Seamen

[Mike Hall]

brian.jpg

[Keith Tindell]

That brought a smile to my face Mike, and so true.

[Tony Taylor]

brian.jpg

A picture is worth a thousand words!

[James Curry]

Oh so true Mike.

[Ivan Cloherty]

Drawn by someone who has never been a supt, the very person who gets sh*t from both sides of the fence

[James Curry]

When asked to prepare jobs for the dry dock list and to find that the super has put a red line through a lot of the jobs and written alongside a note (ships Staff) Then the super finds out that the yard will not permit ships staff to do the work.
No problem do the jobs while at sea.
Well we would have done those jobs at sea if you had not cancelled or altered the spares requested by the Chief engineer or Chief Officer.

Yes we all know the super is given a budget by the owners for spares etc. Certainly in Bibby Line the Super also got a bonus for bringing the vessel in under budget for the year.
I never agreed with the system were the super for such and such a veesel was the super for 2 years and then moved in within the fleet. The next poor sod who then had to fight tooth and nail for spares with the office because the other fella ensured he got his bonus.

[happy daze john in oz]

But we did earn an honest wage, but we did have to work hard for it.

[Ivan Cloherty]

Yes we all know the super is given a budget by the owners for spares etc. Certainly in Bibby Line the Super also got a bonus for bringing the vessel in under budget for the year.

Never heard of a bonus for Supts, a system I would have totally disagreed with. The three companies I was Supt with never paid such a bonus, I went out on a limb many times to ensure vessels and crews were looked after and still have letters of thanks from Masters for my efforts

[James Curry]

I can well believe you did Ivan and I am not being facetious but not all are perhaps not as honourable as you.
BP was another company a lot of the supers there did a call me chief trip and got a job in the office and some used that as a spring board for their careers to move up the food chain.
Were you ever a super with UASC or Vela?they had some crackers as supers.

[Ivan Cloherty]

I can well believe you did Ivan and I am not being facetious but not all are perhaps not as honourable as you.

I never forgot my roots James and the hardships, financial and emotional that my mother made so that I could live my dream and felt sure later in life that other parents must have done the same and I didn't want to make anyone's life worse.

When I became a supt my father (a bos'un, but time served) who was at sea wrote and congratulated but told me not to get too big for my boots, and I may think I was a big wheel, but reminded me that big wheels need little wheels to make them turn, I never forgot that.

Yes some supts were barstewards, and when I first came ashore I found a passive form of corruption, where my superiors had fallen into a kind of laziness of thought, in that they never bothered to have real one-to-one with Master's, Ch Off, Chief eng or Bosuns and had the attitude 'well I never got that whilst at sea, why should you'. They never bothered to chase discounts from Chandlers, lub/oil suppliers, packing suppliers, paint suppliers, rope suppliers and with 22 ships they would make a financial difference, but the supts and directors were happy getting their crates of wines and spirits at Christmas. An owner once said to me remember a case is a bribe, a bottle is a gift. When I joined the company discounts on supplies ranged from 1% to 2.5% after a couple of years under my stewardship they became 5% and 7.5% and after 5 years anything from 10% to 25% if they wanted to retain the business. I of course became enemy #1 in the office, because crates of wine/spirits, paint deliveries and host days disappeared, the money saved was ploughed back into the vessels and crew comfort, small things like carpets, curtains, better stewards and galley equipment, dartboards, games etc, but things that made a difference. But I expected Masters and C/E not to take advantage, and I wasn't disappointed.

Yes as Ch Off I had experienced the red pencil syndrom, but a lot of C/o C/e and Masters only had themselves to blame because they submitted carbon copy like requests of the previous order, a form of laziness.

But a job without a challenge is not worh having.