Career At Sea

[Red Lead Ted]

Hi, Dave, This has come up a few times on our forum regarding D.H.U.s, I sailed out of Liverpool on a Haines boat 1970 to be honest with you I never questioned anyone on there rank or rating I knew my job and that was that. But I think it was obvious to any experienced hand on deck, If you had an inexperienced D.H.U. on deck, I would help anyone out with any job I was only in one tanker and needed all the assistance I got from my fellow tanker men. What I found the problem to be was a D.H.U.s wage didn't differ that much from as you say time served seaman I went 3 months Gravesend then from deck boy to A.B. I found one D.H.U. Walking around the **** end with a log wheel in his hands didn't have a bloody clue what it was for. On the other hand I sailed with some that where as skilled seaman as you and me, I agree partly with you casting the blame on ship owners for employing them that where bloody useless but I also found that most of them swerved general cargo ships like the old Tre boats I mention, I think the B.O.T. Standard that was so stringent to obtain your A.B Ticket could have done more especially as you say where the Lavender fleet were concerned. But as I said the ship owners couldn't fail as long as they had a crew for their ships, I think of todays tragedies, Costa Concordia, River Dance, ETC... And often wonder if they had been crewed by time served seaman would there have been so many silly mistakes and break down in language communication which I believe is a bigger problem in todays maritime world than D.H.U.s ever were . Regards Dave Terry.

[Captain Kong]

DHUs started during the 1955 strike, they were used to take out the liners stranded in Liverpool, I first came across them after the strike when I joined the Empress of Scotland.
They were mostly ex army, but useless on deck. They were on £4 a month less than an AB, but on the same overtime rate, and a lot more than a skilled SOS.
They were not allowed to go more than four feet above the deck.
I had a lot of trouble with them and didn't agree with the system, OK as Deck Labourers.
Brian

[j.sabourn]

Had one refused to go over the side on a stage said was not his job. Said ok, the Bosun gave him other work. He probably wished he had gone on the stage and stopped trying to be awkward. Some were ok but some weren't, thought they could get away with murder as Army discipline was probably much more severe. Cheers John S

[Rodney Mills]

John your mention of the army brought back something to mind.

It was on a Castle boat, I think it was the Warwick Castle. Two assistant cooks had been working stand-by crew and signed on for their first trip. They had been cooks in the army, and had a great old time on stand-by...merchant navy, piece of cake compared to the army...blah, blah, blah. Then the passengers came aboard and the gangway came up and it was off to the races. Ovens and stove tops burning full go, two splits making it a three stage 12 hour working day, seven days a week, pots crashing, plates banged down, waiters rushing about, and screams from the head station cooks of "get yer finger out." Meals ate at your work station, eight living in a cabin.

First port o' call was Marseilles and they jumped, and they hadn't even turned-to in the kitchen in the romantic Red Sea in summer. Whimps!

Cheers, Rodney

[j.sabourn]

Rodney you are a great reader, someone gave me a book called Flinders written by a Rob Mundle. I haven't gotten around to read yet apart from the forward which was in laymans terms and thought was quite apt. " Today we are in awe of the idea that astronauts will, in the near future, take to the Heavens and spend years exploring the moon or Mars. How will they cope with being away from the sanctuary of Earth for so long? and what of the dangers they will face? so much could go wrong. Now step back more than 200 years, into the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and consider a somewhat similar scenario. This time though the mode of transport is a stout looking wooden sailing ship just a 100 feet long and carrying 80 or more seafarers, which launched on a voyage of exploration into what is truly the unknown. Unlike todays astronauts , these remarkably brave Argonauts held only a vague notion of where they were headed and what they might find. They sailed on the whim of the wind, and from the moment their ship went beyond the horizon they were gone, possibly forever. These explorers took with them little support material in the form of charts and maps and with only the most basic of navigation equipment. Except for a small cutter or gig lashed to the deck, they had no safety equipment as we know it, and there was no instant communications with home should anything go wrong in a world where an uncharted reef was the nautical equivalent of a rogue asteroid in outer space. Should fair winds and favour be with these adventurers, they would reappear on the horizon after some years , often with exciting news of a new frontier. Alternatively should the ship be overwhelmed by the boiling fury of a storm-lashed sea or smashed to splinters on a reef or rock, taking all hands with it, the world would have one more maritime mystery to ponder. Needless to say the masters of these expeditions were a special breed - great seafarers and leaders of men who were relentless in their resolve to succeed . One such man was Matthew Flinders, the brilliant explorer who put the rudimentary outline of Terra Australis on the world map and strongly advocated for the continent to be named Australia. The challenges he faced demanded almost every skill imaginable -seafaring, navigation, dedication, cartography, leadership, compassion, fortitude, and planning- and there are few if any, other names that can stand alongside Flinders as Australias greatest explorer. Matthew Flinders was a large cog in the mechanism that established early Australia. However all too often his substantial contribution via exploration together with the circumstances of his lengthy incarceration by the French on Ile-de France, are not generally recognized. It is also disappointing to note that this great English navigator and explorer has received virtually no public recognition in his home country; no statue, plaque or other form of acknowledgement honouring his life exists in London. Sadder still, within 40 years of his death, his grave in St. James garden could no longer be found. His remains are now thought to be under Londons Euston railway station, originally built in 1837. Like so many great men of his era, Flinders was a modest man who never ventured into the era of self promotion; while he named hundreds of headlands, bays, harbours and points of interest around the coast -including the Barrier Reef, which came through casual reference more than intent- he did not ascribe one place name to himself. The intention of this book is to pay high tribute to a stoic, determined and illustrious explorer. It is the story of an indomitable individual who, through unfortunate circumstance, was prevented from fulfilling his life's mission of completing a more highly detailed map of the entire coastline of Australia. I have written this factual story of an extraordinary man not as a historian, but as a storyteller with a passion for sailing and the sea- a writer whose maritime heritage dates back to the era of square rigged ships. The story of Matthew Flinders leaves me convinced that he can rightfully be recognized as the third member of a remarkable triumvirate of seafarers and explorers - Cook, Bligh, and Flinders." As said haven't read the book yet even though have had for some time, however think any landsman reading the forward would not be too technical for him/her to understand. Cheers JS

[Captain Kong]

I read about him many years ago, I think the only mention of his existence is Flinders Street in Melbourne.
I also think there was a sailing ship named after him, but could be wrong. First man to circumnavigate Australia and surveying the coast for Cook. [ I think]

If he was a Pollie he would have had Statues all over the place
Brian

[John Arton]

Despite possibly not having any statues or memorials to him, Matthew Flinders is commemorated on every merchant ship fitted with a magnetic compass in the form of the Flinders bar.
A Flinders bar is a vertical soft iron bar placed in a tube on the fore side of a compass binnacle. The Flinders bar is used to counteract the vertical magnetism inherent within a ship and is usually calibrated as part of the process known as swinging the compass, where deviations caused by this inherent magnetism are negated by the use of horizontal (or quadrantal) correctors.

Where the deviation from a compass point cannot be counteracted through the use of Flinders bar, Kelvin's balls, Heeling error magnets and Horizontal magnets, a deviation card, or graph, is produced. This card, or graph, lists the deviation for various compass courses and is referred to by the navigator when compass courses need to be corrected.

It is named after Matthew Flinders (1774-1814) who wrote a paper on ships' magnetism for the British Navy. He discovered the addition of a bar of iron would compensate for errors caused by his cargo during his travels to Australia.

Perhaps that is enough to commemorate a great sailor and explorer by the generations of sailors and explorers who followed him and today still have use of his knowledge.
http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/660/med...7_76354576.jpg
He has been commemorated with a statue as shown in above link
rgds
JA

[j.sabourn]

Correction "C" if memory hasn't completely gone. Lord Kelvins Balls were A and B. Stand to be corrected on all however. "C" could have maybe been "D" and so forth. As believe the magnetic compass may be on its dying legs however, this one of the few things named after him will also disappear, may last a bit longer in Maritime Museums however. Don't know what Lord Kelvin would of thought about his balls being shown to the general public though. Especially as was the habit to paint them Red and Green. This may have been for Brians DHU who didn't know port from starboard. There again he would probably have been colour blind also. Cheers JS Second thoughts think the flinders bar was to correct coefficient "D" JS

[Keith Tindell]

JS, ref 35, Bob Mundle also wrote a fantastic book , called First Fleet, and tells the story of the 11 ships that sailed from the Solent to Oz, and is very factual of the people who sailed on board, and a tremendous voyage, all 11 ships arrived in Oz. Its available on a Kindle reader, KT

[j.sabourn]

Keith I am not a great reader, people buy me books and I seldom get through them. I am out most nights and usually late in getting in. However the wife is not too fit at moment so may have to curtail my going out so much, so will maybe be looking for more to do and start reading. I assume Kindle is a book club of some sort on Google or somewhere. I am not in to these hand held computers and such if this is where you read them. In fact the computer to me apart from emails is the next stage up from a typewriter which used a lot before modernization came along. I am a relic and believer of the things I once worked with. When I retired 13 years ago I said I was not going to keep up with the modern technology and so far have maintained that promise to myself. Cheers and thanks John S