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Signing on and San Florentino

1K views 6 replies 5 participants last post by  OzBoz 
#1 ·
Can someone please tell me what information/do***entation would have needed to be produced for someone to sign up with MN during the war years. Would this information differ from country to country? Dad signed up to British MN in Montreal in 1944 but previously appeared to be in US CoastGuard services.

Also seeking any information about SS San Florentino and her sinking
 
#2 ·
During the war officials were not too worried about paperwork as evidenced by the large number of 14 year old members serving and some lost. Every ship needed a certain number of bodies before it could sail. Your father with previous sea experience would have been snapped up.

Before the war my own father was in the MN and signed on for the Army in 1939. In 1941 he (like many other ex MN) was asked to rejoin the MN as so many MN personnel had been lost in the first two years and the Service was very short of experienced seamen.
 
#3 ·
Thanks, that helps!

Dad was a bit of a gadabout. He appears to have started the was in the RA (having been an apprentice bricklayer) then at Singapore appeared to be Royal Navy. By 1943 he was US Coastguard and from May 1944 onwards Merchant Navy - no wonder I am confused!(==D)
 
#4 ·
Also seeking any information about SS San Florentino and her sinking
I cannot provide any information about her at all but the name did not die with the ship when she sank.

In 1964 I sailed on her successor, the "San Florentino", Official Number 185863 callsign GPZW, an 18,000 dwt tanker built by Cammell Laird & Co; Ltd., Birkenhead and handed over to the owners, Eagle Tanker Co. Ltd., London in April 1953. In 1959, along with the rest of the Eagle Oil fleet, she was handed over to Shell Tankers. In 1965 Shell renamed her “Hemidonax” and in July 1970 she was sold & delivered to UK ship-breakers T.W. Ward, Briton Ferry.
 
#6 ·
I cannot provide any information about her at all but the name did not die with the ship when she sank.

In 1964 I sailed on her successor, the "San Florentino .....
How odd that you should have sailed on her successor! One of the many new family members I have just recently discovered died when San Florentino was sunk in 1941. Thomas Burt who was a fireman on board aged just 18
 
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