Signing On

[Barry J A Bond]

Hi there .. just stumbled on this site, and even though my MN career seems like light years back .......I still have fond ( and not so fond ) memories af being in the MN. BP Tankers as a Deck apprentice and eventually sailing as 2nd Mate on various ships

1st ship was mv British Kiwi in 1965 .. I joined in Middle dock South Shields (where she was built) in full Deck Apprentices uniform , because that seemed the right thing to do !!
1965 - 1972 ...with and entry into the MN Via KEV11 NC in London

Happy days !

[Tony Morcom]

Greetings Barry and a warm welcome to our community. Thanks for taking the time to stop by and introduce yourself. It is always appreciated. Hopefully you will find much on here to entertain you.

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Hi Barry.
Welcome to the site where I'm sure you will feel at home. Many seamen from BP on board including former appretices, look up the BP forum maybe you will find an old shipmate there.
Cheers Des
BritishMN1.jpg

[Ron B Manderson]

welcome to the site Barry
Enjoy
Ron the batcave

[Cliff Cocker]

I joined my first ship in September 1951, the British Holly in South Shields, nearly my last voyage. As an apprentice in the Royal Docks, London I had expected to work for my living but that was ridiculous. Field days every day except Saturday and Sunday but Board of Trade Sports Saturday morning and Master's inspection Sunday Morning. Working the 12 to 4 was not a happy watch. In port it was 12 hour night watches. We were told at the beginning of the voyage the ship was due for a big refit and would be back in the UK in 6 weeks, 10 months later we managed to creep back into the Tyne.
BTC not for me!!

[Ivan Cloherty]

Count your blessings Cliff, serving your time on a tanker sounds a doddle compared to prestigious cargo liners in the 50's. Apprentices keeping watches, you must be joking, owners were not going to waste all that cheap labour having you gazing at the horizon or learning some navigation skills when you could be better employed soogying, chipping, painting, greasing runners etc for 10-12 hours a day at sea with 30 mins for b'fast and 30 mins for lunch and an hour for dinner, all in dress uniform after changing from your work gear, oh! and the changing had to take place in your 30 minutes. Nightwatch in port 1800hrs to 0800hrs, is that more than 12?, that is of course if you were not cargo watching down the holds for 16 hours. My longest stretch down a hold was 57 hours with reliefs for meals, that stretch was self defeating of course as you fell asleep and the stevedores woke you only if you were in danger or the c/o or 2/o or 3/o poked their heads over the coaming. The dockers used to cover you with their coats so that you didn't freeze to death. If you think I'm joking ask anyone on site who sailed with PSNC in the 50's. I think I still have my degree from doing a thesis on chipping hammer handles and paint brush handles

[Cliff Cocker]

Ivan, wrong end of the stick! I was signed on as a Junior Engineer, ended up as an Acting 4th (still paid as a Junior) by the end of the voyage, we had quite an attrition among engineers, mainly through wrong choice of female companions when we were occasionally in port. BTC didn't believe in proper medical attention if the Chief Steward could't fix it would have to wait until it was a hospital job.
We ended up on the last voyage with the steering gear breaking down in the Pentland Firth (12,000 tons of Avgas as cargo). When paying off a superintendent came aboard to thank us for the work in saving the ship, when he came to shake my hand I held mine out palm uppermost, when asked what for I did say that I thought he was going to make a contribution along with thanks; not impressed.

[Ivan Cloherty]

Ivan, wrong end of the stick! .

Cliff, saw the word 'apprentice' in your first line and then probably misread the rest of the line. Perhaps the stick needs more grease on it so that I am unable to grasp it so tightly

[j.sabourn]

Apprentices, Cadets, Midshipmen, whatever title you give them it was during most of our times at sea a form of cheap labour. To my knowledge there was always a difference between an apprentice and cadet. An apprentice was indentured to the company and never received a discharge in his book, as never signed on the same as anyone else, he was a serf of the master and ship. A cadet signed on as normal and could leave the vessel the same as everyone else and proceed to other companys who employed cadets as such. Midshipmen were a fancy title given by Blue Flu to either cadets or apprentices, I dont know which, all the blue flu men on here will probably know. As regards teaching you navigation what a laugh, the only time on bridge was either doing 2 hours wheel as per watch, lookout in bad weather, and scrubbing out every morning and doing brasswork. On finishing time and given Indentures back were told to come back when you got your 2nd. Mates cert. Anyone who received a life style as some of the glossy brochures now depict was extremely lucky or were dreaming it. As said it was cheap labour as were accepted on the manning scale, a 3-4 year apprentice having the rank of AB, so was one less wage to put out. Other ranks were covered also as per length of time at sea , such as ordinary seamen. It was a minor cash expenditure as against employing more ABs and others. The ships I was on always carried 4. So in some cases this was 4 less ABs. Regards John Sabourn.

[j.sabourn]

Those who have sailed with ships run on a monthly portage account will probably be more aware of what I am talking about. However it is easy to see that the shipowner looking for a bottom line on his profits margin as high as possible was restricted on what control he had. On the Debit side he had Depreciation on the Hull and Machinery i.e. the ship
Insurance
Food and accomodation expenses
Crews wages
On the depreciation and Insurance he had no control, however with the now loss of a large amount of British registration he more or less has control over everything barring depreciation. Even Insurance he can cut back as required according to flag etc. as regards wages and food he is almost at liberty to approve what he wants without restriction. These changes alone while not appearing to most as no big loss, will be having a devastating effect on life at sea as we once knew it. However out of all these never to come back items of the past my biggest gripe is the manning of ships in general which in most cases I consider deplorable. John Sabourn