BP female Navigation Cadets
 

I saw a thread just started up on the topic of the first female Navigation Cadets In Denholm's and Ellerman's

As far as I can find out the earlist in BP were a 1973 or possibly late 1972
Misses, VS Birtwhistle, A Rutherford, EAM Stroud and CR Thomlinson,

There are also some in 1974 and possibly later.

SJ Pollock ( NC) was also listed in a 1978 Fleet News and I have the feeling VS Birtwhistle reached at least 2nd Mate but cannot find the article.

Any comments, anyone meet them at sea? That must have been an 'interesting' time for the first few!

There were also Female Engineering Cadets, anyone remember any names?

Graham

As far as I can remember one of the first, if not the first female cadet, was Nina Baker in about 1972.
Never sailed with her but heard she was very good at her job.

Trevor,

I have an NC Baker who I considered to be a 1974? I have her sailing on the Argosy 12/74, I cannot find her in any earlier papers. But now I realise I have NC Baker (who I presumed to be male) on Cavalier 4/73 and Unity 3M 10/76, no 'Miss' mentioned on either of those entries!

An entry date of 4/73 For Nina Baker then puts her ahead of VS Birtwhistle of 10/73.

As far as I can find out around December 1974 BP decided to put 'Miss' in front of their names and then in1976 onwards ( I have no 1965 Ships Movements) they completly ignored that, so in later year's issues I have no idea who the females were.

Graham

Pretty certain Nina Baker was the first, followed by Anne Rutherford, who I think was Capt Rutherfords daughter.
Claire Tomlinson was also with Anne Rutherford I think, but Nina was just before them.

They were the only 3 young ladies I briefly met whilst with BP.

hi graham.
pretty certain i sailed with a female d/c. on british scientist, sometime between july/dec, 1976, cant remember her name.
also female radio cadet br. trent-betweensept 78/jan79.
regards.j.l.s.

Connie,

Scientist October 1976; any of these names ring any bells?

NH Paddle, WC Ireland or F Campbell, JW Pells, GF Siviter

Graham

Connie,
Trent Dec 1978, R/C M Liddle ?
No others shown before that date but a couple of 2R/O.

I have come across another female R/O ( there was a 'Miss' in front of her name) , but cannot remember what ship or when.

When I have finished the Navigating Apprentices/Cadets database maybe I'll start one on R/O's.

Graham

I sailed with a female Sparky in Wallem Shipmanagement (UK) ... young lady called Carol Greenway.
She would have been a Marconi Sparks I think, as Wallems had none of their own.
Had that knack of fluttering her eyelashes when there was a dirty outside job to be done on the aerials etc ... someone always offered to help her out!!

Later went on to be Best Man for her as she married a Wallems 2/O called Chris Metson.

Hi Graham, I sailed with several female cadets:
Nicky Frey was on the Wye when I joined as First tripper in October 1977. (think she was almost due to take 2/M)
Lorna Atkinson on the Promise mid 1978
Sue Hook on the Maple 78/79
Kathy Scott on the Commerce mid 1979
J Hodson and K Mothersole on the Shoush mid 1981
I also spent time at college with a few others: Sheena Nisbet, Caroline Roe (Radio Cadet); there was also a Lesley ? and Linda ? whose surnames escape me at the moment..

We had a female 3/O who was married to a 3/E in the company, he was made redundant in one of the pre 86 culls, he then sailed with us as a seagoing husband.
Checking with the mem. on the date, I was reminded of the 3/E who came to our cabin one evening to ask us not to tell his wife, who we knew, that he was having rumpy pumpy with the 3/O.
Funny old world.
(Cloud)

You guys missed one R/O Silva Slattery, I sailed with her on the "Esk", I believe but am not sure that Clair Tomlinsom married Tony White the C/O of the "Liberty", ones memory often plays games.

R/Os Barbra Padfield, Sylvia Slattery
2/O Vanessa Radley
R/Cs Alexandra Fieldsend, Josophene ?, Brenda Baxter, Anne McGlashin
D/Cs Karen Pridham, Mary Jane Slaven, Morag McDonald.

Sailed with Mary Jane Slaven twice originally from the Isle of Bute. She married a sparks from up my neck of the woods who took his lot and went to sail with P&O I think. Also sailed with a 3rd mate Sheena, same trip as Mary Jane but can't remember her second name. She was also engaged to a sparks. That would have been the Br Tamar joined 1/11/84 paid off 14/11/84. Think the first time I sailed with Mary Jane was either the Test or the Forth both in 84 again. Canny lass.

AH Could have been Sheena Nesbitt.

Kev, I think there could have been only one Sheena (Nisbet) with BP. She came from Sheffield, her father was ex RN. She and myself were an item for a while , back in late70's/early 80's- met her at college at Shields, and were together for acouple of years, but drifted apart as you can do at such an age. We were at Flagg House in Westoe, there were other female cadets there too, listed in a previous post, plus a couple of others from CP Ships etc

Another name retrieved from increasingly dysfunctional memory

DC Sue Diamond

Still cant remember Josophene's surname though.

I sailed with a Scottish lass who was a DC, but can't remember her name or which ship it was on, I think it was in the early 80's, but I might be wide of the mark.
What I do remember is that she was a good laugh. This was illustrated when somebody got hold of her boiler suit drying in the engine room and wrote on the back in marker pen "Engineers Tools Are Best", and she then wore this whilst on duty on deck!

There were four female cadets on the British Holly when she was in drydock at Western Shiprepairers in Birkenhead around 1977.
The ship was in for a major shotblast job to all the tanks, and was in dock for about two months.
These four girls were very active around the ship and caused lots of heads to turn, females of any description being a rarity in a shipyard in those days.

That's her Stevie, looking at your profile see you were on the Wye twice so was I in the eighties as 2nd and Chief cook 86 & 88, Also the Trent 87. Used to run a Snap on franchise too and worked for them for a couple of years on industrial.

I was in my final year of the R/O's course at the Ulster Polytechnic, Jordanstown (Belfast) doing the DoT Radar Maintenance Cert in 79/80, and I had the pleasure of sharing a house with Norman Paddle and Billy Ireland, two BP Cadets. Norman was from Cork and Billy was from just down the road from the Poly, in North Belfast. There was another cadet who had grown up in Africa but was originally from Co. Meath or thereabouts, his name escapes me. The lads were some craic, and we had the best Thursday night parties on the campus, all courtesy of the lads who were earning a good wage compared to our student grants. I think they were studying for their 2nd mates ticket at the time.
Graham, your post brought back great memories of wild times. (Thumb)
Mick

I sailed with Claire Tomlinson and (I think) Vanessa Birtwhistle when they were Cadets, they were nice girls. They had the usual learning curve for all Cadets, including Sun sights placing the ship in the middle of the Saudi desert.

They were treated very well by the crew. I can remember falling flat on my face on the deck after tripping over a carelessly laid Butterworth hose during tank cleaning at night. The Bosun , who was a real tough guy, stepped over my prone body and gallantly lifted the hose out of the way for the female cadet who was behind me. <smile>


Warmest Wishes, Mike

EAM Stroud, mentioned in the first post, became Mrs. Liz Davey. She married one Sam Davey (BP Cadet, Sunderland copper, BP 3/0). I sailed with Liz and Sam on the Hazel? where they were both 3/0. I was 2/0, Pete Smith was Mate and John Pinkney was the Master.
"Nostalgia's not what it used to be!"

Had a few drinks with Anne Rutherford over Xmas and she told me she was the first female Nav App with BP, although she never finished her apprenticeship with them due to some percieved problem with the transition from apprentice to watchkeeper.
Happy New Year to you all

Hi Rod,
I'll get back to you directly!

Back to Female NC's

Both A Rutherford and EAM Stroud were NC's on the Grenadier in October 1972. I cannot find any earlier info on either of these two ladies.

I have the feeling EAM Stroud became Mrs EA Davey, 3rd Mate on the Holly in August 1978.

NC Baker was NC on the Cavalier in April 1973 and 3rd Mate on the Unity Oct 1976

To date ( 1978 Ships movements) I have come across the names of around 28 names of Female NC's, around this time the BP typists started to eliminate the 'Miss' title !

Graham

Joanna White was 2/0 on British Tamar in Falklands 1982. I think she was ex cadet.