Page 3 of 6 FirstFirst 1 2 3 4 5 ... LastLast
Results 21 to 30 of 56

Thread: The Vindi Bridge

  1. #21
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    isle of wight
    Posts
    6,701
    Thanks (Given)
    2291
    Thanks (Received)
    5237
    Likes (Given)
    15143
    Likes (Received)
    24215

    Default Re: The Vindi Bridge

    Pretty much the same at Gravesend, constantly hungry, and recall there was one heater in a large building that was used as a Gym. Also recall as a 16 year old, and the shame of having to sit in the row of toilets to have a dump, in full view no doors etc. , soon got over it, and just counted the days for the end of 12 weeks, and getting your discharge book. Have to remind myself that 16 year olds today are still at school !!!. Sea school and joining the first ships was the biggest growing up experience, and lessons learned, never forgotten. I have said before, in my time at sea, and only just the end of wartime rationing, i was never fed so well, kt
    R689823

  2. #22
    Join Date
    Jun 2018
    Location
    Lancashire-Fylde Coast
    Posts
    1,132
    Thanks (Given)
    777
    Thanks (Received)
    1461
    Likes (Given)
    3858
    Likes (Received)
    5498

    Post Re: The Vindi Bridge

    Quote Originally Posted by j.sabourn View Post
    For all I have read on here and the bloke now in care in the village here , the Vindi did its job of trying to prepare you for what may of been just over the horizon. I have never heard anyone talk bad of it, moan yes everyone at sea moans at one time or other, coming out in one piece at the other end and not referring to ablutions, proves the point. Cheers JS

    It was of it's time I suppose,and that's all I will say....like boarding schools,and Deepcut Army training barracks,.....and Borstals.They are less in evidence today.

    But no,let me say more. I actually did 6 months basic RN training as a 16 year old.I bought myself out ,we had the option after 6 months (£200) if we did not like it. Now,I did like and appreciated all it tought me-and the only reason I left,before you all start being presumptuous and sneer-is to join the Merchant Navy as an officer cadet-I had been offered a previously applied for place at nautical college via the BSF-and of course from then on I never looked back.
    Now,that training in the RN was tough at times for a 16 year old straight from grammar school and being protected by caring and loving parents etc.but it matured me instantly,virtually from the 2nd day,and it taught me about discipline,application to one's set tasks ,learning to tolerate, understand and meld with one's contemporaries into a unit -WITHOUT being starved,frozen to death or abused physically or ,heaven forbid,sexually ,or bullied or belittled by an out of order bullying civilian instructor. Please don't say they were just 'bad apples' because man has not today evolved as far as you think-just look at the abuse that goes on in the Met.Police,for example,or in our Care Homes for the elderly.

    I'm not saying that all civilian merchant navy establishments like the Vindi or NSTS Gravesend were like that,but from learning from some of my contemporaries in my seagoing career,a lot of them who had attended even prestigious fee-paying 'ships' like Worcester,Conway or Pangbourne had experienced deprivation,bullying (mainly by the staff) and a sense of worthlessness,-along with their admittedly excellent training it must be said.Many of their fellow intakes at those 'schools, left without ever taking up a sea career and admit ,although the regimen of learning was relevant to their future maritime or other careers,the intrinsic public school type of behaviour was not.

    Meanwhile, after my 6 months in the RN,I was in the 'real' world (at nautical school),with focus entirely on learning my future profession without being subjected to worry about what my next meal would consist of,or would I get pneumonia from being marched twenty times round a frosty parade ground in my ballbags at 4 in the morning and have to see that perverted 'struck-off' medic who seemed to have one finger longer than the others !

    No,it was of it's time and I applaud those of you who endured and survived it. But ,totally unecessary. I 'endured' my RN Basic Training because it was the real world and of course was run military-fashion -because of course it was the military, under guidelines with carefully vetted instructor staff.Then of course my pre-sea at a nautical school was 'endured'because the end result was vital to my future career.It taught me relevant subjects,not lessons about discipline.The way I see it is that a 16 year old should know enough about discipline from his family and education and not have it thrust upon him on a training ship...
    By the time you join your first proper ship you should already know how to act like a man (I know,some never did learn,but that's not what we're discussing here).
    And,as another aside,having one who ,having completed my basic training in the RN,I wholeheartedly agree with those,usually of my generation,that a stint in the Services would give many a younger generation person today a good start in life.

    All food for thought and I have rambled on a bit longer than I thought I would.
    I was replying because I got an undercurrent that I was 'knocking' those of you who had trained on the Vindi and other similar establishments.

    Graham
    Last edited by Graham Shaw; 10th February 2022 at 11:23 AM.

  3. #23
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    isle of wight
    Posts
    6,701
    Thanks (Given)
    2291
    Thanks (Received)
    5237
    Likes (Given)
    15143
    Likes (Received)
    24215

    Default Re: The Vindi Bridge

    I am just reading a book called The Wooden World, which is an anatomy of the Georgian Navy, and was immediately reminded of the experience that most of us had, we had two appetites, food and sex, with the hormones going wild.In the book Pepys writes,* Englishmen and more especially seamen, love their bellies above everything else, and therefore it must always be remembered in the management of the victualling of the navy to make any abatement in the quantity or the agreeableness is to discourage and provoke them in the tenderest point, and will soon render them disgusted with the Kings service, than any other hardship that can be put upon them *, so nothing much changed in our days at sea, except it was the ship owners.. kt
    R689823

  4. #24
    Join Date
    Jun 2008
    Location
    Sunbury Victoria Australia
    Posts
    24,991
    Thanks (Given)
    8300
    Thanks (Received)
    10126
    Likes (Given)
    106523
    Likes (Received)
    45653

    Default Re: The Vindi Bridge

    If I recall we only had a shower when on Fire duty which was Friday night, and always your last one so in six weeks just one shower.
    But in November it was so cold we did not worry about a smelly body.
    Rest of the time just a wash in the hut wash basin.
    One thing about the food, there was never the danger of over eating and putting on weight.
    Happy daze John in Oz.

    Life is too short to blend in.

    John Strange R737787
    World Traveller

  5. #25
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    W.A.
    Posts
    23,641
    Thanks (Given)
    12850
    Thanks (Received)
    13719
    Likes (Given)
    19100
    Likes (Received)
    76764

    Default Re: The Vindi Bridge

    #25 Now that John would of put you in good stead on what to expect circa in the modern age of 1988 for most vessels of the stand by variety in the North Sea. Tour of expected and hoped for duty 4 weeks. Fresh water on board 30 tons. Number of crew 9. Number of toilets on board 2 both plumbed in to the fresh water. Number of survivors certified for 250. On sailing showers for crew members a no goer to be smelly and unshaven was the name of the game. One toilet was shut down and the water shut off the other , but wonders of wonders a bucket and heaving line was supplied for use of. Now if miracles happen and that same 250 extra persons are taken on board most covered in oil etc. what do you do ?, if had the time the ideal thing to do would be to hang the old dunny over the stern , get them to line up like soldiers on duty and step forward like men and accept their water ration if there is any left into their extended egg cup from a lemonade bottle , instead of whingeing like old women for a cup of tea , and give them an elastoplast for any cuts and abrasions they may have. I think the Vindi and similar sea schools gave most a good idea of what to expect . JS
    R575129

  6. #26
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    Torquay
    Posts
    11,467
    Thanks (Given)
    3440
    Thanks (Received)
    7758
    Likes (Given)
    11953
    Likes (Received)
    34924

    Default Re: The Vindi Bridge

    #23 I don't think that anyone thinks you were knocking those who went to the Vindi Graham, we probably all went to some kind of establishment, with some instilling discipline in different ways and there would always be that sadistic master in every establishment. My own establishment seemed to think that marching was more important than academic lessons, I can right wheel, left wheel, about turn, about turn within, about turn wheel (L or R) dress to the left, dress to the right etc, etc with the best of them, and sometimes looking at the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace I think I could teach them a thing or two. Unfortunately I never used any of it in the MN, but did find it useful at the Cenotaph in London and wished my fellow MN marchers had had some sort of training as they ambled along, mind most were in their late 70's and 80 plus, so one had to make allowances. In the end whatever training we did in our puberty years stood us in good stead for the rest of our lives and the instructors, bless em! probably cried into their cocoa thinking I've done my best, but that little Smithers is never going to make it at sea.

  7. #27
    Join Date
    Jun 2008
    Location
    Sunbury Victoria Australia
    Posts
    24,991
    Thanks (Given)
    8300
    Thanks (Received)
    10126
    Likes (Given)
    106523
    Likes (Received)
    45653

    Default Re: The Vindi Bridge

    On the Paproa crossing the Indian Ocean, gets a bit hot there, for some reason there was a fresh water problem.
    One guy said that by mistake half the ships fresh water had been pumped over the side, who knows.
    So apart from the galley we were limited to two pints of fresh water per day per man.'
    Washed using salt water soap and by the time we reached Melbourne just about every man was in white clothes, salt does that I am told.
    Happy daze John in Oz.

    Life is too short to blend in.

    John Strange R737787
    World Traveller

  8. #28
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    W.A.
    Posts
    23,641
    Thanks (Given)
    12850
    Thanks (Received)
    13719
    Likes (Given)
    19100
    Likes (Received)
    76764

    Default Re: The Vindi Bridge

    If you ever read the vittaling allowances pinned up on your notice board in the messroom you would have seen the shipowner was well covered for this eventuality, in fact you were probably getting more than your ration. Before the advent of evaporators and distillers for potable water most disagreements on board were over water, If Gungha Din had been around he would have been a millionaire many times over. A normal 10,000 ton tramp her consumption was about 8 tons a day , the engine room often got the blame for using the potable water as against their own E.R. cooling water, and very often were the innocent fall guy. 8 ton a day a day for 4 weeks is 224 tons , if the real consumption about 10 ton a day then is 280 tons , and if you had a diligent mate looking for promotion and only carried 200 tons on sailing , then the engineers were the obvious ones to blame. So be thankful you got an occassional drink of water. The answer was to buy a case of beer when such was allowed , and if a Masters bond hope he and the chief steward werent after buying another house each. Enough to drive anyone to drink a good excuse if caught drunk on Duty. Cheers JS
    R575129

  9. #29
    Join Date
    Jun 2008
    Location
    Cooma NSW
    Posts
    8,967
    Thanks (Given)
    10195
    Thanks (Received)
    5220
    Likes (Given)
    44136
    Likes (Received)
    26883

    Default Re: The Vindi Bridge

    I enjoyed my time at the Vindi; in so much as one can in an atmosphere of shouting and learning strange things in an old sailing ship, things were a bit rough but I was later on rougher ships than the Vindi; so it stood me in good stead. Open forecastle with blokes farting and smelling, trying to sleep after struggling with a steering wheel with chain and rod steering was no trouble after he three months of Vindi training.
    I well remembering joining my first ship in Cardiff and coming into the messroom in my Vindi uniform as the Abs took the Mick, like,
    "Who's the little sailor boy then." But I soon fitted in, they were a good crowd.
    Des
    R510868
    Lest We Forget

  10. #30
    Join Date
    Jul 2021
    Posts
    34
    Thanks (Given)
    0
    Thanks (Received)
    25
    Likes (Given)
    3
    Likes (Received)
    107

    Default Re: The Vindi Bridge

    Dear oh dear, what a hard time you had R683532 it makes me weep (with laughter). Try two years national service in the army, 16 weeks square bashing in Feb 1954 freezing cold, in old unheated yank barracks on four bob a day less of course three and eleven pence per week nat insurance. Up at 6am bed at 10 pm unless your on guard duty which means that at 5pm you get bulled up and start at 6pm until 6 am next morning. A leave pass of 48 hours given after 10 weeks but you have to pay for your travel of course and for Jocks and Geordies useless because of the distance involved. Finally a nice little sojourn in Egypt (living in ww2 tents and at times eating ww2 hard tack biscuits) guarding the Great Bitter Lake for 9 months before we left to say hello to greek terrorists in Cyprus before going home. Try that sunshine and you and your fellow snowflakes will know what having a hard time really is.

Page 3 of 6 FirstFirst 1 2 3 4 5 ... LastLast

Tags for this Thread

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •