The daily worker., 1927-04-26
Sailor Describes
Conditions Under
Which He Works

just recently came off the
ipswich" the Dollar Line, and the
"eats" and experience on that hell
hole had Just about given me bitter
enough taste in the mouth to set me
wondering whether or not | should
quit the sea forever and hunt some
other kind of work for a while. One
fling at this trick, however, con-
vinced me that the sea was the only
trade that had been able to pick up.
Looks for Job.
So l set out on Friday the 10th, to
look for some kind of an ABS job
to tide me overs the proverbial and
continuous stone-broke Of the sea-
man. After wandering around for
some time, and going into different
shipping agencies / got down to the
old reliable Shipping Boards office
thru which more good seamen pass
to disappointment than would be wise
for publication. / hung around the
office for the better part of the
morning. Towards the afternoon they
sang out for ABS for the rs. S.
George Washington" and they got
about eighty to hundred men to go
down.
When we got down to the dock, the
boatswain says that he is not re-
sponsible for the influx of men, and
chat he wasn't going to take any one
of as on till signing ON time," and
to come around on the following
Monday. We were pretty hungry lot
of men, any way you looked at it,
shipping is pretty punk, and most of
that gang hadn't seen any kind of
steady work for hell of long time.
Just the same he gave US the usual
come back again stories, and since the
average sailor is still for this capitalist
scheme of tying the seaman down to
the particular interest of the Com
pany, the bunch hung around all
afternoon and l hung around with
them; there being nothing else to do
in the way Of finding work, and l
half hoped that this time there might
be something doing anyway.
Some Recruits.
came back day by day with the
same bunch OF men with the addition
of a few recruits. and we hung
around encouraged by the boatswain
to come around again just the same.
Monday morning we came around
and the ship got ready TO pull out,
the commissioners were thru signing
up on the articles, when the boat
swain sang out that he had all of his
men and that all dock jobs were full.
That just about knocked out the
bunch and there was some pretty
high cursing flying around loose and
heavy. Queer how the men can curse
after the evil is done. If they would
think of organizing and sticking to-
gether in body when it comes to
getting out any kind of a protest
they would get good deal further.
international Merchant Marine.
The rest of the morning ] spent
around the I.M.M., Atlantic trans
port, and the Oceanic Service, looking
for an ABS job, but there was moth
ing doing at these outfits so that /
was forced to go down to the Stan
dard Oil Company Of n. j., I say
forced because the reputation
which most Of the tankers on the
Standard Oil Of New Jersey havs is a
pretty shaky reputation, when it
comes to speed-up work, eats, etc.
Is Questioned.
got into the office and The ship
ping master gave me a pretty tough
grilline. asks whether / had ever
Worked for the Standard Oil Company
and the like. After ( had convinced
him that there was no likelihood Of
my getting my work on any Of the
Standard Oh Tankers, he says all
eight tnat lie had d good job for me
as an Alb on the Charles Pratt
Tanker bound for San Pedro; he gave
me a line Of bunk about II being q
good warm easy trip and SO on. Well
fell for the line, hook, sinker
and all.
The ship is located down at the Erie
Rneiu nj ngbine Dt,y Dock