What motivated you all to join the Merchant Navy.

[Alan Briggs]

You are right about when the rot started.

[Tony Taylor]

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.

I visited that Pyrex factory in the early 80's, like most of the general area it was grim although they were turning out high quality product from pretty poor production equipment. By contrast, I was quite impressed by what I saw in the A&P shipyard over the river.

[Allen James Jones]

As a child I went to St Joans school in Bootle. Because of the bombing during the war all the tall buildings around the school had been flattened so we had uninterrupted views of the docks. Sights that stick were the Empress of Canada fire and the Alfred Holt rubber warehouse going up in flames. I was tempted into life in the MN by a childhood of mental images of ships of all nations moving in and out of the wider Liverpool docks. Just before my 16th birthday I wrote to Blue Funnel asking for a place on their training programme. They interviewed me at their Birkenhead office and advised that it would take 9-12 months for a place due to the backlog of applications. I completed the required forms later at home and posted them off. In the meantime I had applied to both Ellerman and Papayanni and Guinea Gulf line. The latter offered me a cadet position but unpaid and provide your own uniform. Ellermans accepted me in the catering side and could get me training within 6 weeks. That was it. I went to Dickie Bonds, trained as a steward and ended up as a galley boy. Some time later I received a letter from Blue Funnel requesting my attendance at their North Wales training school. Too late. Sea service lasted only two years six months. Whilst walking down Lord Street in Liverpool I detoured into the army recruiting office and signed up in an armoured regiment.

[j.sabourn]

#30 Thomas were you on the Tharos on July 6 1988 ands were you on the clipper Israeli fruit carriers , and were you on the Stadive when she was managed by Seaforth Maritime Ltd. ?
You seem to have been on a similar track life wise as myself as not on the vessels mentioned had cause over the years to have close contacts with the same known people also on those vessels or known some of their history. Cheers JS

[Gino Griffiths]

When I was 15 My father moved to Argentina to make a " a better life for all of us". A year later he had stopped answering Mum's letters. I wrote to the Salvation Army and explained. They investigated and sent me his address in Argentina. 18 months later I joined the MN hoping to eventually get s job on a ship going to Argetina to go find him. Unbelievably (but I swear it's true) the first ship I signed on as Utility Steward was the RMS Aragon, destnation - Buenos Aires, Argentina. Yes I did see my dad and some time later he did return to the family fold, where he stayed until his death 12 years later.

[Bob Cheeseman]

A judge ,did not give me much choice ,2 years borstal or get you self back on track boy,,,, recommended that the MN would straighten me out ,so began a 35 year adventure at sea ,Vindi to retiring off the NZ coast where I still live with wife children grand children and a couple of great grandies as well ,my didn't he do me a favour.

[Des Jenkins]

Hi Bob.
If you where on the coast between the 50s and 60 that judge certainly gave you good advice, best sea time ever.
Des

[j.sabourn]

#36 Bob maybe a bit before your time but in 1953 on my first trip deep sea the complement of the crew was made up with 4 ex Borstal deck boys , as there were also 4 deck apprentices there were the occasional disputes and bloody noses kept to ourselves. The ships carpenter was the weird one as was just out of Durham gaol he was probably ex Borstal also in his younger days , I think there were a couple of Welshmen and 3 or 4 Estonians or Latvians in the crew , who had the habit of disappearing off the main deck if any Russian ships in the vicinity.
Those 4 deck boys each made good friends of the 4 of us and think by all accounts they made good in the British MN. The bosun that trip was an ex pugilist as was obvious by the sideways shuffle he had when approaching you, plus his nose half way across his face , I’ll always remember him going down the Bristol Channel when he was fumbling around with a wire splice in the deck vice and me holding the loose wires for him to get the the spike into the lay, on pulling out with such force and misdirection it hit me just above the left eye from which there is a copious amount blood from the eyebrow and himself panicking as thought he had killed me on my first few days on ship, however I trotted off and washed and got an elastaplast from someone and no one was any wiser. As I once said when on the Leeuwin as crew with youngsters showing them how to steer the sea always brings out the best in the young ones , those who can’t fit in there would have problems anywhere.
Cheers JS

[Thomas Daley]

#30 Thomas were you on the Tharos on July 6 1988 ands were you on the clipper Israeli fruit carriers , and were you on the Stadive when she was managed by Seaforth Maritime Ltd. ?
You seem to have been on a similar track life wise as myself as not on the vessels mentioned had cause over the years to have close contacts with the same known people also on those vessels or known some of their history. Cheers JS

Going by my discharge book Joined Asco Smit 1st/May/1991 and then sent the Tharos 12th/July/1991 until it were sold and left the Claymore field for Norway. Tharos had done the rebuilding of 'Claymore' from the inside out owing to her being a sister to 'Piper', onboard Tharos when one 'John Brown' turbine "BLEW" and it were never reported in any papers,
Still have my paperweight with a drop of oil from "Piper B" when sold to 'Rasmusson' declined. Now "Seaforth Maritime" on the Stadive, from lifting choppers out of the water and dealing with Greenpeace on the Brent Spar, spent a year+ before her sale and conversion on going to Port Arthur, TX which where a bit too far away for me instead joining the 'Dyvia Stena' in December 1995, Stena Dee, Stena Spey and Stena Clyde until October 2010. Still have my Stena Drilling/Amerada Hess champagne for Foinhaven field success.

Israeli ships (4) all named after Israeli female names (Varda, Alisa, Orli, Hilla) all built on the Clyde at John Browns, the Hilla being JB's last ship built there all were chartered to Gold Star lines of Hong Kong, Head Off in Kobe, Japan. Recruiting office Portspoken House, Minories, London. Ships registered in London (Red Duster) but real control via Zim, Haifa.
Fruit clipper ships.... Nope general/cargo/bulk and a myriad of united Nations crew, first deep sea boat and I got 'Deep Sea Fever'.......
Have a large case of oranges delivered once as a thank you which were all given to a local poor/low income kitchen nearby.

Not many folk that ply their trade ashore can have life experiences we all had. Truly, we will never see those days again