Time and Motion

[J.Mouatt]

I was wondering if anyone had experiance of gentlemen from time and motion.
We were leaving Hull on the Essex for London on the 4th of March 1970, it was really a cold night and there was snow showers, anyway this gentleman came up fwd and with a stop watch timed every thing we did, once at the locks he was getting in the way of everything and in no uncertain terms was told where to go, another one had gone aft with same result, they never came near us mooring up at London and I never heard of time and motion again.
Jim

[Doc Vernon]

Hi Jim,
Thats a strange one mate,and to put a light side on this i wonder if they were not 2 Stowaways trying to catch a quick trip to London! haha!
Yes must admit never heard of Time and Motion study in them days at Sea!
But stranger things have happened!
Cheers
Happy Xmas!

[J.Mouatt]

Hi
The company was speaking about Inter Departmental Flexability then , we thought rightly or wrongly that they were trying to cut crew numbers, thus part of the ill feeling towards those gentlemen.
If I remember correctly the older ships remained as they were and the newer ones went I.D.F.
Jim

[Phil Crawley]

We had a time and motion study on the Empess of Canada, then the tourist waiters were asked for suggestions, one was play rock and roll records in the restaurant instead of Mantovani, to make everyone move faster,and speed up the electric revovling doors to shoot the waiters in instead of having to walk,when you are 19 these are great ideas.
Phil Crawley.

[dontaylor2]

I sailed from liverpool on m/v sussex in1972 and we took two time and motion men out with us to kiwi they took it in turns at following all the crew around [including the officers ] logging down how long it took to do what ever jobs the crew were on with ours being deck ,was overhauling the cargo gear , they were flown home from aukland . Their job was to see if the older nz ships could be run on the i.d.f. Agreement,my next deep sea was the wild avocet but im pretty sure they did change the older ships to idf
we had about eight on deck on the wild avocet idf didaway with the chippy i remember the donkeyman coming foreward at stations to drive the windlass and drop anchor if needed and of course the deck crowd use to work in engineroom [but not much] also stewards would help with hatch cleaning and there was plenty of that on the wild boats......i dont recall the wild avocet carrying any jos--sos---deck boys either one ab-would spend full four hours on the bridge for watch calling your relief through a tannoy system in his cabin

[J.Mouatt]

Hello Dontaylor2
I also was on a wild boat the Auk we also didn't carry any Deck boys,JOS or SOSs either. Under IDF the steward's never helped down the holds but did some paint work up on deck.
We were running from Equator to Japan with Bananas, what a job it was getting all the holds clean on the way back.
We also had one on watch for the full 4 hours.
Sailed also IDF on the Tongariro but she had the usual one hour on one off watches, if memory serves me right no Deck boys, JOS or SOSs on her either.
Jim

[dontaylor2]

hi jim
yes i was on the avocet in 1973 we were running rio /montevideo/b/a to continent first then over to west coast of states the wild auk was in seattle when we arrived there we went on board for a few tinnies. yes the holds on those ships were a real pain moving all that fixed dunnage about ,i did hearthe newer wild boats ie curlew/cormarant were much easier had kind of water jet system to clean the holds
when the time and motion guys were on the sussex they never saw any hatch cleaning really so they must have cut the manning scales without seeing the full picture .

[J.Mouatt]

Hello Dontaylor2
I remember one of the Wild boats being in the States with us in 73, Brian Hay was an AB on her, maybe it was the same time.
Jim

[dontaylor2]

hi jim
yes that would have been the same time i remember brian was he from shetlands ,there was also another guy on there as ab his first name was malcolm cant remember his second name but he was a regular with federal/nzs if you know who i mean can you drop me an e.mail with his surname ....is brian on this or any other site do you know.

don taylor.........e.mail don.w.t@btinternet.com cheers jim