Query/Gibraltar/ Lloyds

[Tony Taylor]

what’s the plural of sparks then bruce ? Js

fire?

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Wireless Operators, later Radio Officers were never called Sparkies.

The Electrician was SPARKY.

Radio Officers was always SPARKS. Fellow Officers usually didn't even know our first name.

As in SPARKS, come and have a beer!

Cant recall any sparks refusing that invite!

[j.sabourn]

I always called the electrician Lecky Lucky or unlucky Lecky as the case may be . JS
Sailed with Sparks a long time before sailed with electricians ,was usually the 3/eng. job on DC ships . JS
Maybe the term sparky came from that jingle “ sparky sparky the battery Boy” .JS

[cappy]

Never sailed with a lecky as such was always 3rd ginger beer.......R683532

[j.sabourn]

That’s probably because they were DC Ships Cappy ,The likes of the Avonmoor was DC and could only run a gyro compass through an alternator and a carbon pile to supply a constant AC voltage. You could not have gyro repeaters either. The 3rd engineer used to do all the lamping up , checking the emergency batteries apart from the radioroom which the Sparks did. It was the thirds source of overtime. An engineer could explain the system better than me , but that carbon pile was a source of irritation when it started screaming and the only control you had on it was a screwdriver to turn a screw to turn down the noise volume .Cheers caught anymore kippers Yet ? JS

[cappy]

That’s probably because they were DC Ships Cappy ,The likes of the Avonmoor was DC and could only run a gyro compass through an alternator and a carbon pile to supply a constant AC voltage. You could not have gyro repeaters either. The 3rd engineer used to do all the lamping up , checking the emergency batteries apart from the radioroom which the Sparks did. It was the thirds source of overtime. An engineer could explain the system better than me , but that carbon pile was a source of irritation when it started screaming and the only control you had on it was a screwdriver to turn a screw to turn down the noise volume .Cheers caught anymore kippers Yet ? JS

NAW BUT THERE ARE A few red herrings about......cappy

[J Gowers]

Sailed MN 1974 -88 and the electrician was always called a Lecky, then went to offshore rigs where he was the Sparky. Also never saw paid overtime for engineers or mates if something broke you just stayed on the job untill it was fixed, having to turn to after your watch to carry out breakdown maintenance was called doing field days, with no extra payment, luckily this only happened to me very occasionally. Guess I went to sea at the wrong time :-)

[Doc Vernon]

Even in the RAF, as Wireless Operators, we were called Sparks! Later when i became Aircraftsman AC1 we were then called Erk,s apparently a nickname for a lower rating in the RAF. Bleedin Cheek@ LOL
Cheers

[Tony Taylor]

Never sailed with a lecky as such was always 3rd ginger beer.......R683532

same here Cappy, field days were every day almost.

[Ivan Cloherty]

[QUOTE= Also never saw paid overtime for engineers or mates. Guess I went to sea at the wrong time :-)[/QUOTE]

That much maligned company 'Ropners' paid mates and engineers overtime for working outside of 'Watch hours' at sea, except in cases of emergency such as extreme inclement weather when all hands turned-to. Night duty in port got you four hours overtime. One 1/m when I was a lowly 3/m as a punishment in Japan made me do every night-on-board, I was more than happy to be punished, as the overtime aid for my afternoons ashore

The best time to serve was definitely the 50's and 60's when sailing with youngsters who had survived the trials and tribulations of WWII and were just glad to be alive, still young enough to raise a bit of fun and include us youngsters in their antics

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Hi John.
Many these days would no doubt be called Sparkles
Des.
Ps those calls from Gib improved my reading of Morse.