiny over bad food of cargo ships because of the Chief steward and his bonus.
We had the same thing on UCL liners when only one sitting for meals in the tourist gallop.
There were a few trips when the ship was not full so the C/S would ration tea and other goods needed to keep the bloods quiet, try explain why the tea is very week today, most likely been topped up a dozen times, to some big Yarpie at breakfast.