New Certificates

[Ivan Cloherty]

Bill I see you have navigated around my question of inexactitudes, perhaps you could be man enough to get back on course

I have no axe to grind with any nationality navigators/officers, I only comment from personal experience, I have sailed with and employed Greek, Yugoslav, Pakistan masters who have been first class in every respect, I have sailed with British MFG were I was glad to get off the ship

Rgds Ivan

[Capt Bill Davies]

Absolutely not! I lump tales like that in with the rest. There might be an element of truth and the rest is embroidery.

Bill

[Louis the Amigo]

Hi shipmates, What is wrong with lady officers on merchant ships ? They have them in the armed forces in the U.K. The former U.S.S.R. has had them for many years . When I worked on the tall ships in southampton docks, a few years ago met many they were charming, and well spoken and very friendly from a training ship for future officers, Not much money to buy our goods? but very quick on trade, Vodka and stuff. I think more young woman like them should go to sea .I was only there for 5 days had a great time.

[Ivan Cloherty]

Absolutely not! I lump tales like that in with the rest. There might be an element of truth and the rest is embroidery.

Bill

Thanks Bill, you've just confirmed my suspicions about you

Ivan

[j.sabourn]

Remember someone telling me about the Buries Markes fiasco. The way he put it, it didnt work and most finished up pregnant. John Sabourn

[j.sabourn]

Bill perhaps the well minded person who told you of what to expect in the 60"s was speaking from hearsay. John Sabourn

[j.sabourn]

Believe this thread was on the new cert. structure. I bear no malice with such and any statements comparing the structure pre 1970 and the present day is more indignation than anything else, that I and others were put through apparentley a much harder sequence of subjects. If such had been brought out during my time, I would probably have been very pleased. The probable few youngsters going to sea nowadays will be brought up different, the same as we were with the old windjammer men. The best of luck to our youngsters as you only start to really learn your job after you get the all important piece of paper. Regards John Sabourn.

[happy daze john in oz]

One thing thta has not been mentioned is the fact that ships and shipping has greatly changed since our days. The requirements are different so i would consider it to quite plausible that the certificates may differ from those of yesteryear.
As to commenst about 'embroidery' I think that all on this site speak from personal experience, and yes there may be some hearsay, but thta occurs in all walks of life.

[Captain Kong]

I signed on an AB, I looked through his Book, he had several Master Discharges, " Eddie, what are all these discharges", have you a Masters Cert.
he said "Yes I have a Panamanian Masters Cert, I went into the Panamanian Embassy in London and after a few questions bought one for £50." he showed me, What a work of art it was, it should have been in a frame.
He got a Masters job on the Tugs towing ammunition barges up the Mekong during the American Viet Nam War.
He was a good AB, and one I could rely upon.
Brian.

[j.sabourn]

Ref. earlier in this post about philipinos taking over from a chinese crew, being cheaper. The ship in question was about 8000 deadweight. Had 3 galleys, Deck crew from Foochow and engine crew Shanghai, or the other way round. Hence spoke different dialects and in the main could not converse among themselves unless could speak mandarin. The bosun could not speak English and being mate had to do all through the chinese 3rd. mate who was his brother.
For those not aware of the Hong Kong system of feeding, the daily rate was passed to the Bosun or No1 fireman every month and they went ashore with a couple of shopping bags. The midships crowd the Ch. stwd handled. As you can imagine the feeding was not great as the money was not there. All in all I got on better with chinese than other foreign nationals, maybe it was because most of the time it was with sign language. When people describe some foreign crews to me, I think I must have been living in a world of my own, either that or was a devil for punishment. Probably the Chinese cook who was out of the firemans galley had a past history in engineering thats maybe why he went 3 eng. These are facts and not hearsay. Cheers John Sabourn