Oral History Recording with John Innerd Part 4

Digital sound recording in four parts

Subject: Merchant Navy; Catering Department: Engineers' Steward, Cook, Chief Steward

OHY/6/88/4 - 1.8 GB; 01:22:43
Quality: 2/5

*This interview contains language and opinions that may cause offence. All views expressed are the interviewee's own.

John Innerd was born in South Shields in 1893. He describes his childhood in South Shields including schooling, available jobs and the distinction between working class and more affluent areas – he says ships’ officers and engineers were better off and lived in more middle-class parts of the city. His father was a ship’s steward while his mother took care of everything to do with the household.

Innerd left school at 12 and worked as an errand boy and then for a baker, before going to sea at 16 (1910) as an engineer’s steward. He describes this period of his career, his daily routines (he worked from 4.45am to 6pm), his accommodation, and his time in port in Bilbao where he befriended a local Spanish boy.

He then discusses how his career progressed having studied for three weeks at catering school for his cook’s ticket. He went to sea as a cook in 1913 and ultimately became chief steward. As might be expected, a lot of Innerd’s interview is concerned with food and provisions at sea including rations, meals, puddings, Christmas, livestock, pests (including rats, cockroaches and weevils) and the common suggestion that stewards received perks from dealing with chandlers.

His interview also covers general working and living conditions at sea including leisure time and sailor craft, relationships within and between ranks, illness, injury and death (including the deaths at sea of a number of Chinese seafarers), global ports (including China, Japan, Chile and Sri Lanka), fights and drunkenness, unions, and the different regional and international crews.

Innerd was also at sea for both World Wars and although there is little detail on either, he tells a story of being in a ship seized by the French in Dakar during the Second World War. They were held for three weeks before being let go ahead of the German advance.

The second tape includes a snippet from another interview with an unnamed seafarer. This interview is also about food aboard ship and the life of the cook.

Administrative / biographical background
Oral history with John Innerd conducted by Campbell McMurray