Seamens `Pool` Liverpool. [Shipping Federation]

[Trampshipman]

Calling Liverpool seamen of the 40s/50`s regarding `the Pool` in old Canning Place.

I seem to remember the merchant navy `Pool` [The Shipping Federation] as being in a large building along one side of open ground at Canning Place. Just across from the `Pool` was The Seamens Union in a separate building on its own. Then at the top end of that open space stood the old `Sailors Home`, near to a `firing` school. Or should I say a school for firemen ? [of the stoking variety].
Now, I`ve just read that the `Pool` was actually in the ground floor of the `Sailors Home` building, and I feel sure that unless my memory is playing tricks on me, that just cannot be true.
Is there someone out there who can confirm the accuracy of my memory ? OR :- Is someone going to tell me that my `head is gone`, and that there is now nothing between my ears but `space` ?
Come on then, I can take it !!!

Regards,
Ken.

[Doc Vernon]

Hi Ken
Not that i know too much about this,i hope this may clear the old Cobwebs a bit haha!

Cheers

http://www.chesterwalls.info/gallery/sailorshome.html

The ground floor of The Sailors Home was the Shipping Federation or more better known as "The Pool". A place where seafaring men went to to find their next ship.

See the nice writup from our Capt Kong!!

[Jim Brady]

Hi Ken,you have the location right.The Pool was at the back of the "Sailors Home" I think that was Canning Place.I went there for my first interview to go away to sea,we had to see Mr.Brown (some called him Madam Brown)There was a big piece of waste ground next to it,that is where the strike meetings were held.
Going there as a kid was an experience,all the "Cunard Yanks"were there in their fine regalia,right away you thought "I want some of this "
I went to Gravesend Dec.56 came home Jan.57 had to report to the new Pool at Mann Island.
Regards.
Jim.B.

[Captain Kong]

This is a copy of a letter to Kay Jones of the Liverpool Maritime Museum regarding the SAILORS HOME in Canning Place Liverpool, They are gouing to do a feature on it later this year.


Hi Kay,
I received a letter from my brother John of Knowlsly regarding you wanting information about the old Sailors Home.
I first stayed at the Sailors Home in 1952 as a green Deck Boy. Wow what a culture shock,
It was rumoured at the time as once being a prison with the galleried balconies going around the inside with wire netting across each floor, in case anyone fell over the balconies. This was wrong as it had been purpose built as a Sailors Home.
I had left the Vindicatrix Sea Training School in Sharpness Glos. and had to await nearly six weeks to find a job on a ship.
The price was four shillings a night for bed and breakfast for men, Boys were about three shillings. It was just a bare cabin. wooden panels, painted green on the walls, iron framed bed and a chest of drawers. a communal bathroom and toilets, There was a room for the breakfasts, Sausage [these were usually thrown out of the window, they were awful. always a big pile of them outside the Home.]
egg and a piece of bacon, slice of bread and a mug of tea. Good value at four shillings for bed and breakfast, 20p in the decimal currency.
Alongside of the home was a bomb site from WW2 and at night the plonkies and winos would doss down for the night amongst the rubble, with a bottle of Meths or cheap plonk.
One night, I was 16 years old, I was walking back in the pouring rain, to go into the Home. a plonky shouted to me, "Hey lad, av yer gotta room there." I said "Yes". "Its cold and wet out `ere, let us sleep on the floor in yer cabin." Being a bit soft I said `OK`.
Then six of them got up from the rubble and followed me in, when I opened the cabin door, two crashed onto the bunk, two slid under the bunk and the other two curled up on the deck. I was stood in the doorway, couldnt believe in what I saw. There was no room for me.
I went back down stairs and into the rain, the only place I could go to was The Gordon Smith Institute for Seamen across the road and round the corner. That building is still there. I got a bed there for three shillings and six pence in the Dormitary, a large room with about twenty beds in, all occupied, with the sound of snoring and other types noises coming from them. the Night Man told me to lay my suit and any money under the mattress and shoes under the pillow or they wouldnt be there next morning.
Next morning I had a breakfast there and then went back to the Sailors Home and had the other breakfast I had already paid for. Then I went up to my room, all the plonkies had gone, amazingly all my gear was still there.
I stayed there many times over the years, it was very handy for somewhere to stay when in Liverpool, I lived in Bolton. When I joined a ship in Liverpool and after the end of a voyage of four or five months and we paid off in London we would all get the train back to Liverpool and have a few bevies up on Lime Street, the Sailors Home was ideal for some where to stay before going home the following day.
The ground floor of The Sailors Home was the Shipping Federation or more better known as "The Pool", a place where seafaring men went to to find their next ship.
The door on the left hand side of the Pool opened into a large room with a long counter, this was covered with wire netting to prevent some of the Characters attacking the Staff
if they got a bum deal from their last ship or if they were turned away with no job, If the man was approved they would open the turnstile to the next room.
Sometimes if the Man wasnt looking we could drop onto the floor and slide underneath the turnstile and into the inner room. There was a counter for each department, Firemen, Catering and Deck, again wire netting covered the three desks. Behind the desks stood the Men who gave out the jobs or number of men required by the Ship owner for each ship.
These Men were legends at the time. Mr Repp, Mr Griffiths, Mr Slater, Mr Deakin and so on.
While stood there you had to learn to read the book upside down to see what name of ship he had on the page, you got to know what ships were good and which were the ones to stay clear of in case you got Shaghaied for a two year trip. If Mr Repp or Mr Griffiths called you by your first name you knew he had a bad ship for you. Sometimes Mr Repp had his hand over the bottom of the page where he had some good jobs for his favourites. the trick to find out what ship he was hiding. If you were given a ship he gave you forms to take for a Doctors inspection then you went into the next room. The Doctors assistant would call you in then you dropped your trousers and he held your right groin saying `Cough`, then the left side, cough again . open your mouth to see you had some teeth, `OK you`ll do`, he would say and sign the form then you signed on the ship and went to sea.
Some of the old guys had no teeth, and a fellow would say . "eh lah, give us a go at yer teeth" and the other fellow would take out his teeth and he would put them in, didnt matter if they didnt fit, he had teeth, so he passed the Medical, on the way out he would give the teeth back and someone else would borrow them.
After the Sailors Home closed the new Shipping Federation or Pool was at Mann Island. now gone.These Characters and events are now gone , just a fading memory of the few of us still hanging on. The Home should have been saved, it was a fantastic design, that Classic structure would have lasted for centuries, and a great memorial to all the Sailors who passed through its doors, now just a memory of a by gone age that can never happen again.
The people who demolished it should have been gaoled.

[Jim Brady]

Hi Capt,you most probably know more about this than what I do.When it was demolished was'nt all the ornate ironwork etc. taken to Portmadoc in Wales to make the film set for the T.V. series The Prisoner.As far as I am aware it is still in place and is a tourist attraction.I did hear at one time that somebody had located the iron gates somewhere in Birmingham and they were trying to set up a fund to bring them back to Liverpool,maybe to be placed in the Maritime Museum.
Regards.
Jim.B.

[jimmys]

I did not get to Liverpool until the early sixties after apprenticeship ashore. At that time there was still offices for seaman in Canning Place. I cant remember whether it was Marine Office, Officers section or what I was in them. What for I cant remember. I have never been in Mann Island in fact I have never heard of it up till today.
I have never set foot in the Seamans Home, we stayed at Atlantic or Kingston house.In the sixties it seemed to be a retirement home and they collected around Liverpool as a Charity with flags and boxes.

regards
jimmy

[Captain Kong]

Hi Jimmys and Jim.

The `new `Pool or Shipping Federation, was open at Mann Island around 1957 ish.
the NUS Union office was still in Canning Place at that time.
In the 60s you would have gone to Mann Island to the Shipping Federation, this was a couple of hundred yards from Canning Place opposite Kingston House.
The Shipping Office for signing on ships[sometimes] and picking up new discharge books, Certifcates etc was at Cornhill, a ten minute walk up the road, I think that building became, is or was a Norwegian shipping Office.

see some interesting photos of the HOME and stories and history on here................

The Sailor's Home, LiverpoolThe Sailor's Home in Canning Place, Liverpool was designed by John Cunningham. .... Home closed the new Shipping Federation or Pool was at Mann Island. ...
www.chesterwalls.info/gallery/sailorshome.html - Cached - Similar .........

The story is in here in Part 2 click on it.
The cast iron panels are beautiful works of art and all should have been preserved.There are some on display in the Liverpool Museum of Life in a mock up of a cabin in the HOME.
I did hear that the original gates from the main door at the front are in an Engineering Factory in the midlands. The Maritme Museum are trying to get back as much of the memorabilia as they can for a feature to be opened in 2011.

Cheers,
Brian

[jimmys]

Yes Capn Kong you are correct it was Cornhill we went to not Canning Place and it was near Kingston House. You could not get wife details etc into your discharge book unless you went to the Marine Office. When I went on the lifeboat course I went there to get it entered in the book. I was at Cornhill quite a lot.

Can you recall if the Officers pool section was at Mann Island. I just cannot remember it at all. I was in Liverpool until 69/70 when I moved to Texaco.

My pool was Glasgow as I lived there and joined the MN there.

regards
jimmy

[Jim Brady]

Hi Jimmys,if you stayed at Kingston House although you did'nt know it you were right opposite the Pool at Mann Island.If you came out of the side door of K.H.looking across towards the river the red brick building from the corner back towards the Albert Dock was the Pool.I'm sure it had a long blue sign with Shipping Federation or words to that effect.Was the clubship Landfall there when you were there,this was tied up on the dock road side ofthe dock right behind the Pool.This was originally a club for Master Mariners.
I passed Kingston house the other day that too was being demolished.
Regards.
Jim.B.

[Captain Kong]

Hi Jimmys,
if you stood at the front of the building [ the Pool ], with the KH at your back the Officers Pool was on the right hand side and the Sailors, Firemen and Stewards section was on the left