WW2 Atlantic crossing times?

[Geraldine Buxton]

Hello, could anyone inform me of how long on average it took to sail to New York on a Merchant ship during WW2?
What was the average wage for a Fireman and also a Greaser?
What were conditions like onboard, time off, food, how long were the shifts, how many to a cabin?
My Dad sailed on the Empire Pickwick, Empire Milner, Empress of Russia and the Dorelien between 1942 and 1946 and I've been trying to put a picture together in my head.
He was also severely cautioned and spent two weeks in jail for missing a ship from Southend Pier. Where would the jail has been?
Sorry there are so many questions, I only wish that he was still alive to ask, I really miss him.
Many thanks, Geraldine

[Captain Kong]

Hi Geraldine.
here are photos of the Empress of Russia, she was owned by Canadian Pacific Steamships. If it was during WW2 she would have been a Troopship, one time passenger liner on the Vancouver to Japan run pre war.
On those ships as AB and firemen usually had six men to a cabin. Sometimes more.
Usually they did Four hours on and eight hours off, but sometimes it was four hours on and four hours off.
The Food would be better than on tramp ships.
.
The Empire Pickwick was a wartime built cargo ship, and possibly the same as the Empire Milner, They were tramp ships. They had when I sailed on them 3 to four men in a cabin in the after part of the ship separate from midships, by two cargo holds.
Firemen and ABs together and amidships would be the Officers Engineers and Stewards. Food not all that good, It depended on the Cook and Chief Steward. but usually on the bare minimum to save money for the Steward..
I believe that the wage which would include the War Bonus would be £28 a Month. The war Bonus I think was £10 a month. After the war the ship owners tried to stop the war bonus and go back to pre war wages of £18 a month, so there was a big Seamens Strike in 1947 to keep the wage as it was.
I could not find photos of the Empire Milner but she would be the same as the Pickwick, or the Darelien,
Convoy steaming time across the Atlantic would vary with the speed of the slowest ship. At just over Eight knots that would take around 17 days.
Hope that helps.
Cheers
Brian
PS Maybe if you had more information, D.o.B, Home Town, Discharge book number, etc, some one here will help further.
Keep looking in.

[Frederick Lacey]

For info.

List of Empire ships (M) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Hi Geraldine.
Like your Dad my brother missed his ship in Swansea through no fault of his own, the bus past our village went early, but maybe your father was as lucky as my brother, the ship he was to have sailed on was sunk and his mate from the same village along with the rest of the crew didn't survive.
Cheers Des

[j.sabourn]

At a very rough guess from a very up and down memory the distance from Liverpool to New York via Great Circle was about 3000 miles add another 200 on for deviations such as zig zag which is approx. 3,200 and divide by 8 which in many cases was the convoy speed of some of the slower convoys is about 17 days. However know my distances are way out and have no way of checking. The convoys went at the speed of the slowest ship normally. However the likes of the fast passenger and troopships going at 20 knots didn't usually hang around as could outrun any U-Boat. Watches which you call shifts if working on the 3 watch system was 4 on and 8 off. Never been in Gaol in Southend, however could describe the one in Buenos Aires very well. Regards JS

[Lou Barron]

Also crossing the Atlantic can also depend on the weather i sailed on the Empire Austen in early 1946 and we struck some very rough weather and it took 22 days at one stage we was barely making headway that was from Liverpool to Newport

[eric fisher]

During the war years I sailed on a MAC ship crossing the Atlantic L'Pool- Halifax three round trips. Then on a Danish ship seven round trips. Each crossing was never less than 14 days.

Those do not include other convoy Atlantic sailings either en route to N. Africa in convoy and another to mid Atlantic then independent to S. Africa and returning via Suez, Gib and home again mostly in convoy.

There were others later. None were fast, convoy codes usually HX, ONS series. God awful weather in winter.

Cheers, Eric

[judith george]

Geraldine just had a look at my uncles crew list for Lord Byron he to was a fireman and was on 11 pounds 2 and 6 a month plus the 10 pound in 1941

[Geraldine Buxton]

Many thanks Captain Kong. I am so sorry that I have taken so long to reply, but I somehow expected to be emailed, I'm not sure why, and I am a massive technophobe. The information you supplied me with was very informative. I do wish I had asked my Dad some questions. I often wonder why he was a fireman. Are sailors assigned the roles, or do they choose them? He was a fairly intelligent man so I can't think why he would have chosen one of the hardest jobs on a ship.

[Arthur John Harvey]

R235941 Arthur Harvey. My first ship was in 1941 and as a boy rating my pay was £3.50 a month of which half was war risk payment, meaning my life was worth sixpence a day in that period: when in 1942 I moved over to deck side my pay increased to £7.00 a month and on reaching my AB time when I received the going rate for AB. Reference my working hours for the fist two years it was four no /off but this changed to four on and eight off except for two days of the week when it was a field day working being a twelve hour day also on Sunday the company claimed two hours in the morning cleaning ship (troopship) also you could be called out anytime if under attacked. The end of the war did see a wage of £24.00 a month which the shipping companies tried to stop the war risk pay of £10 a month but remember there was no pay if your ship was sunk, pay stopped the day of the sinking. This is afar cry from todays position and rightly so.

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R235941 Arthur Harvey forgot about crossing times, for slow convoys being 7/8 knots crossing time would be three weeks but for faster ships the time would be about fourteen days. Convoy speed was at the speed of the slowest ship.