Writing a novel featuring 1930 Burnyisland Economy Steamer

A factual book I’m not writing. There is no substitute for the real thing either. The best to be done is to immerse myself in what is available. From that I hope to have a rough draft by the end of March. So, it is a fiction book in short time to give the reader a sense of the merchant marine and the sea. My plot is greater than the ship and men. But, without the ship being a character, as well as the men who shipped with her, my project will fail.
However, my curiosity goes far deeper than my target reader. The above terms you guys posted above has sent me to the books and google. The post on storing cargo feed my imagination. For every four hours I spend in the wheelchair, I spend the next four in bed. This gives me a lot of time to pour over books and imaginate the results.

Watch “Tiger Bay” as I type. Mills as a child! Good movie so far.

In 1935, were the duties for a third mate of the deck crew the same as today?

In 1935, what would be on the bridge? Engine telegraph, compass and helm; what else?

The response to this thread gives me heart. thanks

In 1935 would be similar to 1955. A steering Wheel . An engine telegraph. A magnetic compass in a binnacle. Voice pipes to the engine room and masters cabin . If electric lighting fitted , the switchboard for the navigation lights , a standard marine barometer, and an aneroid barometer . On the wing of the bridge possibly a Stevenson screen containing a wet and dry bulb thermometer , wheelhouse again a pair of night glasses and a telescope. A pilots chair, possibly if invented by then Kent clear view screens on two of the wheelhouse windows if a covered in wheelhouse. Even up to and after 1955 there were still ships with open wheel houses. There would be a chart room covered in room either abaft or under the wheelhouse. Your covered in area would hold all your distress flares and your line thrown apparatus.your daylight signalling lamp all your code flags in a flag locker. Your course board to remind the helmsman of his course to steer , usually the variation and deviation was also put on this board to remind the watchkeeper to take compass errors at least once a watch if possible. Today you would have gyro compasses and radar as aids to navigation but the same principles have always applied in theory, only the manpower had changed. Plus of course automatic steering as is rare today to see a man on the wheel. The third mate at sea kept the forenoon watch and the evening watch 8/12 if on a 3 watch system ,, if no 3 mate carried it was supposed to be the masters watch unless in busy traffic lanes , when the other 2 mates did 6 on and 6 off. Today a lot of ships only carry a master and mate so each do 6 on and 6 off. In busy lanes for the master is 6 on and stop on. JS
PS if an open wheelhouse the helmsman compass was it. If covered in there was another magnetic compass and binnacle on the deck above and this was where the compass errors were taken , there was also a voice pipe from here to the one below for comparison.It was usual at some time to have a periscope fitted from the upper compass for the helmsman to steer by , and the wheelhouse compass was done away with. Hope this makes sense to you . Cheers JS

Still have a habit of using some sea names, often get odd looks.
Wingers
Rosie,
steam Queens
Deckhead
heads
plate steward
peak steward
pig
skipper
strap up
BR
KP
second cook and brick layer
master at arms, Cunard still use the term and are the only ones to do so, others say security now.
but ashore there are in some industries no doubt their own language as well.

Thought you had spelt deckhead wrong , then realised you probably had , but had 2 choices of getting it right and chose the one being the polite man you are. What happened to doc ( cook) and belly robber ( ch,stwd.) sparky ( battery boy) and lecky the man with the golden fuse.Harry Tate the mate, cheers can see more coming . JS

Frank, good luck in your endeavours, but if you are taking information from Google or Wikepedia before committing to print, check with the boys on this site, as we have found many glaring mistakes in those media outlets, especially the latter. We will not try to take away the pleasure of your learning curve but will try to steer you on the direct course. Our humour may be a little suspect at times, but it was humour that kept us going in dangerous times, of which there were many. I am not talking about mis-adventures where-in penicillin was the cure!!, which I believe was not available in 1935, so it was the dreaded umbrella :faint:

Apart from the boasters who insisted on a parasol. JS

Quote:

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Originally Posted by j.sabourn

Apart from the boasters who insisted on a parasol. JS

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or some of us john who needed the big top ....lol. thats my story and im sticking to it...R683532

#21: Would imagine an US Merchant Marine slant rather British MN ?

Interested to find out how all goes.

Regards, Keith.

Keith little phrases like storage of cargo would show to any seafarer he wasn’t one, cargo is always referred to as stowage. cargo is the only reason for a cargo ship... to transport goods from A to B , those cargoes all differ and have to be stowed in ways to protect them and the ship. Whether American or British or any other nationality the care carriage handling and stowage of cargo is the same. There are many complicated cargoes and the more experience practical that is , the better. Cheers JS...The Americans do however have the tendency to call right and left , as is, and not port and starboard. JS

Thanks for the heads up about google. I’ll stick to this sight and merchant marine handbook.

I choose this sight because the ship was built at Burntisland. My thought was that the captain and deck officers would be British. The third mate is American, odd man out. The story is told around him. The idea of a story has become a concept. Then concept proved valid. I have a plot for the voyage there and back. What I do not have is a theme or the rest of the characters. Time to start the beginning from all these notes.