The Lamp Lighter

[John F Collier]

#27 Thats another bit learned I never came across the term shorthand money before, not sure but it was either JS or Brian said they saw stores money passing hands with a chief steward, I can only think some smaller company's were more open to this sort of thing. Did you ever come across the Captain Cook, Donaldson line she had a bad reputation, some said most of her crew were in the last chance saloon , we were in the Orange dance hall in Auckland when the call came for the crew of a NZRN ship to report back to base "pronto". It turned out to be the Captain Cook
had broken down a few miles from Auckland and one of the stewards got peed off about it and started a fire in a cabin, I don't know the outcome of it.
I had a pretty good time ashore with a couple of incidents but mostly trouble free. I went out with a Sydney girl for a couple of years and she wanted to get married, her dad was a builder with his own company, he said if I stayed in Aus he would take me on and teach me his trade. I was 19 at the time and I thought I still had a lot of living to do and I never saw her again, after I came out of the MN and met my wife I knew I'd done the right thing. cheers JC

[cappy]

those were what made us who we are kieth ......and wernt we blessed to have it ....cappy

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Hi Cappy.
Did two years on the Trevose, spent a lot of time in the Spencer Gulf, did all the ports Ardrossan, Whyalla, Walleroo, Port Lincoln and of course the city of churches Adelaide. Painted the ships name on many a wharf down there, they used to be covered with ships names.
What a great life for a 16 year old, I packed up after 16 adventurous years, as by then I had a lovely wife and two beutifull children, started a new life in NZ and now Aus.
PS I used to give the galley boy a hand with peeling the spuds on weekends, always a great crew on board.
Cheers Des

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[Ivan Cloherty]

Short Hand Money was a legal requirement from B O T to be shared amongst the department affected. Officers were officially excluded from receiving short hand money, as ships could not sail without the requisite number of officers or a ship's cook. It happened more often on coastal vessels than deep sea ones, where crews would do a pier head jump at the last moment and the vessel was considered 'on voyage'. On the coast the officers also shared the deck crew short hand money, as they were always physically involved in cleaning hatches, slinging dominoes around, battening down, washing down etc. Only experienced it once deep sea when the deck crew enjoyed it for 15 months of a 22 month trip (Ropners), not only that they got more overtime hours on necessary overtime, impossible to send a replacement as never knew where the ship was going next and the vessel was adequately manned.

[j.sabourn]

#31.. Sorry John just sighted this post. Short hand money was in the Shipping federation handbook and applied to British ships. Also on most British ships I sailed on the Ch. Stwd. received a bonus if he kept the feeding rate below the companys budget, may have been 7 shillings a day, if he kept it below this he received a bonus. Also if a Masters bond he received usually a gratis payment from the master for handling. The Discounts from ships stores I refer to foreign flag ships of my era, where cash was carried on board and in some cases was paid out every month to the crew of all monies they had in the ship at the time. In most cases was in American dollars, but could be in other currencies depending on nationality of crew. On the continent especially Rotterdam all stores for the ship were bought with cash, and if cash in hand there was a standard 10 per cent hand back of cash, so if for instance I paid 10,000 pounds for stores I would be given 1000 pounds back. A lot of shipowners copped on to this and handled the store purchases themselves, so someone probably the Store Manager in the office was making his pile, especially if had a few ships. Most of the foreign ships I was on however were one ship companys so had no shore office as such. It was the masters job to submit a monthly portage account to the owners, if the left hand side of the ledger didn't match up with the right hand side, Debit and Credit, if it didn't show a plus on the credit side then you had worked that month for nothing, otherwise all on the credit side was your wages. Under the Hong Kong system the Ch, Stwd had to buy his job from the outgoing Butla or Ch. stwd. and whatever foodstores were supposed to be on board on paper whether there or not had to give the outgoing Ch.Stwd the value in hard cash. Cheers JS

[cappy]

morning JS with ref to old bosun cliff simpson who passed away last week ....he told me he went through that narrow stretch of water by krakatoa in a coalburner in his youth cant remember its name ....but believe not much room about iether side in places........ps wonder how many on this site now sailed in a coal burner .....cheers cappy

[j.sabourn]

Wasn't the old Shields ferry a coal burner. Used to come off that after a 10 minute passage as black as the ace of spades. Was on the lake at Queenstown (NZ) last year on an old coalburner the passengers were more interested in watching the stoker shovelling coal into the boiler than the magnificient scenery ships name I forget, but if remember rightly was built at Duneden where our late Lou lived. Used to have coal fired central heating in Whitley Bay cos we were modern, only changed to gas when coal got too expensive. Nearest I got to sailing with coal was on a Steam Ship that burned Bunker C, that made more smoke than coal. Cheers JS

[cappy]

old shields ferrywas a coal burner ....i know this as when pat and i married we had no dosh winter of 63 ......things were not easy ...running out of coal....but had a good mate still is who used to drive the coal downto the ferry landing for the shields ferry .....he had a deal with the fellow at the coal depot....at five thirty i heard a hell of a noise in the street ....he just came and dumped tons of coal right across the st ......my delight turned quickly as i realised in the cul de sac nobody could get out .....so i knocked on each door and told them free coal ......well they could have fired 10 coal burners at the speed they cameout with barrows buckets sacks etc ....old callum who could hardly walk ...except to the pub was doing it faster than anyone .....often thought since one of them stick like lowrie paintings would have done it justice.....ps will some seaman tell me the name of that strait by krakatoa its driving me potty regards cappy

[Ivan Cloherty]

.......ps wonder how many on this site now sailed in a coal burner .....cheers cappy

One of the distant water side winder trawlers (s.t.'Swanland') built 1914 was a coal burner and I shovelled many a ton of the black stuff

[cappy]

One of the distant water side winder trawlers (s.t.'Swanland') built 1914 was a coal burner and I shovelled many a ton of the black stuff

well ivan respect to you regards cappy .....ps do you know the name of that straight by krakatoa please regards cappy its driving me potty trying to remember.......