docking day

[j.sabourn]

She was supposedly a friend of Lady Runciman which I can well believe as having served my time with Viscount Runciman suppose and by the look of things he listened to his wife who was as said a friend of Lady Aster and probably passed her thoughts from lady Aster on. Incidentally Lord Runciman himself for part of the war years was the head of the BOT. Probably where the term BOT rations came from. I worked for same company boy and man for 11 years so speak from experience. In 1953 the chief steward got a bonus if he kept the daily feeding rate below 7/6d. And as you know the condensed milk out of the lifeboats was changed at its use by date and replenished from the ships stock, the old stuff put to good use by the consumption by these evil seamen. Cheers JS
As to further yarns about the extremely outspoken lady Aster , another answer for her belligerence was that one of her daughters was put in the family way by a seaman , and another one was the daughter caught a social disease from same. True or False but this as you said was from older hands , and was probably the only way they could fight back , fight fire with fire. Doubt you will ever find written evidence about same as big money fights scandal when it concerns themselves with the usual blackmail and money. JS

[Des Jenkins]

Hi John
I always thought that the Astor woman was a relation of Churchill's, don't know where I got the idea from but it was just after I went to sea. Too the blokes I sailed with she was a well known tart.
Des

[happy daze john in oz]

Not sure if that was the same.
But there was a story about a judge or magistrate in Southampton who too a distinct dislike to Merchant seamen.
If one came before him even on a small charge such as drunk he would throw the book at them.

Story was his beloved youngest daughter was' potted' by a Merchant Seaman and he never found out which one so did them all that came before him.

[Julian Norman]

As a slightly later vintage to many on this site, docking day in the UK was the exception. I paid off in ports all over the world where we only had a long flight to look forward to. Crews were relieved in dribs and drabs rather than all at one time.
The one time I remember paying off as part of a large number was off the Port Chalmers in New York in mid December 1980. Looking at the reprobates joining just before Xmas, they must have scraped the barrel.of many pools to round up those desperate for a trip just before Xmas. We were glad to be getting away.

[j.sabourn]

In 1980 Julian the Hey days of the British Merchant Navy were just about over bar the the shouting. Many saw looking back a wasted life span for their efforts. Britain ceased to play a dominant role in shipping , many excuses can be made for this and everyone has their own theory’s why ,it wasn’t the seamen themselves as others would like to blame . Myself I chose to see it out to 65 and was lucky to achieve that ,but it meant crap jobs and taken the lowest of the low conditions at times, but I made it in one piece due only to my own efforts and unwilling to admit defeat to those solely there to make themselves rich at others expense, Cheers JS

[James Curry]

On several ocassions seeing as I was local I would do the coast having done the deep sea trip. I would also do night onboard engineer so got 30/shillings a night. I would sneak the then girlfriend onboard for the coast most coasting crew would bring onboard a Friend to do a round trip coast wise.
So some decent parties onboard while coasting a deep sea vessel. Still had a cheap bar and a few extra quid when heading off home on leave.
Anyone remember getting a subsistance allowance when home on leave, or was that just an Ocean Fleet thing? Perhaps it was just for those strutting around in our white boiler suits

[j.sabourn]

#22 She may have been Des, never really looked at.It was a tale often told among seafarers, and Churchill apart from being our wartime leader was no Saint either. The same as the authentic story about R.S Dalgliesh who received a nominal gaol sentence of 4 weeks during the war ,as part of a group of NE shipowners who were given the government job of building small ships for the war effort at Blyth and in some cases building houses instead.,and he took the fall for them all to appease the general public. He was one shipowner who would never be knighted as had a police record, no matter how much he spent in promoting Port Churchill. JS.

[Ivan Cloherty]

[QUOTE=James Curry;440540.
Anyone remember getting a subsistance allowance when home on leave, or was that just an Ocean Fleet thing? Perhaps it was just for those strutting around in our white boiler suits[/QUOTE]

When serving my time way way back we got 7 shillings and sixpence (old money) subsistence whilst on leave as well as our £6 per month salary, you can guess we were not on leave for long! they always found us a ship to work 'stand-by' on or coasting trip which never counted towards our sea time, but it did save them 7s 6d per day and the rail fares were free to them as British Rail, as then, issued MN seafarers travel warrants during the immediate post-war years.

Annual leave at the time was 12 days per year plus Sundays at Sea, owners instructions make sure you drop anchor/FWE before 1200 hours, so S@S were few and far between, how you longed for a long ocean passage to get a few days extra leave.

[happy daze john in oz]

Subsistence, you must be joking Ivan.
We hardly got any subsistence on some ships the food was so bad.

Only perks we got was a cheap rail ticket to London from Southampton, had to pay the return our selves.

[Johnny Kieran]

I often used to get a travel permit to Dundalk when paying off, even if my family were not over there. Never once got hassled about it, but they often asked me "why" because I lived in Dagenham, but just saying family on holiday was enough.