Merchant Seaman Numbers.

[jimmys]

I think the material used was wax. It was away before photocopiers. It was typed on to special paper and copies were made using wax. I have heard of it but never used it.
Before my time,Gestetner was what was used later.

regards
jimmy

[Neville Roberts]

I never heard of that ,sounds a bit messy. what about ordinary carbon paper,or was that other before carbon paper

[Jim Brady]

hi Neville,do you remember the engineers duty mess on the Salinas?Just opposite that there was a small room part of the Pursers office thats where this "Fatting " took place.If you remember the Pursers office was just outside the Saloon doors.
Regards.
Jim.B.

[jimmys]

With carbon paper you could make about six copies before it became to thick for the type key.
For big passenger ships they needed a lot of menus and this wax paper could produce maybe 20 plus inked copies.
The gestetner machine using more advance sheets could produce hundreds.
I have never heard the term "fatting" used before. Seafarers had some names for work and it could be it fattened up the pay packet.
It would not be fretting a method of printing.

regards
jimmy

[Neville Roberts]

the only thing I remember about the Salinas was that I was the saloon bobby and had too polish the silver ware and set up the tables ,and of course scrub the deck , I was on many cargo boats as well as liners , so I cant recall the layouts of each one . but the run down the west coast of sa was great I also did it on the reina del mar , should have stayed on that run as there was a bunch of money too be made in yardleys stuff and pretty much any goods from US or UK

[Pete Leonard (Bruno)]

ref post #3

As the NUS was a closed shop, I am sure that the figure of 90,000 would have been about right. There would have been little benefit in massaging the figures as it would have been more or less public knowledge anyway.
Cheers
Pete

[Lou Barron]

hi jim i have a question i sailed out of liverpool a few times during the war and just after the war i di d live in birkenhead but i had a mate who lived in marsh lane in bootle and i use to travel on the overhead railway a fair bit i would l ike to know what happened to the railway i was in the uk in 1993 and i was amazed at the change in the merseyside nice to hear from you lou barron

[Jim Brady]

Hi Charles,I was born and bred down Marsh Lane,do you remember what your mates name was or what street he lived in?
As regards to the Overhead Railway it did it's last trip on Christmas Eve or New Years eve of 1956.
If you remember it also had a line underneath it that steam trains ran on (this was known as "The Dockers Umbrella")you could walk the length of the docks more or less without getting wet when it rained.Well the acids in the smoke from the engines obviously affected the steel of the overhead,it was heavily corroded and beyond repair hence the reason for pulling it down.
Regards.
Jim.B.

[Lou Barron]

hi jim sure glad to hear from you my mate was a johnny mc nab both of us joined the duchess of bedford in gladstone dock in late december 1940 we both done three trips onthe duchess i left her in april 1942 that was the llast i saw of jonny till i came home in october 1945 from singapore then i met up with jonny about january 1946 if my memories is right its not very good these days that would be the last i saw of jonny he was very good shipmate i did a couple of more trips of the pool ijumped ship in nz it sure brings back memories icould tell a lot oftales about the merseyside regards lou barron

[Jim Brady]

Hi Lou, it's a small world,Johnny McNab was a great friend of my brother,I dont know if they sailed together but they certainly knocked about together shoreside.There, was quite a gang of them,my brother, Mcnabs,Riley's,Mickey Gallagher and a few more.I can just see them all now in our street(Shelley Street)talking of their escapades at sea.I was a kid at the time and it was this crowd that inspired me to go to sea.
I will speak to my brother later today and give you a full update.I'm not sure if McNab ended up as a New York cop,or was that his brother Davy.
Regards.
Jim.B.