Craned in: Carton of strike-hit spice

On JOInInG the British India steam navigation Co as an assistant purser in 1957 at 17, I was sent to southampton to assist in the ‘storing’ of the company’s troopship, nevasa. This involved receiving and checking tons of meat, fish, vegetables, dry goods, beer, wines, spirits, tobacco and soft furnishings, delivered to the dock by lorries — while keeping an eye out for any pilfering by the stevedores, not uncommon in those days. One little trick was to ‘accidently’ drop a case of spirits, breaking the bottles in it, at which the gang would suddenly produce tin mugs and help themselves to hefty swigs as the spirit drained out of the broken case. On my second day, a load of dry goods included a small carton (not much larger than a small box of chocolates) of saffron. Figuring that it might possibly disappear or get broken if loaded with other stores by crane, I picked it up and carried it aboard. As I sat in the ship’s office checking my lists, I was interrupted by the ship’s quartermaster who informed me that I had better get myself back to the dockside as all work had stopped — a lightning strike having been called. Back on the dockside, I was confronted by a belligerent shop steward who told me that because I had carried stores on board (thereby threatening the livelihood of his members) they had downed tools and would not resume until the stores in question had been returned to the quayside and loaded in accordance with union rules. Quaking with fright, I retrieved the small package and took it ashore where, after being made to apologise for my sin, it was placed in solitary splendour in the middle of a huge wooden pallet surrounded by a huge rope net, and swung up and over into the ship’s hold. It was only later that I learned that my action had set off a ripple effect of strikes throughout the docks! My first experience of the curse of demarcation that plagued the workplace in the Fifties and sixties.

robert readman, Bournemouth, dorset.

Follow-up

I rEMEMBEr my first wage packet in 1962 as an apprentice. In it were £4/17s/1d. The cash was packed in a cunningly designed envelope so you could count the money without opening it. This was to prevent people wrongly claiming that they’d been underpaid.

r. Bennett, cheltenham, Glos.