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

[happy daze john in oz]

Out of a crew of about 400 on UCL there would have been maybe 40 real females, I have nver seen any of them treated with anything that the greatest of respect.A number were married and whilst they may have enjoyed male company in the pig at times that was as far as it went. Males at that time, the greater majority, had general respect for the ladies and I feel sure had any one attempted anything untoward they would have been dealt with by the other men.

[cappy]

surprised that brian saw no doses picked up in esso for such a long time ........cant swear to it but dont think any trip i was on over say 5 months therewsnt cases aboard .....as for women aboard as crew never saw it in the 50s and 60s ....one captains wife only on a tanker.....dont think it adds up for females on tramps or tankers as crew......i personally can only speak for myself but would not have liked females on board.......but would ceryainly have not stood for what lucy went through .....never sailed on passenger ships as crew and think that is a different matter........but everything changes and i cant say always for the better ....as most on the site would agree ....who would want to go to sea in the present times......or even th e 70s 80s etc regards cappy

[Captain Kong]

Hi Cappy,
Most of the men in ESSO were married men, and life time career company men, through to retirement, a Non Contributary Pension at the end of it with a huge mega lump sum, that set me up for my retirement, like winning the Lotto. The best move I ever made was to join ESSO.
The conditions were the very Best of all companies, Best salaries, best leave to voyage ratios, two on and one off, then later one voyage on and one voyage off, all, from galley boy up Master on full pay on leave, We had the the best feeding ships in the MN, even wine with evening dinner, for the crew mess and for the Officers mess. We had a good Social life at weekends at sea,
Saturday nights was Horse Racing in the crew lounge, place your bets, Sunday mornings , Welly throwing contests and Sunday Lunch time all hands in the Officers Lounge for Dart competitions,
On a four month trip from europe round the Cape to the Gulf and back there was no where to go ashore, so no chance of catching anything,
This is why everyone behaved themselves, the rewards were too great. I still have more money than I retired with, their Financial advisers gave us the best investments, that is why I go round the world every year, all on ESSO money.
This is why we had no animals or head cases on board. Only the Best of the MN.

Cheers
Brian.

[robpage]

On tankers from '73 to '75 you could not on some runs get shore , in Los Angeles we were off Huntingdon Beach but a 60 minute boat ride from San Pedro , bot ashore was 9 AM and 2 PM Back at 1 PM and 7 PM , day-workers could not get ashore , similar in Ecuador , Angola , Nigeria , and quite a few other places I would rather forget , In Port Arthur Tx , you were well out of town , as in another load of places , so opportunity for the majority was not there .

By 1975 , I had had enough Deep Sea and my late wife produced the third child , so I happily joined the ferry fleet and stayed there for twelve years , my last deep sea time on tankers heralded what was to me , a change , the camaraderie that was inherent in Clan Line , Union Castle , King Line was not there in Gulf Oil , it was left amongst the old Watts Watts guys , but there was a new breed shipping out ,. The second Engineer was a serious cannabis smoker and was manoeuvring the ship mainly whilst smoking a joint , high as a kite . The Marconi Sparks drank Bacardi for breakfast and lunch then a few before dinner ,The professional third engineer only came out of his cabin for meal and watches and a few of the younger crew had stocked up on weed before we sailed from dry dock in Amsterdam . The ship was a boat with no atmosphere , and it put me off tankers for life after I got the sea time in . Maybe I had been spoiled in B&C where we had a few oddballs but the friendly type . I would say that by 1975 the old ways were going .

[j.sabourn]

Brian, believe Rob in one of his posts mentions the back streets of Whitley Bay, I lived latterly almost on the sea front so am ok. You should know however that W.B. was germ free, and if on the special occasion one did leave with a present, it would be a special present just for you. Probably was infilterated from Cappys south of the river, although think Mary got checked every time she had a new coat of varnish put on her leg. The Vietnam Rose that is mentioned spread far and wide by American Servicemen ( unless it was a secret weapon of the Viet Kong) was Gonorhea which was resistant to pencillin, probably the reason why the cure went from penicillin to Strictomycin, and stronger drugs later. A bad habit of Chinese crews were that they used to take half a bottle of penicillin v tablets before going ashore, in the mistaken belief this would keep them immune from the sailors scourge, might just as well have taken fresh vegetables and fought scurvy. Cheers John S.

[cappy]

had a mate on the act boats running down to oz ......very reduced crews .....long run down .....long run back .....never saw much chit chat aboard....had sailed since the 60s in other type of ships said you felt like jumping over the wall ....much wacky smoked all the time ......call that sailing .....not for cappy....sailed with arab firemen wacky seamed essential to most of them.....didnt need it ...didnt want it ....sailed with men brewing there own at sea ...awful way to be didnt need it ....but there was men who had suffered during the war and some with awful bad nerves one poor soul in heavy weather or fog always put his lifejacket on hands shaking he was a fireman....the characters i think were starting to dissapear.....like fred hall .....an old ab .....fancy f hallfor initial and name.....must have been close to 70 ...could stand on his head in a bar and drink 3 pints straight off ......not a tooth in his head.....a trawlerman as well as going deep sea......no wacky or drugs .....just proper old time seamen ......firemen in long johns and a sweatrag,,,,,,,no hard hats or orange boiler suits........the mate had a white boiler suit and the ginger beers the same......i kept monkeys at sea and pigeons in the old potato locker.......one engineer had a snake it would eat an egg whole......another a collection of cactus he had collected from all over the world......today he wouldnt be allowed to bring it back in the country no doubt......ships cats at least for coming and going ......and the time a young ab lost his son being run over ....we of the coast of south america.......no flying home in them days ....just putting up with it .....no phone calls home or skypes ....nobody had a phone at home to ring to........but i wuldnt have changed those years .....they were the making of me ....regards cappy

[cappy]

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

[j.sabourn]

#64... They were gone Rob. The last UK crew I sailed with Deep Sea was in 1976, and the atmosphere was never like it used to be. This was just as much to blame if not more so on the new breed of Masters mates and engineers, however I went back deep sea in 1986 for a year during a slump in the North Sea, foreign crews, untrained to the standards of yesteryear, apart from the few people on board had to open the hatches self and second mate, drive cranes and steer ship if necessary. If that is progress and advancement in the maritime industry, I'll eat my hat. It was and always will be a disgrace how the British Merchant Service was allowed to decline the way it was, there will always be a call for shipping in any maritime nation, Britain must be the most unprepared nation in the world for being unable to break any blockade of its shores which may occur in the future. Cheers John S

[Lucy Knight]

I had an awful lot of confidential info loaded on me both in Shell and CP Ships re marriages etc by officers. Nothing to do with radio rm related confindentiality, I think they knew I could keep my mouth shut. On a few occasions I knew nothing about the men's problems and was asked by the Capt to go and sit with them while they were waiting to be collected from the ship and this wasn't just junior ones, it was usually the senior ones. I've seen them crying their eyes out and pouring out everything.

After completing my junior/trainee time and my first trip solo I was sent out to a ship that had had no R/O on four four months so no handover. The last three she had been in dry dock having the aft accommodation rebuilt after having been towed down fm Hamburg, because of a fire which started in the crew accommodation (that is what is on the Llyods records. I recently obtained the few lines written from them.) Two of the crew had been killed, one the chief cook who had been too obese to crawl out of the porthole and he was calling out the name of one of the officers for help who was totally helpless and the other an engine room crew who had been in the RN and it was his first trip on a merchant ship and didn't like it and wasn't intending returning. Several of the officers who had been on at the time were sent back to the ship and you would be amased at who was loading on me. behing closed doors. I was 20 when I went to sea and 21 when I was on the S S Alinda. The ship hadn't a chance alongside in Hamburg where it broke out the shore side firemen apparently said. The water was frozen in the mains as it was sub zero temps for a start.

So you could say that was good initiation for listening to other's problems and keeping quiet. Unfortunately, despite the fact I wasn't loading back on them , some of them really S**t on me later. One used to phone me up about his marriage probs a couple of years later when I was on sick and couldn't get them to let me back after a trip on the E WE Beatty where I was subjected to daily shouting and appauling behaviour. As if I hadn't got enough, but I always listened. He ended up really doing the dirty on me in the office. I didn't find out till after I had resigned. I think if you know too much about people even though you had no intentions of breaking confidences, you are seen as a threat to them in case you did in the future. Therefore to cover their own backs they will happily see your demise.

Ref. Robs post, of course would never be allowed to happen. Think the Canadian 3rd, mate from Vancouver finished up marrying her. JS

[j.sabourn]

Lucy, I was trying to point out that everything was not all it seemed at times. Whoever landed you with the job as an agony aunt should have had his head looking at. A 21 year old girl should not be subjected to that. I was in my 50"s but everytime someone confided in me made me uncomfortable, it might have done them some good to get it off their chests, but I personally had my own problems the same as everyone else, and rather they sorted out their own problems. Have had to write letters to courts of law for some who could not make an appearance at court and to give them a reference so as some backing to whatever charge they had to face, I can say however I was always as honest as I was able. You obviously had a number of bad experiences and still have bad memories of the same. Maybe this site will have alleviated some of them by being able to get off your chest. I hope it will almost make aware to any young females wishing for a sea career that there are also dangers the same as most places today. Best Regards John S