Please forgive me for this , but I,m sure I,m not the only one that can remember having a tale to tell when joining a ship.....here,s mine.

My father, brother & I all worked for P&O Deep Sea Cargo Division, & we were all at home on leave at the same time ( only time this happened ).
The phone rang at home & it was P&O asking to speak to Mr Smales, my mother had answered the phone & asked "which one?", the company wanted to speak to my brother to give him joining instructions, he came off the phone a happy chap as he,d been instructed to join the Wild Fulmar, a ship he had sailed on before & liked the ship, he was to sail as 4th Eng Officer.

Two days later, P&O phoned again & asked to speak to Mr Smales ....same scenario ....they wanted to speak to me, instructing me to join the Wild Fulmar as 2nd Cook/Baker, I replied saying I,d never cooked an egg before , They assured me they felt I would be ok as they were pairing me with a great Chief Cook, so I say "ok, I,ll give it a go".
Whilst still on the phone I realised that they were instructing me to join the same ship as my brother , it would appear that the Officers personel dept weren,t in communication with the Crew personel dept, I said nothing as thought it would be great to sail with my brother.

So, we both got packing in readiness for our flights in a couple of days time, I hurriedly went & bought some cooks cheques & white T shirts, was very nervous of joining as a 2nd Cook but was determined to do my best.

My brother & I got to Teesside airport, checked in our luggage, then were shocked when we were also asked to stand on the scales, the flight from Teesside to Heathrow was on a small light aircraft carrying only 8 passengers, we were the only ones to have "Luggage" as the other passengers were businessmen travelling to London carrying just a briefcase.
After a slightly nerving flight on such a small plane we landed at Heathrow, where as we got off the plane a member of staff asked for a Mr Smales, we both replied we both were ...they informed us that they had "LOST" our luggage but couldn,t tell us who,s, mine or my brothers ( we,d only flown from Teesside to Heathrow), they said they would find it & keep it until we returned from our holiday, we told them we were flying out to join a ship & MUST have our luggage, they said they would forward it on when they found it.

Anyways......We flew out to Lagos, Nigeria, stood at the luggage claim area & realised that it was MY luggage that was missing, no probs we thought, as the agent would let us know when it arrives & I,d eventually get it.
So I joined the ship with just my hand luggage, cash, discharge book, passport etc, so had to borrow clothes from other crew members to go to work, The Chief Cook was great, a chap called John, ( can,t remember his surname, but loved Haircut100 music ).

Two days later the agent came onboard to take me to the airport to collect my luggage as it had arrived, told me to bring my flight ticket & passport, no probs.
We get to the airport, go to the office where my luggage was, to be met by a HUGE guy dressed in whites & a peaked cap with more gold braid than the Duke of Edinburgh looked at me, looked at my passport photo, looked at my baggage tickets that were stuck to my flight ticket.....then announced that he cannot let me have the luggage
He said he didn,t think the luggage was mine, I told him I could tell him the total contents, socks , t shirts . cheques etc etc ....but he was having NONE of it, it turns out that my flight ticket had my brothers baggage labels attached to it ( luggage that he now has on the ship), & to make matters worse.....I,d used 1 of my fathers old suitcases as mine had been damaged on my last trip, but this suitcase had a name tag on the inside of it, & yes you guessed it, in my FATHERS name....aaarrrggghh .

We had to go back to the ship( fairly long trip) to get my brothers flight ticket which had MY baggage tickets stuck to it & return to the airport.....
The agent also decided to also take with us a bottle of scotch & 1000cigs, just in case......

We got back to the airport but the big guy in the white uniform dripping in gold braid still wasn,t having any of it due to my fathers name being on the inside of the suitcase, we pleaded with him that I must have my luggage as the ship was due to sail the next morning.......the scotch & cigs did the trick.

That was a great start to my first trip as a 2nd Cook/Baker, had a great 7 months on that ship, by which time the Chief Cook turned me from someone that hadn,t cooked an egg to someone that became known for my chocolate eclairs for tabnabs.....couldn,t make enough of em they were so popular. smiles.

I,m sure others have tales to tell from joining ships, lets hear them.

cheers
Tommy the T