# Pay and expenses.



## frank elliott (Dec 12, 2010)

Can anybody out there help with a couple of answers. I wonder and want to know what was the sort of monthly pay at about the time of 1957-1960 if working for say Marconi,Siemens or IMI at that time. Also,how was expenses incurred of travelling to and joining a ship submitted to Company's HQ to recover those expenses quickly. I have forgotten those sort of things,but I remember the dah dah dit dit's of the morse code still.


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## sparks7 (Mar 29, 2008)

frank elliott said:


> Can anybody out there help with a couple of answers. I wonder and want to know what was the sort of monthly pay at about the time of 1957-1960 if working for say Marconi,Siemens or IMI at that time. Also,how was expenses incurred of travelling to and joining a ship submitted to Company's HQ to recover those expenses quickly. I have forgotten those sort of things,but I remember the dah dah dit dit's of the morse code still.


Yes, I can give you the facts!! Monthly rates with food found (!!)
Assuming Class 3 vessels starting rate £34 a month.
Six months experience £39/mth.
One years experience £41/mth.
Two years experience £49/mth.
When I left Siemens in 1959 after six years with them I received £56 per month.
Rates of pay went from £34 to £86 for first & second radio officers on a class 1 vessel between 16 & 20000 tons gross
Before I joined Siemens I could earn £60/month freelance.
In 1951 I made three trips on a trawler out of Hull (to earn some money after a course in Manchester) and received approx. £70 every three weeks!!! Too rough for me so back deepsea I went.
When I went to sea with the Bibby Line in 1947 we started at £24 per month!!!
The rule for expenses was as follows:-
If you left a ship, say, in Liverpool and joined another ship after leave in L'pool you received nothing. If, however, you left in L'pool and joi9ned a new ship, say in Falmouth, you received your train fare between the two ports. All a little unfair!!
By the way, I left the sea 52 years ago and I can still read morse extremely well!!!!
73's from Chief Radio Officer Robert Clark (R354410)


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## 7woodlane (Apr 20, 2009)

When I quit the sea at the end of 1960 I seem to recall that my monthly pay with Siemens was about £57 a month. You had your own salary book. Every month you posted your salary claim to Mr Weatherhead at Woolwich. With each claim you had to include the deductions - NI stamp, income tax and any expenses. Saturday afternoons and Sundays at sea were also claimed for this way. If I got it wrong (often) back it would come with a request to resubmit.


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## Troppo (Feb 18, 2010)

When I got the heave ho in 1991 I was on 56000 (Aussie) per year. A LOT of money in those days.

6 weeks on, 6 weeks off.

That was the top paying ship on the Aussie coast. An LPG tanker.


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## gwzm (Nov 7, 2005)

I don't remember the Brocklebank R/O pay scales from back then but, in the early/mid 60s, they would pay for taxi fares and so on on top of the rail warrant when joining/leaving ships in the UK. 
Sometimes when the Cunard cargo ships were docked in Liverpool, there was no catering crew on board so they paid expenses up to , I think, 21shillings a day to cover the cost of eating ashore. That happened to me a couple of times on the Alaunia/Andania.

GWZM/John


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## RayL (Apr 16, 2008)

Anyone interested in this topic should look back at previous discussions on this MB - for example the thread 'R/O Pay in 1957', which will be found on page 2.


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## david.hopcroft (Jun 29, 2005)

My first month as Junior RO with AEI - Seimens - was £40/10/- per month in April 1963.

David
+


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## Trevor Clements (May 6, 2007)

I sarted with Marconis on £39.00 per month and by 1962 I was on the exalted rate of £45.00 per month sailing out of Glasgow. I dont remember being paid expenses to get home in Bedfordshire. Since my ship was on about 5 days turnaround in Glasgow I didn't get home very often, until I met my wife when I started going home after every trip even if it meant only two days there. It was an expensive business but we used to get fare reductions on production of a chit which the Chief Officer signed. Being allowed only £12.00 per month on the ship severely restricted activities ashore, but permitted building up savings in the bank.


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## Ron Stringer (Mar 15, 2005)

Personally I was always in receipt of a rail warrant from the Marconi Marine office when I paid off. Present this at the station ticket desk and you received a rail ticket in exchange. If you had to travel via London, in addition to the start and destination stations the warrant was endorsed with something like "Plus LTE" - London Transport Executive (or the equivalent) - which gave you tickets for the Tube between London termini. 

On my first ship, in 1960 through to 1961, I travelled home on leave every 6 weeks or so, from Southampton to Manchester and back via Waterloo and Euston. 

If you were coasting and chose to travel home while still on articles, you had to fund the travel costs yourself. Seemed reasonable to me.


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## Robert M Hughes (Oct 16, 2010)

I seem to recall an East of Suez allowance and also a tanker allowance - as for morse a spell on Morse runner keeps the fix going !

Bob


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## Baulkham Hills (Jul 11, 2008)

Tanker bonus was 7.5% and Eastern Bonus was 7.5%. I remember the Mimco employment conditions where it stated that you were entitled to 2nd class rail fare except in India and the Straits Settlement where it was first class. A touch of the Raj about that.


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## trotterdotpom (Apr 29, 2005)

They also had some sort of Foreign Ship allowance which was payable if a certain percentage of the ship's officers weren't British. Can't remember the exact rules, but I met an RO who'd been the only Oyibo on a Nigerian National ship and he didn't get anything because Marconi's decided to count Commonwealth ships as "British".

John T


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## Naytikos (Oct 20, 2008)

Posted by John T


> They also had some sort of Foreign Ship allowance which was payable if a certain percentage of the ship's officers weren't British. Can't remember the exact rules, but I met an RO who'd been the only Oyibo on a Nigerian National ship and he didn't get anything because Marconi's decided to count Commonwealth ships as "British".


During my short time with MIMCo I asked about that very thing: a clerk (I'm being polite here) in the East Ham depot said something like: 'We sometimes send chaps to Safmarine ships where the officers are South African'!

What could I say?


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