Hanging up the Discharge Book

Seafaring is a career, one that many may have simply fallen into, been forced into through the lack of options or something that was planned and dreamed about ever since 'daddy' took the belt out of the top drawer and used it with excessive vigour! Hundreds and thousands of men and woman have kept and will continue to keep an ever growing number of steel cans in prime working condition so that those back home will never want for anything. Scotch whisky to India, coals to Newcastle, gravel to Taiwan and wheat to North Korea……………

Seafaring is career, a rank based long-term ladder climb that for some results in a very well paid, often tax-free occupation in the dizzying height of Captain or Chief Engineer. For some, a career on the middle rungs of the ladder but one that satisfies and that will last a lifetime!

For many more the future requires change, another rung to the ladder, a shift in attitude, an accident or ill health or simply the emotional need to spend more time with the wife/husband or children out of love or necessity. A shift that requires the hanging up of the discharge book, a move from the sea to land that produces an enormous change in lifestyle, most likely a reduction in income and the unfortunate circumstance of having to come under the watchful eye of the tax-man once again!

NB: The Discharge Book is the official document that all seafarers from Russia to Argentina, Iceland to Australia must have in their possession. A document that records all vessels sailed upon, a history of a career at sea presented in a concise and easily-read format. As a doctor may hang-up the stethoscope, a cook the saucepan and a taxi-driver the complaints, a seafarer will hang up the faded-blue document to signal an end to a travelling lifestyle.

To change from seafarer to landlubber is not as easy as it may sound. For many the shift may involve a change in career, a new start at the bottom of a very high ladder, not an easy thing to do at the age of forty, with three kids and unpaid credit card bills tripping over themselves for attention. Generally, a career at sea has many side benefits, a suitable income, long leaves between trips and an active lifestyle that feeds the brain and the body. Shore jobs can often be monotonous, paperwork based and for the most part behind a desk and in-front of a computer screen. The twenty days leave per year a shock to the system after six-months of a year of pure freedom to holiday and party without company intervention.

Over the decades many ex-seafarers have reclaimed the life, unable to cope with the wife's constant nagging and a resort to the 'absence makes the heart grow fonder' reasoning suddenly shines, a suddenly switched on 1000 watt bulb in a darkened cave! Others have returned to the sea as the ever-eager credit card bills are joined by red-coloured ones and a constant stream of abusive letters from loan agencies and bank managers pushes for the need to earn more money, something that only the 'sea; can bring about.

Many ex-seafarers though have built for themselves a happy and successful existence ashore, a requirement borne from necessity or from having found a new and rewarding career that negates many of the attraction of the life at sea!

To split the careers at sea into categories, engineers generally have a greater chance to move ashore into a more rewarding career as more possibilities are open to them. Simply put; a Captain has spent a life-time navigating vessels around the world, not something that typically equates to a land-based occupation. Engineers on the other hand have skills that are easily adapted to shore-based occupations, engine manufactures, the oil industry or even 'garage mechanic' options are available with a little research.

For many though the 'return to sea' is a result of what could be called itchy feet. Seafarers over the years build for themselves a simple suitcase-based policy; they can without pause live for months out of bags that conform to airlines baggage policies, no more than thirty kilograms and usually in two or less bags. Material possessions mean little, what cannot be put in a suitcase is not required and with a drop of the hat they can be off, unhindered and without looking back! It is therefore common to find ex-seafarers feeling claustrophobic, to one-day realise that living ashore has amassed belongings and encumbrances that prevent instant departure and that they are restricted by material possessions.

It has often been noted that many seafarers marry nurses. The reason for this career match is often a result of an understanding of the other, both careers involve change, emergency and long hours. Both careers often require thoughts and happenings to be kept within, thus a tolerance of the others moods can be better coped with. A seafarer's life revolves around constant change, routine is not a word that many know, change and excitement, ports to be visited, calamities to be solved or borne and people to be tolerated or whose company sparks hilarity and constant merriment. For a nurse to sit behind a desk and fill out the same form from 9 to 5, life would soon drag and become depressing. For a seafarer to suddenly find himself opening doors for hotel guests, to be repairing elevators in Harrods, life would be ultimately boring, life would revolve around routine, and each day would be the same with the only thing to look forward to being the end of the shift or day.

Many though have survived ashore, and will never sail on the waters again! They have successfully hung up their discharge books, a memory of a life gone by!