Australia Short Of Marine Officers
SYDNEY, This Day
Because of war casualties and transfers to the Navy, the Australian Merchant Marine is, suffering an acute shortage of deck officers. So serious has the position become that the Commonwealth navigation authorities have been instructed to allow ships to put to sea with uncertificated officers.
This is because of the urgent necessity to keep ships moving in wartime. Other officers have been brought back from retirement, some more than 70 years of age. Still greater officering difficulties are expected after the war. Although the Government has prepared a vastly expanded shipbulding programme, little has so far been done to train men to take charge of new vessels. Before the war two-thirds of officers in the Commonwealth’s merchant marine were not Australianborn.
A world-wide shortage of officers is expected to diminish the numbers of overseas men available to Australia after the war. For this reason, establishment of a shore academy to train Australian officers is now being urged. As a stop-gap measure, the Commonwealth marine industry commission will assist a number of able seamen to qualify for second mates’ certificates. A special 13 weeks’ course is being planned.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NA19441004.2.41
Bibliographic details
Northern Advocate, 4 October 1944, Page 3
Word Count
195Australia Short Of Marine Officers Northern Advocate, 4 October 1944, Page 3
Using This Item
NZME is the copyright owner for the Northern Advocate. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons New Zealand BY-NC-SA licence . This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of NZME. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Log in