Book Review from SW Soundings No.68 (Feb 2007)

The right kind of boy- A portrait of the British sea apprentice, 1830-1980

By David Thomas Price £27.50 Published by Phaiacia ISBN 0-9541981-1-5

With Christmas coming fast I should like to draw members’ attention to this book. It will appeal, in ascending order to those listed below:

Anyone with an interest in the manning of ships and the training of officers at sea
Anyone engaged in research on life at sea during the period, the bibliography and references alone are comprehensive, and the author has a vast collection of documents, which could be of great help to anyone engaged in writing a thesis or serious work on the subject.
Anyone who served at sea in merchant ships particularly before 1980
Anyone who was an indentured apprentice deck officer.
Anyone who went to one of the mercantile marine training ships.

As our merchant fleet has dwindled to a shadow of its former self it is very likely that those who fall into some of the above categories will be of more advancing years with a tendency to swing the lamp and reminisce. The relatives of these old salts will probably find it difficult to find presents to please and absorb the old codger at least for the duration of the holiday period. Some may become a little grumpy and irascible at this time. To those relatives I heartily recommend this book; although not cheap at £27.50 it represents years of careful and thorough research and virtually guarantees peace from the recipient. Families could even club together to get this book.

I should declare an interest; David and I went to HMS Conway and embarked on a seagoing career on leaving in 1961.We were in the same year and in the same class. We have both been shipmasters.

It occurs to me that the life and atmosphere on board a ship at the start of our apprenticeships in different shipping companies, in my case in February 1962, had changed less, even since the days of sail perhaps a hundred years previous than it has changed in the subsequent twenty or so years from that time.

I should now perhaps endeavour to give a flavour of what the book is like.

Its emphasis is on the time since 1830 with the formation of the Honourable Company and the establishment of Sea time and Tickets, but it begins with a look at the origins of apprenticeship in the Middle Ages. It is unique in the genre in focussing on the apprentice, who may appear to have insignificance due to his lowly status when compared with the remainder of a ship’s company, but in reality an apprentice was always the deck officer and Master of the future and as such was often the unwitting author of change.

The book is really a reference book but it is leavened by numerous contemporary quotes many of which have a degree of humour in them. The book starts with the period from the Middle Ages to the industrial revolution, passes on to the period 1830 to 1850 and on to that monumental piece of legislation, the 1894 Merchant Shipping Act which formed the basis of the control and protection of British Seamen and was for many years one of the largest and most far ranging Acts. There is an abstract of an apprentice’s diary 1892 to 1902, a chapter devoted to the role of the training ships, and then the period covering both world wars. It continues to the post war period and to the finality of the once dominant British merchant fleet.

Various companies had cadet ships which were manned on deck by boys "...with the view to meet the wishes of parents anxious to send their boys to sea under proper care and discipline..."

The Epilogue attempts to discover why the apprentice has disappeared, and I found it surprising that in many cases the causes also point to what ails today’s society.

The appendices contain fascinating and interesting facts on the RNR; health and diet; a letter dated 1916 to Masters from Alfred Holt and Co re midshipmen; relaxation of the regulations for examinations in wartime; copies of various letters and standing orders, some of which are very evocative of a past era.

In many ways life on a British manned merchant ship reflects trends in society as a whole and in many ways can precede it. In the 60’s, as an indentured apprentice in my late teens, I was roughly encouraged to consider how my behaviour might affect others with great intolerance shown to inconsiderate behaviour, particularly if it gave rise to unnecessary noise or carelessness that might cause disturbance. There are always people asleep on an ocean going ship. On the other hand I found, and was expected to exhibit, great tolerance to peculiarities of human nature and behaviour on the grounds that if others could do their job and their peculiarities did not affect me, then it was none of my business. Thus, homosexuals on a ship were tolerated providing they didn’t make a nuisance of themselves affecting others not of their preference- something which society took nearly forty years to get round to. Native crews who had peculiarities of diet or religious observances were accepted.

Furthermore, there was no theft at sea, and unlike in port, cabin doors were never locked. One never touched another’s gear or even entered another’s cabin without knocking, irrespective of differences in rank. Those values seem to me to be an essential facet of civilisation. In the close confines of the micro society of a ship, derived status was much more important than the intrinsic status of rank or position. Thus a drunken ship master was still a drunk and was never really respected. Today we see perfidious politicians given no respect. It seems to me to be important that people are accorded the respect they deserve.

It is a fascinating book that will appeal to many.

Reviewed by Jeremy Puckett