WANT TO BE SAILORS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22341, 28 May 1947, Page 5

WANT TO BE SAILORS

HUNDREDS OF MEN NORTH SEA TRAWLERS LONDON, May 10. Harry Forden writes songs. Charles Roebuck is a waiter. William Griffiths is a sawyer, Chris Hollis drives an exvacator. Now all these young men want to go to sea the hard way. With hundreds like themselves, they are- training lor one of the toughest jobs in the world — the life of a trawler man. In Grimsby Nautical School they are taught all the things they need to know deck work, navigation, engineering, cooking, net making. It is the most complete school for sailors in the world, and specialises in the training of fishermen Hundreds of men, determined never to return to the routine of an office desk or the monotony of a moving belt, have asked for the chance to go to sea. Captain F. E. Townsend, the energetic principal of the school, welcomes and trains them all —bank clerks, biscuit makers, accountants, soldiers, sailors, airmen, fitters. Good Tay Prizes are high. After three months training (men are paid and boarded while they train) a deckhand gets £5 13s 9d a week and 12s in every £IOO of the catch. This means that on a good trip in a deep-sea trawler a deckhand can earn from £2O to £3O a week; though every trip is bv no means a profitable one. It’s a tough, hard life, and not. all the deckhands who sit for examinations can become skippers. After 12 months, a deckhand sits for a third hand’s certificate and a job that brings him six guineas a week and a doubled share of the catch. Then he goes back to school to get his second hand’s ticket, and finally he has his skipper’s examination. Some skippers make big money. Top job would be master of a large .trawler in Icelandic waters, where £SOOO a year can be earned.