What motivated you all to join the Merchant Navy.

[j.sabourn]

As the title of this post one reply could be as regards the NE coast of England there were 3 main industries……..
1.The fishing and merchant fleets.
2.The coal mining Industry
3. The shipbuilding industry.
Today these hardly exist anymore , bad or poor decisions were politically made and those who made those decisions should admit it and not try and blame others. I am not a proposer of nationalization but even that would have been preferable to what we have today and what Oliver Hardy used to say to Stan Laurel applies
“ Another fine mess you’ve got us into Stan “. JS

[George Gunn]

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

Hi Michael

Familiar story, wonder how many on this site like you and me !! met a girl and came ashore and were left with these distant and happy memories.

[Johnny Kieran]

Same thing as many of you really. Sea cadets first, dad refused to sign me into the RN, but eventually got into the Vindy, then off we went.

[j.sabourn]

#19 .Michael maybe your parents were similar in arrangements about me going to sea as themselves .It was agreed before we were married that I would not bring home any trouble and by this I assumed she was referring to going out to the wrong places and teaching any children we had bad habits. Which I never did and is only recently she has learned about my seagoing days and think she was a bit dismayed . The only time she was on ships was visiting with the kids when younger. The last time I saw my son he asked me why I didn’t talk to him about my life as at one time he said he fancied going to sea. It was a hard question to answer and I muffed around it saying his mother my wife had enough to contend with without her only son being in the same predicament. The only time about bringing trouble home was when I brought an elderly 2 mate and his wife home for a few days while they looked for accomodation in South Shields , as it turned out she was an alcoholic an ex Windmill girl and not his real wife never heard the last of it for the next few months.We can all make mistakes so the less said the better. Cheers JS

[Des Jenkins]

Hi John
I suppose Gwen was not well pleased with the high kicking in the lounge with no knickers on.
Des

[j.sabourn]

The 2 mate and self were doing a drydock down think it was one of the ports south of Sunderland so we’re gone all day .Gwen took her shopping where she wandered off and found her on a park bench with a bottle half empty, she had been to the bottle shop. Previously they had lived in Belfast and I felt sorry for them.They finished up after South Shields living in Berwick .They must be a long time dead by now as were a good 20 years older than me. The evils of alcohol it never affected me that way I was just sick and took days sometimes to,walk the straight and narrow , to,carry on drinking must be nauseating.I haven’t had a drink for well over 6 months at present that is beer or other alcohol as have no need to. Alcoholism must be a terrible affliction and yet I have sailed with quiete a few. There is only one thing worse than a practising one and that is a converted one who is always giving everyone else lectures on the evils of drink.Enough to drive anyone to drink one might say.
JS

[Ralph Knowles]

I did a five year apprenticeship in light engineering/manufacturing and after a couple of years on the drawing board on press tools and jigs'n fixtures was so fed up of the 9 to 5, correcting errors by contract drawing offices, that I sought a grading with the BOT inspector and applied to Ben Line for an interview. I was recruited at the first meeting and on my first ship within a couple of weeks. MV Benarmin. Doing a coast was very hard work for a 'makee-learn' starting a second apprenticeship having been driving a desk for a few years, but the chance of foreign climes and ports, excited me. It was a bit of a drop in wages but without the onshore living costs it seemed to balance out. Thirteen years later, I only intended a couple of years, and having been promoted over a few years, all the way from 7/E to 2/E, there was a big downturn and redundancies, I came ashore, so I thought, and then went back to live once again, 'over water.' Offshore oil beckoned. Yard construction of Hutton Tension Leg, a third apprenticeship, then marine crew for ten years, then CRO on rigs and floaters for a further seventeen years. That initial change from drawing board to engine room was to set me up for a good life until my retirement thirteen years ago.

[j.sabourn]

#27. Ralph the only technical drawing I ever did was short lived. My mate and I fancied going to night school and signed up for.Think if remember correctly the mininum age was 14 but we were only 13 and think the course was called J1 , we liked the idea of being treated as an adult and being able to curse and smoke in the classroom anyhow the 3 subjects were English, Maths and Technical Drawing which consisted of front elevation ,
Side elevation and Plan. Anyhow night school only lasted a couple of months before the headmaster of our day school found out what we were doing and night school came to an abrupt end and we were thrown out without ceremony. Cheers JS .

[happy daze john in oz]

My GF had been a ships engineer, his father a riveter in the Sunderland ship yard and his father a chain maker in the same yard.
Lot of MN history in the family.

they has at some time all lived in the same house close to where the Pyrex factory was, in St Cuthberts Terrace,
A cobbled street with single Storey houses built terrace style.
All at one time owned by the ship yard.
Now I have been told the street is heritage listed as it is then only surviving type of its kind in the nation.

[Thomas Daley]

1967 my dad died, I were aged 11, mother too young to get a widows pension so it were school kitchen work for her. 1971 in a home for 2 years but managed an apprenticeship with the now S.S.E.B at 18 (1973) left the home to move in with a stepfather who only wanted my mother and by 1976 he moved, my mother said 'Bye, Bye' and I were on the streets.
Former WWII POW gave me digs and became a surrogate Dad and I mean a Dad.
1977 met an old school friend while walking between job centres in Edinburgh who had went to sea and just knew a company in Leith, "Vickers Oceanics" who were looking for electricians.
Interviewed late April put on a couple of their boats to see how I got on and in June 1977 got my discharge book. The old guy who gave me digs got all the praise for his advise gained during 5 years in a camp in Poland. When he, my faither passed it hurt me more than on hearing my mother had passed. "You reap what you sow"
1977 to 2015. Deep sea with the Israelis, Fred Olsen, Maersk. Ended up on Dive boats and Dive semi's 'Rockwater 1, Stadive and Tharos' then on drilling units in 1995 for 15 years worldwide with Stena Drilling in 2010 Joined Seadrill working Asia and put down roots.
I have woken up in mud huts, Korean brothels anf not allowed out owing to curfew. Done Bugis street before it became a bus station, had my first $100 girl in Yokohama, we were getting $2.40 to the pound then. Enjoyed a beer but, women, attractive women were my weakness.
Seen bodies floating down river, seen mutilated bodies in explosions, seen sensible guys lose sight of the future, crash and burn.
End of my time did commissioning of 6th generation Drill ships in Geoje, Korea and then try to explain/teach folk from Saudi how to operate/repair machinery, when all you get is negativity the spark is gone.
Asked for change so off to heavy lift boats taking Jack-ups from Singapore to West Africa, during the voyage massive repairs needed to have it ready to drill on arrival and local crew come on.
The spark were now extinguished, had already built a retirement home 3 years early surrounded with rice fields so aged 59 and 4 months called an end to 38 years on the water mostly spent in Asia.
The sea is not for everyone since every seafarer I have met is different to the norm in some way, just a quirk here and there.
Living in the middle of a rice growing farming area, no bars, no town clock or centre, more snakes around than neighbours is not for everyone either!!
Two closest neighbours 1hr+ drive away, one a gamekeeper on the shooting moors of Scotland (Likes open fields) the other an ex submariner with the USN, (Hates confinement) have found a lady in their own oasis.
I take in rescue/crippled/road accident dogs and retirees from the army (GSD's Alsatians) love tinkering around with my motorbikes and ornamental Koi Carp. Have an "Angel" of a wife who keeps me, house and dogs covered with care.
The Merchant Navy took a bitter/angry teenager from the Steelworks/Coal mines/Locomotive works of Motherwell (All gone now).
Merchant Navy made me into who I am, the Merchant Navy blessed me and gave all I have around me.
UK042660
The UK lost one of the traits that made Britain great by allowing the Merchant Navy to die. A pox on their house