Settling in

The Chief Officers cabin door was open. I knocked on the door frame and a voice shouted, “Come in”. Somewhat tentatively I entered a room where a man sat a desk with papers strewn everywhere. Clearly he was a senior officer for over the back of his chair was a uniform jacket with three gold bands on it. He was a slight figure with receding hair and a worried expression on a pale drawn face. “Ah”, he said, “You are the last of the new bunch to arrive, welcome to the “Mahout”, we are finishing off loading this afternoon and we sail on the evening tide”. 

You will be on watches and share a watch with the Second Officer. This means you will also work aft for leaving port working with him.

 For now, get yourself aft to the Apprentices accommodation and settle in. Go out of that door behind you, down the ladder and past number three hatch, up the next ladder to the boat deck. Walk along the boat deck until you find accommodation at the after end of that deck”, Got it? Yes sir, said understanding about half of it, watches, Second Officer, what does all this mean? 

No time to reflect now, get out on deck and find my accommodation. Perhaps I will have a cabin like the Chief Officers but a little smaller and simpler, I thought as I stepped out on a wet boat deck dragging my kit.

Immediately I was nearly decapitated by a wire hook moving across the deck on two wires attached to large metal poles. At this stage I had no idea what derricks were or what they did but I was learning quickly that when you go out on deck, be careful! 

So creeping past the open hatch before the next item of cargo appeared over the ships rail I went up the ladder as instructed, past large black ventilators and the funnel until I came to the after rail of the boat deck. There was a metal hut, it seemed, quite separate from any other accommodation. At the rear end of it was a teak door with a brass plate over it declaring this was for apprentices.

 I remember the plate was bright and shiny with the remains of Brasso polish around it edges. Who cleans that, I wondered as I stepped over the threshold.

The apprentice accommodation was a separate unit from all officer accommodation at the after end of the boat deck overlooking hatch number 4. Inside were two cabins each with two bunk beds and each cabin was separated from each other by a common bathroom and recreational room that I learnt was called a messroom.

Immediately I entered I smelled pipe tobacco smoke and on entering the mess I met an older apprentice smoking a pipe. He must have been at least 18 years old! Colin was his name and he came from Wales speaking in that lilting dialect that the Welsh have when they speak English! He was on his 4th.  voyage so was an experienced seaman that would help us through our initiation into the seaman’s world.

There were two other fresh apprentices that had joined earlier that day so we were four in total. They had already been assigned cabin and bunks and the only free bunk was the upper one in the port cabin. Colin told us to pack out and assemble in the mess were he would explain our duties. !5 minutes later in the messroom through clouds of smoke Colin started to explain how we would work.

We would work in watches which appear to be some weird division of the 24 hour day into blocks of 4 hours work and then 8 hours off, night and day! So my thoughts of working during the day and then relaxing in the evening and having a good nights sleep were dashed from the start. Apparently there are 4 watches in a day:

0000-0400 and 1200-1600

0400-0800 and 1600-2000

0800-1200 and 2000-2400

Each senior officer was in charge of a watch. The chief officer took the 0400-0800 watch that enabled him to work during the day with the crew whilst the most junior officer took the 0800-1200 watch so that the Captain could keep an eye on him without losing too much sleep!

The Second officer took the midnight to 0400 watch often called the graveyard watch during the night and then could turn up at 1200 to take sights to take part in celestial navigation to establish our position at sea.

Guess who was assigned to the graveyard watch? You guessed right, me!

Ok said Colin? Well I guess so, had we a choice? No! In addition, he said that each apprentice was assigned to a station for leaving and arrival in port. The assignment related to the senior officer whose watch you were assigned to. The Chief Officer was in the bow, the third officer on the bridge and the Second Officer was responsible for the stern of the ship.

His final comment was that we went to “stations” at 2000 to leave port. That left us a few hours to relax! But wait a minute, leaving port at 2000 and then starting a watch at midnight seems like a long, long night. Better get some sleep or as Colin said “get my head down” for a couple of hours!