Summary
Part of a series of interview segments produced by the SUA/MUA in which retired Australian merchant seamen recount their working lives at sea as well as their engagement with union campaigns and activities. Each episode features a seaman, or sometimes a pair of seamen, sharing their story in a largely unstructured and extended interview. They form an important on camera collection of oral histories about Australia’s unionised merchant seamen.
The focus of this episode is John Stone who began working on iron and steel cargo ships to Adelaide in 1943 when he was 16. The deck boys were not unionised and the rate of pay was only 2 pounds per month. Wages stopped immediately if the ship was sunk. He worked in the merchant navy and the RNA, as well as truck driving and other low skilled jobs.
Special Notes/Achievements
Picture and sound quality is low given low budget production.
Author: J Bird, 2023