It's not Christmas, but you have a prreesent for me Captain?

[John Arton]

On arrival in port there were a number of forms required to be presented to officials, crew list, crew effects declaration, bonded stores list, maritime declaration of health for example. These would be in duplicate pounded out on a typewriter using carbon paper by whomever was tasked with the job of preparing them. Nowadays the number of forms required have grown exponentially but the advent of computers and emails have made the task somewhat easier. In many ports in the likes of West Africa or north Africa, after presenting the forms there would be the request, you have a present for me Captain? And a carton of cigarettes or a bottle of spirits would be handed over to ease the clearing inwards process.
In ports in those parts of the world mentioned above the numbers of officials attending and all requiring presents could almost outnumber the number of crew and all wanting their presents, if they were not given the ship could be held up for hours while they satisfied that all that was stated on the forms was in fact true.
In Bonny, because we had no Nigerian flag ( the agent had it but was not allowed on board until all the officials had finished), customs etc helped themselves to the slop chest taking all the deodorants, shampoo, toothpaste, after shave and shaving foams but hardly touched the bonded stores and they also raided the galley fridge, taking all the cooked items and even some uncooked stuff.
In Morocco I had the harbour master, dripping in more braid than a prince of the realm, literally leap over the table to snatch an extra carton of cigarettes from one of the officials he thought did not deserve it.
Arriving of Arzew in Algeria I was met by the pilot launch with the pilot, a single port official and an armed soldier (who introduced himself as my friend!). The single official took all the inumerable forms required, gave me a stamped official document , in Arabic, and informed me that the ship was cleared to enter port and departed in the pilot launch.
On berthing my cabin was swamped by officials all wanting copies of the exact same forms once again along with their present!. The situation was getting out of hand with them all pushing and shoving each other and shouting in Arabic until my friend, the soldier, pointed his cocked rifle at them and allowed them into the cabin one by one. He also took over the task of giving out presents but not cartons of cigarettes but packets according to whom he thought reserved them, any complaints about the number of packets given by an individual was met by my friend pointing his rifle at them a cursing them in Arabic.
We were only alongside for 10 hours loading a full cargo of acid but it cost over $1000 in port expenses.
Even in the u.k I occasionally got asked for a carton from pilots. In Liverpool there was one pilot who always asked for a cargo sample of phosphoric acid, claimed he wanted it to clean the bright work on his yacht but the stuff we carried would just about eat away any surface it touched. Some of the pilots would ask if I had a carton of cigarettes going and would get a bit miffed if I asked for payment ( any cash received went straight into the ships welfare fund and I would write the carton off as in port expenses in my monthly cash account). The ship canal pilots would always offer cash first if any of them wanted a carton but there only a couple of them that were smokers.
West Africa and north Africa were the only two places I remember where port officials asked for presents but I guess there must have been many other ports/countries where it was the norm.
Rgds
J.A.

[Tony Taylor]

On arrival in port there were a number of forms required to be presented to officials, crew list, crew effects declaration, bonded stores list, maritime declaration of health for example.
In Bonny, because we had no Nigerian flag ( the agent had it but was not allowed on board until all the officials had finished), customs etc helped themselves to the slop chest taking all the deodorants, shampoo, toothpaste, after shave and shaving foams but hardly touched the bonded stores and they also raided the galley fridge, taking all the cooked items and even some uncooked stuff.
In Morocco I had the harbour master, dripping in more braid than a prince of the realm, literally leap over the table to snatch an extra carton of cigarettes from one of the officials he thought did not deserve it.



West Africa and north Africa were the only two places I remember where port officials asked for presents but I guess there must have been many other ports/countries where it was the norm.
Rgds
J.A.

ha ha John, so common; down Lake Maracaibo they came aboard with empty holdalls.

[Ivan Cloherty]

The same in every port down the WCSA John, the bottle of choice was was Johnnie Walker Black Label, the perfume and soap of choice was Yardleys, even superior brands were not wanted, perhaps their wives wanted to smell like whores, as Yardleys was the bar girls choice. Surprising what you could get with a bar of Yardleys, all good christian souls but instead of Filling their soul with hope, you filled their hole with soap.

[thomas michael]

On arrival in port there were a number of forms required to be presented to officials, crew list, crew effects declaration, bonded stores list, maritime declaration of health for example.
.
West Africa and north Africa were the only two places I remember where port officials asked for presents but I guess there must have been many other ports/countries where it was the norm.
Rgds
J.A.

hi john arton
i knew the liverpool pilot well.( lets just say he was hard work. )
i was out sailing in the river one day and he was abeam of me on his wooden yacht, a fine racing machine, thirty eight feet over all. he being to the lee of me and he was racing, whilst i was jollying it.
by the rules of the boat size and water length he was six feet longer than mine, he should have outstriped me and overtaken me, but he could not, and because i had my own experiences with him, i stood on and held him further on the tack than he wanted to be, so he luffed up and fell behind me,
he never forgot the fact that he couldnt pass me, and on a few occasions after that event, whenever he was either joining or leaving a ship by the pilot boat he used to pass me at top speed and as close as possible so as to give me as much trouble as possible,
tom

[j.sabourn]

#2.. even in the. 1950s it was a well known fact that ships trading with Venezuela all carried a special bond for. customs and immigration even though the ships were dry.one bottle and one carton of cigs.per person and there were plenty of people was the usual trade off. If no presents the ship stood to receive a more strenuous search by customs and fined for the. Likes of having one used razor blade not declared. There is graft in all forms of government departments wherever one goes In The world. Never seen a squeaky clean government dept. yet. The. Same applies to their bosses. JS....

[Colin Wood]

On the Scottish Prince we were bunkering in Algiers, and as 3rd.mate I was taken up to prison until the owners faxed a copy of the cargo manifest in French.
In Sourabaya, the usual bottle and carton to all boarding and bond sealed. On berthing a customs official came on board and wanted to check the bond. Duly opened and checked, He then left and more customs boarded and removed all the bond store because seal had been broken. came back next trip with empty bond and kept at anchor for a week, did not worry us as on time charter.

[j.sabourn]

RThe owner of the bond would of had complaints Colin , also the owners who would of had a legal argument on who was responsible for delays to the vessel .Time charter or not. Pity you weren’t able to read the many clauses in that document although it sounds like a reputable company and were probably insured against such occurences . Cheers JS.
PS maybe it could be found in the act of war clause !!! JS

[Ivan Cloherty]

#3 Now I know why my gran was always full of cheek, she always wore " Yardleys "perfume, thanks for putting me in the picture LOL

OH!

[Michael Black]

#1 This type of behaviour was also practised further down the chain.
I remember in Tema a young deckboy in tears after a "customs" man had "discovered" some cannabis in his cabin. Of course a payment of sorts would make this problem disappear. The lad had handed over his watch, radio and all his money to this "official"
The threat of being thrown in a prison in that part of the world would have been terrifying to him.
Unfortunately this didn't come to light until after we had sailed, then to make matters worse for him we had found a few stowaways when we left and we sailed close in to Takaradi to allow a police launch to take them off.
A stupid greaser had told the deckboy that the police would be taking him off as well. The greaser was soon put right.
Regards Michael

[John Arton]

When arriving at a strange new port, the Guide to Port Entry was an invaluable source of information, containing not only maps of the port and a description of its approach but also the number of copies of the forms required by the various port officials. It also had in some ports, a captains first hand experience of his call at a port. The one thing it never mentioned was the number of "presents" required to smooth over the entry process. The guide was in two books covering some 14000+ ports worldwide.
Rgds
J.A.