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Did anyone keep their log books?

12K views 72 replies 25 participants last post by  majoco 
#1 ·
Remember how you were supposed to send your logs in at the change of articles?

Did anyone "forget" and keep some?

I was very annoyed to find out that (in Australia, at least) radio log books were kept for a short while by the Dept of Transport and then burned...(MAD)

I have blank Part 1 and 2 logs (souvenired when my ship converted to GMDSS), but it would have been great to keep one or two completed ones as a momentos....
 
#37 ·
DF cal

What a laugh - steaming around a beacon for DF cal.
After my sea time I worked ashore in Fremantle for AWA. We would hoist a wire aerial up to the North Mole light house and transmit - a very unstable signal - so requesting ships could calibrate their DF. This was the 60s and 70s
Fortunately no one tried to steam around us.
 
#38 · (Edited)
What a laugh - steaming around a beacon for DF cal.
After my sea time I worked ashore in Fremantle for AWA. We would hoist a wire aerial up to the North Mole light house and transmit - a very unstable signal - so requesting ships could calibrate their DF. This was the 60s and 70s
Fortunately no one tried to steam around us.
Welcome to SN, Ternahan.

They should have popped down to Cape Leeuwin where they had one of these - the real thing!

John T

PS Bummer! My photo of Leeuwin's DF transmitter didn't appear.

PPS Whoops, yes it did, it's just lying down.
 

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#44 · (Edited)
Memory is doubtless a little hazy - it was 50+ years ago - perhaps he only took out the carbons. The top sheet was written in that ghastly indelible pencil so fraudulent adjustment would have been difficult. The carbons were supposedly delivered to the Liverpool Marconi office so I suppose the Chief chose to deliver them himself at the end of the trip.
 
#46 ·
Well, R65, you may be right but I was responsible for the UK's radio Ship Inspection Service (and for MIMCo's radio officer supply) for several years and we never received a single log book from a UK ship. I believe they were retained by the Dept of Transport Shipping Office (or maybe forwarded by them to the DTI?). They certainly were not delivered to the ship inspection service in my day.

I have spoken to colleagues who worked in MIMCo's personnel department and they cannot recall a single occasion when a complaint was received (from anyone) about the standard of log-keeping by an R/O. But is was a long time ago and their memories are as fallible as anyone's. Maybe MIMCo's R/Os were perfect and it was only other companies that employed fallible humans.

However, having observed many R/Os aboard ship, employed by both MIMCo and others (and listened to their anecdotes), I have to say that I encountered a very wide range of commitment and attention to detail over the years. When visiting ships I met, or was told about, R/Os that were seldom sober, at sea as well as in port. I found battery locker doors that were rusted shut and had to have the hinges burned off so that the emergency radio batteries could be examined (and subsequently condemned). Failure to maintain equipment, spares or spares lists was common; all things that were essential to the job and visible to even the most minimal checks. I cannot believe that such R/Os then maintained their radio logbooks in such a way that would bear serious examination and avoid censure. At annual Safety Certificate Surveys, a brief examination of the current logbook was made but usually the R/O had prepared well for such visits. Often, since such surveys were mainly in UK ports, the logbook had gone ashore with the previous voyage do***ent returns.

Perhaps the DoT/DTI's system employed spot checks on a (very small) small sample of returned logbooks but I cannot think that a routine logbook check could have been performed on every returned logbook. If it had been I am sure that our R/O providing department would have been fully aware of it.

That is only my personal experience and it may well be as you say. But I hae ma doots.
 
#47 ·
The time I speak RS would be under HMG GPO 's Inspectorate of Wireless Telegraphy that I left in 1965 and there was certainly at this time no farming out of anything as important as Ship Inspection to private companies such as Marconi and I can vouch for the punitive severity of radio reg breaking at any level not only Shipping but the Coastal Radio Service as well...
Almost like living on a different planet today but it worked like clockwork as I think most HMG departments did then.
 
#48 ·
The time I speak RS would be under HMG GPO 's Inspectorate of Wireless Telegraphy 1964 and there was certainly no farming out of anything as important as Ship Inspection etc to private companies such as Marconi at this time;;
What date are you referring to?
 
#51 ·
In Oz in the 80s, I never had a radio surveyor look at my Part 2 log (the radio log).

They would look at the Part 1 (batteries) though.

Once GMDSS came in, the radio surveyors would look at radio logs, just to ensure that the requisite checks were carried out. It was common to see no entries at all.... ;-)

In retrospect, where the GMDSS fell over was in trying to make R/Os of Deck Officers...

Good old ITU/IMO...firmly ensconced in lala land.
 
#54 ·
Can you remember where the complaint originated and how you received it?

I did receive 2 complaints over the years but about over-calling on HF with my trusty Oceanspan I. They both came from a Canadian monitoring station when I was trying to contact GKA, one from Venezuela and the other, some years later, also from the Western Caribbean. Seems like I was a slow learner.

They came to me via MIMCo, who was my employer and the authority responsible for the ships' radio stations, to whom they had been addressed.
 
#53 ·
#44 ..Point taken and my apols if I cast any aspersions on the Chief in question but its the first time I've heard of such a practice always assuming end of voyage radio log books were handed in completely in tact.
I'd also like to quantify my source on IoWT radio log inspection was a Ship Inspector I knew personally not that this onerous task was performed by his department.
 
#55 ·
Nobody's perfect RS but like all violation of radio regs etc I get the impression thru which such things were channelled was manned by old retired RO's who would string you up by the testicles if you got a dot wrong and the most sadistic were those that had never been to sea...
Believe me I've had the misfortune of witnessing a Coast Station officer on his knees and wringing his hands for mercy because he had lost a SLT ...
 
#56 · (Edited)
Nobody's perfect RS but like all radio reg violation etc I get the vision thru which such misdemeanors were channeled being manned by old/retired RO's who would string one up by the sphericals if you missed a dot....
Believe me I've worked with a Coast Station officer known to have begged for mercy because he lost a SLT ...
 
#60 ·
radio log

Remember how you were supposed to send your logs in at the change of articles?

Did anyone "forget" and keep some?

I was very annoyed to find out that (in Australia, at least) radio log books were kept for a short while by the Dept of Transport and then burned...(MAD)

I have blank Part 1 and 2 logs (souvenired when my ship converted to GMDSS), but it would have been

Maybe of some interest a copy of my very last Radio Log Pt 1 entry which happened to coincide with Xmas day. Gmdss already operating (hence lack of sigs on 500) but I milked the old system
of 500 watch keeping longer than necessary, the only alternative being helping the lecky changing light bulbs etc., excuse the blunt
language on the attachment but didn't take too kindly to the new
system of communicating after more than 30 odd years of CW.
 

Attachments

#61 ·
Remember how you were supposed to send your logs in at the change of articles?

Did anyone "forget" and keep some?

I was very annoyed to find out that (in Australia, at least) radio log books were kept for a short while by the Dept of Transport and then burned...(MAD)

I have blank Part 1 and 2 logs (souvenired when my ship converted to GMDSS), but it would have been

Maybe of some interest a copy of my very last Radio Log Pt 1 entry which happened to coincide with Xmas day. Gmdss already operating (hence lack of sigs on 500) but I milked the old system
of 500 watch keeping longer than necessary, the only alternative being helping the lecky changing light bulbs etc., excuse the blunt
language on the attachment but didn't take too kindly to the new
system of communicating after more than 30 odd years of CW.
Ha! Loved it.

Chitral....that's a famous ship name...
 
#64 ·
From memory Ron, the complaint came through the Brocks Radio Superintendents following a voyage from West Africa that paid off in Avonmouth.
It referred to the general standard of entry and the standard statement written at the end of each day which I think referred to checking emergency gear.
 
#65 ·
The WT and RT Logs at Coast Stations were kept locally for a stated period - can't remember how long - when the Handyman was then given the ultimate security task of cremation in a specially prepared dustbin.

I think those recording incidents were typed up as log extracts and kept for a longer period along with the traffic generated. I don't remember any requests for a sight of the originals which then suffered the same fate.

David
+
 
#66 ·
On Tilapa I remember the federal sea scouts boarding and inspecting my log. There had been a distress on R/T (Which I had noted from a W/T Safety broadcast - If I remember correctly no R/T safety traffic if an traffic at all. They went away satisfied..
 
#67 ·
Talking of over calling, a friend got a "bluey" from the Japanese monitoring service for that heinous sin.

Unfortunately, it was sent to the Old Man, who had it framed and presented it to my mate in a special ceremony in the smokeroom....(Jester)

It was then mounted on the radio room wall...
 
#72 ·
Speaking of Captains, last ship was Italian chemical tanker trading from Italy to Brasil, stopping in Cape Verde for fuel. I arrive in radio room at 8am, pull open the draw for log book, bottle of whisky left by the Captain who soon joined me and so it went.. the rest is predictable in life that is. Very easy going the Italians, if the ship broke down mid trip the fishing rods were out before anyone went to the engine room. Marvelous trip.. lovely people the south Italians. Hugh
 
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