How goods your memory ?

[Keith Tindell]

Don't know how the kids today would have got on with the old money, no calculators etc, and the bill for an item, say 3/9p halfpenny, and present them with a £ note to get your change.

[j.sabourn]

No ready reckoners in those days Keith making out the overtime sheets every week in long hand and the likes of 26 and a half hours overtime at 3/9d per hour and on top of that the reasons why , were the bane of my life . I used to get 27 pounds 2/6d per month in lieu of overtime , it didn’t even cover the making out of the overtime sheets for 12 men , never mind the real overtime . Went foreign flag and there was none of the paraphernalia associated with such. Don’t mention loss of sleep another bane of my life on coming back into our declining merchant service . Cheers JS

[Keith Tindell]

Ah , the dreaded loss of doss John, i may have said before, most ships i was on the Mate would normally bung a couple of hours on our sheet, and so we left Loss of Doss out of it. However, on one 9 month trip i did, we had a Ozzy mate, who was a ba*****, and so we claimed loss of doss, which he said he would not pay, and crossed it of the sheet, so we all kept a separate account of the LOD, and the union came down to the ship when we paid off in Newcastle, a big argument developed, and in the end he had to pay it. I would have thought he was not Mr popular in the office, as it was quite a few bob for us at the time. In those days it was quite normal paying off, and getting paid in cash , as you probably recall. kt

[j.sabourn]

It wasn’t his money to worry about Keith. LOS depending on the company you worked for was by the order of the office on how it had to be shown. Most insisted on being shown why it was necessary. After the 66 strike they carefully scrutinised the overtime sheets , most mates couldn’t care less about how much overtime was used , the ones who got their knickers in a twist were usually those brown nosing to the company for promotion, hope they achieved their aims before all of us were made redundant. When I was 2 mate the stores manager came up to me complaining bitterly about the mates store list who had put in for 4 new hatch tarpaulins and the previous mate had only put in for 2 , I said to him do you not think the previous mate should have put in for 6 then. Those mates you are talking about got the title of good company servants a name they really weren’t entitled to. My opinion only. Retired 20 years and can still remember them . Cheers JS

[James Curry]

They would manage every bit as well as we did.

[John Arton]

The first ever calculator I ever saw was one of those hand cranked mechanical ones. The mate on my first ship had one to work out his cargo loaded, crude oil. Think the purser/chief steward, who used to do the portage bill, also had one.
It was Clive Sinclair who made his fortune by inventing the first hand held electronic calculator for a cost affordable to many wasn't it?
Rgds
J.A.

[j.sabourn]

A master I sailed with in 1973 was the first one I saw and he bought it in Singapore and wasn’t cheap either well Over a hundred pound
Within a few years they were given them away with the petrol. JS

[Donald Young]

A bake shop in the village of ryton -on tyne used farthings all the time
after the owners passed the farthing were out of vouge

[happy daze john in oz]

240 pennies in a £. The halfpenny used to have the Golden Hind only one I remember but from 1672 until 1936 it had the image of Britannia

Not being around during that time period I will take your word for it.

[j.sabourn]

#9 And he being the gentleman he was Des, offered it to the Zebra. JS