hello there

[Keith Tindell]

I like this post from James, its driven us back in time, and to me gives a warm glow of times we will never see again, laying in your bunk aft, ship pitching like crazy, the prop roaring as it left the water, and the steering quadrant tearing back and forwards, hoping to get some sleep before the midnight shift, great times even so, kt

[Gulliver]

Not to forget Jimbo, You couldn't ring an Ambulance or The fire brigade or Police Service, We all had to deal with whatever came our way, The longest stint i done actually at sea was 38 days Karachi to Glasgow, Suez canal closed and engine trouble, Terry.

Terry and James,I did 62 days nonstop in a 160,000 tonne dwt bulk/ore carrier with coal from Hay Point,Queensland to Ensted power station ,Denmark.Charterers speed was 10 knots.We rolled stiffly for 28 of those days ,(yes big ships can roll heavily),across the Southern Ocean to the Cape of Good Hope,where we were scheduled a helicopter mail drop.Due to poor weather that was aborted and we continued north to Europe.We didn't even see any land on the radar as we passed 60 miles south of the Cape.First land we sighted was off Ushant at the approaches to the Channel.Then an exhausting often nerve wracking finale ,with a 65 foot draught through the Channel.(Eyes glued to the radar.We had satnav and Decca navigator,but no electronic collision avoidance systems at that time.) and round the Skagerrak to Denmark.Then a payoff 3 days before Christmas.Whoopee! Sometimes we earned our money!Radar.gif

[j.sabourn]

#26 Ted you were lucky I did one time 90 plus days B.A. to japan. Other times if you went to Cuba for sugar and never got alongside in Cuba but loaded at the surf ports, and couldn't sneak ashore under a sugar sack it was sometimes nearly 3 months at sea. In the 50's thats where I learned how to make a lee for a lighter and saw ample use of what we called the Insurance wire. which in fact was the towing wire also. Used to drag the eye down aft from under the focsle head pass it outside the rails and back up ford. Shackle it on to the anchor chain. No easy job as you know the size and weight of the Wire. Whenever wanted a lee for the sugar lighter just walked out the anchor cable thus tightening up the wire and pulling the stern across the wind and tide. Have never looked up a seamanship book on how to do, as no doubt it must be in somewhere. But can guarantee it works as described as found out at 16 and have used ever since. It was obvious that when hitting the shores of japan that the past 3 months at sea was going to occupy the minds of everyone and they were going to try and cram 3 months living into 3 days or whatever short time one got there. These were things you learned as a boy. When reaching the dizzy heights of mate always used to try and cut back on the disasters of such, and half the crowd off, when they came back broke and started the worry about the health risks involved, let the other half loose on the rampage. You had to have crew on board for all the running gear and cargo work. Couldn't work to those parameters today as don't have the seamen on board anymore. Must be one goddam awful life today unless you are a choir boy. Cheers JS

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Hi James.
Back in the 50s I and two mates all AB's got a job in a fur factory washing sheepskins, which was sold as beaver lamb for coats. the reason! one of the two brothers I was with was getting married, after a month I had had enough, no sign of a wedding so I went down the pool, the place you went to
too pick up a ship and got a tanker out, in those days as long as you had your discharge book you were ok to ship out. Some ports there were possibilities that you could get a ship to where you wanted to go,Example Southampton, if you wanted to get to Cape Town Or Durban, or maybe you would have to wait for a ship to come up.
As for the longest trip at sea, I was on a BTC tanker for 11months with eleven days in port, went all over the world from the Persian Gulf a few times to NZ to Australia, the States, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Mauritius. On tankers ithe oil was sold many times over so a change of orders at sea was always on the cards.
Cheers Des

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[j.sabourn]

James.. Have been to San Pedro at least once that I remember as walked out of a Restaurant with one of the waitresses, she just took her apron off resigned on the spot and came out the door with me, I finished up in Los Angeles for the night. San Pedro was just a big industrial port for Los Angeles what I remember of it, this would have been about 1969/70. The waitress must have had an ongoing feud with her boss, I certainly wasn't the cause of it. Just another port. JS PS If the manager was her husband she never told me. JS

[Ivan Cloherty]

I'll lay my cards on the table from the outset. I am currently writing a novel, loosely based on some of my family members who were at sea in the 50's and 60's. Those gents are now passed on, and the old pubs and clubs where I could get information are also gone.
The sort of stuff, I am looking for is info about ships agents, how one would get a berth, the tonnage and cargo of ships, the favoured routes, the less 'good' ones. Pay and conditions on board.
I am interested in all parts, The Pacific - San Pedro near LA, Kowloon, Yokohama, Australia.
I am being a bit vague just now, I have got a load of questions though.
I know that my uncles and grandfather wrote to each other, one would copy a letter and send then on.
If you think I am being too nosey and forward you can tell me to bolt. I am looking at various other websites and getting rather dry info. I would like to know about storms, and did your face really go out of shape if you slept on deck during the full moon.
Best wishes one and all.

Well James by now you will have a flavour of the site and we hope it is providing some grist for your intended novel.

to summarise answers to your #1 is not easy as all the questions you asked are interlinked, getting a job on board could be achieved in a number of ways, but usually thro the Shipping Federation or direct to the Ship Owner. How to choose a route if you were a company man you chose that company because of its ships and routes, if you were a Federation man, you normally took pot luck, but in the early days you could turn down two ships if you didn't like theship/company but had to take the third, which may have been the worst choice, turn that down you'd lose your Federation pay and perhaps be at the bottom of the list for early employment - always!

Then there were the run jobs, delivering one ship from one port to another, for example a ship in Liverpool completes discharge, all the crew except Master, a few officers and engineers had paid off on arrival, so a run crew was required to take her to drydock in Hamburg, with the crew being repatriated by the ship owner, the repatriation arranged by the local agent appointed by the ship owner, the agent would also advise the Master that a certain ship or ships in port were short of the legal requirement of hands and would any crew member like a job, so you could start in Liverpool with the intention of returning to Liverpool but found yourself heading for South America at your choice. Another example you sail from London to New York and become ill in NY and have to be paid off because you are too ill to sail, you then become a DBS (Distressed British Seaman) under the care of the agent, who when you are well will repatriate you on the first British ship heading for the UK, you get no pay as a DBS, so this may not suit you if you have a family to keep etc, so you may opt to join another British ship which is short of a crew member but heading for Australia, so you see the possibilities are many for ending up in various places, some of your own making, some not.

In the era you are talking about there were still around 3000+ British vessels plying the oceans, so opportunities arose that would not arise today where-in we have only about 500 commercial vessels flying the Red Ensign.

Pay on most ships was the same regardless of company, as most companies paid the lowest NMB (National Maritime Board) rates agreed twixt owner and union and enacted by the Federation, Officers made their own agreements, but in most cases the owners only paid the lowest NMB rates. As for conditions on board, especially in tramp companies, you could sail on one ship which was lousy in all aspects of food, accommodation, Master, Cook and Ch Steward, and join another ship in the same company and you were in a different world and a pleasure to sail on, important if on a long trip, my longest being 22 months.

I hope the above goes someway in explaining how things evolve and interact, especially for tramping men. Had my fill of regular runs (liner trade) when serving my time, as some were a glorified bus service, same routes all the time, if you wanted to see the world, you joined tramp ships, and there were some good ones, my 22 monther was on a good one in all aspects, once you've passed Suez heading for Hong Kong to discharge and then told going to Oz to load grain for UK and instead of UK end up in Chingwantao in China and then back to OZ you know you can kiss the UK goodbye for a long time. But would do it all again under the same conditions, same era

[Captain Kong]

The VLCCs did very long trips at sea, around the Cape to the Gulf.
in the late 70s we were on slow steaming. max 8 knots when underway the rest of the time was just drifting.
None stop it would take two months to the Gulf where we anchored 40 miles off shore, to await a berth at Sea Island to load, Sea Island is only a steel platform sticking up out of the sea. many miles offshore. 24 hours to load
then another two months back around the Cape, if we were lucky.
BUT many was the time we after leaving the Gulf when south of the Comoro's we picked up the Aghulhas Current, so stop engines. and drift south for Weeks towards the Cape, Many other tankers were also drifting within sight.
Then steam around the Cape to pick up the Benguella Current and stop engines again and drift for a few Weeks all the way up to the Equator, before we got orders of where to go. The cargo was on the New York Stock exchange, buyers hanging about waiting for the price of oil to go up. If oil increases by two dollars a barrel the buyer/seller would make a Six Million Dollar profit and then we would get a destination, If it was New Orleans we would have to drop anchor 100 miles offshore due to the very deep draft, to unload into other small tankers who took the cargo ashore, then up anchor and slow steam back to the Gulf never ever set eyes on any land.
So the longest I did without seeing land was SEVEN Months and on a Dry Ship. That was a common voyage in those days.
.Enjoyed it tho`.
Cheers
Brian.

[j.sabourn]

#37.... Brian in the 50"s and probably the 60"s used to hear a lot about this East of Suez bonus. What was this for and why was it stopped. Certainly wasn't there on my 12 months on two different tankers which were both east of Suez joining and leaving. Cheers JS

[Captain Kong]

I have heard about it, but never ever came across it and never knew anyone who got it.
I think it is just a myth, Ship owners never give Bonus`s, why ? they already have a captive crew.
Cheers
Brian

[James blake]

A lot of the posts are highlighting the long hours and hard work, I myself have never looked at life at sea with rose tinted specs, but I can get why my uncles were drawn to it. They all had the reputation of being really restless on shore. They did not seem to be able to content themselves. They seemed there happiest as they were coming off or just before they were going on.

Thanks guys, great stuff - and all the jargon, words that are second nature to you, but are quite strange to an outsider.

Please keep them coming....

Jim.