THE WATERSHED YEAR - THE WORLD OF 1954

I sailed from Falmouth with a smile and faced another voyage of adventure. It's appropriate to reflect on just how the world was in 1954 as it really did impact the life of a seafarer and his family.
The Prime Minister of the UK was Churchill but he was then 80 and coming to the end of his undoubted greatness. Eisenhower was the President of the US and convinced of the threat of Communism; I think he made the "domino theory" speech in this year that reckoned that if a state or country became communist then it was a just a matter of time before the country next door succumbed to socialism too. Then there was one Senator Joseph MacCarthy who came into prominence at this time; a prize clown but did he create havoc.[There will be more on this numpty later.] The Soviet Union, the USSR, had a power struggle between Malenkov [Stalin's heir] and the gradual takeover by Nikita Khrushchev. Russia became a threat again. Mao, another lunatic, ruled China and so the world was in chaos again. Oh and the French Foreign Legion were decimated at Dien Bien Phu so the French were out of Indo China and the seeds of the Vietnam War were sown as the US became involved. The Americans exploded the first H-Bomb in Bikini Atoll in this year.
So you say how did this impact the seafarer? The answer is that a British ship [and there hundreds or even thousands of them then] could end up in one of these places. I had friends who were strafed by Chinese planes off Formosa [aka Taiwan] and so on. Even the youngest of the crew knew what was going on in the world. This was before the global explosion of digital communication and tourism etc. We monitored short-wave radio, listened to the BBC Overseas or Voice of America to get news of home, sport, and music. Not everyone had, or could afford, a radio so we went and congregated in someone's cabin to listen so we all knew what was happening in the world. [This is so unlike a lot of youngsters of today, I'm afraid.]
There were two other factors around at that time for the young male person at that time:
  1. National Service - the conscription system that required a young man to serve his country in the military.
  2. Borstal - a punishment system for a young offender who was told by a magistrate gaol or go to sea. If the offender chose sea then he was sent to a Sea Training Establishment such as Portishead or Gravesend and trained with other lads in basic seamanship and sent to sea as a Deck Boy. The point is that many a lad ended a fine youngster at sea and nobody could tell the difference from a convert from offending and a chap who wanted to be an Able Bodied Seaman. Great stuff.
The National Service did throw up another class of seafarer, the man who did not want to serve in the Services. If you were in the Merchant Navy then you did not need to do National Service. This class had quite a few time served engineers; these were not so bad as they usually worked hard. No the real "dodgers" were guys who often sailed as stewards and did get a Cook's Qualification and Lifeboat Certificate, they had no intention of working and often ended up getting it in the neck.

I was indentured to serve Smith's, set to learn to be a Ship's Officer, at the magnificent sum of £552 for the period of 4 years that worked out to be £6/16/8 per month in that first year. This was actually half the pay of a Deck Boy ! So in effect I was right at the bottom of the money pile but the expectations were that I had to perform. You know, on reflection, I would do it all again, it was so much fun as you will see.



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