Women crew members and wives at sea.

[Gus]

I totally agree.

[Glennys Faulds]

Gosh, it's been a long time since I posted here, and I'm just catching up on all the hundreds of posts I haven't read.

I had an interesting trip away with my husband. It didn't start well as the Captain had wanted to take his wife, but lifeboat restrictions meant there wasn't enough room for more than one supernumary and my husband had got in first. The Captain was actually a real pig. He'd come off a colliery and I think he thought he was still on one because he'd turn up for meals in a filthy singlet, shovel the food into his mouth and leave without saying a word. Luckily, all the other guys on the ship were really lovely to me and did their best to make sure I had a wonderful time.

I think the trip was a bit cursed though. One of the ABs tried to kill the cook with a cargo hook. He was obviously disturbed and had to be taken off and replaced. Next disaster, we were leaving Ijmuidhen suddenly there was this horrible graunching sound and all of the alarms went off. The tug that was taking us out must have been going at top speed and had hauled us right onto a sandbank. My husband went down to investigate and found that the steering gear was buggered. He told the Captain we wouldn't be able to sail and the response was "I am ordering you to start the engines and sail". My husband told him in no uncertain terms that he could try and sail if he wanted but it would be without him, me and all of the engine room crew. Luckily, the Captain finally saw sens
e and we ended up being towed down to dry dock in Amsterdam where we had to have major repairs carried out. On the bright side, all of the married guys brought their wives over and we had a real blast.

[j.sabourn]

How did he manage to fasten his epaulettes to the singlet Glennys ? Sounds like the Port Health shouldn’t have passed the ship. Cheers welcome back. JS. PS try and not get names mixed up when they appear to come from different mouths of different titles when you were last here. JS

[happy daze john in oz]

Trying to kill the cook was something that many wanted to do.
Food at sea was not always what we wanted, rather what the company thought we should have.

[j.sabourn]

I sailed with a Captain Lamb, he would never have Lamb on the menu , always insisted it was typed in as mutton. He was at least honest as that was what it usually was. Also another Captain Hogg he couldnt care less what they called the meat. JS

[j.sabourn]

Then there was Cappy who put cockroaches in the pickle jar and called them fresh meat. JS.

[happy daze john in oz]

Fresh Cockroaches coated in chocolate are considered a delicacy in some countries.
But then again our first nation eat buggs of all sorts so why not.

[Glennys Faulds]

We certainly saw some strange street food while we were in China. I wasn't tempted by skewered rats or giant insects at all.

One of the other disasters that befell the above mentioned trip was that for one reason and another (unavoidable delays etc) we ran out of food, other than sausages and broad beans. Our cook was actually great, but there was a limit even to his ingenuity when it came to thinking up creative ways to use those two foods.

By this stage we were anchored off Palermo for a few days and when we finally got ashore we all went mad on the fresh fruit, with predictable results. We should have stuck to the broad beans.
.

[Jo Stanley]

Gosh, it's been a long time since I posted here, and I'm just catching up on all the hundreds of posts I haven't read.

I had an interesting trip away with my husband. It didn't start well as the Captain had wanted to take his wife, but lifeboat restrictions meant there wasn't enough room for more than one supernumary and my husband had got in first. The Captain was actually a real pig. He'd come off a colliery and I think he thought he was still on one because he'd turn up for meals in a filthy singlet, shovel the food into his mouth and leave without saying a word. Luckily, all the other guys on the ship were really lovely to me and did their best to make sure I had a wonderful time.

I think the trip was a bit cursed though. One of the ABs tried to kill the cook with a cargo hook. He was obviously disturbed and had to be taken off and replaced. Next disaster, we were leaving Ijmuidhen suddenly there was this horrible graunching sound and all of the alarms went off. The tug that was taking us out must have been going at top speed and had hauled us right onto a sandbank. My husband went down to investigate and found that the steering gear was buggered. He told the Captain we wouldn't be able to sail and the response was "I am ordering you to start the engines and sail". My husband told him in no uncertain terms that he could try and sail if he wanted but it would be without him, me and all of the engine room crew. Luckily, the Captain finally saw sens
e and we ended up being towed down to dry dock in Amsterdam where we had to have major repairs carried out. On the bright side, all of the married guys brought their wives over and we had a real blast.

Fascinating, Glennys. Thank you for posting. I wonder how much you dis/agree with this linked article about wives' times at sea. I wrote it for Nautilus Telegraph in 2014. Here's the link. https://www.academia.edu/10082043/Wi...th_sewing_kits. There is no pay wall. It's easy and free to access.
I'd love to hear others' views.
I'm a maritime historian but happen to have been married to a seafarer. We met after he'd left the sea so I've only heard other wives' stories. I've not sailed as a wife, so feel free to fill me in!

[Marian Gray]

I sailed with a Captain Lamb, he would never have Lamb on the menu , always insisted it was typed in as mutton. He was at least honest as that was what it usually was. Also another Captain Hogg he couldnt care less what they called the meat. JS

Would that have been Scots born John Lamb known as Jimmy per chance?