What motivated you all to join the Merchant Navy.

[Tony Taylor]

Me,it was suggested i join the Air Force to cover my national service,i had other ideas.
I applied for the Merchant Navy.Had a medical at Gravesend then got the Vindi course.
My first ship the Tyrone,my step dad took me too London docks in the family car (HE WAS A LONG DISTANCE LORRY DRIVER).
We left London and sailed for Cornerbrook,six days into the voyage i had my sixteenth Birthday.
like us all i have lasting memories.MIKE.

ah! Cornerbrook, 10-1 women to men ratio when I was there, magic, and very friendly they were too.

[George Gunn]

As Tony says an excellent summary.

However it was more like 10 years at sea than five for some, As could get called up at anytime between 18 and 26 years of age, and if you did serve in the MN at those ages whilst NS was still active you went on the reserve list until you were 36 years old if you came ashore at 27 years of age, and the majority of us went to sea at 16 years old, engineers it was usually 20/22 years old because of serving time ashore, as engineering apprentices were not de rigour until about 1960, then they started at 18.

My own love affair with the MN started during the war, as my father had been away for nearly two years and in that time we had been bombed out three times, for some inexplicable reason the crew were not allowed ashore or leave and had to anchor in the River Humber due to nature of the cargo, my mother had apparently got in touch with the MOWT and somehow got a sympathetic ear and got us permission to visit the ship and the Pilot Boat took us down to Spurn Point, all I remember was seeing this big grey and black castle floating in the water (I was 5 or 6 at the time) with armed guards on the gangway and my older sister and myself being kept entertained whilst mother and father apparently got re-acquainted, resulting in a younger brother who alas died in childbirth later. From that day forward I was smitten and although after the third bombing living in the Yorkshire Dales I never ever forget that huge castle and the smell of the sea, and when we got a house in Hull when I was 12.5 years old, I was on my first trawler at the age of 13 bound for the Arctic Circle. Thank you Adolf and the Luftwaffe .for giving me a taste for travel.

Ivan, Very impressed you must have been a tough little b****r at 12and a half I was on the Aberdeen pool and there was no oil related stuff on the go in the early 60s so it was mostly coasters ect but there was a very large fleet of deep sea trawlers, these boys were hard and tough so god knows what it was like in your day so to use a todays term ( HUGE RESPECT)

[Ivan Cloherty]

Ivan, Very impressed you must have been a tough little b****r at 12and a half I was on the Aberdeen pool and there was no oil related stuff on the go in the early 60s so it was mostly coasters ect but there was a very large fleet of deep sea trawlers, these boys were hard and tough so god knows what it was like in your day so to use a todays term ( HUGE RESPECT)

George I don't know about being a tough little bu##er, but I don't think it did me any harm, and that age you don't even think about it, the trawlers carried a crew of 20 -26 in those days, all tough, but deep down kindly souls, they made sure you pulled your weight and didn't shy away from any task allotted but made sure you were safe. I was never afraid of hard work or long hours, I think being brought up during the war and experiencing Adolf's dislike of our house in three different cities brings out the survival instincts in anyone kind of instills a certain wish to survive where ever you are, there never was time for a childhood.

At 13 we were not allowed to be on the payroll,(you had to be 15) but were on the Articles and had to have a guardian/parents signature on an insurance document signed across a stamp of the realm. The harder you worked the more tips you got from the crew when they got their payoff, but the best was when they said 'you can sail with us at anytime lad' I was always 'the lad' never Ivan, they were very generous souls and I was always instructed to be 'at the office' when they got their catch money, I wasn't alone waiting as wives and mothers would also be waiting to ensure that all the catch-money didn't end up in the pub..

There were numerous lads of my age in Hull and Grimsby who sailed on distant water trawlers so I was not unusual as there were over 400 trawlers sailing out of Hull in those days. My second trawler St.Benedict was built in 1936 and even had hot water coming out of the taps, plus toilets in the accommodation, unlike the Swanland where they were on deck, not ideal in the Arctic Circle, but what the hell, they were huge adventures.

Cheers.

Anyway now in my late eighties I am still dancing nearly every Saturday night, rock and roll, merangai, rumba so guess it didn't do me any harm.

[James Curry]

why one joined the MN
For me it was a family tradition my dad during the war, my grandfather as well. Also living in Birkenhead at the time and having served my apprenticeship in Lairds. the early years I remember with fondness the later years it was nothing more than a job and a money trap+ I was doing back to back 10 weeks on 10 weeks off.

[vic mcclymont]

I grew up in a shipbuilding town, I always wanted to go sea and I also wanted to become an electrician. I didn't realis or know until I was about 14 that both of my ambitions could be combined.
When I was 15 wrote to a good many UK shipping companies, standard reply write back when you are older.
At 22 joined Clan Line, first year on the SA VAAL, then to the Clan Ranald enjoyed it. Became bit of a chore when you hardly ever got leave, when I left the company, I was owed six months leave.
Vic

[John Arton]

Although my dad had been at sea he died on board when I was 10 years old so I never got a chance to talk to him about life at sea or what he did during ww2 when he was on rescue tubs.
He served with blue star line throughout apart from the war years and for 6 years after wars end when he carried on in the salvage and towage sector.
Blue star did offer me an cadetship but it meant attending a pre sea school , fee paying, to take o levels, s I turned that down owing to cost.
After leaving school I was initially thinking of training to be a construction engineer, influenced by our next door neighbour who had arrived back home to retire after spending years based in the likes of Rhodesia building dams and large construction projects.
At the time we were living in the lake district so summer jobs were plenty for teenagers but I was getting bored with the one I had, (hiring out rowing boats to tourist on lake Windermere), so remembering how I had enjoyed the taster trip around the coast that Blue Star had given me when I was 14, I decided to see if I could get a cadetship, so of I went to the Shipping federation in Liverpool who had arranged an interview with a couple of outfits that were offering cadet ships. I had an interview with Blue Funnel, P+O and Canadian Pacific. The first two were strange Blue Flu wanted to know if I had any homosexually tendencies and P+O put you through aptitude tests. Canadian Pacific basically asked me if I really wanted to go to sea, to which I replied yes and that was it, subject to passing the required medical that was it I had the job. That was in the afternoon of 17 September 67 and by the 19th September I joined my first ship. That was for the next 41 years and I never regretted that choice I made back in 1967.
Rgds
J.A

[michael hooper]

my grandfather and my father were both in the merchant navy.i left school at the age of 15years worked in a factory perelli general for 1 year.then at 16 years old i left went to the vindicatrix as a deckboy.in 1954.i did 10 years at sea made to AB then left went back in the 1970s for 5 years as a GP1 with BP.but it wasnt the same.came ashore got married settled down.

[Phil Hughes]

Like most lads in the 1940's & 1950's we were all in the Cadet Forces, I was in the Sea Cadets from 12 years of age and naturally it was R.N. orientated so I dreamt of joinng the Royal Navy. My next door neighbour was 6 years older than me and was in the R.N. and on leave. He asked me what I wanted to do so I told him and he replied, "If you want to go to sea and see the world join the Merchant Navy, most of my time was spent in Hong Kong, Gibraltar or Singapore". So he changed my mind.
Phil Hughes. R698842.

[Michael Black]

My dad was at sea during the war and for a while after until getting married to my mother. He never said much about his time at sea. I had been in the sea cadets and had been on a few courses and ships through them. I left school at 15 and worked on the tugs for a year before being made redundant when the tug company scaled back on manpower, it had always been in my mind that I wanted to go to sea and being paid off from the tugs gave me the opportunity.
The tug office was just around the corner from the pool at Blyth so I called in and asked about joining up. Because of working on the tugs I was told I would not have to go to sea school . After passing the medical and getting my parents permission I was issued a discharge book and I.D. card.
There wasn't much call for deckboys on the pool so eventually they arranged for me to join the Aranda in the Royal Albert docks in London, so I was put on a train to London by a tearful mother and a father giving me advice about certain characters.
Managed to somehow find my way to Anchor House, not bad considering I had no idea about the tube and lugging a big case, from there I worked by on the Aranda for a few days before being asked did I want to join the Canopic sailing that day and if so get your gear together. So I was on my way to Australia that night.
I did 4 trips on her before joining the Illyric for 1 then the Icenic for 3, a great experience for a young lad I certainly didn't regret a moment. Was on a small coaster for a bit while courting my now wife before getting a job at the Blyth power station.
Regards Michael