Female radio officers at sea mid 70's on tankers before sex disc Act

[happy daze john in oz]

#####no penecillin ....only mand b tablets .....same thing i think.but not as good as the jab.....regards cappy

And Cappy there were many on UCL and P&O who enjoyed the occasional 'JAB"

[j.sabourn]

#74... Pity Mary wasnt there Cappy she could have rushed in and seduced him ... John S

[cappy]

#74... Pity Mary wasnt there Cappy she could have rushed in and seduced him ... John S

.....bloody hell john all mary had to do would be to wave her wooden leg ....and all hands would have give in.....ps she liked cooks she always got a joint off them......regards cappy

[j.sabourn]

Is that the smoking kind. JS

[cappy]

Is that the smoking kind. JS

####mary always left them smoking....regards cappy

[John Moxley]

So, nobody on Esso ships ever took drugs or caught VD....Hmm...did any ever go wild and get a tattoo?

[Lucy Knight]

Pehaps you could enlighten them on what some of the Shell ones were like on the old rust buckets. It might be quite an eye opener for some if they had
had never experienced it.

Cheers Lucy

So, nobody on Esso ships ever took drugs or caught VD....Hmm...did any ever go wild and get a tattoo?

[Captain Kong]

John Moxley....
So, nobody on Esso ships ever took drugs or caught VD....Hmm...did any ever go wild and get a tattoo?
.
. If you had read post #63, from start to finish you would have Understood, how it was.

You join a tanker in Fawley Hampshire, you sail for two months none stop all the way around the Cape to the Gulf,
Sea island, a Steel platform many miles off shore, load 256,000 tons of crude[ where are you going to get your leg over in Saudi???????, then you sail back for two months none stop, and pay off, go home for two months and then repeat the voyage again.
Now You tell me where are you going to get your legover and cop out with a dose on that run. Where are you going to buy drugs, who the hell with any intelligence wants to buy drugs anyway, we had more intelligence than that, and if any man did touch drugs he would have been flown home immediately and loss of a good non contributary Pension, shares in ESSO, and the best job in the MN. also where would you get a tattoo, on that kind of job.
Safety was paramount in ESSO, not one man would tollerate any other man using drugs, we all depended on each other, Tankers can be quite dangerous places to live and work in, I dont know how much seafaring experience you have but it does not sound like much. or you sailed on some lousy ships with lousy crews.
When I was single I sailed on everything the Pool threw at me, and did everything a seafaring man was expected to do in all the bagging off shops around the planet.
BUT when I got married, I then had responsibilities, a wife and children and a mortgage to support. so I joined ESSO, for the big money and benefits, good leave, good salary paid into the bank, good overtime, Free Shares in ESSO , now worth many thousands £. A free non contributary Pension, and a Lump sum on retirement like a lottery win. It still makes more money than I can spend.
That is why, No One went astray, if you would throw away all that you must be a Nut case.
After the EXXON VALDES incident all our ships became Dry Ships, no beer, no wine, no tots.
Brian.

[Lucy Knight]

Just to put a few things right. In some companies certainly by 75 the R/EO,s or ER/O's as CP ships called them came under the Captain and the Ch eng.
I started the radio course in 72 and within a few wks of starting it had been extended to 3 full time yrs and that longer course called MRRT. It included qualification other than sea going to enable people to have more chance of getting shore employment. When I transferred to Brunel Bristol for the 2nd and 3rd yrs they ran the older 2 yr course plus a term and a bit DTI radar maintainnce alongside the MRRT course. When I was in the last term of the 2nd yr BP and Shell were starting interviews for radio cadetships. I was taken on a a Shell Radio cadet for the 3rd yr. Times were changing fast. Marconi had previously had the contract for Shell (and some of their ships had Redifon contracts) for the equipment in radio rm, radars echo sounder etc and also supplied the R/O. Now around 75 they were going direct employed but still keeping the equipment on rental maintainence which also included the use of shore techs in the contract. They started employing a new breed called senior R/Os and RE/Os. My senior on my first ship who was with me for 5 months out of the 6 1/2 I spent on the Mangelia slow steaming supertanker had 22 yrs experience and was made a senior with 3 rings on joining Shell. He sat on the Capts table, took part in their senior offs meetings and also part of the room inspection party. They were a new breed and I was communicating with him recently on this topic and he said a lot didn't like it. He also had the full 6 months MEC (marine elects certifcate) This meant he could be employed as a RE/O. A lot did not want to accept R/Os or RE/Os in a senior grade. It had all been hammered out the the Unions. My next senior for the last month had ten yrs exp and just been employed fm Marconi and he had 2 1/2 rings and the first part of the MEC called the MED module. These came under not only the master but ch eng also, just like I did when employed as an ER/O with CP Ships. I took the MED and MEC Autumn 77 to Spring 78 using up leave from the Hemitrochus and going off pay and paying my own fees when I had a mortgage. I was the only one on the course who was putting themselves throught. So perhaps that would indicate that I was serious about being at sea as a career. When I joined CP Ships I was taken on straight away as an ER/O under both Master and Ch eng. When I was taking the MEC at Plymouth Poly a rep from the REOU our Union came to see us and asked if anyone wanted to raise anything. One R/O with BP was extremely concerned that he had just been training a junior R/O. One had to get a mandatory 6 months seatime in under a senior before one could go solo. His trainee had been commandeered by the ch eng to join the eng cadets tracing pipeline and their was nothing he was able to do about it and was extremely concerned that the one he was supposed to be training was never in the radio room and he couldn't see how he was going to be able to go alone with missing out on the radio room training. So perhaps this indicates the power some of the ch eng had over the radio room.

In CP Ships all the radio and relevant bridge gear was bought outright . No rental maintainence , but we were provided with very good test gear, oscilloscope , frequency counter etc etc unlike the rental maintainence stations eg one avo and on a slow steaming supertanker calling in shore techs was a bit difficult. Alec Ward the elects superintendent was an ex Plymouth Poly lecturer , then supt I believe Redifon before CP Ships. He also expected his ER/Os to join SERT which was affiliated to the Institute of Electrical eng which I was a member of through his persuasion like the rest. The ER/O's onCP ships were the fifth highest paid on board (if the purser was 2 rings) and above the electrician (much to their annoyance, 2/O. 3/E and 2 ring purser)You were expected to fix the gear yourself. In later years after 1999 when R/Os were extinct, ETO's were employed I believe.

There is nothing I have said on this site that I wouldn't be prepared to say on a lie detector test.

The ch eng I spoke of getting me involved in a fight lived about 15 miles from me. I must try and find out if he is still around and ask what it was all about. I understood from another eng after I left that the purser who threw my down the alleyway got the sack. I sons't know if that was true and if so whether it had anything to do with that fracas. I do know that the difference between the purser and electrician on that ship rumbled on, as I lived next door to the elect but kept out of it after that.

Much of that incident was caused by booze. The two of them were well oiled and the chief was a lot of the time!

After I left I understand the new company doctor clamped down on the amount that was being drunk and I was told they were limited to 4 beers a day. I don't know whether that was true or not.

Drinking way over the sociable level DID cause problems and also encouraged others who didn't intend going way over to join in too. Buying rounds may have been sociable but also encourage others to have far more than they intended when they went in the bar.

I gave up booze years ago and don't regret giving up . I do regret not giving up earlier.

[Lucy Knight]

Again Lucy,
I can honestly say, IN ESSO we were profesionals.and behaved as such.
It is little wonder that the British Merchant Navy went into terminal decline with behaviour from crews like that.
Cheers
Brian.

Recently I was quite surprised to find out from one of the lads on a different intake radio course and his mates when I was at college , were smoking weed. That came directly from one of them. I lived in the same bedsit land area and not commuting in from home, so I mixed in the student union bar with them lived on the same patch and mixed with them and I had noidea. I would have been convinced that none of those students were into any drug taking. Unless you see someone as high as a kite or the addiction has really taken hold others don't have any idea. Hence why so many parents are unaware re their kids drug taking unlil it has really taken hold and affecting their livesj. It isn't always obvious.