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Ethnic backgrounds of merchant radio officers

15K views 106 replies 34 participants last post by  Engine Serang 
#1 ·
Wondering the ethnic backgrounds of merchant radio officers From 1940 - 1970 (i.e., Irish, Scottish, English, Welch, American and etc.)?
Also wondering which group had the largest percentage?
 
#57 ·
Sorry Zl, I should have said that these names were Gaelic. Iagan is just a more familiar name(Gaelic), for Iain. Same same Jan etc.
You could have the same name in the family. EG: Iagan ruadh(brown John), Iain dubh(black John), brothers.
In Gaelic 'the' was often attached. Hence, The Donald.
 
#72 ·
the unions in Canada eliminated their MN rather like the Brits, Kiwis and Ozzies a little later that is the reason why they joined USS. Don,t know where they got their tickets but their knowledge of the Dominion radio HF system was non existent and their morse was,nt much better.
 
#59 ·
No Problems Duncs, I understood them to be Gaelic. And if in your area they are used as familiar names for Ian, can't argue with that.

John and its variants have religious derivation, through Johannes (Iohannes - greek for God)
However, Iagan (also Egan) is a diminutive of Aodhagán which is of Celtic origin with no religious history but is related to Aodh which means fire, typical of the Celtic Nordic origins for names.
 
#60 ·
Going off topic Duncs, I have never known a Highlander or Islander well enough to ask this question. The nick name for someone from the north west of Scotland is Teuchter or choochter. Is that a perjorative or derogatory term? Would you be offended by that description or is it like Jock,Mick, or Paddy?
 
#70 ·
Sorry for the delay in replying Gordon, I was hors de combat for a few days. I wrote a reply last night, but when posting, it went dud, with the usual Korean sh1t coming up. P1ssed me off. I'll try again, FYI.

As far as I am aware, teuchter is Scots for coward, so is a derogatory term, used by lowlanders, against the Highlander/Islemen. I think maybe after the 45.
When I first went to the mainland, I was called that, but I took no offence, they didn't know the significance of it.
It's the same as the Scots think Sassenach is a derogatory term for an English person. It's not, it's the gaelic for someone from England.

Rgds Duncs
 
#71 · (Edited)
As a lowland Scot I, and those I knew, used the term teuchter in much the same way that the English used the term 'bumpkin'. So, somewhat derogatory. My mother used it for catholics. I had an aunt who affectionately called me 'a wee teuchter'. No sense of it being used as 'coward' but i can imagine that someone may use the term for someone who was cowardly. Retrospectively, I understand the origin was used to mean Gaelic speakers.
 
#99 ·
As a lowland Scot I, and those I knew, used the term teuchter in much the same way that the English used the term 'bumpkin'.
Bells ring! But I don't know why!
I am English, neo-Geordie, but, after getting married, I lived in Scotland (Gourock) for six years, and my best friend during our college years was from Orkney via Aberdeen. At some point in my life, "teuchter" has been part of my vocabulary - more specifically (I think) "highland teuchter" - but I have no idea when or why! I do not believe it was for pejorative or discriminatory use - but who knows?:confused:

Memory going - sad innit!

https://www.shipsnostalgia.com/images/smilies/confused.gif
 
#76 ·
I do not want to start a turf war, but there seems to be a suggestion that Canadian sparks (at least in the 1960s) were not as well trained and had somewhat lessened operating skills. 1. Do others think that way? and 2. What country is believed to have had the best radio schools and thus graduated the best trained the radio officers?
 
#77 ·
Impossible. There is no way that you could make any general assessment. Which aspects of the job would you compare? Morse communication, equipment maintenance and repair, etc., etc.?

The job descriptions differed widely between employing companies, let alone countries. Who would will be familiar with the different practices in the various countries, the different performance of each of the R/Os in any one country?

No such person exists.
 
#82 · (Edited)
When I sat my 1st class PMG in '58 the examiner was an ex r/o just come ashore. There were four of us, three had gone through from the start straight on from passing 2nd class and one who had been at sea and come back to get 1st. After the morse test the experienced guy said 'great stuff, good commercial code.' The other three of us just looked at each other in astonishment. We had hardly copied anything.
After the examiner left we asked the other guy 'did you copy all that?'
"Well, I got the gist and could guess most of the words."
"How about the five character code section?" I asked.
What five character code section he asked?"
We all failed.
They brought in another examiner and we all passed.
When I shipped out I found that the first examiner was in no way unique. Maybe that's the test we should have passed(LOL)
 
#92 ·
R/O's countries of origin


Sorry about that, computer/finger trouble. I have worked with R/O's from different countries, England, Wale, Scotland, Ireland, Canada, South Africa, Sweden Germany, Malaya, Indonesia, Singapore Saudi Arabia Oman, Japan, et. All. . . . . and many more, I think what it boiled down to was that if a country needed an R/O to continue trade/commerce over the sea and in the air, people were trained to do the job.
 
#81 ·
The two canadian guys I heard during my time in USS Co did,nt seem to know much about operating systems and they almost always seemed to prefer R/T over morse. having said that they may have been red hot technical guys which for the crap gear of the USS Co would have been a great asset.
 
#86 ·
Spoke to guy on this site I think who went to sea after PMG days. He said he could not read morse live and had to tape it and play it back:)

In serious lockdown over here. Have not been off the property for 25 days. Hoping that things are going to free up a little soon.
 
#87 ·
That must have made for some long days for him!

More or less the same over here, staying inside. Some bloke in Perth was doing 14 days isolation in a hotel and sneaked out to see his girlfriend. Could have been a case of sexually transmitted virus. He got a month in gaol for that. I bet he wishes he was still doing the 14 days, smashing the minibar!

John T
 
#94 ·
Ted always used the ship name Clan McIver when we were doing commercial working at LNC. Only once had Butch when Ted was ill.Butch ran a tight ship. I liked his practical classes. I also liked old Harry Watson in theory class, a man with a real dry sense of humour.
 
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