The assumption a hard ship was a happy ship

[robpage]

In the time that I was with British comm commonwealth I believe the clan Urquhart their last steam up and Downer went to scrap in my early days but they were left with the range of ships from the modern B&W automatic engine rooms with UMS back to pre-war floating junk piles they had the Old Castle R boats the clan McD's and the King line ships which were all pretty much a work up but every one of them that I ever visited went on or came across they seem to have the hardest working crazily happiest bunch of guys that you could ever come across where you go to the most modern vessels with all the conveniences a night in your bed with a nice alarm in your cabin and people would be doing all the Moaning so I'm wondering if it was true or is it just my memory working overtime but the hardest ships for the happiest ships

[Lewis McColl]

Rob I spent 43 years at sea and can honestly say I have more fond memories from when I was on a hard working ship than those that were state of the art. You worked hard and played hard. On newer tonnage say on a maiden voyage up until a ship was a year old you had teething problems. Those ships I found challenging but the spark was not there with the crowds onboard. No doubt about it though the enforcement of D&A policies also had a heavy impact on shipboard life.

[Ivan Cloherty]

I think that a happy ship depended upon the heads of Departments, starting at the very top, you could sail on one ship, have a change of skipper and you would be in a very different company. Did three trips on one old ship, no finess about her at all, but a happy ship and no crew changes, change of Master on fourth trip, the atmosphere changed, the food changed, overtime curtailed, etc., at the end of the trip everyone signed off except the Ch Engineer. I (a lowly 3/m) was told by the Master that I would never sail with the company again, received a letter after a week at home asking me to join the newest and largest ship in the company, again a very happy ship. Will not name the Master or ship as I know his son is still alive and may or may not be looking in, although I have not seen his family name crop up.

[j.sabourn]

When a ship got a bad name Ivan , they also it seemed at times to get all the ones off the pool that the pool must havre considered troublemakers. Sometimes they were correct and sometimes not. I do know however on having a clearout in Rotterdam after the master had been stabbed there seemed to be a few odd ones from Dock Street. One of them lasted 24 hours. I picked him up the first night lying in the accomodation alleyway. Burbling and crying, got him into his bunk, then got his life story showed me his wrists with the scars of previous attempted suicides , was a full blown diabetic among other things. Was back to London with him. Don’t know if as same crew but later was a murder on ship plus a couple of attempted ones. Pleased by that time however I was long gone. There were crowds and crowds. In the offshore industry one had more chance of getting good crowds as just told the office who you wanted, and did not have to rely on a probable prejudiced pool. When Cappy talks about his Captain Roberts and his shouting at some crew member trying to sign on he is correct. The same Roberts knew what the score was , the ones who found trouble with him knew they couldn’t get away with what they had done in the past. I sailed with Roberts at different times and never had problems with. He is a long time dead now so have no problems saying so. Cheers JWS

[Lewis McColl]

Agree Ivan you only need a change and one head of department can rock the boat. Came across this on a UASC ship the Al Rumathiah, Russian built and a real work house. Two months in and we had a change of master. He asked the C/Eng why the engineers were never in the salon at meal times. Chief told him because they were usually not knocking off most nights until gone 7pm. Our working day was 7am to 7pm 7/7. He suggested that we knock off at 5.30 get showered and changed eat in the salon and then turn to again after finishing dinner. Chief told him he had best make that suggestion himself as he was not going to suggest it. His next move was to tell the Chief Steward that there were to be no meals left in the hot press. He also said the only time the duty mess was to used was in port when working cargo. His next move was to shut the bar at 7.30 and the keys had to be on his desk. After 10 days of this and a week before we arrived in Kuwait we asked for a sit down meeting with the master. He was given an option either he asked to be relieved or 9 engineers including the C/Eng ,2 electricians, 2 radio officers , 2 3rd officers would asked be relieved. He decided to call our bluff. A new C/Off joined in Kuwait the C/off who was onboard was promoted to master, A new C/Eng also joined. So both the Master and the C/Eng were relieved but the C/Eng did not get off until Dubai as he was doing a hand over. As we were relieved we had to attend the office in Liverpool and had to give an account of what went on leading up to the master and C/Eng being taken off the ship. I sailed with the C/Eng again and heard later on that the master was hospitalised due to an incident on another ship about 6 months later. He was never heard of again in that company, he was ex P&O.

[robpage]

I 0nly sailed with one really bad chief , a totally ignorant man , I got called into Crazy House , Cayzer Irvine head office on the way home , leaving report for 3rd engineer stated m Don't send me any more ****** Catholic sassenachs , mine , no more ex-cadets , I was asked if Mr S was stressed , not stressed just nuts

[cappy]

###in a smaller port like shields we had a lot of great guys older who had been through the war and an everlasting bunch of younger ones coming on....what we also had was the blatant trouble makers ....in particular families who would sail together and create chaos for all concerned amongst the ratings ....always whinging about this or that and causing bad feeling ......nothing ever suited ....bully boys and big gobs you could hear them from turn to till turn in....sometimes they were sorted ......sometimes not ....i can recall one who never appeared to be suited at anything ...complaining we had lamb twice in a week this in the 50s i knew the family the kids were always raggy assed and hungary her looking like the local bag lady never a penny ....him on coming home pissed from morn till night ..and the.kids still bloody hungry......people may talk about poverty today ....they dont know what it means .....now i dont know if there was plan or not at the pool but when the ore carriers came to shields the better lads always seemed to get them.....no going adrift .....no complainers .....no fighting much and a lot less drink problems......but that is just my view but things were much easier .....nobody wanted tankers or old time tramps anymore .....things were changing for the better.......some guys were lucky some unlucky ....my schoolmate ist trip sunk in the baltic after collision in fog 2 or 3 days in the life boat before picked up ...second trip the whaler southern harvester ...17 months down south some on the vessel some on georgia before heading home ......now more time at home than at sea.....if they can get a ship ......and best of all there was no who ate all the pies .....there was enough and that was it...never saw any fatties in them days......but wouldnt have changed it for the world ......cappy

[vic mcclymont]

I sailed on the Clan Ranald the second of four built semi automatic ships.
I joined her on her second voyage after she had been fitted with Bridge control. Our orders were to bring her up to scratch and get her ready for her UMS Certification.
Only the C.E remained from the original crew, and he wasn't all that good.
The Ranald was a Friday afternoon job, she had a reputation amongst her sister, if anything was to go wrong it would happen on the Ranald first.
We brought her up to scratch and got her, her UMS certificate and it was some job keeping her fit. We worked hard and played hard.
We only had a problem with one old man who joined us for his final voyage before retiring, he was a proper barsteward, closed the bar t 22:00, no drinks allowed in the cabin.
Would do it all again if I had the chance.
Vic
Moral dropped, C.O. had a word with him, he wasn't interested he had heard how hard we played..

[j.sabourn]

#7... The favourite cry Cappy “ I want my rights, I don’t know what they are but I want them”. Heard it that many times knew when it was coming and was already making my escape to more favourable surroundings JS

[Lewis McColl]

Well no matter how hard it got on any ship I was ever on I kept my head down and did my job. On more than one occasion if I had a difference of opinion with a fellow engineer or mate or a crew member it was sorted, be it by mutual agreement or up the road. Never felt the need to jump ship.
I was always fit never a light weight but only put the weight on once I retired , never used the engine room lift or the accommodation lift either. On tankers at least 4 times a week jogging round the deck. On a VLCC it does not take to many laps to knock up a few miles, probably one of the reasons for the dodgy knees today, a steel deck is not a very forgiving surface to run on.