By registering with our site you will have full instant access to:
268,000 posts on every subject imaginable contributed by 1000's of members worldwide.
25000 photos and videos mainly relating to the British Merchant Navy.
Members experienced in research to help you find out about friends and relatives who served.
The camaraderie of 1000's of ex Merchant Seamen who use the site for recreation & nostalgia.
Here we are all equal whether ex Deck Boy or Commodore of the Fleet.
A wealth of experience and expertise from all departments spanning 70+ years.
It is simple to register and membership is absolutely free.
N.B. If you are going to be requesting help from one of the forums with finding historical details of a relative
please include as much information as possible to help members assist you. We certainly need full names,
date and place of birth / death where possible plus any other details you have such as discharge book numbers etc.
Please post all questions onto the appropriate forum

-
19th November 2012, 06:56 AM
#11
we never had any say.
Hi shipmates, Hi happy john on oz did you go to the same school as me? did you buy your smokes in packets of five ,when you had a few pennys? in my school run by nuns you had the cane ,ruler across the hands ,and bat on your ass and if you did anything serious you had the strap . The girls had they face slapped, if they said or did anything wrong by the nuns !!! one girl was pushed down a some stone steps and damage her back for talking in line, I met her years later and she was never the same after that years of pain "The nuns were allways in the right" so no come backs? Hi John you are right there will allways be bad people, but hopefully not in our schools.
-
19th November 2012, 07:59 AM
#12
smoking
All the schools after the war appear to have the same punishments inflicted the strap or cane, this was accepted by us if caught, at an early age. I was a member of the SSS The Secret Smokers Society, cigarettes were bought singly at a penny each. When they brought the filter tips out, they were considered for the females and we used to remove. Smoking was not considered as evil then, if you were old enough to smoke. As regards the Gay community they were considered outside the norm and was kept underwraps as was against the Law. Times have certainly changed when you cant call a spade a spade so to speak. The Gay carnival in Sydney each year attests to the advantage taking by what was once minority groups, and must make some of our youngsters very nonplussed about their own sexuality. Apart from parents trying to bring their offspring up in cotton wool, which to me in most cases is probably wrong, the different type phsyco problems our youngsters grow up with, shows that things are not what they used to be, and once again the do gooders and the freedom of speech weirdos whose freedom of speech is only what they want it to be, are once again wrong and leading us down the wrong path. I think our kids are not getting the best deal we can give them. Cheers John Sabourn.
-
19th November 2012, 08:02 AM
#13
P.S.
Mary Whitehouse must be turning in her grave. John Sabourn
-
19th November 2012, 08:20 AM
#14
I remember going back to visit the housemaster at my boarding school about 3 years after I left with my best mate. He was telling us that he considered we were the last year to be real kids. We used to be caned for smoking etc and just accepted it. Now, so he told us, they daren't even mention the cane for fear of having a knife pulled on them. The headmaster who had been there for years had died the previous summer and it was said that he had died of a broken heart because the system had changed beyond all recognition. I remember that when caning a boy he always made an excuse to leave the room for a minute before he started ~ this to allow the errant boy to slip a book down his trousers first! He always shook hands with you after the 3 or 6 wacks and there was always a little pile of books on the chair outside his study, hastily left by the departing miscreant.
-
19th November 2012, 08:44 PM
#15
Kinky Teachers
Years ago, when I was at a Grammar Skool in London, a caning was administered for the slightest infraction of the rules. At one time I was late twice in one week.The Head perv had a cupboard in his study with a rack of canes from which he could choose, he used to flex them and swish one about to pick one to use in front of the next victim. Flagellation was administered on the bare ****, in multiples of 3. I always seemed to get 6! This creep vanished one day without explanation ! No wonder, but in those days we were too scared to say anything. At the age of 8yrs, in Neecastle on Tyne I got the tawse,( a belt sliced lengthways) on the hand, just for speaking without permission. None of these sadistic weirdos would be allowed in a school today!
-
19th November 2012, 09:01 PM
#16
all i can say about my school the teachers were the most sadistic bastards you ever come across if i thought my kids ever experienced the same as i did i would have been in jail for a very long time they were thugs and bullies and i remember my father going to see the metalwork teacher and after my father held him over the furness during metalwork that the teacher got the message my father was a blacksmith he taught me and i did the same at school the teacher did not like it and hit me with a iron bar across the back but my dad was a very powerful man and not one to mess with the police was not called{but should have} looking back if one of my children was treated the same i would have broke his back he was just a little sh.thouse that could only pick on kids the best day of school was the day i left at 14.jp
-
19th November 2012, 11:49 PM
#17
-
20th November 2012, 12:58 AM
#18
Youth
The biggest disadvantage our youth of today have, is what they think are the necessitys of life, the electric gizmos and games they are completely involved with plus these violent games on sale. The parents who supply all this with no restrictions are to blame. My own family are some of the worse offenders and they should know better as was not the way they were brought up. The social media has a lot to answer for as the general public are brainwashed with what goes out to the general populance. Western society as a whole as far as morals and morality is sadly lacking, our so called leaders do in no way set any good example, as are too busy espousing their own individual achievements, which in most cases are zero. An earlier post I said about a sail training ship I went on as a volunteer and the difference in a day to most of the youth was mind boggling. That is where the youth should be or going on outward bound type expeditions, and not sitting watching gizmos and making other people rich. Most parents think they are doing good by their kids by giving them everything they want. If that was the case we should be living in Utopia with peace amonst us, which we certainly are not. The old saying apart from now being against the law had a moral meaning as well, Spare the Rod and spoil the Child. Our present day youth to some extent are very spoiled. Regards John Sabourn
-
20th November 2012, 05:54 AM
#19
We had a maths teacher an Indian named Mr. Bean. He carried a small attache case in which was a slipper, a ruler, a cane, a leather belt and one blackboard peg. The use of any of these items was directly proportional to the offence. The worst was the blackboard peg across the knucles which was about every day for someoen.


Happy daze John in Oz.
Life is too short to blend in.
John Strange R737787
World Traveller

-
20th November 2012, 07:34 AM
#20
john we had wood chisels mallets and was often punched{for nothing} and told Wait till you have done something. they were cruel just for the sake of it times have changed but i think for the better. i did spot one old teacher a few years after leaving in a restaurant i introduced myself to him and belittled him in front of his friends but like all bullies he s.it himself when approached.jp
Similar Threads
-
By Captain Gordon Whittaker in forum Cunard
Replies: 45
Last Post: 15th June 2022, 08:00 PM
-
By David Neilson in forum Welcome - Please say hello.
Replies: 21
Last Post: 8th March 2015, 12:45 PM
-
By Graham Smith in forum Elder Dempster Lines
Replies: 9
Last Post: 5th January 2012, 08:56 PM
Tags for this Thread
Posting Permissions
- You may not post new threads
- You may not post replies
- You may not post attachments
- You may not edit your posts
-
Forum Rules