Women crew members and wives at sea.

[j.sabourn]

He was a makum and takum Marian , so any Scot’s blood he had he called Scotch and his first name was Freddy . Cheers JS

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Could have been Welsh Lamb Marion.
Was on my second trip, homeward bound from Bowen in Queensland with a load of Wheat. Up the Barrier Reef and around the top end, across the Indian Ocean, Three days out from Capetown ran out of food and only enough water to drink, showered in sea water. Then the cook cleaning out the duck boards in the freezer came across two Rabbits squashed under them, he made a big pot of stew, made me and a few others sick as dogs, never ate rabbit after.
Des

[Jo Stanley]

Hi John Arton. Might that girl be Elizabeth Linklater, author of 'A child Under Sail'? She made a number of voyages from 1872 when 17, and even earlier, at 4. (Jonathan Cape, 1938 and 1977?)

[Jo Stanley]

Dear Chris Hare,
it was very common for wives and daughters to be described in crew agreement as 'stewardesses'. It seems that men didn't know another way to describe a woman on ship in those early days.
It seems that these womenfolk dd not usually have discharge books, like real stewardesses. So it's unusual that your gran was registered. I'd love to know more.
Jo.

[Jo Stanley]

There don't seem to be many women posting here. Are any wives still around? It would be great to have a chat about what it was like having a seafaring husband or to hear stories of your own time at sea.

Dear Glennys, that's a good idea. There are many women ex-seafarers around but doing non-maritime things now, mainly. Some hairdressers network as 'I was as Steiner' on Facebook.
As for wives, The Watch Ashore is a very good network for wives, who meet every month via zoom too. Sometimes husbands chip in too. The wives do not say hostile things about men (as men do on this forum ).

[Glennys Faulds]

Thanks Jo. I've just read your very interesting article which brought back a lovely memory of a young woman I met. She was on her first trip with her husband and was desperate for something to do. She'd never sewn anything and didn't have a sewing machine but at the first port they put in to she bought some fabric and a pattern and hand-stitched a dress, which took her all the way from the UK to NZ. I was very impressed by the beautiful garment she'd produced. We became good friends and when I moved to Scotland with my Glaswegian husband I saw a lot of her as my husband was also friendly with her husband and they didn't live very far away from us.

Unfortunately, once we moved back to NZ and I became busy raising 5 children I gradually lost touch with her. Now you've jogged my memory and I wonder where she is now and if she is, like me, a grandmother of grown-up grandkids.

[Ken Atkinson]

Dear Chris Hare,
it was very common for wives and daughters to be described in crew agreement as 'stewardesses'. It seems that men didn't know another way to describe a woman on ship in those early days.
It seems that these womenfolk dd not usually have discharge books, like real stewardesses. So it's unusual that your gran was registered. I'd love to know more.
Jo.

Paper discharge from Norwegian ships and Supernumerary as my wife on British ships.

Talking about my now deceased wife and my own experience I can add anecdotes to both categories. We met, as many did, in South Shields while I was an engineer cadet. To remove this distraction and breaking my indentures by marriage she joined the ST Leda as a stewardess, which was the ferry to Cuxhaven, Bergen and back to the Tyne leaving me behind in a reversal of roles and getting sea-time in first. Before my sea-phase I took her to Liverpool to join the ST Astrid-Elizabeth, a product tanker which I visited in Glasgow. After this we lost touch until my indentures were complete, I was 21 and we married.
We stood by MT Thirlby in dry-dock at Sunderland overnight, catching the bus home to Felling in the morning. This was followed by MV Norse Viking after I had been there a month, we stayed a further eight and a half months. Having gained enough sea-time with “company contract” short trips, I left Ropners for college and joined Reardon Smith for trips half that length.
On one ship we had a junior radio officer who was married to the 2nd Mate. It seemed reasonable to her that the 3rd Mate should move to her cabin so they could have a day-room with bed-room next door only the Master disagreed. When she introduced herself to shore-side as 2nd RO we corrected it to junior RO and very junior at that. While 3/E on watches on the Port Alberni City I found living with my wife difficult due to my sleeping pattern at sea although breaking watches in America, India and Japan was much more civilised. In Visakhapatnam the hotel manager made friends and his servant was sent to tell his wife to make a curry, which was a lot hotter than our Indian cook normally prepared. Without my presence on a return visit to our cabin the wives made friends, including the hotel’s exotic dancer from Eastern Europe. Donations of western makeup were reciprocated by guidance on purchase of two saris and accoutrements at local prices and how to wear correctly etc., a cultural experience to remember. Shopping in Tokyo and the bullet train to Kyoto, the old capital for the historical experience completed by the geographical experience of flying home over the Arctic. In 1975 The Inland Revenue under a Labour Government increased attacks on payment in kind for officer’s wives by increased tax £2.50 for food/day, subsidised air fares, BUPA which all helped to drive people ashore. With three officers on each watch plus wives joining for short periods depending on ports, such as annual holidays with children, the social life was busy and there was always someone to talk with. On one occasion in the bar there was comparison of sea-time so she added I have more than both of you together.
As 2/E with Jebsens we joined Brimnes in Holland for Tunisia where the two wives descended a ladder lashed to the rail with us guiding their feet so we could visit the souk and buy Arabic clothing to complement the Indian. I was later co-opted head of the safety committee. Next was Boston and a 4.5-pound lobster each, pity the locals could not keep the lights on as we were the only illumination while the city blacked out. As I was working, she was taken to Mystic Seaport by the 3/O and R/O. On to New Zealand where the kiwis adopted us taking us to the hot springs of Rotarua and feeding us with a “hangi”, a Maori style of barbecue. Although the locals are friendly and no longer eat their guests a lot of the socialising was due to the presence of wives on board. My wife was on board Ringnes while we visited Klaipeda in Lithuania and befriended a female stevedore and in appreciation of donating western makeup was given some local amber jewellery another cultural exchange. Although the Jebsen ships were better automated so we no longer carried junior engineers instead of Indian crew we had British and some were stewardesses, made redundant from passenger ships.
One mature stewardess who was working to support a grandchild was adopted as mother by many in their early twenties even operating the twin wheel floor scrubber for her. Another two were so close, to the despair of the catering officer worked in tandem to suit themselves. One master joined the ship, followed at the next port by his personal stewardess as had happened on previous ships, which appeared known to everyone except his wife, the ladies golf club captain. In the Caribbean my wife went ashore with this stewardess and a steward to an hotel where a film crew were staying. The two women admired a member of the cast while the steward told them to forget it, he’s mine and so it transpired.
We joined the Sealnes in Antwerp with several other wives and a child to load for Bankok. One stormy day we were holding on with one arm and a beer in hand while this small child walked across the moving deck. I believe the rule was no child under four unless mother was a nurse. Language was curtailed and social activities promoted. On arrival in Thailand quite a few young women roamed the ship with several becoming “Thai Wives” much to the disapproval of the legal wives who had to share the bar seating with them. My wife thought I should complain as a senior officer and could not see my view of tolerance as the arrangement was only temporary and solace to the bachelors. I think she realised then that I was no longer responsible to her alone as the cadet she loved but to the ship as well. The only local that pleased everyone was Sophie who set up the “Poop Deck Café” making “Huggy Bear” the ship’s cook redundant. Time was found to accompany the wives around the tourist sites looking at Buddahs and riding elephants as without their presence the Mariners Club might have been the first and last stop. Arriving in Philadelphia I received news that my mother was ill so my wife, escorted to her plane by a federal marshal, returned home with me following. After my mother died and within the year my first wife and I were apart after ten years and within five she was dead and class 1 motor obtained not that the events were linked. The following year while sailing as chief in the Bergen fleet a female RO was happy to sit on my bed to talk just not in it. Unlike seafarers today the carriage of wives and female crew helped normalise an abnormal working life. My grandma accompanied my grandfather to sea in the 1930s so it is not strange, yet seems rare now. With the reduced numbers now, it should be encouraged as the extra food cost would be minimal. I never heard of any problems that the RN seem to encounter. When asked if I missed going to sea, I explain it was one big family of cousins as a few from the first ship would be on the next and again. Two years after I was ashore as a surveyor, I visited one ship and was greeted as though I had joined.

[j.sabourn]

Is that big store still in Cramlington Ken think it was called Woolco ? Also those grey looking block of flats or apartments which were all the rage at the time . They used to remind me of the buildings in Murmansk. Hope they were better inside. JS…..

[Tony Taylor]

Is that big store still in Cramlington Ken think it was called Woolco ? Also those grey looking block of flats or apartments which were all the rage at the time . They used to remind me of the buildings in Murmansk. Hope they were better inside. JS…..

Killingworth John

[j.sabourn]

How could I make a mistake like that ? Of course it was Tony thanks . And it was only 1964 when last there. A mere 60 years ago. There was a mixed feeling about those flats , are they still standing ?. I lived in West Monkseaton at the time so was a short trip in the car. Just up the road from the Beacon pub , when moved down to Tiddly Bay was a pub at the top of the street the Kittiwake and a one at the bottom of the street the Briardene. Am sure they were following me. JS