Forgotten Sailors

Metal rigging blocks

Metal rigging blocks under repair; Picture by Nancy Brambleby

The work carries on behind the scenes. These are some of the metal rigging blocks which are being dismantled for cleaning, greasing up and painting, in this case by Boss of Volunteers, Basil.  There’s a lot of this goes on out of sight through the winter. Mark (Nozz) Boyle tells me that some folk even slacken off all the bolts they can get at on things like mast cases and deck winches, grease and re-tighten, just so that they do not seize up and rust over the years. I don’t know if we are being THAT diligent on Cambria but if you get bored over the winter, please do volunteer!

 

My RSS feed from Yachting Monthly has a nice item today written by Dick Durham about the tragic level of suicide (jumping over board) due to loneliness and feelings of being badly treated among modern merchant seamen. “Merchant seamen,” says Rev Andrew Wright, quoted in the article on

http://www.yachtingmonthly.com/news/533186/forgotten-sailors-jumping-overboard ,

” – once held in high regard – are now among the forgotten lost souls of the workplace”

The Rev is determined to raise their profile and has been working alongside the MCA (Maritime and Coastguard Agency) to that end.

The chaplain and director of operations at the Royal National Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen, and honorary chaplain to the Isle of Wight for The Mission to Seafarers, Rev Andrew Wright takes up a new post as Secretary General in February 2013.

 

I will let you read the full article if you are interested.

1 Comment

  1. Nick Ardley

    This touched a raw nerve from my life as a sea going engineer officer…

    I knew of many seafarers who trod close to the edge and heard of some that were tipped over. There were those that locked themselves into a cold room … there was one who took a crankcase door of a large bore engine and stepped inside … and one who stepped off the deck of his ship in the Indian Ocean and was never seen again…

    After a session of bullying, lasting the best part of an eight month trip, I had too had thoughts of, ‘how can I get away from this’ when on a passage to a war zone. Even the command was complicit with my boss, the Chief Engineer Officer, therefore, as the Second, I had no where to go.

    What held me firm, other than having a loving mate and a boy back at home, was the fact that many of the more junior officers were asking me for advice: they were suffering too…

    I rode it out and made a formal complaint to my shore based superiors once off the ship.

    I’m not shoked by learning that this evil is still going on, even though for decades the Merchant Marine has had rules and regs which should have kicked it into touch years ago … I’ll say no more, but this is a serious subject.

    You really need to have been there to fully appreciate this problem and after the ghastly episode of the nurse who took her life after what was bullying by that Sydney radio station more should be done.

    Strange things come up on this forum … however, the Trust does employ seafarers, who, I’m sure are well looked after…

    Nick Ardley (Retired Engineer Officer)

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