Query/Gibraltar/ Lloyds

[j.sabourn]

Years ago as second mate and third mate and passing through the straits it was quite common to get a message from the shore on the lamp querying what ship where bound etc. and asking if you wanted reporting in to Lloyd’s. Most masters I was with and this was Runcimans mind, was standing orders to say No. So I assume there was a cost involved. Later I assume such traffic was done by radio telegraphy so possibly a past Radio Officer might Know more as to the costing of such a service ? Or the reason for wanting to be anonymous may of been due to the tramp ship trade and keeping the opposition unaware of the ships movements ? Cheers JS

[cappy]

In the shields gazette we had a full page of readers requests for vessels ....it would read something like CRAGMOOR ....PASSED GIB .....BOUND SAN STEPHANO DUE 27TH JUNE .....IT WAS A REALLY GOOD SECTION OF THE NEWSPAPER AS YOU COULD SEE WHERE OLD SHIP MATES WHERE OUTWARD OR HOMEWARD BOUND ....AND YOUR MAMMY NEW WHERE YOU WHERE LOL.....R683532CAPPY

[Keith Tindell]

Your Mammy knew where you were Cappy, but thankfully, not what you had been up to !! lol

[Ivan Cloherty]

Your Mammy knew where you were Cappy, but thankfully, not what you had been up to !! lol

As long as he was with his Michiko in Tokyo Bay and not my Michiko in Shimonoseki

[j.sabourn]

Nothing to worry about there Ivan , Cappys Michico was his stage name ,real name Michael. Shimonoseki was a steel port mainly , joined a ship there and the stevedore wanted to know how many inches would go over the marks , said the previous ship a greeko had gone 4 inches. Forgotten how to say FO in Japanese . Cappy might know as Michaels sister was always telling him the same. Cheers JS , Having trouble with computer at moment. So maybe one of these trolls from Optus has given it yellow fever as the script keeps changing colour. JS

[j.sabourn]

#1 I have made ref. to R/T communications and as we have ex R/0s on site can anyone of them explain Why when they made their accounts up for radio traffic for personal calls they always referred at times to the value in Swiss Gold Francs . ? At the time I took scant notice of , but in later life when had time to think about it ,why ? And how did they convey it to sterling ? For going on to any pay off slips etc. just another small piece in A very large jigsaw puzzle. JS

[Bruce Morris]

I'm ex Marconi Marine R/O.
I don't think they were Swiss Gold Franks, but a special accounting currency used by the Post & Telecommunications authorities of different countries world-wide for the settling of telegraph and wireless telegraph charges.

Each radiotelegram to/from a ship was charged per word: Coast Radio Station charge, landline charge and ship charge.

As an example if a telegram was sent via a UK CRS to the Philipines there might be a charge per word of 2GFr by the CRS, 2.5GFr/word for the landline and 50cGFr to the ship.

On board, the passenger would be charged for the telegram in whatever currency was in use on board and the Radio Officer would calculate that from published lists from GFr.

Many countries in the Sterling Area accounted in £,s,d which made things a bit easier, although multiplying things in farthings, ha'ppenies and thruppenies was a right pain. Decimalisation in 1971 was a Godsend!

Every few months and at the end of a voyage we had to compile traffic returns listing all the various charges per wireless telegram and radiotelephone calls both incoming and outgoing.

Ships generally used a company like Marconi Marine to settle the complex distribution of and collection of the charges.
An AAIC, Accounting Authority International Code - Marconi Marine was GB12.
Later on GFr changed to SDRs Special Drawing Rights, of which I know little.

We never sent voyage information direct to Lloyds, except perhaps for salvage purposes.
However, many Coast Radio Stations did pass on SOS info and also the TR's that we sent on leaving and entering port.

Hope this helps! E&OE

[j.sabourn]

Thanks Bruce a bit out of my territory at the time but the Swiss Gold Franc stuck in my memory when talking to various sparkies , it must have been a stable currency seems the answer for the layman like myself. Don’t think the Argentine Pesos would ever achieve such stability. As regards maydays and SOSs , I had the misfortune to send out a mayday by radio telephony and in the heat of the moment sent it as a straight mayday and made the mistake of not including Relay , however don’t think anyone noticed except myself. For my own conscience I put in my statement that I had done so, but by that time the media had already stated that all the radio messages were coming from dead men , and didn’t suit them to change their stories . Too much loss of face on their reporting maybe , they are as bad as a chinaman , maybe some of them are. Thanks for the info.however. Cheers JS

[Bruce Morris]

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!

[j.sabourn]

What’s the plural of Sparks then Bruce ? JS