Hello!

[Danny Armstrong]

Hi there,

Thanks for clicking on my post.

My name's Danny, I'm from Liverpool, I am 26 years old, living with my girlfriend.

We are both in full time employment & have bills to pay each month etc.

I have been looking into applying for a 3 year course with Clyde Marine Training - to hopefully become a deck officer.

The problem me & my girlfriend are trying to overcome, is how to keep on paying the bills & survive, when Clyde Marine will only pay me up to £170 p/w (half my current salary). My girlfriend would not be able to afford all of the bills herself & I am not yet sure what my 'allowance' would be for.

Have any of you, in a relationship, left full time employment to go on a 3 year scholarship or similar?

How did you manage financially? Was there support available? I.E. government subsidization / tax credit schemes or similar? Or did your sponsoring company make arrangements with the accommodation / allowance, to allow you to keep paying the bills at home?

You may think I am crazy leaving a fairly well paid job to persue a new career but I have been thinking about it for too long now for it to just go away.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Danny Boy

[Doc Vernon]

Hello Danny
As said by Tony,the days of us going to Sea were very different and as there were many different ways to join the Merchant Navy,i for one was fortunate to just get straight in with hardly no experience and got signed on by the Chief Steward in Cape Town.

This was quite a regular way for the Lads in South Africa those days!

Most of the other Lads here went to Sea Training Schools all over Britain,and as i understand were housed and trained at the various basses and Ships! So there was no need to worry about Money so to speak!
ie for their training durations

But again as said i do hope that you may find a way to persue your lifes dream,i hope that there may be some here who can assist you in your delimma!
It is a big step indeed to throw away a good paying job,to do what you really want,but in the end i am sure it will all pay dividends!
The best of luck in the future,and never stop trying!
You know the old saying "Where ther's a will there's a way"
Cheers

And thank you for your post!

[John Pruden]

go for it danny follow your dream if we had half a chance to go on one more trip not as a passenger but member of the crew we would give anything we had?jp

[Ron B Manderson]

Danny welcome to the site.
No your not crazy.
Anyone that has been to sea will agree.
It's a good life and you will find that you grow up fast.
That is not meant to be an insult to you.
After my first trip I met up with my old friends and thought " How childish they are".
So if you can I say go for it.
Good luck on the cash side.
It would not be fair to the wife as she came from Liverpool, to live here in Forfar, but I am sorry I left the sea life. It's a different ball came.
My old ship docked in Dundee and we were invited down, and I was offered my old job back. It was very hard but I stayed ashore ( silly me) But that's life, and you would regret it for years.
Ron the batcave

[Ivan Cloherty]

Danny

Follow your dream whatever it costs, if you do not you will live to regret it and will become a real pain in the butt to your girlfriend and yourself. I spent many years at sea and came ashore as a Superintendent, but after nine years in that position decided I could go no further with that company, said to my wife I can't do this anymore so she said do what you want. Saw a marine job advertised in Switzerland flew out on the Saturday, had the interview that afternoon, got the job, handed in my notice on the Monday and within 30 days, sold my house, sold my car, all my furniture to friends and started my new job in Switzerland, (burnt all my boats so had no place to return home to) ended up for four years running a shipping company in Pakistan which was a bit of a downer, persevered and was head hunted by Arab Shipping Company and that was 'much' better and financially rewarding.

But you can only do these things when you have no school children, my kids were born the year I started my work in Dubai. But I am glad I left the security and pension of my nine year job in the UK and took a chance and believe me money was tight and the mortgage was big at that time, so there wasn't much money to rub together after the mortgage had been paid off but still one of the better decisions in my life which led me into other adventures, some good, some bad and dangerous, but what I didn't have to live with was 'if only I had taken a chance' because I took that chance and didn't live to regret it, although it was a frightening decision at the time.

Take the chance you never know what it could lead to

Anyway good luck with whatever choice you make, like a lot on here my sea time was in the 50's and 60's but was involved with working with ships one way or another until I was 73 and still miss the actual seafaring, but what memories I have of those days. great.

[j.sabourn]

I spent a full working life at sea 16 to 65. Whilst I would not advocate to my son to go to sea, I would not of stopped him if he had shown an inclination to do so. However he must have been very aware of the very infrequent times I spent at home and had a bit more consideration for others. I saw very little of my children growing up as a couple of weeks a year was about the norm for a lot of us, I will always have a guilty conscience over this, my excuse as was the norm was to earn a living which in those days was not as gainful monetary wise as people believe. My time at sea on all different classes of shipping and trades had its ups and downs, disasters calamitys, collissions, attempted murders, apprehension in various ports by foreign authoritys etc.etc. Most seafarers could write a book of their experiences which many do attempt to do. However on other seamen reading is like telling their granny to suck eggs as most have had very similar and in a lot of cases the same experiences. The shore person might think it is a glamouress life, looking back I suppose certain parts may appear to be so, however that is looking back, at the time when the **** hit the fan it was a different story. If you want to go to sea for what you think is the glamour forget it, however if you want to go to sea to learn an honourable profession and hopefully see the world and broaden your outlook on life, go for it. However if it is your intention to marry and have a family make sure you are working in with your familys wishes also. At the end of the day it is them that count. It is your life but you must also consider all the other obligations that you may have, most of us were what you might call irresponsible in some aspects to others, for some it worked for others it didnt, I was one of the fortuanate ones with a good wife behind me willing to accept the long separations. Regards John Sabourn

[Jim Brady]

Hi Danny,ask Clyde Marine if they can guarantee you a job at the end of the course and or what are the prospects of you getting gainful employment with your qualifications.I don't wish to put you off but I will be straight with you,I suppose going to sea now is like serving a prison term(well not quite that bad).I did a trip from Seaforth,which you obviously know well to Antwerp,Montreal back to Liverpool.If you were aboard her maybe you would sign on for six months and in that time may never get ashore.Arrive Liverpool discharge and load 36 hour turnaround,you would be working,then again you may get an hour or so in the mission along the road.Sail for Antwerp two days at sea,same thing 36 hour turn around.Sail across Atlantic 7 days at sea arrive Montreal 36 hour turnaround sail back to Liverpool and repeat the same schedule.And whilst at sea there isn't anybody about,the crew are so few in numbers that if they are not on watch they are turned in.There are obviously a lot more ports and runs than the one that I have described but that is just to give you and idea of what you are signing up for.Good luck anyway Danny send me a pm if you think that there is something that I can help you with.I live opposite the base.
Regards.
Jim.B.

[cappy]

john not manypeople spent there whole lives at sea 4 inmy family did but it appears not the same world or anything like that now 3 months then fly them homethats if they can get the work the old days for better or worse have gone and I truly thinkthat a lot of todays young wouldn't be able to hack it now the majority seem to have lost the sense of adventure and would rather spend hours on a computer like us older ones I still rember joining my first ship and even now get a buzz but on getting married went cos of lack of work to a mill Inbradford and had it not been for a good wife and ababy would have never stayed but that's another story you've had an interesting and adventourus life and in my less exciting life have never been bored once kicked a bank manager up hisbackside and still laugh about it now regards bonny lad cappy

[robpage]

Without detracting from all the posative things said here , Clyde Marine are teh biggest , and therefore giove you probably the best opportunities , but my one piece of advice is make sure that you do not have a romantic idea of what the job is , from listening to the glassy eyed old men in the pub , oir sites like this , many remember six weeks in a port , the run ashore in what was a relatively safe environment , If you got rolled on the way back from the pub , you never got stabbed then . We shared a camaraderie and often a case of beer after a watch . Ships are dry , and talking to men now at sea , hard , lonely watches , and very lonely off watch periods . Talk to someone fresh from a trip and make sure that you have not seen seagoing through the rose coloured glasses that we all wear

[j.sabourn]

Been going a long time now. Went to them in 1987 for a job and was almost there when they found I had been working in the Offshore Industry for a number of years. Said I would have been too well acclimatized to that trade.Told them that was crap and seamen adapted to the ship not the ship to the seaman. Went and got my own job elsewhere. In those days were obviously being run without any nautical staff. Cheers John Sabourn.