MEN IN SHIPS

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 143, 13 March 1937, Page 26

MEN IN SHIPS

The Right Way At Sea

Two officers of two famous firms mentioned the name of u third as being run by model shipowners. ‘‘You’ll see why if yon talk to one of their mates,” they explained, writes Gordon Beckles in the "Dally Express.” "Find the mate and I’ll talk to him,” I said. They found the mate, and the gloom of their own views of life at sea was dissolved in the mellow loyalty of the man who had nothing but praise for his owners. “In the first place,” he said, "my firm picks its cadets with great care; in the second, it pays its officers much more than the National Maritime Board scale demands—sometimes almost 50 per cent, in excess; and, thirdly, it looks after them splendidly, treats them as gentlemen, and pensions ■them off handsomely when they retire. “Nothing mysterious in that formula, is there?” he added. “It’s still a mystery for a good many owners,” chuckled the officer I had first met. “Now my firm . . .” “Where do you get your apprentices?” I asked. “From the Conway, Worcester, and Pangbourne,” said the mate with the model owners. “And we have such a reputation that we really get the pick of each term. “Now where too many owners go wrong is to itreat their cadets as so much free labour. Make ’em scrub decks and do so much brasswork that they have no time to do their proper job. liesuit is that at the end of their time they are disgruntled and often insufficiently, trained. “There is nothing wrong in putting youngsters to work at deck scrubbing and painting. But it must be within bounds. All the cadets have their j meals in the saloon with itlieir officers,and they have to be given time to clean I themselves properly if they have been J doing dirty work. "Another thing: we don’t believe in keeping youngsters always on the same watches. We change ’em round each week. It’s not fair on a young fellow always to have the Middle. Watch — that’s midnight to four o'clock—night after night.

"You’ve got to face it,” he said in a hurst of philosophic confidence. "The sea is still a tough and monotonous job, and anything you can do to better it should be done.” “What are the standard rates of pay ?”

"For ships about our clasi?—that is an average of 11,000 tons. First, mate of a ship Hint size can get up to £2l a mouth with his food. Second mates draw about £lO. and third mates about £l3. Some lines—like mine—pay more I han that. Most, keep strictly to the agreed scale.” "What about holidays?” "They come when the ship is laid up. You only got 5/- a day subsistence allowance when you are living ashore on

your own, but us there is nothing much that you can spend your pay on when you’re at sea it works out all right really.” ■ “What about pensions?” "There is a pension scheme by which we give 4 per cent, of our salary and the company does the same. It works out at about £450 a year if you retire as a commander. “But it’s not so much things like that,” he said, “but the general spirit of a company that counts. Some firms never bother about their officers. The sea is still about a hundred years behind the times in the conditions of service.”

"You have plenty of time to thinkthings out,” said the first of the officers. ','Tliat’s why so many naval blokes want to take up polities when they retire. But. we, of course, think more about our owners, more than the Government.. AVhat shipowners in the long run don't realise is that there are so many more tilings for a man handy with his hands to do nowadays. "1 don't, mean aviation as opposed to shipping. But take engineering: there is a shortage of marine engineers now, a. real shortage. A young fellow with engineering shop training is going into a. job that starts about £3 a week ami ends —if lie is lucky—with never more than about £9 a week. "For that he has to spend a life away from his wife, if lie has one, and work odd hours. He doesn't get much chaiice to enjoy all the things in life that you can get if you live ashore.” "Ami the result ?”

"There tire getting mi fur 50,000 men less in the merchant service to-day than there were when the last war started. That's been going on for years. "They try to blame it on the depression. That’s right. shipping had a bad lime. But men were drifting away from the sea before that. "'When tlie shipowners had a. chance to improve working conditions.’ when they had plenty of money, they did nothing. Now they are beginning Io sit up and take notice. Don’t imagine it’s tlie little firms that are Io blame. Some of the big ones are just the same.

“But we have a long way to go before we can get as good as the Dutch for working conditions. "A typist gets more ilian the average second otlieer.” he added, “and a good deal more comfort. Yet we have to what they call ‘carry the Hag’ all over the world. The French. Germans. Americans. Danes. Norwegians and even the Italian officers get heller standard wages than the Brilish ollicer. '•'The four countries on a par with Britain in paying of oflieers are Estonia. Spain, Latvia, and Belgium’’’ lie finished with a bang on tlie table. "it's because of tilings like Hint.” said tlie ollicer with the model owners, "that we're proud of our firm. It lakes lhe law into its hands and sets an example.”