Monika : Right, when and where were you born?
Richard : Seaview, Isle of Wight.
Monika : Your family background, including your parent’s occupation. What did your mother and father do?
Richard : Father was in bus service and taxi service in Seaview, and mother was a midwife and she was from Scotland.
Monika : And what school did you go to?
Richard : Ryde School.
Monika : Is that Ryde Primary?
Richard : Ryde Private School.
Monika : Oh, the Private School. And how did you choose your work and career?
Richard : Well, I had always lived by the sea. I saw what went on at Southampton, in and out, it was all part of our daily routine to see the big ships in and out and I decided that I would like to go to sea and that’s how it came about.
Monika : And what career path did you choose? Did you go to College?
Richard : Went to the School of Navigation at Warsash.
Monika : How long were you at College for?
Richard : Initially one year as a Cadet, and then I followed on as I got my sea time in I followed on to Second Mates, Mates and Master’s ticket, all at Warsash.
Monika : Oh gosh. And then where did you go from there?
Richard : In 1962, I joined the Royal Mail Lines and did the apprenticeship there which was four years sea time apprenticeship.
Monika : And then when did you start working on the Solent?
Richard : The Solent was in 1973.
Monika : And what did you do there?
Richard : Worked for Townsend Thoreson Car Ferries as 3rd Officer between Southampton and Cherbourg.
Monika : And when did you start work between the Isle of Wight and the Mainland?
Richard : 1990.
Monika : And was that on the Wightlink?
Richard : The Wightlink started off on the … [sounds of dog barking and Richard asks for the dog to be taken out of the room] …
Monika : And how long were you working on the Isle of Wight Ferry?
Richard : From 1990 until 2004.
Monika : Right, was that just a routine, just going back and forth?
Richard : Well I was about four years on the early Catamarans, that was the ‘Pamela’ and the ‘Patricia’ and then I transferred to the Car Ferries and went initially as the Chief Officer and then went to Skipper for about 10 years as Skipper on the Car Ferries, between Fishbourne and Portsmouth.
Monika : Yep, and did you have any mishaps?
Richard : No, didn’t have any at all.
Monika : Unusual weather?
Richard : Plenty of that, yeah.
Monika : Could you elaborate a little bit on storms or …
Richard : I don’t think the weather is quite so bad at the moment as it were … it doesn’t seem to be so bad as … you know we were pretty experienced guys, I mean we’d worked … I’d been in the North Sea for 15 years before I went there so that was all good experience. In fact, you wouldn’t want to go straight there as they do now apparently and into the Skipper’s position after a year and away they go. It may look very straight forward, back and forward, back and forward, but its always things happening and that’s when people can get caught out, and they do.
5 minutes 10 seconds
Monika : Well I heard in the Solent there could be like foreign objects floating in the water that you might have to avoid yachts, other shipping.
Richard : Oh there are plenty of yachts around. Well that’s just part of the job. [telephone rings].
Monika : We’ll pause for a bit. ‘Cos primarily this should be about the Island but there’s not a lot … So, your career was mostly based captaining a ship, a Ferry going back and forth. Did you have anything to do with the loading of it? Did you not have weight issues and things like that?
Richard : Yes, had all the stability to do, that’s the normal practice though. It’s the Skipper’s job to oversee all that and they make a calculation at the end of the loading and make sure there is sufficient stability to leave a safety … to have a sensible safety … well, it’s laid down what you are supposed to have anyway. Calculations can be made but there are tables that would tell you whether you are safe or whether you are not safe.
Monika : So, what kind of shift pattern did you work?
Richard : The shift pattern was 40-hour week, earlies, lates and nights in a rosta.
Monika : How many hours on each?
Richard : Eight. Well it could be … sometimes it varied a little bit, but it was between eight hours and 12 hours. On nights you did longer and days you did a little bit less and it was worked out so that you did about a 40-hour week.
Monika : And how many crossings would that be per shift?
Richard : Four or five.
Monika : So, that’s a lot of cars and other cargo on board.
Richard : Yes, well depending on the time of year of course. I mean in the summer it could be very, very busy, and in the winter it could be slightly less.
Monika : Would you always have a full boat then, a full ferry?
Richard : No, and you wouldn’t do … I mean it depends on … now they changed it. They’ve tried to get it, they’ve cut back on the sailings and they’ve tried to get it about … you have to book now to get on whereas when I was there you could more or less go down and get on and it was a much more accommodating service for passengers. Now they will say, “No, you can’t get on, you’ll have to wait. Come back in two hours” and that’s what it means.
Monika : What about Health and Safety? How did that change over the years? Did you find that …
Richard : Probably it got better, but they were very careful with people wearing hard hats and people wearing boots and people wearing fluorescent coats and that sort of thing. They were on to all of that and that was supplied by the Company. You didn’t have to supply your own or anything like that.
Monika : What about if you were ill. Were you given sick pay?
Richard : Oh yeah.
Monika : And what about holidays? How much holiday did you get a year?
Richard : About … well, it went up, about five weeks a year.
Monika : And what about canteen or lunch arrangements?
Richard : Well they supplied tea and coffee to our Pantry and that was enough to give you two cups of coffee per shift. Maybe even three, certainly two so you had enough for that, but they didn’t provide any food. You took your own sandwiches and took your own food.
Monika : What about your work mates? Do you remember any characters?
Richard : Oh plenty of them. That’s really what kept you going there. I mean the banter of the job which kept people, you know, amused. We all got on pretty well together. It was always a good laugh, there was always something going on, but there again they had an etiquette that there was no fooling around. I mean when you are up there, you were up there sort of thing.
10 minutes 12 seconds
Monika : Yes, was that the Bridge, they called it the Bridge? And what about social life, did you have a Social Club you belonged to as part of …
Richard : No, that’s the only part of the Company that I say which really had no heart. I mean they didn’t have an annual do those who were off shift on say today, the 18th of December or something. If there was a Company thing which there wouldn’t have been, it wasn’t the standard thing to have that.
Monika : And what about Trade Unions? Did you belong to a Trade Union?
Richard : I belonged to the Merchant Navy and Airline Officers Association for 40 years or so and that was the Membership Book. But that was really done in case you had an accident and you were a passenger on board, and you went down those stairs head first, you would hurt yourself, and then we had to have somebody there to sort of cover us really.
Monika : What a First Aider type thing?
Richard : Well not a First … well you’d have to have a First Aider, probably more than a First Aider. We did have all that set up anyway as First Aid and things like that were organised.
Monika : And were there many women in the crew?
Richard : Stewardesses of course. A lot of them were obviously female.
Monika : And the attitudes or treatment of women?
Richard : Oh yes, they were OK.
Monika : Looked after properly.
Richard : I don’t know how they put up with it sometimes, but you know, they did. Again, a bit of banter doesn’t do any harm so long as its in the right spirit.
Monika : And the reputation of your employer? Who was your employer? Was that Wightlink?
Richard : Well it was. Initially when I joined it was Sherwood, who is Canadian, and then it went to … blowed if I can remember the name to be honest with you. Anyway, there were about four different employers. As it is now, I mean I believe its owned now by a Midlands Teacher’s Pension Fund.
Monika : Really?
Richard : Yeah, and actually there aren’t many people in that Office that know anything about the Ferries. It’s all this … it’s all money now.
Monika : So, the changes aren’t for the better really?
Richard : Not from our point of view, no, or from the passenger point of view. You can see yourself what sort of things happened with the passengers. I mean you’ve only got to listen to the radio. I think this morning Wightlink have reduced service on so and so …
Monika : Oh really?
Richard : … well, why is that? That was something that when I joined Wightlink in 1990, they were all railway people that were running it …
Monika : That’s what I remember.
Richard : … they didn’t often miss a trip. In fact, we prided ourselves as the Skipper on the Ferry, that you would be on time. That was part of your job, to be on time.
Monika : Any superstitions you had on board?
Richard : No.
Monika : Were the passengers … you said you didn’t have any really unpredictable weather.
Richard : What did you say then?
Monika : How you dealt with bad weather of high seas. You just kept going?
Richard : Well you had to … you know if you’re a proper seaman. I mean if its blowing hard south west then its going to be sheltered slightly to what it would be if it was north west and if its not, if you go out there and its too bad in a south easterly and get caught on what’s called the ‘squashway’ which was the entrance to Portsmouth Harbour, if you get caught there and its blowing hard from the south east then you were liable to come a cropper ‘cos you’ve only got to take one good roll and nothings lashed …
Monika : The cars aren’t tied down?
Richard : Well its not tied down, no. You are supposed to get across in 40 minutes and everybody gone. That’s what you are supposed to do. That’s all part of knowing the business, of knowing what you’re up to.
15 minutes 15 seconds
Monika : And can you tell me a little about your records here? You’ve got a record here? You’ve got a documented record here of where you worked as a seaman.
Richard : Yes I have. That’s the ultimate.
Monika : A Master, City of Guild Competency of Master.
Richard : Master’s Certificate. Yeah, that was got in 16th March 1973 and before that of course you get the Mates ticket and the Second Mates ticket. I think they’ve changed it now, I’m not sure what they do now. The Administrative was a well-established, long term practice, you know where they did it, probably for over 100 years so it was tried and if you’d been through this system then anybody looking at you would know that you’d been through the hoops, and that’s how it was. And then they changed it to this newer system whereby like everything they couldn’t leave anything alone, so they had to change it and then we got this thing issued here which was the one they used. But there was a lot of things changing as well.
Monika : Exactly, but that’s all documented evidence of your training and your subsequent Mastership.
Richard : And that’s the Association membership. I had a radio RT restricted, which was for the VHF and it also covered for two … well you wouldn’t understand I suppose but 2182 up to …
Monika : Is that the phonetic alphabet and used for calling other ships.
Richard : Well, you had to know that but that’s only like calling somebodies name, that’s all that is, but when you come to using … there’s rules that your not allowed to use Channel 16, you’re not allowed to ‘cos that’s for distress only and other things which were governed and you had to know them in order to operate and of course they were also listening to who was doing what.
Monika : Who are they? Coast Guards?
Richard : Well these people of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the Government body that issued it. That’s who they were.
Monika : And are these logs of all your journeys?
Richard : No, this is my own personal thing here. There’s an old Seaman’s Card there which used to … when I first went to sea, that was recognised as a Passport. I mean you could travel on that.
Monika : Oh right.
Richard : But that was an interesting bit of thing but then that phased out because they stopped looking at this, they wanted a UK Passport, which was another thing we had get hold of. That’s the Blood Service. We used to be a Blood Donor, that was issued from the National Blood Transfusion Unit. Gave you your code, what your blood number, your code was.
Monika : Group.
Richard : Which was quite handy to have ‘cos you could be out in the middle of somewhere and perhaps not know what your blood group was. Oh yes, we had to be injected, well that wasn’t on the Solent, I was like a pin cushion you know where they gave you Cholera and all foreign travel.
Monika : Foreign travel.
Richard : Of course it wasn’t done for us particularly although it was, but it was done so it wouldn’t hold the ship up because if they found somebody had Yellow Fever or something, the ship would go into isolation and of course it couldn’t sail.
Monika : Until it had been proven everyone had been vaccinated.
Richard : Yes, well they would come on board and look and see who had vaccinated.
Monika : So how … I’m sorry, that’s another one.
Richard : Well that’s the record there of me from going to sea in … well it was nothing to do with the Solent any of this because I didn’t come into the Solent until 1973, apart from being at Warsash.
Monika : But you had vast experience before you went into the Solent didn’t you?
20 minutes 15 seconds
Richard : Yeah, 30 years of deep sea before I came in to the Solent and then I did 15 years of that was in the North Sea and the offshore oil rigs. I was on them as well. When they were getting any oil ashore this was. It was quite a ‘gung ho’ time.
Monika : And what made you retire?
Richard : Well I was 60 and so I had enough … all my pension time, 39 years 11 months …
Monika : So it was a planned retirement.
Richard … so I had a planned retirement.
Monika : And do you keep in touch with colleagues?
Richard : Oh yes, on the Isle of Wight we’ve got the Merchant Mariners Association on the Isle of Wight here. We’ve got 68 members, so we do that every … we have a monthly meeting.
Monika : And where do you meet usually?
Richard : The New Holmwood at Cowes.
Monika : Oh yes.
Richard : Down on Cowes Front.
Monika : And reflections on your career. Any regrets? Funny, happy, sad memories?
Richard : No, not particularly sad, no. I think that most of us would think that if we’d had to do the exams that we had to do for our training, to get this Certificate here, the Master’s Certificate, if you had to sit that and you’d gone into say Accountancy or something like that, you’d have probably made a lot more money that you ever would have done being a Skipper on a Merchant Navy ship. Bit I mean I went all over the World, so I was alright. South America, North America, West Indies, Mediterranean, Mauritius, these places. I’ve been all over the place, so it was quite an interesting life whatever people used to moan at the time but looking back on it it wasn’t too bad.
Monika : I think that’s it. Thank you very much.
Richard : Good, that wasn’t too bad. It’s probably the hardest I’ve had to think for a while (laughs).
Monika : For me, I just have to …. [checks recording was successful].
What I wanted to say was this was an interview between Richard Thomas Newell in Bembridge and Monika Driscoll on behalf of the Carisbrooke Castle and it’s the 17th of the 12th, 2018.
Recording ends.
23 minutes 47 seconds
Transcribed February 2019
Chris Litton