WW2 Asian manning- Alfred Holt Blue Funnel Line

[wayneward]

Could someone with an historic knowledge of Blue Funnel Line provide information on the Asian manning levels of this company during World War Two? How many Chinese ABs, firemen, greasers, donkeymen and catering were employed on their general cargo ships compared to a white British crew of this period? Also were bosuns referred to as serangs?

 

[highandry]

Can't help you with manning levels for WW2 but I went aboard a 'Blue Flue' in Port Teufik in about 1963 to trade paperbacks with the 3rd Mate and can confirm the Serang was the bosun. Made the mistake of taking up the invitation to eat curry aboard...tongues still burning I think..

 

[ancientsailor]

Can't help on personnel levels ... nomenclature .. not sure of spelling ...

Serang: bosn
Tindall: bosn's mate
Sekunni: quartermaster

(amazingly, threw away my "Malim Sahib's Hindustani" vocabulary book a few weeks ago!)

We had Indian crews on Bibby Line ships (also Hong-Kong Chinese on some, and Bristol crews on others).

Typically we would have above 70 on an Indian crewed ship (+ officers) many fewer with other crews. I do not believe that was any reflection on the quality of the crews, just that some of our ships were much more labour-intensive than others

 

[Kukri]

Chapter and verse on Asian manning of British ships (by no means confined to Blue Flue) can be found in an excellent book by a friend of mine (Captain) Tony Lane - "The Merchant Seamen's War", published a few years ago. One gem that I remember was that British ships with Chinese crews suffered exceptional levels of desertion in US ports until somebody bothered to find out why - the Chinese crews were being paid their pre-War wages but they had of course no chance to go home and had to stay between ships in seamen's boarding houses which they could not afford, any more than they could afford clothes, etc.

I was CNCo not Blue Funnel so we always had 100% Chinese crews but I don't think there was ever any difference in crew numbers - the jobs were the same, even if they had different names.

Food was much better, though.