Women crew members and wives at sea.

[Tony Taylor]

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

Easy one to make John, I have not been for many years myself, it was never on my list of places to visit.
I was speaking with someone recently who told me it had improved a lot though.
I had it listed as one those places that were designed by people who would not choose to live there themselves but had their eye on some sort of design award.

[j.sabourn]

Think the only reason we went there was the store there and at the time our daughter wanted to see the puffing Billy the train at Backworth so used to go through that way , and when the son was born the son wanted to see puffing Billy as his grandad used to take him there when I was away. When grandparents jump in and take control of your children is hard to wean them away from the habits passed on to them. So must have been 1966 last time there. Cheers JS

[Jo Stanley]

Ratings' wives at sea, a new move in the 1960s?
Apparently Container Fleets Ltd, a UK company, announced that wives of ‘unlicensed seafarers’ could accompany their husbands to sea, although for only 2 months per year. Other companies were watching with interest to see if this improvement would lead to better retention of ratings.
The company agreed this deal with the NUS as a way to tackle massive labour turnover. (40% of deck and engineroom ratings were leaving in less than three years.)
You could only take your wife if you were over 22 and had been with the company for two years. She had to be 21-plus, and prepared to clean their cabin and any bathrooms she used.
I found this info in the May 1969 issue of The Lookout, the Seamen’ Church of New York magazine,
pp8, 15,
https://seamenschurch-archives.org/s...b0a393a26d.pdf
Does anyone remember this seachange? What happened?

[David Allan]

I foolishly took my wife on a honeymoon trip I joined in Hull and had just dropped our bags in the mess room when the 4E came out the engine room and aske "hiya who is this one" that set the tone for the rest of the trip & indeed the marriage the saying "what happens on board stays onboard"