Transcript
as a member of the supply category we need to go to a shore establishment to learn the basics of storing a ship and also learning all the paperwork that was required in those days because in those days there was no computers. So everything was done manually. So everything was done in the old hard ledgers, all the orders were done by the cooks all written by hand.
All the menus we used to type them up on the old typewriter. So we learnt our trade in a Navy base preparing us ready to go to our first sea posting so when we got there, because, on my first sea posting I had a petty officer as my boss, there was a leading seaman stores victualler, and there myself and another AB.
So we had already learned our trade by the time we got to the ship so that we were not left to our own devices but we were able to do our jobs on our own and not requiring other people to give us, to help us out, so that's the reason why we spend so long ashore before we go to sea.