I’m not into borrowing other people’s quotes. Instead, I’d sooner think of something original, but at an ENG appointment at Merseyside Medical Centre, Cunard Buildings, there’s an inscription: ‘They that go down to the sea in ships truly see the works of the Lord’ (or similar).

It’s still there, inside on a stone balustrade in gold-leaf lettering and whether noticed by an old hand or someone fresh out of sea school, it’s stuff to ponder.

Sea school didn’t mention much about winter storms, the enormous waves and greyness, but southbound below latitude 25C there was almost an instant shift into the blue placid Sargasso Sea.

Whether believing in the ‘works of the Lord’  bit or not, most would say it’s like a deliverance into another world of calmness and inner nature.

The Sargasso is a sea within a sea, ie, not bounded by land masses and it roughly aligns with the infamous Bermuda Triangle area, an expanse of two million square miles of ocean.

A calm, high-pressure zone, it’s notable as a living ecozone of Sargassum seaweed which, in turn, supports an ecology of green and loggerhead turtles, spawning European eels, plus 10 other endemic species found nowhere else.

 Sailing through the Sargassum is akin to voyaging through a floating rainforest which indeed it is, absorbing huge quantities of carbon dioxide from Earth’s atmosphere. 

In history books sailors from Christopher Columbus’ ships feared that the lush seaweed would drag the vessel down – maybe that’s why it took him so long to discover America…….

Anyway, apart from the feel-good factor of leaving the storm it was helpful that the old salts knew some facts of the Sargasso: it was unique, turquoise-blue and home to crabs, plankton and fish roe; we did zoom in on some of the Sargassum mats with binoculars but apart from flying fish it was impossible to see marine organisms – an old bosun recounted that ‘all these “wee beasties” are there, out of sight, underneath the seaweed.’

So after the storm the ship took on a gentle rolling motion through the Sargasso: the golden mats drifted by in a swaying, rhythmic fashion. It was mesmerising and years thereafter I never tired of watching this miracle of nature; during smoko from a hot and sweaty engine room it was a joy to sit and watch the ocean’s biodiversity……. but don’t worry, people at sea do stranger things than that.

Of course, this was pre-internet time and the only shipboard info I could find on the Sargasso and Gulf Stream amongst old paperbacks was Ernest Hemingway’s novel Islands in the Stream.

A great yarn, but hardly an academic work so I didn’t learn much; later finding the bridge’s excellent reference, Imray North Atlantic Passage Guide, the skipper thought it was going to marked by oily engine-room hands so that was the end of that – old-school skippers had their own ideas.

But all experienced deck crew, including the skipper, mates and AB’s knew of the Sargasso circular current advantages – southward-bound to gain speed and vice versa on a northerly track; so decades later I was surprised to discover that two successive second mates had never even heard of the Sargasso Sea. Oh, dear!, I thought – maybe I’ve mispronounced Sargasso. Anyway, this was only two years ago (2022) and without naming the ship, I figured the Maritime Colleges aren’t teaching all they should these days. 

This disappointing encounter was best forgotten though. After all they may just have been kidding me along. Who knows?

But in any case this was in sharp contrast to a third off’ I sailed with in 2009 who was also a first-year marine biology student with the Open University. Of course, this isn’t a pre-requisite for an officer of the watch; but a personable bloke, he would chat away to anyone interested and after watch on that vessel, as it chugged along at slow speed from Panama, we used nets and drag-ropes to haul in clumps of Sargassum weed.

We inevitably got called ‘skivers’ (what else!), or a favourite ‘what’s wrong with the galley food then, eh?’; but had the real researchers from Greenpeace, World Wildlife Foundation, etc, been aboard this ship they would have been ecstatic to catch, identify and photograph these little marine critters.

We didn’t have credentials – I believe these days such efforts would have accorded us the title of ‘citizen scientists’ – but did find that this oceanic ‘rain forest’ was indeed a habitat to zoo plankton, tiny crabs, other crustaceans and aquatic life.

Above all I hoped to find some European river eel larvae – elvers, they’re called – but without success.

And  the presence of birds over the golden Sargassum mats also indicated marine life and after seven days outward bound from Panama were a welcome sight – mostly these were skua, the birds of the real open ocean.

However, about 60% of the net loads had waste plastic: cups, drinking straws, wrappers, etc; there was a plastic carrier bag from a Florida supermarket which had ceased trading several years ago, so years of UV rays hadn’t broken that down at all.

There were also lengths and pieces of green fishing line and, as a merchant seaman, I really can’t understand what goes through trawlermen’s heads: surely there’s enough space aboard to stow broken line instead of jettisoning it.

For sure, in my own experience, most dumping of garbage from ships has long gone – huge fines under MARPOL have changed that. So it’s fair to say most plastic is river-borne into the ocean.

The UN Environmental Programmes has a guesstimate of 75 to 199 million tonnes of plastic waste are found in the ocean at any given time. A very approximate assessment; worse still, the UN also states this number increases year on year. ( source: unep.org (12.05.2023) Our planet is choking on plastic).

So at this point people would ask: what’s this got to do with me? Well, not much if they ignore the fact that the Sargasso absorbs CO2 from Earth’s atmosphere; and unless they routinely throw plastic waste in the road or rivers where, eventually, it carries out to sea to break down into microplastics and ingested by fish. Also this plastic drifts into the Sargasso to entangle and reduce aquatic life 

But there is light at the end of the tunnel, and a 2023 UN treaty to reduce ocean pollution was signed by 68 states including the UK. The basis is that signatories agree to reduce use of single-use plastic. But if there has been any UK reduction in use I must have missed out on the news.

Furthermore, only four countries have ratified the treaty: Belize, Chile, Palau and the Seychelles and this is notable because it’s only by ratifying the treaty that enshrines it into international law.

Maybe the UK governments’ slowness to ratify, ie, not putting their money where their mouth is, is due to this summer’s General Election. For once, maybe we should throw them some slack on this issue.

As stated I’m not one for bandying other people’ quotes, but the 2002 line from the previous Conservative Environment Minister Rebecca Pow: ‘we are putting environment at the heart of our policy-making’ is memorable for the fact that these were just empty words when instead we want action. Let’s hope the UK and other nations get moving soon.

Made to feel like criminals, the seafarers had done nothing wrong. They were confronted by a team of private security guards from a company known as Interforce and given an hour to collect their belongings and leave the ship.

800 seafarers were sacked on that day, without negotiation or consultation – furthermore they were instructed that should they remain on board or talk to the media, then their qualification for severance money would be jeopardised.

The replacement crews were all non-UK domiciled and recruited on pay deals of £5.50 per hour.

A Twitter message sent to Interforce employees prior to the illegal sacking of 800 seafarers. Note the second to final paragraph in which guards are ordered to bring cuffs. It was denied that these were used during the P&O boarding, but nonetheless the intent factor of using cuffs to drag protesting seafarers down the ship’s ramp is obvious.

NOT P&O Dover – instead a picture from the 1984 miners’ strike illustrating more thuggish attacks on working people.

There are some parallels as Ms Lesley Bourne, a local lady and bystander, was attacked by a mounted policeman – thankfully the baton missed.

Perhaps it is as well that private security companies are forbidden to carry anything other than cuffs and utility belt – especially batons. And especially on ferries.

(acknowledgements to the Guardian newspaper 19/06/1984)

Anyway, the instigator behind the P&O Ferries mass sackings is one Peter Hebblethwaite, CEO whose line of defence was that the company in its present form was ‘no longer sustainable’ and that negotiations with unions wouldn’t be possible.

Obviously, Hebblethwaite was in breach of UK employment law, but if he thought that the incident would blow over quickly he was wrong.

The Rule of Law in Britain is central to who we are and how a civilised state operates.

So charges against lawbreaker Hebblethwaite were several including a refusal to give workers’ adequate notice, plus on his own boardroom side a refusal to adhere to directors’ fiduciary duties.

Hebblethwaite was summoned to a Commons committee to explain his actions but with 

breathtaking arrogance informed the committee chairperson that, ‘yes, he had broken the law and furthermore would do it again’. (1)

Well, excuse me, but in context if a motorist had been flagged down for a speeding offence, but agreed with the cops that he had been speeding, and he’d definitely do the same again, it would hardly go down well with the magistrates, would it?

Anyway, faced with public outrage which, incidentally, even came from the Conservative side of the House the government was swift to act in calling for CEO Hebblethwaite’s resignation.

But Hebblethwaite did not resign. He even mentioned a pat on the back he received from DP Ports – P&O Ferries parent company – congratulating him for doing an ‘an amazing job.’ (2)

He was asked by the Commons committee if he could live on £5.50 per hour to which he declined to comment.

So Hebblethwaite’s ‘amazing job’ was not so great was it? In fact the benefits of neoliberalism’s low pay rates only benefit the rich, don’t they?

However, the UK government has introduced some legislation to prevent another P&O Ferries sticking two fingers up at the Rule of Law. And a major player is the Seafarers’ Welfare Charter which although only signed up on a voluntary basis by companies such as Brittany Ferries, Condor, DFDS and Stena, promises a minimum wage for seafarers, plus enhanced working hours and social welfare.

In France the Charter is enshrined in law and there are moves to make it mandatory on the UK side of the Channel too.

But bad actors such as P&O Ferries haven’t signed up to this voluntary code (quelle surprise!).

On the scrap heap: Pride of Kent’s garbage collection point on the forward port side. The personal effects of sacked seafarers were still there one month after the mass sackings as P&O Ferries refused permission for them to reboard and collect.

P&O Ferries had a myriad of reasons why their business was failing – the latest at that time being the pandemic – but in years previous they blamed high fuel prices, unfair competition, short-time working rosters, the French unions – you name it.

From experience I can state that the whole Dover operation seemed to be mismanaged.

For example, jobs were constantly being shed aboard their ships, but if we look at the numbers employed in P&O Dover office (300 approx) compared to the 800 plus at sea, what this tells us is there was a ratio of one office worker to every three crew.

Which seems a skewed ratio, for sure.

Nonetheless,I only periodically took an agency job in Dover mainly to keep the agency sweet.

It wasn’t considered a good gig mainly due to P&O’s tight-fisted accountants; I believe the contract crews at one point hadn’t received a pay rise for three years whilst us agency crew only received a modest increase because they were desperate for staff.

Yet others such as DFDS Ferries seem to remain viable despite employing British and European crews. I sailed on two of their vessels in 2019 and although not privy to the company accounts, I did notice that there was an optimum number of cars, trucks and foot passengers on all sailings.

There was an upbeat feel to the editorials in their magazine which made me think that P&O are merely run by amateurs.

There was much criticism from DFDS crews aimed at P&O Ferries: how their sailing frequencies were mismatched; how their customer care was a joke, but especially criticism of their centralised management building in Dover (‘jobs for the boys’, was a familiar comment).

Anyway, that was then and in the wake of the sackings the new illegally-hired P&O crews will find it tough going. For starters, the original roster of one week on/off ( sometimes a fortnight on/off) doesn’t operate and instead the rosters are now up to 17 weeks.

Again from experience, the weekly rosters were exhausting from either a twelve-hour day or night shift with just one 45 minute meal break.

There are up to 10 sailings to Calais per day and off-duty time would be spent mostly sleeping amidst the noise and vibration.

So much for that, but evidently P&O Ferries are enjoying a power trip after basically getting away with bully-boy tactics.

So let’s hear from the general secretaries of two major seafaring unions who have written to Transport Minister Mark Harper about this dreadful company.

Mr Mick Lynch and Mr Mark Harper of the RMT and Nautilus Union respectively, have told Harper they believe the company is subverting the aims of the Seafarers’ Charter and Wages Act (further UK government legislation) in employing a crewing company known as PhilCrew Management.

With an office in Malta and a further brass-plate office in Singapore (typical ruse in the shipping industry as it ensures anonymity), PhilCrew are apparently negotiating an agreement which would put new recruits on a ten-month contract with most paid below the minimum wage.

Yep, that’s right – double the time aboard ship from 17 weeks to ten months.

PhilCrew are also in cahoots with one cowboy union called International Seafarers Union based in Slovenia.

This ISU is not affiliated to the London-based International Transport Federation, an umbrella organisation of accredited unions who oversee anITF minimum wage and liase with many global unions to promote fair wages and social equality.

And, by the way, the seafarers signed up with PhilCrew would only receive wages for those ten months – any leave periods thereafter are unpaid.

I can’t even think about what ten months continuous on a P&O ferry must be like: 28 monthly shifts x ten months with no periods off ship due to the fast turnarounds in Calais – a nightmare scenario.

As we often say at sea: it’s not a job, it’s a jail sentence.’

But still eager for a fight, the belligerent CEO Hebblethwaite has made moves to sack a fifth of the 84 dockers in the Netherlands. For trade publication Seatrade Maritime News reports that Antwerp-Zeebrugge port has been approached by P&O to handle its vessels in the event of industrial action. (3)

Well, union laws on the side of workers are far more robust in the EU, so the Belgian dockers at Antwerp have resolutely refused and, in response, Nautilus International’s Mark Dickinson stated: 

I have a message for the CEO of P&O Ferries: we won’t cop it and the dockers won’t take this lying down. 

(4)

Ferry passengers’ experience of them wasn’t so positive either as the enclosed reviews from the consumer website reveal: 

These were submitted to Tripadvisor just a few weeks ago but are typical of the type of negative reviews I read up on whilst sailing the Pride of Kent three years back – ‘new year, same old P&O.’

But staff shortages? With all their cheap crews?

Finally, this is a picture of CEO Hebblethwaite’s £1.5 million house is in the Cotswolds, a few miles outside Cirencester. He’s not far from Boris Johnson, David Cameron and other luminaries of the Tory party and so-called Chipping Norton set.

Anyway, the point in including his residence is that at £5.50 an hour, it would take a lowly-paid P&O ferry worker 150 years to buy this.

I hate cliches, but have to say that indeed the rich are getting a lot richer and the poor a lot poorer.

REFERENCES:

1) http://www.telegraph.co.uk 24/03/2022, P&O Ferries Boss…. (accessed 13/01/2024)

2) http://www.metro.co.Uk/ 30/04/2022, P&O Ferries – an ‘amazing job’….(accessed 12/01/2024)

3) Private Eye, 05/01-18/01/2004, No 1614, p.39, (accessed 13/01/2024

4) Ibid

In 2020 the Japanese-flagged ONE Apus lost approximately 1,816 containers in heavy seas north-west of Hawaii. Theories over the loss range from a rogue wave snapping the securing pins to the fact that these containers were stacked eight high – or maybe a combination of both.

Oceanographers amongst us probably know that a rogue wave is up to twice the height of any other significant wave and can smash into a ship at 100t/m2.

In all honesty I had to look this fact up, but can clearly recall very scary monster waves deep in the Southern Ocean, thousands of miles from Africa and thousands of miles from Western Australia.

A line from the disaster movie Perfect Storm sums it up, and George Clooney’s classic quote similarly applies to the Southern Ocean: ‘you could be a meteorologist all your life – and still not see something like this.’ 

But in Hollywood isn’t real life, and the following account from the esteemed publication Science Frontiers reads:

….. on the Pacific, sighted right ahead, looming out of the darkness, it was awesome and looked as though the ship was heading for the white cliffs of Dover instead of a massive wave of white water. (1)

For the mariner narrating this, a heart-stopping moment would be a useful description .

But rogue waves or not it appears that heavy weather is the most common factor resulting in stack collapse during otherwise routine voyages.

Other causes are failure to comply with limits from the ship’s CSM (cargo securing manual); negligence by stevedores to handle lashing equipment, or in the case of the MSC Napoli a later enquiry ascertained a third of its loaded containers were at least 3 tonnes overweight.

The MSC Napoli beached on the Dorset coast in January and containers floated ashore although the ensuing wreck caused as much of a media storm thereafter.

The Daily Mail and the Sun, for example, thundered on about ‘looters’ and ‘scavengers’ as cargo floated in with the tide to be swiftly transported away in vehicles.

Of course, such lost cargo is supposed to be reported to the Receiver of Wreck under the 1995 Merchant Shipping Act, but could anyone blame local people given such beachcomber opportunities on their own doorstep.

Branscombe beach, Dorset , January 2007, as split containers from MSC Napoli float ashore to be met by an army of modern-day ‘wreckers.’  Flotsam included car engines, perfume, shampoo, chocolate, coffee, wine barrels – and latterly, eleven BMW motorbikes.

Initially, local police ignored the activities until the participants jemmied open whole containers. This spread the contents further along the shoreline making a clean-up more difficult and prompting the police to accuse wreckers of ‘despicable behaviour.’

One might argue that had the ‘wreckers’ – a UK tabloid word from their usual inflammatory lexicon -been a little more responsible then clearing the beaches of debris might have been of benefit.

Still, the cops did have a point insofar as the weather endangered life and put rescue services such as RNLI at great risk – similar high winds and tides which capsized the Napoli in the first place.

Anyway, two years later the enquiry following the lossconcluded that the ship’s design, speed and loading when sailing into the storm caused its demise. Two containers broke loose before a huge split appeared in the hull.

The captain’s intention to beach was to minimise loss of life (ultimately all crew members were rescued), but also to prevent large scale pollution – especially fuel oil – this latter consideration only partly successful as we shall see.

Nonetheless, 117 containers were lost on the Channel’s English side. Eighty washed ashore so it’s obvious that the remaining 37 either sunk or are still floating around – all containers not sinking are known as ‘steel icebergs’, their presence a danger to navigation.

A lone ‘steel iceberg’ washed up on a British Columbia forested shoreline hundreds of miles from anywhere. It could be from the One Apus – there again it could be another statistic from any container ship worldwide.

So although there should be a search and recovery for such containers, it seems annual losses averaging 13,000 are in deep, international waters so no search orders are made.

On the other hand, and in coastal waters, French authorities undertook a search for 50 containers drifting in the Bay of Biscay whilst in a busy shipping area off China, the coastguard demanded a sonar sweep of 1000 kms at a cost of US$4 mn.

But asking shipowners to advance legislation is a slow business and it’s taken the World Shipping Council ten yearsto bring in amendments to the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) in establishing container weight verification – overweight containers being suspect in the 2007 Napoli loss.

Of the ONE Apus losses off Hawaii, there is scant information as to where their 1,816 boxes were found – if they ever were – so one can conclude that asking shipowners to verify where their overboard containers have disappeared to is like asking airlines where passengers’ lost baggage has gone.

They’re in denial – after all it wouldn’t be good for the shipping business, would it?

On a personal level when I was based in nearby Falmouth dry dock, the Tokio Express, a 58,000 tonne container ship was hit by a rogue wave off Lands End in 1997.

Evidently, the ship rolled 60 degrees, then 40 degrees back losing 62 containers in total. One of the stricken containers was loaded at Billund, Denmark with 5 million Lego pieces bound for New York.

Loved by generations of youngsters, these Lego pieces were curiously of a nautical theme including plastic pirate ships, octopus, dragons and similar. Anyway, the whole consignment spilled out into the ocean and pieces reappear at any time, but especially during winter gales.

A quarter of a century later, tiny Lego pieces still wash up on Cornish beaches.

(Acknowledgements to http://www.greatbritishlife.co.uk)

Of course, in 1997 beachcombers were finding countless pieces whilst fishermen pulled them from their nets.

Anecdotally, I heard that Lego sets – presumably rinsed of salt – were available for sale along the Cornish coast in pubs, cafes and elsewhere.

Local people there are usually reticent in discussing community events to ‘outsiders’ but excitement was everywhere, a general feeling repeated a few months later as another vessel, the MV Cita foundered off the Scilly Isles.

The Cita’s containers landed onto the rocks to split open from where the Scillonians soon realised they had expensive flotsam around.

For example, there was £3mn of tobacco alone as well as tyres, sports equipment, shoes, shorts, trainers, Ben Sherman shirts, parquet flooring, plywood, house doors and Toyota car spares.

Again a police presence enforced reports of flotsam to the Receiver of Wrecks, but happily no-one was prosecuted. Islanders were wearing trainers and hoodies for years, and in the age-old tradition of Scillonian beach-combing, it explained why thousands of plastic carrier bags bound for Irish supermarket chain Quinnsworth were put to everyday use.

The ship’s crew were saved by the RNLI St Mary’s’ lifeboat, but it appears that the loss of the Cita was due to the watch-keeping officer falling asleep with the watch-keepers’ alarm switched off – an unforgivable tragedy. (2)

In the light of this officer’s criminal negligence, cautioning local people for helping themselves to flotsam would seem absurd, but just as absurd is the wide potential for shippers to escape prosecution. Shipowners are very clever at avoiding responsibilities ranging from fair pay to taxation and general adherence to law.

In compounding such perceived indifference a House of Parliament debate was chaired by the Rt Hon Hugo Swire (East Devon) (Cons) in 2009.

Available for perusal under UK Parliament Hansard, to its credit the the debate examined the usefulness of the 1854 Wreck & Salvage Act in modern times rightly noting that 18th century sailing ships did not inflict massive environmental destruction as modern liners, but nonetheless, accusations of ‘looting and ransacking’ and ‘delays in police action’ (4) strayed far from the real issue of reforming the act.

In other words, the debate skirted around the issue of ‘polluter-pays’ – one would suspect the UK government is siding up with the shipowners.

We’d hope that the total cost of £120mn would have been paid by insurers under the Civil Liability Convention (1992) which puts the onus upon shipowners to compensate under the self-explanatory ‘polluter-pays’ principle.

Maybe they did pay, albeit only after – according to Hansard – that the UK taxpayer stumped up £10 million.

But for the shipowner, it’s time to reflect upon green issues too.

For example, no level of compensation would replace the 1000-2000 seabird losses including the Manx shearwater, gannet, guillemot and especially the critically endangered Balearic shearwater. 

‘Fingerprinting’ of samples taken from most birds confirmed the oil was from the Napoli’s fuel tanks, as also were the samples taken from fishermen’s nets as the fish catch declined, whilst the sub-aqua environment impacted negatively.

A true and accurate figure of oiled seabird deaths will probably never be quantified as most scientists believe the majority suffer out at sea.

So that was the aftermath of just one ship involved in container loss. By contrast, the ONE Apus and the Tokio Express were fortunate to return to port for repairs, whilst the MV Cita’s fuel was removed immediately before salvage.

Of course, there are other MV Napoli-type disasters, but given the slowness of amending legislation (amendments are not being ratified until 2026), it seems there could be more.

If so, perhaps lost containers with dangerous contents, ie, oil, corrosives, etc, washing up a shipowner’s palm-fringed beachfront in Bermuda, for example, it might possibly jolt the shipping world into action.

REFERENCES:

1) Science Frontiers, Nov-Dec 1989, number 66 (accessed 10/10/2023)

2) http:http://www.uk.Parliament.Hansard, MV Cita, 25/06/2002, vol 387, (accessed 11/10/2023)

3) http://www.uk.Parliament.Hansard, MV Napoli, 01.02.2007, vol 456, (accessed 11/10/2023)

Boswash?

BosWHERE! – the name produces a baffling reaction to a place not officially in the atlas. 

But as the above map illustrates, what were formerly separate cities and entities are getting bigger and bigger.

So now it’s a megalopolis: a series of huge independent cities linked by suburban zones to form interconnectivity, geographers describing this fast-growing area of 400 miles long as Boswash – that’s Boston down to Washington DC.

It’s larger than Tokyo; and the population of New York City/Jersey region is 24 million, followed by Baltimore/Philadelphia/Washington at 17 million.

And the remaining 9 million from adjoining towns, cities and suburbs move as Western society always does: bigger houses, more roads, more airports, etc – for example, the biggest shopping mall in Boswash is American Dream, at East Rutherford, New Jersey with floor space of 3 million sq feet (by contrast, Liverpool ONE’s retail space is just 160,000 sq feet)

An awful lot of urban sprawl at American Dream; nonetheless, Boswash as a whole is the largest megalopolis by economic output worldwide and accounts for 20% of US gross domestic product.

Unbridled economic growth such as this is light years away from 1623 when the Pilgrim Fathers’ landed at Providence, Rhode Island. Religious followers who were persecuted in England for heresy, the community escaped to Providence and, according to many, are believed to be the original migrants into north-eastern USA.

But for the historians amongst us the 16th century Pilgrim Fathers’ first winter in a foreign land was dire and had Native Americans not provided food, then the colony would have starved.

Scant data is found for the next few hundred years except that the settlers lived peaceably alongside locals, growing crops, rearing animals and raising children.

And it seems they were good neighbours as land was purchased further supporting an agrarian economy.

Which abruptly changed in the year 1829 when industrial ingenuity from England constructed water and steam power, and Providence’s surrounding areas – increasingly known as New England – soon earned the appellation of ‘America’s Industrial Birthplace’ with a focus upon cotton spinning, weaving and lumber cutting by machine.

There was also insatiable demand for more territory and a realisation that opening up America’s interior was unlikely to start from Providence, the river there being navigable for only eight miles inland.

So there were coastal ports especially Boston, Massachusetts which initially developed from lumber and whaling industries, but had a huge boost from Irish immigration after 1850. 

The ports were strung along the coastline from Massachusetts Bay to Long Island, all trading primarily with Europe with increasing volume, but limited facilities.

However, in New Amsterdam (now New York City) and situated on a natural harbour and two rivers – the East River and the Hudson – canny planners realised this was the obvious choice for American expansionism, which changed the face of America.

Anyway, that’s the history of it all. In the 1990’s I was happy to be signed on a tanker trading to Providence, Boston and all ports in between.

It was hardly a Christopher Columbus-type of discovery – after all I’d sailed into America before – but these places  are a living legacy to the founding of their nation.

The names connect with the Old World: although Providence was named after God’s Mercy in delivering the settlers from starvation; New Bedford, Boston, Manchester-by-the-Sea and New Haven are easily identifiable to Britain.

Chatting to locals in the towns, revealed many were proud to declare that they were of British heritage – moreover, they were proud to be Americans – after all to be the world’s wealthiest country after only 250 years is no mean feat.

Still, despite their resilience in living in New England (winter snow is extreme) many expressed a desire to move out West, sometimes for a warmer climate or to escape crowded eastern cities, but something else that seemed to be part of individuality and the restless American spirit. 

Yet others relocate to New England. New Haven especially has fine pedigree as home to Yale University rated as one of the best in the world, whilst New Bedford has a forward-looking liberal ethos and was one of the first towns to lobby for abolition.

And throughout history, north eastern democratic ideals were matched by inventiveness and hard work – these traits a legacy from the early Puritan settlers.

But of expansionism the only way westward was by sea and river, and New York City – population in 1740 only 25k – beckoned as a potential world port.

Due to massive immigration and investment, by 1900 the population increased to 3.5 mn (as of 2023 it is 8.5 mn). (1)

But the plan was to connect NYC by water to Albany NY and through to the Great Lakes (this was before the railroads).

The Hudson was already there to navigate to Albany – beyond a canal was needed to reach the Lakes, the farmland of the mid-West and stockyards of Chicago.

So the Erie Canal was opened in 1825 and immediately boosted NYC’s status as a world port, the canal  only declining in use after 1902 when the Mohawk and Hudson railroad maximised efficiency.

Alongside the railroads the New York State Thruway follows the same line of penetration as the tracks and the canal which connects Lake Erie to NYC.

The Big Apple as it’s sometimes known is an all-singing, all-dancing city of commerce, culture, banking and everything else a city is supposed to be.

Described as the most-important city in the world is appropriate considering it’s where Wall Street’s investments are made and lost.

Both sailors and tourists love New York – most folks have heard of Broadway and Times Square – there is something for everyone and despite some downturns, it’s considered safe for visitors even if it has had a bad press over the years.

Much involves the myth of a big bad city, but Mick Jagger’s 1978 scornful put-down of NYC in the song ‘Shattered’ :  ‘go ahead, bite the Big Apple, don’t bite the maggots’ (2) summed up the city’s relentless 1970’s crime wave.

NYC however, isn’t the State Capitol. Instead, it’s Albany which was commercially successful long before the Big Apple – in fact at 300 years old it precedes the 1776 US Constitution.

Albany expanded as a fur-trading capital due to vast numbers of beaver and river otters; originally a backwoods business, traders exchanged manufactured goods with Native Indians, but soon huge sums were made in a cash economy.

The furs were valuable in Europe and made Albany prosperous, although no-one considered the plight of the animals.

At this point, by ship from NYC to Albany has to rate as one of the best and most scenic river voyages in the world.

After embarking the pilot at Sandy Hook on the New Jersey shore, it’s 135 miles upstream to Albany through rolling hills, lush forests and pretty Dutch-colonial towns.

Vessels to Albany were chartered by the Delmonte fruit company and imported tropical fruit from the Caribbean. Such charters were always well-received by ship’s crews due to Albany being a friendly community.

It’s also a classy town with art galleries and theatres and with a population of around 100k, Albany warranted the expression ‘small enough to care.’

Of course this was before 9/11 and International Ship and Port Security Convention when townsfolk could just drive to the ship, park up and be invited aboard for a beer – they can’t do that now.

Indeed, British ships were popular in Albany and bearing in mind we were living in a pre-Tinder dating site world, girls would roll up to the ship and take the guys round the bars.

Many relationships were formed with nice letters exchanged at various ports thereafter – a welcoming town, for sure.

Downstream of Albany and on the starboard side of NYC is the blue collar town of Bayonne, New Jersey. A gritty neighbourhood which is reminiscent of Bruce Springsteen’s songs; indeed, ‘The Boss” was born and raised in Freehold NJ, a few miles distant.

The best place for beers in Bayonne is Chubby’s Sports Bar and Grill – that’s if you’re lucky to get ashore on a container ship visit.

Most vessels dock at the huge container terminal which was rapidly developed during the containerisation revolution of the 1970’s – still, it’s a further example of America’s interconnectivity.

Sailing further south with Boswash megalopolis on the starboard side, the lights of the resorts of Atlantic City and Ocean City shimmer at night. Traditionally vacation land to New Yorkers, the permissive gambling laws of New Jersey casinos are reachable to most north easterners due to fast road links.

For ships southbound from NYC, the course would resemble a U-turn in degrees as the vessel swings starboard after Cape Charles, then navigates the Chesapeake northwards to Baltimore.

The Chesapeake is two hundred miles long from the Susquehanna river at its headwaters, and from there the Chesapeake’s estuary turns fresh water to brackish and eventually to salt water where it meets the Atlantic Ocean.

Forming the the southern limit to Boswash, Baltimore is 202 miles road distance from NYC; by sea the journey usually takes a day and a half. Because of that the port is better connected to the rest of the northeast by rapid rail, road and air services.

Furthermore, the city connects back to New Jersey through the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, a short traverse enabling ocean ships to sail to Philadelphia.

And sailing through the Chesapeake Canal is a refreshing experience after a sea voyage along Chesapeake Bay for after embarking the pilot, there’s a fine view of Maryland and Delaware communities viewed from the ship’s deck.

It’s a series of Main Street, USA, with firstly a Jeepdealership, fast food outlets, fine houses and churches, etc,  just a few hundred yards away. The star-spangled American flag flutters from almost everywhere.

Most impressive though is that this 14-mile canal connects with the Delaware river and thence to Philadelphia. And on to New York without sailing south again.

In the city of Baltimore much portrayal has been by Hollywood in ‘The Wire’ (2000) – a six-part TV drama of the narcotics gangs and corrupt cops hell-bent on destroying communities.

And although the film industry has a big responsibility to accurately represent communities, ‘The Wire’  instead chooses to play the dark side.

Nonetheless, although ‘Wire’ is a fictional account it is true that 100,000 manufacturing jobs were lost between 1960 and 1995 and that the docks have suffered a long decline over decades. So maybe social problems have led to drug misuse in Baltimore.

But the city looks ahead in that optimistic American way and continues to expand its service industriesthrough corporations, young entrepreneurs and city hall.

And during a stopover in Baltimore in 2008, as crew members we found folks in the downtown area convivial enough.

Furthermore, there was evidence of tech industries moving into the city although slow industrial change meant that brownfield sites were still a blot on the landscape.

There were the usual warnings about visiting certain areas late at night – all the same, similar cautions apply anywhere in the world.

Anyway, a friendly longshoreman (dockworker) who upon hearing of our discussions about visiting Washington DC, offered to drive us there one Sunday afternoon.

The United States Capitol is only forty miles drive from Baltimore (‘it’ll give me and the wife a break from our teenage kids’ he beamed.

The trip was great: we travelled in the couple’s Chevy minivan and got within camera distance of 1600, Pennsylvania Avenue (the White House), but what impressed me was that generosity – that much praised American attribute – was indeed alive and well, for our hosts refused any offer of gas money.

Instead we took them to an upmarket restaurant, bought meals for all of us and traded stories of our respective families, life at sea and so on, but also about Baltimore and surrounding areas – how the two cities continue to overlap, for example.

So by now it’s 102 nautical miles to Philadelphia – to reach there a ship will steer immediately to port on entering the fresh water of the Delaware river.

The city is one of America’s oldest and is historically significant due to the 17th American Revolutionary War of Independence. Founded by Quakers and home to the Liberty Bell, an timeless icon of American freedom, the city has a historical feel to it which is absent in Baltimore and NYC.

Manufactured goods from hinterland cities such as Harrisburg and Bethlehem PA, have long been shipped through ‘Phillie’.

But transportation links improve and tentacles of railroads and Interstate highways render sea transport increasingly inefficient. To make it worse for Philadelphia’s declining docks, shipbuilding has also slumped, although this situation has been partly reversed by investment from Norway’s Kvaerner Group. (3)

From Philadelphia it is 197 nautical miles to NYC and the passage along the Delaware river can only be described as grand panoramic: river and coastal wetlands, farms and townships.

On the New Jersey side especially, wetlands seem to go on forever with flocks of geese, ducks and wading birds.

Soon the river flattens out to form Delaware Bay’s flood plain and it’s another hard turn to port past Atlantic City – a real short cut back to New York City.

At this point there were plenty of opportunities to reflect upon other crew members’ views of America: some impressions were long lasting especially of the courtesy of Americans; friendliness, openness and cultural diversity were rated highly, as well as personal freedoms.

Secondly, came applause for the efficiencies of business – for us especially (because some stores will even deliver purchases to the ship!)

There were one or two grumpy crew amongst us who gave a thumbs down to American foreign policy. But as we reminded them, who safeguards world trade and keeps the oil flowing? – the US Navy, of course.

Anyway, opinions are subjective and returning to Boswash, sea transportation opened up the dynamics of trade as we know it. It did so in 1825, but since then the modern dynamics of road and rail have now superseded shipping in most areas.

Probably because of that, the cities of Boswash continue to expand and merge.

Some cities such as NYC and Philadelphia have massive population increases and continue to encroach, but others such as Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts hardly register increase in numbers at all.

And so back to Providence RI which is familiar to some as the residence of singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, but the majority of Americans know enough of Providence to celebrate the last Thursday of November asThanksgiving Day, a time when the first settlers met and received food from Native Americans.

Perhaps if they hadn’t done so, the landscape of north-eastern USA would be a different place today.

REFERENCES:

1) http://www.macrotrends.com >net>states>population 25.05.2020 (accessed 27.12.2023)

2)http://www.songfacts.com>facts>shattered 06.03.2021 (accessed 23.12.2023)

3) Bloomberg.com 13.07.2022, Kvaerner in Philadelphia (accessed 27.12.2023)

A futuristic sight to greet seafarer and tourist alike: Merlion Park, at One Fullerton,Singapore – with few suspecting that this was a malarial swamp a century ago.

It’s part of the city-state and during independence from the British in 1965, Singapore faced massive unemployment and declining trade.

With its back to the wall, nonetheless, the country demonstrated to the world how to modernise and progress.

Singapore’s transition from a backwater economy to the third richest country in the world per capita in 2023  is stunning: 10% foreign direct investment increase year on year (2023 figure is $195 billion); third safest city in the world; one of the least corrupt states and best health service in the world.

A massive ascendancy by any country’s standards and obviously people in high office after the failure of both colonial powers – Britain and Japan – decided the country’s been screwed over enough and that independence was the way forward.

Very few voted for the status quo, but enter a political activist, Mr Lee Kuan Yew – usually known as LKY, a barrister educated in Cambridge – who laid the foundations of the modern Singapore state.

For sure there was a strategic advantage being at the geographical centre of Asia’s trade routes; but banking, legal systems and the English language gave Singapore leverage.

Elected on independence issues Kuan Yew admitted  that the aforementioned were positives of colonialism, but the main benefit has been from business-friendly policies since his People’s Action Party took office.

Singapore has 74% Han Chinese population with minorities of Malays, Indians and Europeans.

But the parliamentary system – in principle based on the UK’s unwritten constitution – reflects Asian dynamic business practices and strong top-down government.  

Criticised in the West for being authoritarian and sometimes tough on human rights, it is argued that Singapore’s hard slog to nation-building took priority over Western-style democratic ideals. 

But typically, this is what happens in any development of a nation’s economy.

After all, didn’t the UK repress trade unions and universal suffrage in Victorian times?

Happily, Singapore doesn’t repress unions or deny voting rights, but there have been social restrictions along the way.

‘Guided democracy’ is Singapore’s policy and, above all, PAP has always courted foreign direct investment through low taxes. Want to do business? Come on in and let’s talk!, seems to be the mantra in Singapore.

Cheap business rates figured highly, but the guided democracy component impressed Tony Blair so much he once referred to Lee Kuan Yew, as the ‘smartest leader he’d ever met.’

Compared to the West’s buzzword ‘populism’  –  ‘appeal to to the people’  was Trump and Johnson’s tactic, ie, just vote for me because I say things you feel are right, Lee Kuan Yew eschewed populism in favour of long-term planning goals supported by solid finances.

All involved Asian values – for this latter read thrift, investment, security and education.

These goals are certainly successful and one example is the mass transportation system, the construction of which was debated for many years.

Although costly with the building of tunnels, bridges and support infrastructure, the Singapore Mass Rapid Transport system – totally driverless – is considered a benchmark project for the rest of the world.

To put it into context: the UK abandoned the HS2 northern link railway half-way through due to financial restraint. Yet years ago Singapore’s MRT  secured funding through sound fiscal policy in a far lesser time frame.

LKY quoted:

‘We are pragmatists. We don’t stick to any ideology. Let’s try it and if it does work, fine.

If it doesn’t we’ll try another way.’

By the way, Kuan Yew’s policies on private car ownership have a biase. Heavily taxed, car use is beyond most residents’ budgets, but because of that there’s a liveable city: parkland with trees and lush vegetation and there’s no problems with congestion and urban pollution either.

To use the road, car owners must pay taxes for it. This was one of LKY’s proclamations.

So owning a car today on Singapore’s roads will cost in the region of US$100k – and that’s just for a basic Toyota Corolla. Not cheap, and most go for the MRT as a better travel option.

Anyway, back in the early-70’s I flew out to join a Shell tanker for six months.

Before my passport was stamped I was immediately directed to a barber at Changi airport.

In a strange-but-true story, long-hair on men was contrary to government policy and was deemed ‘undesirable’, reflecting ‘hippy’ and ‘negative ideals’.

Therefore, men with long hair had to get it cropped before entry.

This was one of LKY’s strange quirks in his plan for a better Singaporean society and we just had to abide by it.

He learned positively from the West – we weren’t all ‘foreign devils’ – but youthful degeneracy and unkempt appearances didn’t impress him one bit.

Incidentally the 1970’s rock bands Led Zeppelin and the Bee-Gees didn’t accept hair cuts – they cancelled their Singapore tours.

Still, I wasn’t the only long haired crew member at the airport and despite how others felt wasn’t so dismayed in having my locks shorn: it was done in a polite manner and furthermore now I had carte blanche to enter Singapore.

To me it was another rigid immigration encounter, like clearing airport officialdom in the US in which passengers are brusquely told to ‘wait behind the line’ whilst checked against being ‘an undesirable alien’ – nothing unusual.

Although Singapore was an new experience, it was plain there.was an air of optimism and common purpose.

People were driven by a promised better life as the old colonial Singapore disappeared.

Architectural and building contracts were drawn up with major UK and Japanese construction companies transforming the landscape. Kampongs– basic dwelling places with primitive sanitation – were the first to go as also were shopfront houses which although doubling-up as residence and self-employment were unsafe.

These also were bulldozed down.

It was becoming a densely populated mega-city then with clean and modern flats – the latter albeit of uniform appearance.

Housing apart, the transition to regular employment succeeded with workers being signed-up by familiar overseas names such as Black and Decker, Hewlett Packard, General Electric and Gillette to work in assembly plants.

Then came the bankers, accountants and law firms such as Citibank and Deloitte – all integrated within a thriving economy.

So although upwardly mobile, the only natural resources Singapore has are is its people, a strategic location and a natural harbour.

And from a sailor’s point of view that harbour gives the freedom to visit and give an insight into the people.

Anyway, a subsequent port visit in the ‘90’s plainly revealed the financial publications write-ups of Singapore advancing from reliance upon assembly plants towards IT and precision engineering.

Time, Newsweek and Forbes magazines lavished praise as glittering technology parks were constructed.

They never stagnate in this town, I thought – indeed, business boomed as LKY rallied his country by extolling the virtues of Japanese work ethics and education: ‘Learn from Japan’ was a favourite quote as also was ‘The art of government is to build team spirit.’

Such inspiring thoughts helped lift Singaporeans out of poverty, but also appealed to civic pride. with rules for harmonious living enshrined in law.

The above is a pun on Singapore’s ‘fine’ city, but every rule is on display and strictly enforced.

Although Western visitors may escape with just a warning, there are reports of wardens on rooftops with binoculars looking for litter-droppers and pigeon-feeders.

Community Work Orders are imposed: repeat litterers will often find themselves issued with a broom to sweep city streets – and usually for a twelve-hour day’s worth.

It prompts enquiries about freedoms for sure; but in the UK I think we’d better look at the mess in our own litter-strewn streets before we get judgmental.

Strict laws prevail on certain book sales. Red Lines:Political Cartoons and the Struggle Against Censorship is banned due to its promotion of ill will between races.

But to cut the government some slack on this one, the book allegedly contains anti-Muslim views, and as a multiracial society, Singapore is mindful of the fallout from similar publications – terrorist killings in France, for example.

In the film world, movies about religious or LGBT topics are sometimes banned, but Crazy Rich Asians a satirical film taking a dig at Singapore’s rich elite enjoyed box office success. So what gets past the censors is rarely predictable.

Still, the most whimsical ban involved sales of the Beatles’ Sergeant Pepper album due to its drug references. The track ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’ belongs to another era and happily the album ban is now rescinded – 56 years after imminent danger from ‘hippies’ you’d sure hope so.

But moving forward to the year 2003 on yet another Singapore port call, much was revealed from an official tourist guide whom we met in a bar.

And this is how we roll whilst on shore leave: get talking to folks because you never know what you might learn!

The guide was probably weary of parroting the same old stuff to tourists and newly relaxed in the company of sailors instead, he vented some sharp criticisms about freedom of the press.

After ordering beers the conversation went as follows: 

Tourist guide:

‘Well, I’m glad you like Singapore. It’s indeed a dynamic city. 

But freedom of the press here is suffocating and although they don’t arrest journalists – this isn’t China – any article the government disapproves of is retaliated against with lawsuits. As I said, I was a university student in Manchester and your UK media is refreshing.

Your citizens have full freedom of expression and I enjoyed the open criticism of politicians.’

One of our group responded by saying:

Yes, but lies and untruths are an insult to our democracy and we hope the media seeks out truth but sometimes they don’t.

For example, we have an ongoing enquiry about the Hillsboro’ football disaster [this was 2003] with the establishment using the right-wing press to save its own skin.’

Also, some of our papers are little more than comics for adults, full of unsupported stories just to sell copies. Is that what freedom of the press is about?

So a lively debate which ended on good terms with handshakes all round. 

We figured the guy wanted to get something off his chest, reassuring us that Singapore, although an authoritarian state, is nonetheless a benign authoritarian state, i,e, public debate is encouraged when it ‘s convenient, but rules are considered made for the good of all.

But the government continues to liberalise and we were told that a ‘speakers corner’ was set up in Hong Lim Park in the year 2000. Based upon London’s Hyde Park Speakers Corner, orators are required to register, but the idea is to give citizenry the chance to exchange views and opinions.

So free speech isn’t so curtailed after all.

Of the whole electorate, the Han Chinese majority in Parliament represents the people and if the latter are uneasy about an authoritarian state, they acknowledge that prosperity, full employment, efficient services and modernity are part of the social contract they get in return.

In 2015, LKY passed away, but his PAP replacement, Lee Hsien Loong continues the policies of the most successful post-colonial nation. 

Indeed, Singapore’s dynamic reputation for business is such that a delegation from China visited in 2005 on a fact-finding tour.

And the economy has surged ahead, this time advancing into profitable services industries, IT, and bioscience.

But there are challenges and with a projected double-digit population increase by 2040 in an area only half the size of London, land availability is limited.

Of the seafarer’s Singapore, there are hardly any traditional sailor’s bars anymore. The raunchy dives of the Jockey pub and Bugis Street would now be called respectable; but If crew are lucky to get ashore in these times of fast vessel turn-rounds, then they’ll find themselves in a cocktail-type establishment rubbing shoulders with international tourists and financiers.

Neither group will find value for money 1973-style however; at that time a pound sterling would buy over six Singapore dollars – at time of writing one pound sterling only buys 0:59 Singapore dollars. A half-century later there aren’t any prizes for guessing which country has the better business savvy.

Approaching Lagos’ shoreline from twenty-five km, there are fishing boats.

Way out at sea, before the shipping channels, buoys and city lights emerge, basic small craft little more than dug-outs with modest outboard engines and outriggers drift around.

You wonder why they are so far out and also wonder how they navigate back in darkness,

In answer to why the boats fish so distantly is because sheer demand for fish in near-coastal waters has depleted stocks.

And concerning navigation the boats are steered back by the stars and moon, not GPS.

But the fish shortages are symbolic of the insatiable demands of a city of 21.5 million, a typical rural to urban migration pattern in which people relocate to Lagos to access food, jobs and medical care, but in the process stretch resources to breaking point.

Although you would think that Nigeria’s abundance of oil would alleviate that.

Having said that, this world exporter of oil receives both a blessing and a curse from this vital export – every fifth litre of fuel pumped into UK garages is from Nigeria.

Anyway, it’s a blessing because State income increases, but on the other hand, so does inequality and poverty. Furthermore, Nigeria has had five military coups since 1960 and its government corruption is well-documented – Swiss bank accounts, London mansions – it’s a predictable pattern.

So Presidents come and go, and one notable was the fascinatingly-named Goodluck Jonathan, head of state 2010-15 who transformed Nigeria’s economy to overtake South Africa and Egypt in GDP.

Nice work, President Goodluck Jonathan – oil money and your policies helped modernise Nigeria – but this didn’t absolve others from corruption scandals which according toThe Economist, let ‘politicians and their cronies fill their pockets with impunity.’ (1)

As one UN department states:

‘Corruption is identified as one of the main spoilers of Nigeria’s aspiration to lift more than 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in 10 years.’  (2)

Nonetheless, corruption is a criminal offence, but in Lagos mega-city, the engine-room of the banking, manufacturing and service economy, it’s hard to imagine dash – that Nigerian slang-word for a bribe – not being part of daily life.

Dash is both an everyday noun and a verb: you give someone a dash, ie, money, or dashing them before signing the dotted line. If anyone does own up to dash in high office they may claim it circumvents red tape and speeds up business, although there’s little evidence of that amidst power outages, public transportation and garbage disposal failures.

With 21.5 million people competing for jobs, food and housing and 70% of that number under the age of 30-years-old, it’s hard to see Lagos’ infrastructure improving. And in a city which employs many within the informal sector as car washers, shoe shiners and traders, equally hard to see where future taxation is going to come from.

Anyway, so much for statistics and scholarly facts.

But for those who sailed into Lagos in the 1970’s the images of the city weren’t much different. There were well-established liner routes to Liverpool by Elder Dempster, Palm Line and Nigerian National Line and many saw Lagos from a merchant seaman’s eyes; in fact, it was more of a sailor’s city than the business and tourism model it is now.

In 1975 the population was 1.9 million – now Lagos is home to 21.5 million. Many seafarers will recognise slums such as this: Makoko, a slum fishing village partly on stilts.

Makoko has hardly changed in appearance since 1975 except that such hovels have multiplied exponentially.

No-one however would want to spend much time in Makoko. Most guys headed downtown to typical sailors’ bars such as Club 21 and 22, but Lagos itself was dangerous enough and nobody was advised to visit alone considering the number of ‘area boys’ – or small-time criminals – who prowl around exhorting and robbing money. Ship’s crews would label them ‘shore pilots’ taking into account their tactics in luring sailors to typically (quote) ‘a bar with cheap beer and nice girls.’

I always followed the safety in numbers strategy when ashore, and happily didn’t know of anyone who became a crime victim except one bloke who got separated from us. Apparently he foolishly ventured outside the bar and was swiftly mugged by area boys who stripped him of his money, watch, trainers and all his clothing, minus boxer shorts.

No-one knew why he didn’t return to the bar for help until the disclosure that an elderly lady from a Pentecostal church found him dazed but otherwise unharmed. Low on money, as most Nigerians are, she nevertheless called a taxi to escort him back to the ship. The story seemed to tail off then until John, (he’s got to stay anonymous even years later) returned to the dock gate presumably fully-dressed.

He had brought a wad of money, but the Christian lady had left before he could repay her tender-heartedness in the only way he could.

This ultimately heartwarming story could sum up the desperation of poverty-stricken Lagos, but conversely it could sum up the city’s human kindness – aren’t there similarities the world over?

In Lagos, by the way, religion is split roughly 50/50 between Christian and Muslim. Church-goers usually have what is known as a fired-up congregation with much singing and movement. Despite some pastors and clergy being wealthy individuals, help is given to minority groups such as single mothers and victims of abuse, whilst the Islamic faith has their own Islamic Relief Foundation of Nigeria covering the same social help for needy people.

Anyway, back in 1975 Lagos wasn’t a tourist city, but a favourite afternoon out for ship crews was the Balogun Market which covers dozens of streets.

It’s still there – a riot of colour, noise and chaotic energy – ‘money makes the world go round’ – seems to apply here and it sells all kinds of both legal and misappropriated stuff. Guys would barter for fabrics, mahogany carvings and other things they didn’t need.

But time goes by quickly and in 2012 I sailed back to a very different Lagos from 1975.

As an aside, I might not have got off the ship at all due to very security-conscious skipper who forbade shore leave.

There had been a spate of vehicle hijackings – mostly high-value embassy SUV’s – because of this the skipper was spooked and wouldn’t issue crew shore passes.

Well, it’s widely known that merchant seamen are urged on by dangerous places and we found that gate security cops didn’t balk about issuing passes (they didn’t even want dash). It was now dark and we slyly got two taxis to the central business district amazed to find shiny high-rise buildings, plush hotels and malls – and ATM’s everywhere.

There were bar/restaurants and hotels equal to anywhere in Europe: Irish bars, a Hardrock Cafe, Radisson Blu and Sheraton hotels, plus many local start-ups, all modern and comfortable – we got the feeling that Nigerian technological change is the driver of development despite the appalling gulf between rich and poor.

Spot the difference! This classy poolside hotel is scarcely a mile from the Makoko slums. The price per night for a stay is approximately £230. Which would probably buy food and rent for a Makoko family for a month.

Of the latter poor people, all was still evident in the expanding slums and dangerous streets although within the city CBD we felt safer knowing armed security guards were everywhere.

Area boys still skulked around – indeed they had now advanced to exhorting cash from commercial bus and taxi operators – hardly a white-collar crime nonetheless.

We drank beers in different bars and returned well after midnight correctly assuming the skipper would be in bed (hurray!, he was), and we even gave some cold Coca-Cola to the dock gate guards as a thank you.

That same afternoon, we did a nostalgia trip to the Balogun market and little had changed except that the merchandise was more new millennium stuff, ie, computer accessories, CD’s, sportswear and similar.

Nigerian traders are excellent and shrewd businesspeople – over the centuries they’ve traded in crops, animals, gold, and tragically, humans too.

So we never got great deals on our haggling.

To give the government credit there are social indicators that both crime and unemployment figures are down whilst literacy rates are up – indicators which usually point to future social stability.

So an interesting insight on a developing country.

I thought again about the demands of rapid population growth there. That Nigeria has depleted its forests so much that it is now a net importer of timber (3); and then I thought about the fish – the same fish being caught further and further from the Atlantic coastline in small boats because human population has increased over 10 times since the seventies.

How will they cope if the population doubles again by 2070?

The civic leaders of such a mega-city – to put this in perspective 42 million people would live in a land area the size of Merseyside and the Wirral – would face a frightening prospect.

Perhaps now’s the time for them to get their ducks in a row before it’s too late.

REFERENCES:

(1 http://www.

economist.org.uk 26/01/2016, Nigerian election, (accessed 03/11/2023)

(2 unodc.org (Dec 2019), Corruption in Nigeria – Patterns and Trends, (accessed 05/11/2023)

(3 global timber.org.uk (05/01/2016) After exhausting its own forests..… (accessed 05/11/2023)

Those of us in Liverpool who subscribe to the National Geographic (global readership estimates: 9.5 mn), may have read the November 2021 edition: How centuries of immigration has changed culture and communities of Liverpool.

It sounds like a dissertation title for a humanities degree, but the magazine’s write-up of Liverpool’s claim to be a world city – a city in which culture and communities have influenced hospitality accords well with critics.

Although Geographic’s metaphor of Liverpool’s citizenry being a stew – a scouse – of various ingredients does seem a tad patronising, we should remember that this Washington DC publication is teaching the non-UK world about Liverpool’s ethnic diversity through the various ingredients of a dish of scouse.

So we’d best cut Geographic some slack; after all viewing Liverpool as a stew of communities is, in fact, a good literary device.

Anyway, Geographic’s premise is that Liverpool’s immigration has founded the city it is today and quotes Stephen Yip, son of a Chinese merchant seaman, and himself a former councillor and mayoral candidate who states:

Our hospitality is second to none and as Scousers we all know what it’s like to be strangers in the room. We’re resilient.

(1)

Mr Yip has much history to draw upon from Liverpool’ s modest origin as a fishing village to a major port city in the space of a few centuries.

The start point of Liverpool’s wealth was the vile trade of slavery and no apologies can ever compensate for the human misery inflicted by bankers, MP’s, shipowners et al.

It is a total blot on humanity and should never be forgotten.

Still, the Slavery Museum at a Pier Head reveals the whole evil business confirming the city has at least confronted and apologised for slavery through public statements and communiques.

In contrast, the city of Bristol – the first port involved in the ‘Africa trade’ – had yet to issue a public apology to the year 2021, and unless news passes me by still has not done so.

But returning to the Geographic and the word ‘hospitality’ recurs often, so it’s best to figure out which context it’s being used; after all it’s nothing to do with booking a hotel room on Tripadvisor.com, for example.

It’s more or less interchangeable with the word ‘welcoming’ but again, not in the commercial sense.

Instead, hospitality is about free space where strangers can enter and become friends instead of enemy. It’s also the key to new ideas, friends and possibilities.

So the tourist website Lonelyplanet.com concludes that amongst buzzwords such as ‘vibe’ and ‘lively’ Liverpool is:

‘One of the warmest and friendliest  cities in northern England.’ 

(2)

Quite a tribute to Liverpool and scouseness, but it still doesn’t explain how hospitality has been influenced by emigres – the largest number being of Ireland’s Great Famine of 1857 when 2 million emigres landed.

Most were in transit to North America and Australia, but others had no money to go anywhere else and stayed.

Which is the main reason why 75% of residents claim Irish roots – arguably the most iconic Scousers being the Beatles who all have Irish ancestry.

It was the first large wave of migrants soon followed by Chinese seafarers.

And the timeline of Chinese residents goes back almost two centuries to the Alfred Holt steamship company when Chinese crews settled from cities such as Hong Kong and Shanghai.

Sure they worked for low wages; in WW2 they went on strike to claim the same pay and war bonus as British seafarers – unfortunately as Chinese they were forced to compromise.

This is part of Liverpool’s rich tapestry but just as Irish culture was subsumed, Chinese culture altered the communities of Liverpool; lesser influences included Scandinavian, Polish, Somali and Yemeni.

These are a few examples, but again the city’s connection with the sea was underlined by hundreds of thousands of merchant seafarers sailing in and out. 

Chinese men often married British women, had Eurasian children and mainly lived in what is now called Chinatown itself around Nelson Street. This Liverpool Chinatown is the oldest Chinese community in Europe. And although the original seafaring West African community predates Irish immigration, with some Gold Coast seamen partnering British women, the Somali and Sudanese communities are also the oldest in all of Europe.

The term intergenerationally-mixed seems a modern description, but many Chinese and African communities trace their own ethnicity, plus English, Irish and Scots in their respective family trees.

Some residents today describe themselves on census forms as ‘Liverpool/Black’ rather than ‘British/Black’ such is the desire for uniqueness.

So not only did merchant seafarers and migrants build communities, but the port was soon classed as second to London in terms of prosperity. 

But wealth was not shared equitably with emigres. Rich folks lived in Mossley Hill, but tens of thousands of Irish immigrants paid rent in cramped Kirkdale and Everton tenements; Chinese lived in city centre tenements, whilst African and Caribbean migrants resided mainly in dock areas and Toxteth. 

All wanted to better themselves; certainly in Ireland starvation was enough incentive, and the Irish brought their own work ethic and sense of neighbourliness.

They stood up for themselves and social fairness, and the Gaelic Irish saying: Ni neart go cur le cheile (In unity is strength) was very relevant.

And, of course, as migrants do everywhere, the Chinese and Black people gravitated to their own diasporas, worked or developed businesses too.

The phenomena of social integration continued amidst socialist ideals and Liverpool was the first UK city to build public housing (in Vauxhall, 1860); the first Citizens Advice Bureau and the concept of soup kitchens.(3)

The roots of socialism began with two local Fabian Society members, but it wasn’t long before urgent agenda such as clean piped water was acted upon – this following on from terrible cholera outbreaks.

At this point, all communities fought for safe, non-privatised water, just as in later years campaigns were launched for nationalisation of gas, electricity and transport – an obvious example of citizens pulling together.

A socialist utopia? Not quite, and it would be naive to assume that all three components of integration, I.e. social, economic and identity integration, all came together easily.

For example, Irish faced discrimination because of their Catholic faith; Chinese were denied work on the docks and Black people were denied both job and housing opportunities in many places.

In what we now call ‘scapegoating’ – or blaming society’s ills on minorities – a Bermudan ex-Royal Navy seaman, Mr Charles Wootton, following a 1919 protest over job allocations, was chased by a mob.

Ultimately, Mr Wootton was lynched and thrown into a dock – no-one was ever charged with his murder.

IN MEMORIAM: 

Mr Charles Wootton, a Bermudan seafarer murdered by a mob of white Liverpool residents in 1919.

It is believed that the murder was motivated by news of foreign workers securing employment ahead of WW1 returned servicemen. No evidence supported this – in fact in today’s world we’d probably call it ‘fake news’ – but the attack became a case of ‘scapegoating’, Mr Wootton was buried in a pauper’s grave without recognition until 2012 when a headstone to him was placed in Anfield cemetery.

Later persecution of Chinese seafarers occurred shortly after WW2 with mass deportations which was especially unjust as 20,000 Chinese had crewed UK merchant vessels throughout the Battle of the Atlantic. These men, with or without papers, were arrested and deported often in the middle of the night, the rationale being that they were deemed ‘troublemakers’ by shipping companies.

Whole families suffered with wives and children separated from husbands and fathers; indeed upon arrival back in China these seafarers dare not compromise their own safety by communicating with Liverpool. Such was the fear of the Chinese Communist authorities – in a land ironically alien and unfriendly to them.

So at this point amidst scapegoating and persecutions it’s easy to assume that this is a racist city.

But difficult as it is to quantify, post-WW1 scapegoating attacks on Blacks occurred in other UK areas including London, Manchester and Cardiff and there is no evidence to suggest that even today other ugly aspects of racism are more prevalent in Liverpool.

Of the unfortunate Chinese deportees, they were the largest group of Chinese merchant seamen in the UK and were expelled by Whitehall’s directive – not by Liverpool council.

In short had they resided in London or Cardiff, for example, their fate would have been similar.

But as years rolled on, the port moved from one upheaval to another. Following the social unrest of post WW1, came the Great Depression, thence WW2 and bombing rendered 74,000 people dead or homeless.

After WW2 came a short prosperous period, but with further recessions jobs were continuously being shed. At one point in the 1980’s there were 55,000 unemployed in Liverpool which would be approximately 10% of the population.

But when calculated as a percentage of working-age population it is clear that this unemployment figure would have been as high as possibly 16%.

Two years of Westminster cuts did nothing for people. And then came the 1981 Toxteth riots, a real show of anger against government apathy which continued beyond 2011 when reports released under the 30-year rule disclosed that senior Tories recommended the then PM Margaret Thatcher should abandon Liverpool to a fate of ‘managed decline.’

(4)

Plenty of moral revulsion abounds with words like ‘managed decline’ – how did Scousers feel about their city being left on the scrap heap?

Which meant that after paying taxes to central government all their lives, that the government would stop subsidies, disinvest in infrastructure and generally ignore decisions made at local level was monstrous.

But perhaps there’s a link with one of Thatcher’s acerbic quotes: ‘there’s no such thing as society.’

So as one war in Liverpool ended in 1945, another one – a propaganda war – kicked off. 

If it wasn’t Thatcher or the lies of the Sun newspaper, it was political spite or the vicious myths of the BBC – consistently the one about high crime rates loomed large (Liverpool doesn’t even make the top10 of UK city crime tables, by the way).

(5)

Too bad though that BBC updates don’t mention the fact that Liverpool far right demonstrations rarely succeed.

An exception was the storming of a Knowsley migrant hotel in February 2023, the residents housed by the Home Office were terrorised by a large mob which ultimately resulted in violence.

There is a caveat however and to report from a local Knowsley newspaper which states:

‘few of those gathered represented Knowsley or local people’.’

(6)

Firebombing of this refugee hotel was shameful, but even if we conclude that the BBC didn’t over-report the incident to increase negative perceptions of Liverpool, the damage of scapegoating vulnerable people, ie, the asylum-seekers themselves, was already under way.

Nonetheless, Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram countered the next day: ‘our area has been a sanctuary for people seeking refuge for centuries. Hate is not welcome here.’

(7)

Many would support Mr Rotheram’s  statement insofar as antifascism is a core element of Scouse uniqueness – one only needs to look at the 2019 election results to see that.

And if the BBC investigated attempted National Front rallies in Liverpool they’d find the NF are always countered by a bigger antifascist contingent, as witnessed through the 1990’s Rock against Racism movement.

Similar grassroots protests preceded WW2 for when (Sir) Oswald Mosley and his hateful speeches turned up at Walton in 1937 he was pelted with bricks.

He never returned to Liverpool.

August 2023 and immigrant workers in Liverpool: at various times of the day Uber and Deliveroo riders assemble near Bold Street to collect deliveries from McDonalds, Taco Bell, et al.

Just as overseas workers were compelled to do heavy and unsociable work in the past, these guys work hard in all weathers, have scant legal protection and often little recognition – to keep us all connected with our love of fast food.

Anyway, a strong Irish and seafaring immigrant sub-culture has given a sense of detachment and uniqueness from the rest of the country.

The uniqueness is used positively with good reason as a foil against the Londoncentric powers and culture of Westminster.

But noting that the word hospitality figures often, a common thread connects with that of adversity and this city has experienced plenty of that tough cookie.

Resilience is the child of adversity – a concept explored by the National Geographic and elaborated upon by the aforementioned Mr Stephen Yip that adversity breeds empathy and compassion too.

By learning support and kindness of others, we may feel the need to offer the same support to others in need.

For sure –  and forty years on – Margaret Thatcher’s dismissive put-down of Liverpool (‘no such thing as society’) was misguided.

But by contrast, National Geographic accurately reports of Liverpool communities, but also determines they and it’s citizens have big, beating hearts too.

References:

1) National geographic.co.uk/01/12/21/ How centuries of immigration have shaped culture and communities in Liverpool (accessed 24/07/2023)

2) lonely planet.com/09/08/21/ Liverpool/ (accessed 12/07/2023)

3) en.Wikipedia.com/30/06/23/housing in Liverpool/ (accessed 12/08/2023)

4) London School of Economics/ blogs.lse.ac.uk/17/01/19/

 The Leaving of Liverpool/ (accessed 05/09/2023

5) Simplisafe/09/05/22Crime in Liverpool (from police stats)/(accessed 07/09/2023)

6) http://www.Liverpool

echo.co.uk/ 11/02/23/ Knowsley hotel riot…/ (accessed 01/09/2023)

7) ibid

Wise words, but actually joining a ship these days isn’t smooth seas and takes skill just to get through the paperwork.

The 1970’s were different: you’d casually sling your bag in the cabin, walk to the bridge and sign on followed by a visit to the crew bar to meet shipmates – no strangers, just friends you’ve never met.

Or if there wasn’t a crew bar, instead you’d go to the nearest dockside pub. In Liverpool’s extensive docks, it could be the Caradoc in Seaforth, or the Pier Head’s Baltic Fleet.

In Southampton, home to the liners, you’d sign on and thereafter visit the Royal Standard.

This seafarers’ boozer came to life especially on Wednesday when a new crew would arrive for the forty-two day voyage to South African ports sailing on a Friday.

Only a few minutes from the Union Castle berth, even if unlucky to cop a harbour watch you could return to the Standard later in the evening.

There was a carefree atmosphere as blokes looked forward to sailing to foreign ports out in the sunshine; indeed, all human life was in these pubs providing a great social hub for seamen.

It didn’t end there because after sailing, both crew and officer bars would be open providing a sea-going social hub.

So ashore and afloat, guys would talk about myriad subjects, especially their events of ‘last trip’ when they sailed to other destinations:  Australia & New Zealand, North America, Japan, etc, were all highly-rated; by contrast, South Africa wasn’t highly rated – most crews slammed the injustices of Pretoria’s apartheid, especially the cops who prevented us socialising with local black people.

Which begged the question: ‘why are you going there?’

The answer usually involved a need to get away anywhere – nothing wrong with that, I thought.

We’re all professional seafarers needing a job.

Eventually, Union Castle’s SA service was withdrawn as were similar liner runs from Liverpool.

However it is ironic that in 2023 after years of capital flight, flagging-out and job-shedding of the UK merchant fleet, the Caradoc, Baltic Fleet and Royal Standard pubs have all survived – the Standard doing especially well as a gastropub/listed building.

No doubt here – someone’s run successful and responsible enterprises over the years and it’s not UK shipping companies either.

But returning to signing on and it’s a fact is that today’s seafarer has a far more sober experience and would not be allowed to proceed further than top of the gangway before ID is double-checked – if you’re joining a cruise ship it’s worse, for your bags go through a scanner (probably best to leave that bottle of Bacardi at home!).

During your ‘processing’ you’re given a numbered ID card – it’s useful to copy the ID to your phone, by the way, because if lost ashore it’s difficult to convince dockside security that you’re not a terrorist.

You also receive a PIN code for the internet.

Time to sign on. Don’t have any ideas of a quick squiggle on the articles and adjourning to the pub because (taking ages) all your documentation will also be double-checked.

The captain understandably has to be thorough however. I sailed for three weeks with an engineer whose ENG (medical certificate) expired at sea from New York – no-one bothered to check and arrange a new medical leaving the US – lots of embarrassment all round (I think the whole incident was brushed under the carpet before the MCA knew).

Officially committed to the voyage, in previous times you’d look forward to a beer, but instead you receive a short lecture about alcohol/zero tolerance/substances applicable for the entire duration of the contract. Having said that some companies do issue beer albeit on a controlled basis, but more about that later.

The accommodation block is quiet. Compared to old ships with the constant chatter of people passing through alleyways; cabin doors clanging amidst a faint smell of diesel, there’s a strange sterility accompanied by just the soft hum of air conditioning. Plenty of whiteboards with instructions not to do this or that, but overwhelmingly you notice there’s no-one around except for the guy who is escorting you to your cabin (‘we’re only minimum manning’, he says).

Hours of processing ensues: familiarisation tours around the ship; memorising the designated person ashore’s name; safety briefs; PPE and work clothes issue – and you may even have time to check out the recreation room and gym.

The ‘rec’ room is pale veneer, Scandinavian furniture with a large screen TV and cupboards full of DVDs and paperbacks, whilst the gym has expensive state-of-the-art equipment.

Similarly, the cabins are liveable with tv’s, en suite and framed prints of English pastoral scenes.

The downside is that of the crew members not on duty, most seem to spend their time behind cabin doors – on this vessel I rarely saw anyone in the nicely-furnished recreation room.

It’s vastly different on a cruise ship but on this vessel from the hours 19:00-06:00 it was a rarity to see anyone at all.

Fast-forward one week later and it was plain to see why crew numbers are drastically reduced: for example, this is the age of modernity and engine and auxiliary systems self-diagnose (less need to get the spanners out); most food is pre-packaged and frozen; even high-tech ship’s paint needs fewer crew to maintain it, whilst the radio communications are replaced by the internet.

By the way, the internet is not widely loved; for sure, it’s instant communication and crew do not wait weeks or months for letters from home any more. A dad can Skype his family and sports fans can follow live football.

But after a week aboard a modern ship, one big complaint – especially from skippers and chief engineers – is the sheer volume of unnecessary emails they spend time dealing with.

And the second complaint is from crew about the slow speed and limited bandwidth the company provides. It’s usually ok for emails and pictures but trying to access a website in which, perhaps, you’d like to send a present to your partner, for example, proves difficult.

This bit is easily remedied should the notoriously tight shipowner spend more money, of course.

In response, shipowners would say they do spend money, albeit this money is on ease of access and communication for commercial purposes – not crew welfare. So from the crew side there’s a huge level of distrust over the internet. All are resentful of the way the internet intrudes and monitors day-to-day life.

For example, head office’s internet link would register the first time a PIN code is entered, but it also knows the exact time a permit to work was signed on/off; an hours-of-rest form is submitted – it even knows through a computerised a la carte menu what the crew are having for lunch.

Similarly, by way of live camera from variousmarine websites it can also check out the weather we’re having and condition of deck paintwork as the ship navigates to the next port.

Another bizarre routine involves some of the more enlightened companies which do permit crews to have a small daily allowance of beer (usually two cans of 3.8% beer), but insist that the transaction is recorded.

So the company is updated on the time you drank your first can of beer to the time you open the second – all this from thousands of miles away when it’s 21:00 Pacific Time, but 14:00 in a London office.

Nonetheless, such companies – typically, UK environmental research ships – do accept that controlled alcohol contributes to a social life, something severely lacking on a ‘dry’ ship.

In support of this we could consider the following based upon a study of mainly Filipino seafarers:

The International Maritime Health Journal commissioned a report which warned that ‘the effect on seafarer’s mental health through excess exposure to the internet cannot be over-exaggerated.’

(1)

Briefly, it states that studies of 150, mainly Filipino, seafarers found that those who spent the longest off-duty periods online were nearly 3 times more likely to have on-board anxiety problems.

(2)

So it’s not such a simple toss-up in deciding whether the internet provides more opportunities than limitations, but instead a question of social isolation at sea being bad for mental health – and every merchant seaman knows the answer to that one.

Meanwhile so much for the week’s outward bound voyage in a strange ‘down the rabbit hole experience’ and are now tied up in Valencia, Spain.

Valencia is Spain’s second largest port city and traditionally very welcoming too – so who wouldn’t want to go ashore?

Which changed when the skipper cheerfully announced ‘we’re only in for ten hours’, adding that ‘if anyone needs shopping ashore, let me know’ (in other words it’s doubtful if anyone will get shore leave). This very shortened turnaround period is normal these days; indeed on super-sized container vessels carrying 12k TEU’s it’s usual to get just 4 hours alongside in Singapore.

Due to lack of cargo we stayed in Valencia for four days instead – happily the internet didn’t figure in ‘pegging-out’ to go ashore – but if you wanted to wash the salt from your throat, so to speak, there’s always the worry of a D&A test (Drug & Alcohol) on return.

The D&A team always turn up unannounced early morning; I have witnessed a few guys being found ‘over the limit’ – ultimately they’re sacked and maritime safety notwithstanding, it’s viewed as a particularly sneaky move by the shipping company.

In contrast, European port security guards are mainly easy-going on crews returning to their respective ships: keep quiet, show your ID and you’re ok.

However in the US, especially in ports manned by the Coast Guard, there have been incidents where captains have been notified of crew at the gate ‘seeming the worse for drink.’

Make of it what you will, but life isn’t smooth seas anymore.

Instead it’s similar to life ashore in its need to turnover money faster and regularly. 

I probably would have been more accepting of this fact had I not chanced upon an online Telegraph (UK) presenting an article titled Sea no evil: the life of a modern sailor (25/01/2011).

Very informative, the Telegraph concludes that most modern-day seafarers are simply ‘prisoners with a salary’ (3) and after narrating this true-life article of my own I’m inclined to agree.

REFERENCES:

1) Nautilus International (15/06/2021) Social media may damage mental well-being at sea,

(accessed 28/09/2023)

2) Ibid

3) onlinetelegraph, (25/01/2011) Sea no evil: the life of a modern sailor,  (accessed 27/09/2023)

On my first trip (1972) I must have been lucky in assuming that all the ship’s company including the skipper were working class.

After all, only the shipowners – prosperous as far as I could tell in pin-stripe suits with homes in Essex or the Wirral – did nothing.

Such naïveté came before understanding realities such as the division of labour, the role of power and class differences, etc. 

Remember that old joke?

What’s the difference between the middle class and the working class?

The former take a shower before work whilst the latter take a shower after work – or so it goes. 

But as we all know everyone showers at all times of the day.

Anyway, my first trip was aboard a tanker with little to shake me from my belief of an all working-class ship.

The skipper no doubt had plenty of paperwork and supervision to attend to, whilst the navigating officers plotted the course and maintained safety equipment. The AB’s were always busy on cargo watch or else chipping and painting, whilst the engineers, motormen, cooks and stewards had their manual work too.

Except for just one engineer, no-one seemed from a privileged public-school background although this one engineer, due to speaking with a slightly plummy voice, was soon known as ‘the toff.’

Despite this moniker though, he was indeed a nice guy – just a little quiet.

Some people’s perceptions of others can be unfair, I thought.

So after seven months on the tanker, I later joined companies such as Union Castle, P&O and RFA, realising that although all the ship’s company did work for a living, there was a strong apparatus of social distancing and privilege.

And the class system was plain to see in the officers’ superior living quarters. Okay, I understood hierarchy, privilege and power – parallels exist in boardrooms vs the factory floor – but I couldn’t understand the wide inequalities in living standards on this P&O vessel: of air-conditioned cabins for officers only; of a dining saloon where officers had steward service, and a well-stocked officers’ bar whilst crew had no bar at all and were allowed only four cans of beer per day.

This latter particularly rankled when I thought of several older crew members – all WW2 veterans (this was 1972, don’t forget) – denied a fifth beer whilst a first-trip officer cadet could theoretically drink his fill.

No wonder anyone would call this one advantage ‘unearned, exclusive and socially conferred.’

And as you can imagine, there was much simmering resentment from crew that P&O especially was one of the worst in the Merchant Navy for social apartheid. 

The crew reminded me that a certain second mate was ex-public school whilst a previous double-barrelled named chief officer was nicknamed Lord Snooty on account of his high-handed manner.

On this and I although I didn’t meet the bloke, I thought the description a bit misplaced because as I remembered of the Beano comic, Lord Snooty was a bit of an aristocratic outlaw – a likeable toff – who preferred playing with the working-class kids.

Whether true or not, Lord Snooty’s real comic persona is applied to anyone who the crew thinks have big ideas about themselves. Amazing stuff from a kid’s comic!

Let’s however excuse the lads their oversight and returning to the haughty second mate, he was overheard telling the cadet beyond the chart room curtain that he considered (quote) ‘Liverpool such an awful place.’ And of course, this uncalled for remark soon travelled round the ship boosting his unpopularity further!

But at this point the experience of sailing with ex-public schoolboys was a mixed bag.

Some were self-entitled upper-class twits, but many, many more were great blokes: sociable, friendly and helpful and it wasn’t until I related this observation ashore that the guy in question maintained that at public school pupils were guided to socialise and converse at all societal levels.

‘To not do so’ he added, ‘would betray the ideals of egalitarianism taught us.’

Hmmm! – that’s interesting, I thought.

Anyway, back at sea and by the seventies, newer vessels were built with single cabins and en-suite showers for all; by this time I understood that officers and petty officers who kidded themselves they weren’t working-class were instead victims of the shipowners’ old trick of ‘divide and rule’ , ie, give one group of workers something better than the other.

The result being that they potentially fight each other, not the employer.

Still, in earlier times differences were more marked and in Morris Beckman’s excellent WW2 autobiography Flying the Red Duster the author writes of the disciplinarian iron-fisted captain. But his real venom was directed at a swindling chief steward who, in his pursuit of cutting feeding costs  produced ‘inedible food at the officers’ saloon table’. (1)

However he notes even worse ‘ghastly slop’ was given to the foc’s’le crew. Why inferior food was given there he didn’t say.

I found that the Union Castle Line’s class distinction was as bad as P&O.

There was even social distancing between mates and engineers, the latter often looked down upon because of their manual jobs.

On the Pendennis Castle a shining example was on the South African coast when the entire engine crew was instructed to ‘wash our hands thoroughly after leaving the engine room.’

The reason being was that several Lord Snooty’s, using the deck handrails and resplendent in their tropical uniforms, were whingeing about getting black smudge marks on the white fabric. What a shame!

But it couldn’t have been worse than than the war years.

As Professor Tony Lane reports in The Merchant Seaman’s War: Tommy Power, a Liverpool AB on a Union Castle troopship was accused of a trivial offence of ‘skylarking’ in the mess room one night.

Whatever vague term skylarking was the master convened a makeshift court with proceedings to which Power said:

‘There was this little bastard giving us a lecture. You’d think we were at Liverpool Crown Court the way they were reading all sorts of charges out.’

(2)

We don’t know the type of punishment he received those years ago – today however, such arbitrary ‘justice’ would be illegal.

However, as the following pics denote class distinction was underlined by this contrast in standards of accommodation:

In the 1970’s there were similar class distinctions of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary ships. Indeed, even at time of writing, RFA officers work a 3 month on/off rota whilst ratings work 3 months on/2 off rota.

And as one insider and critic of the RFA’s class distinction confided one particular trip:

‘Some young entrants to the RFA colleges are rejects from an armed forces application – their high credentials from public schools aren’t matched by their academic work there.

So the RFA takes them instead.’

So, hurray! – that’s alright then – the country’s safe, I thought, but I didn’t sign on any more RFA ships. The first one – RFA Black Rover, a fleet tanker – was excellent due to a very progressive skipper who wanted to change the whole pro-establishment ethos. He made a point of addressing each crew member by first name; encouraged inter-departmental darts crib, and domino tournaments; secured extra welfare funding for gym equipment movies, etc and in general fostered a very happy ship.

But the second RFA reverted to type – that is to say, a quasi-military organisation in which personnel were strictly distanced according to rank. This one embraced all the sea-going establishment stuff which the Royal Navy-wannabes enjoyed.

It’s time to go, I concluded.

The notion that the shipboard hierarchical structure was there because it was dangerous work with little room for trial and error had limited validity in explaining why living standards  varied.

But as the years rolled on I became more philosophical about shipboard class distinctions because I knew shipowners promoted such distinction to reduce dissent over pay and conditions.

The Lord Snooty-types hardly went away, but I was equally aware of another phenomenon – that of some guys sympathetic to a ‘working-class’ mentality known as reverse snobbery.

It wasn’t hard to figure out: distance yourself from someone who has worked hard for their professional certificate because it’s ‘not for the likes of us.’

To me this was just as bad indeed.  Not for the likes of us?  Why not?

Why live a life of self-imposed limitations?

For in today’s Merchant Navy there is every opportunity to enable ratings to gain their certificate and I have sailed with sufficient captains and chief engineers who were ex-deck boys and motormen respectively.

Most turned out to be good officers too – they would be after knowing all the dodges!

But from whatever angle to class distinction, as more minority groups especially women and overseas entrants go to sea (and long may this continue), class distinction will continue to weaken.

With the result that life at sea is becoming much more tolerable with little difference in quality of accommodation but a huge improvement in feeding standards.

But after fifty years there are still lads and girls maintaining engines, cleaning, chipping and painting, preparing food, steering a course, plus the hundreds of other jobs aboard ship.

So despite whatever sociologists might argue about social stratification, I still maintain we’re all still working class out on that blue ocean.

REFERENCES

1) Beckmann, M ( 2011) Flying The Red Duster, p.68, Spellmount.

2) Lane, T. Prof, ( 2000) The Merchant Seaman’s War, p.170, Manchester University Press.

Statues on Dublin quayside commemorate the victims of the 1847 Famine. 

The appalling conditions of coffin ships was documented by one Robert Whyte, a passenger and journalist who, in his book ‘The Journey of an Irish Coffin Ship’  (1847) wrote of the desperation: of emigres denied food, clean water and medical attention – indeed, typhus, dysentery and starvation were part of the sometimes fifty percent mortality rate of each ship.

Rats and fleas were present thereby exacerbating more disease, whilst sharks regularly followed the ship for bodies tossed overboard.

Few passengers were forewarned of the raging epidemics in primitive sleeping quarters, but Whyte noted that even cattle were given food and water on ships’ passage, and concluded this terrible toll was due to an indifferent British government overlooking the practices of corrupt shipowners and captains.

So corrupt that had 1847 been an era of open media as of today, perhaps famine victims might have decided staying in Ireland a better option.

Anyway, back to the Jeanie Johnson which was a vessel run by a humanitarian captain and owner with the presence of a doctor aboard.

As noted, the ship was clean and well-run; indeed, it seemed the emphasis on sanitation pioneered in Captain James Cook’s voyages a century earlier stood them in good stead.

But still astonishing in making comparison to coffin-ships is that this ship made sixteen trans-Atlantic voyages to Quebec, Baltimore and New York and, at no time lost one single passenger.

She certainly had a schedule, sailing with passengers and returning homeward-bound with much-needed timber.

So busy that the local newspaper commented:

Day after day our quays are crowded with people seeking American ships, and no sooner is a ship’s departure for that prosperous land announced than she is filled.

(The Chronicle and Munster Advertiser, March 1847).

The ship’s home port was Tralee, Co Kerry; convenient on two counts: firstly, it was close by many of Ireland’s famine-impoverished counties of the West, and secondly, it was distant from Dublin away from the prying eyes of the British government – although facts imply that the emigrant ships were callously seen by London as a solution to the problem.

A berth on the Jeanie Johnson cost £3:80 (around two thousand euro in today’s prices), but as large families were the norm €2k multiplied several times was prohibitive.

Many chose to sign-up to indentured Canadian labour contracts on arrival – often for seven years – to pay off the cost such was their abject poverty.

Once aboard, a three-quarter size bunk aboard the ship would be occupied by five people out of a 230 maximum.

So the 46 bunks were double-stacked, and as any experienced merchant seaman knows, it’s always best to go for the lower mainly for ease of access.

Of the Jeanie Johnson bunks however, the opposite was true – unless of course a person in the lower didn’t mind being covered in vomit (most passengers had never seen the ocean before, let alone sailed the North Atlantic).

And despite the shipshape efforts, the voyage lasting six weeks would often see green seas, sewage and bilge water washing into the accommodation.

On the plus side, the JJ voyages were made in spring and summer, whereas some of the coffin ships sailed out in wintertime gales over the North Atlantic with tragic consequences.

The passengers would have plenty to talk about including the fact that despite the Famine, food such as meat, grain, butter and vegetables was still being exported overseas.

And that people living in Dublin had plenty to eat.

Most were bored with the long voyage, but in spite of their emancipated state were willing to lend a hand with shipboard chores.

But it appears that the captain James Attridge was the star of the show.

First, he didn’t overload the ship. For sure, conditions down below were crowded but he signed a doctor on board to deal with ailments.

Secondly, the emigres received adequate food even if much was cornmeal, molasses and bread – even these were unobtainable on most coffin ships.

Thirdly, passengers were quarantined on arrival at Canada’s Grosse Isle  – arguably these passengers were already off the vessel, but nonetheless, quarantine itself prevented further spread of diseases in the port from previous Irish arrivals.

For passengers who finally settled in Canada, the ordeal wasn’t yet over as Robert Whyte describes families succumbing to the harsh Canadian winter.

Although little more is recorded of the Jeanie Johnson’s immigrants into Canada and the USA and reasonably the best source for family history are various genealogy websites.

It can only be assumed that after the traumas they suffered eventually they would make good, thus proving that immigrants are the vitality of a nation.

Of the ship, she later sailed across the Atlantic in 1858 with a cargo of timber – overcome by waves and with the crew unable to further manage the bilge pumps, the ship settled in the water but remained afloat.

Due to her cargo of timber she refused to sink and with the crew now aloft in the rigging to escape the rising waves, they were rescued by a Dutch vessel en route from Amsterdam to New York – again not a single life was lost.

But the coffin ships continued to sail on to North America as well as England.

Indeed, my own great-grandparents from the Famine-stricken county of Galway may have dodged a bullet.

For after arriving in Liverpool with nothing but the ragged clothes on their backs, later that year (1849) the emigre vessel SS Londonderry shamefully recorded the deaths of seventy-two passengers en route from Sligo to Liverpool.

Possibly this tragedy hastened tighter regulation towards 1867, but all along London decreed that regulation was only enforceable from UK and not Irish ports – small wonder that English politicians such as the right-wing Sir Charles Trevelyan’s view on emigration included the cynical quote:

We must not complain, of what we really want to obtain. (1)

Obviously the politician had a very jaundiced view of Irish people, but what isn’t written is there were probably many more Jeanie Johnsons at that time.

Too bad that they too were not recognised, just the same as relief money from British people (British subjects are not the British government) and North America, Australia, Argentina, France, India, et al, received minimum coverage.

The notion that some lives matter less than others is all that’s wrong with the world – a thought that judgemental important people such as Sir Charles Trevelyan should have considered.

FOOTNOTE.

Dublin’s Jeanie Johnson is an exact replica as is possible to get.

Laid down in Tralee in 1993, finances came from diverse sources including the Irish government, American-Irish societies, the EU and many benefactors.

A team of young people, supervised by experienced shipwrights, provided much of the labour.

She has CAT engines and generator, plus all modern safety equipment including fire doors and PPE.

And although construction cost over-ran from €3.8 mn to €13 mn, today the ship still provides sea training, tourist income and a venue for corporate events.

REFERENCES:

1) The Guardian, p.3, Irish Ancestor’s Role Could Merit Compensation, May 1, 2023.

Article written by James Hart