Lost

[happy daze john in oz]

The first class wingers on UCL were very often gay, but most were a hit with the female bloods.
I have seen some of them come in to serve dinner with a different color rinse in their hair almost every night.
It has been noted that many of the female bloods would exchange ideas on perfumes, lipstick and make up.
Today it would not even get a mention, but for such then it was very different, but then so were some of the wingers in first class.

[Peter F Chard]

P&O Cargo ships had mixed Indian / Pakistani crews in the late fifties -- for many years the Owners selected the crews but by the mid 50's / early 60's the Indian seaman unions were selecting the crews. We crew changed in London and within hours of sailing we had a crew riot on our hands, the reason being that the Cook ( Bhandari ) was of an unclean caste and not acceptable to them. The Skipper was not having a bar of this caste stuff and told the crew they had to like it or lump it. 36 hours into the trip the engine room crew went to the second engineer and complained that they had not had any food since the Pilot disembarked after departure. The 2nd. asked why and was told the cook could not be found and his bunk had not been slept in. A search of the ship did not locate him so the skipper tried to backtrack on his course but that was a complete waste of time -- the weather was just awful and the sea state just too rough and so the search was abandoned. We later received orders to proceed to Colombo and were again given the search/ interrogation grilling, all to no avail. When the ship was almost back in the UK one of the crew let it slip to the mate that the cook had been thrown over the side because of his caste and religion !!

[happy daze john in oz]

Peter, as hard as that sounds I know that is how they see things in India.
A good friend of ours visits there two to three times a year and stories such as that are common.
Not the best place to be.

[robpage]

I have sailed on chips with Pakistani and what is now Bangladesh which was East Pakistan as well as Indian , Natal Indian , Zulu and UK pool Crews . With the Asian Cruise something to do with caste but the fireman and engine room crew had a different bandhari to the deck crew . And on one ship when the deck bandhari went off sick in Genoa for a week they wouldn't let the fireman's cook produce their food they reassigned one of the abs to do it . Must admit I never understood the caste system at all .

[happy daze john in oz]

I have sailed on chips with Pakistani and what is now Bangladesh which was East Pakistan as well as Indian , Natal Indian , Zulu and UK pool Crews . With the Asian Cruise something to do with caste but the fireman and engine room crew had a different bandhari to the deck crew . And on one ship when the deck bandhari went off sick in Genoa for a week they wouldn't let the fireman's cook produce their food they reassigned one of the abs to do it . Must admit I never understood the caste system at all .

Funny thing though now on most cruise ships there are many Indian and Goanese crew who appear to get along very well.

[robpage]

When we carried goanese they were all Christian Goa being an ex Portuguese colony , Indian crews the Hindu and Pakistani crew from East or West Pakistan all ****** and never the Twain should meet at sea 50 years ago except for the fact that the officers Cook was invariably from Goa as he was the only one who could cook pork

[Peter F Chard]

John, Thanks for your posting. Another incident I recall was loading rice in a port in South West India almost at the most southerly tip of the continent. The Warehouse ( or Go- Down ) was about 50 metres from the Jetty. The rice was loaded by females who carried baskets on their heads from the Go-Down to the ship. This was an endless chain of woman, each basket contained about 40 Kg of rice, they carted this rice from the Go-Down in an unbroken chain to the ship, up the Gangway, along the deck and then tipped the rice into whatever hatch was being loaded. They did this for a ten hour shift and were paid in cash and rice each shift. They straightaway took this cash and rice to their husbands who would be playing poker or some such game in the shade. The husband would then give his spouse a small amount of the rice but would keep the cash and the rest of the rice and continue playing poker. One woman was very pregnant and eventually dropped out of the line and retired to the shade of the Go Down with a couple of her friends and gave birth. The baby was washed and the mother then handed over the baby to her husband and re-joined the line carrying baskets of rice on her head. It was hard to believe that abuse like this was still common in some parts of the world. Regards Peter in NZ.

[thomas michael]

John, Thanks for your posting. Another incident I recall was loading rice in a port in South West India almost at the most southerly tip of the continent. The Warehouse ( or Go- Down ) was about 50 metres from the Jetty. The rice was loaded by females who carried baskets on their heads from the Go-Down to the ship. This was an endless chain of woman, each basket contained about 40 Kg of rice, they carted this rice from the Go-Down in an unbroken chain to the ship, up the Gangway, along the deck and then tipped the rice into whatever hatch was being loaded. They did this for a ten hour shift and were paid in cash and rice each shift. They straightaway took this cash and rice to their husbands who would be playing poker or some such game in the shade. The husband would then give his spouse a small amount of the rice but would keep the cash and the rest of the rice and continue playing poker. One woman was very pregnant and eventually dropped out of the line and retired to the shade of the Go Down with a couple of her friends and gave birth. The baby was washed and the mother then handed over the baby to her husband and re-joined the line carrying baskets of rice on her head. It was hard to believe that abuse like this was still common in some parts of the world. Regards Peter in NZ.

hi peter f chard
very interesting article, but some people would see it as abuse and others would see it as culture. so you would have the left wing feminists screaming that it was intolerable whilst the left wing liberals would cry that it was their culture and one mustn't seek to interfere with it.
I myself believe that they as a people must advance and evolve at their own pace as we know that the change and advancement they have will impact on our own standard of life and living, ie if wages go up in india exports also go up and therefore the west pays more its a simple analogy but true,( every action has a reaction.)
tom
tom

[John Arton]

I sailed with Indian crew a number of times and on deck it was like having a bunch of school kids. Also sailed with Indian officers who were the most arrogant bunch of lazy gits you could come across. The crews were initially supplied by J.M, Baxi who required that allotments and wages were transferred to Bombay in dollars so that all the clerk's in the office could take a cut playing the exchange rate before eventually transferring the wages to the individuals accounts. They reckoned Mr. Baxi was one the richest guys in Bombay as every crew had to dash someone in the office to get their next ship. Later we switched to another outfit who required all transfers to be made from London to Bombay to be in rupee's which cut out a load of problems with transfers into Individual accounts.
My brother goes to Goa every year and raves about the place. He gets annoyed with me when I tell him he is going to not only the ass hole of the world but also one of the most corrupt where anyone who has slight bit of superiority over anyone else will be demanding backsheesh from them. Pisses me off when you see all those ancients going out to India and extolling what a wonderful country it is and how they would love to retire there. They never get to see the real India where caste still reigns supreme nor the abject poverty of a vast number that the People live in and the corruption endemic in business etc.
Rgds
J.A.

[Captain Kong]

I agree about Goa, We called in there on a cruise ship, and a tour bus took us around, up the river and around the next village.
All we got were women and kids, harassing us, "Dash me baksheesh. No Momma no Poppa."
hundreds of stray dogs and crappy donkeys every where,
Eight hours in port was enough.
Cannot understand why people want to go there. It was almost like Boltonistan.