Discharge books

[j.sabourn]

A recent query about discharge books issued in the IOM seems to have done a vanishing trick. To the best of my knowledge they were issued to only IOM registered ships starting about 1983. The similar along the same lines cert. of competency in Australia the higher F.G certs.were Federal examinations and issue and the smaller certs. Like the old uk HT certs were issued by the states and Terrorities. This was 30 + years ago and did at the time cause a bit of controversy between various States , which I assume has been sorted out by now. JS
As regards the change over to the new system as regards the uk those sailing with no certificate were issued with a complimentary certificate for a specified period of time. Similar to a cert. of service as issued to commissioned naval officers. JS

[Doc Vernon]

JS It has not vanished, if you read the Threads you will see that it has been Moved.
Have a look around mate and you are sure to find it!
Cheers

Its in Scuttlebutt Chat

[j.sabourn]

Can’t even find Scuttlebutt Chat on I pad , only Scuttlebutt Jokes, have looked in there where it maybe should have been but no luck.? Thanks anyway . JS

[Doc Vernon]

JS You may not yet have opted in for Scuttlebutt Chat? Have a look at your Profile and Settings .
Cheers

[James Curry]

Discharge books , how many have people had?
Me British , IOM, Panama, Liberia, Kuwait, varies paper discharges while working for a Saudi company among others.
The one that has the most stamps in is the IOM one. think it has 62 entries in , various flags. the first entry is for BP British Skill, vessel registered in Hamilton Bermuda. Many others including IOM flagged vessels, Hong Kong, Arab flag vessels, Chinese Flagged vessels there is even a string of an Irish flagged vessel.
Book stamped by the master and no one batted an eye lid as to who issued the book.
The IOM book is exactly the same format as the UK one.
Things changed when it was impossible to get a job on the British fleet. I applied for a new British book when I got a job with UASC , the guy looked at my old book disappeared round the back somewhere and came back empty handed. No as you are not joining a British flagged ship you cannot have a British one. Can I have my old one back then , no, that should have been handed in when you left the British MN in 1972.

[J Gowers]

I have six books three British and one each of Liberian, Panama and Marshall Islands. My last UK book has no UK stamps in it and the previous ones have very little British stamps in them, I have never heard of handing your book back that seems strange. I went to sea in 1974 with Denholms then BP and my first ship was Liberian and after that it was a mixture of UK, Liberian, Cayman Island, USA, Bahamas, Vanuatu, Panama, Marshall Islands. Although I had forign books I always used my UK book for the stamps ( to make it easier when renewing my C/E ticket every five years) and also had no problem renewing the books when full that last one in 2013 done on line. I went to the darkside in the late 80s and went to offshore rigs still getting my book stamped on various rigs Semis, DP Semis, Swamp barges, Jackups and DP drill ships which all counted towards the seatime for renewing a ticket. 173 stamps in total, mind you it does not take long to fill a book when working on rigs if you get them stamped each hitch.

There is one noticable difference between a UK book and the others and that is a British book never expires but those issued by forign administrations expire after five years (or at least the ones I have do), personally I think it is a moneymaking scam by the forign admnistrations. By the way my employer at the time obtained the books for me and paid the costs except the UK book which I obtained myself and then claimed the cost on expences.

[j.sabourn]

#6 It’s a history thing, in the late 60s a foreign flag in a British Discharge book was frowned on by the shipping Federation so one didn’t use a British book . When British owners went under foreign flag no one gave two hoots it was the start and finish for commercial ships under the red ensign to what it was years ago. JS.
What’s the use of a British book today apart from a memento of history , there are no returns to the shipping federation who had the power of heaping ones misdeeds as per OLB on the erroneous foolhardy and jolly jacks . It was a form of discipline to keep control of a work force where the owner had the power of blacklisting you on a British flag ship far in excess of the small efforts put in by the seaman’s union who also had attendance rights at any tribunal for erring bodies. Today and yesteryear are two different subjects when it comes to Discharge Books. JS