We did this

[Lewis McColl]

We are all guilty of this, but I would bet my last £1.00 we are all socially aware today and look with disgust at sights like these. But I am convinced this crap comes from shore side and not from todays seafarers.sea.jpg

[happy daze john in oz]

Lewis the amount of such crap is all over the globe.
Sadly there are those who think a litter bin is not needed.

But go back a few years and in many major cities such as London all bins were removed as they were considered a place for bombs from the fanatics to be placed.

No bins, so where do you put the rubbish.

Oh silly me, of course into parliament.

[John Gill]

#1. Yes indeed. We were all guilty of polluting our planet whilst sailing the world. As galley boy my rosie throwing activity would have contributed to filling the ocean.(Although always on the lee side- we didn't want our own back)! Sometimes the excuse was that the sea creatures would feed on our waste, but what fish can digest empty corned beef tins, old sea boots and the like. Considering how long it takes for some rubbish to bio degrade, looking at the pic on #1 makes me wonder if it's all come back to haunt us.

[michael hooper]

I remember tank cleaning in the 1950 s it all went over the side.not proud of that,but all the tankers were doing it.all the sludge from the tanks was just dumped in the ocean.

[Keith Tindell]

as posted before, peggy on a Castle boat, and the gash shute was over the side, in harbour !!!!, beautiful harbour like Capetown, and all went over the side, bottles tins etc, plus the usual messroom food, kt

[Michael Black]

The amount of dunnage that we used to throw over the wall between ports would have probably been enough to build a small town. There was a lot of good timber went over, hope somebody got to use it when it was washed up.
Regards Michael

[j.sabourn]

Have seen a situation when I was mate on a British flag ship where the chief engineer thought it was clever to hide a surplus of between 2 and 3 hundred tons of diesel fuel. When I found out I told him as we were loading deadweight cargoes he would either have to declare it or would have to disappear physically . Think the North Atlantic was his choice. Such large amounts could not be hidden on a 15,000 ton deadweight ship. Small amounts you could raise the ships constant i.e. stores and fittings etc. and talk your way out of it. This hiding large surpluses on ships never pays. Whether it was part of his retirement funds don’t know , was more interested in the ships performance. I wasn’t prepared to put the ship 5 inches over her marks. Cheers JS.

[Des Taff Jenkins]

I can't remember plastics when i was at sea, yes we cleaned and pumped tanks ay sea, but in those days we were unaware of the consequences of our actions, no excuse I know but that was then, now everybody knows and it's still being done. When I worked on the Ferry South Steyne in 1970 came in one morning and the whole of Darling harbour stunk of excrement, though our shore pipe had burst, but no it was an Italian passenger ship that had pumped all her sewer tanks into the harbour, they must have thought they were in Genoa.
A super market chain here has just said they are getting rid of plastic bags, they have wrapped most of their goods in plastic .
Des

[Keith at Tregenna]

RE: in those days we were unaware of the consequences of our actions.

Seems reasonable for then, today touch wood Des, most should be more
aware.

Keith.

[happy daze john in oz]

In the galley of all Castle ships two chutes for galley rubbish and not always food.
From the bridge deck as officers steward every night after dark a black bag with all the days rubbish over the side.
But the amount of silver ware, glass and china over t he side would make a road between Southampton and Cape Town.