Nation on Board

by Lynn Schler

  But while the Nigerians were a cheap alternative, hired to undercut Kru wages and terms of employment, the shipping companies initially paid a price for the lack of experience that characterized Nigerian crews in the early years. Many Nigerians recruited during the war lacked the knowledge and training required to successfully fulfill their responsibilities on board.

  In some cases, recruits claimed that they were completely uninformed or even misled by shipping companies about the work for which they were being recruited. In one archival account, two Nigerian boys at the age of secondary school jumped ship in Liverpool and were eventually intercepted by an immigration officer, who reported, “They told me they were recruited by Elder Dempster. A Mr. Dyson, a European employed by the Company, came to their homes and told them that the Government needed men to go on ships and suggested to them that they might like to take the journey to England.”27 Fresh recruits such as these were completely lacking in skills needed on board, and some captains began to complain about the new hiring policy.28 Ships were slowed down or nearly stalled at sea when inexperienced Nigerian firemen did not feed the boilers properly. As one Kru seaman recounted, a British captain who went to recruit in Lagos during a wartime strike in Freetown paid dearly for taking on the inexperienced Nigerian crew: “Was a captain called J. J. Smith of Elder Dempster, he said, okay if Sierra Leoneans don’t want the job, I’m taking my ships to Nigeria—took all the ships to Nigeria to start taking Nigerians. This Elder Dempster got three sister ships with 21 fires. So these Nigerian they can’t stand it, they can’t fire the ships! From Lagos to Takoradi, they don’t fit. They have to send to Freetown back.”29

  ROUTINE AND RISKS IN THE AFRICAN SEAMAN’S WORK

  As employees of British shipping companies in the colonial era, Nigerian seamen performed a range of duties on board cargo vessels and passenger ships known as mail boats. The workforce of the steamship was divided into three distinct crews: sailors on deck, firemen and trimmers in the engine room, and stewards in the catering and housekeeping departments.30 The three departments were strictly demarcated, and seamen were trained for specific positions.

  According to Diane Frost, most of the Africans recruited for work on European vessels worked as deckhands, which included both maintenance chores and cargo handling. Deckhands did stevedoring work, which involved loading and discharging cargo at ports of call. Before the container shipping industry emerged in the 1960s, boxes and bundles of goods of various types and sizes were used to transport cargo, and despite some technical innovations involving derricks and winches, the system was slow and inefficient. The labor-intensive process could take several days, and ships could spend more time at port than at sea while dockers and seamen unloaded and loaded cargo. Upon arriving in port, deckhands removed the hatches, rigged the booms and falls, and began the work of swinging the ship’s cargo out upon the pier. Prior to the mechanization of the loading and unloading processes, seamen also carried cargo on and off vessels. As soon as compartments were emptied and cleaned, crews began loading the outbound freight that was waiting on the pier. The coal gang took on the laborious task of filling the ship bunkers with the fuel.31 Although considered unskilled labor, the work of cargo handlers was at times very dangerous and required caution in dealing with the machinery moving heavy loads. Seamen could be seriously injured, crushed to death, or knocked overboard by loads that were poorly secured or mishandled. Some seamen interviewed described the difficulty of handling cargo on deck in the bitter cold of winter in Europe.32 In West Africa, African deckhands were hired “to save white seamen from exposure to the sun and mosquito-infested swamps.”33 While at sea, deckhands worked on upkeep and repair of the ship, with chores including painting, overhauling gear, rust removal, and cleaning. Scrubbing the deck was also a task performed each morning. Diane Frost described a job that was known as holystoning “because the men cleaning the deck did it on their knees. The decks were sprinkled with water and then sand. Krooboys would kneel four abreast (if the ship was wide enough), each kneeling on a small pad, and push up and down a piece of sandstone the size of a house brick.”34

  The work of the stewards and catering crews varied with the size and type of ship. Cargo ships needed only a small catering department that was responsible for feeding the crew. On passenger ships, the responsibilities of the stewards were far more extensive, but most of the work centered around housekeeping and personal service. Stewards cleaned cabins, did laundry, and attended to the personal needs of passengers when necessary. They also prepared and served food, and cleaned up afterward. While these jobs were less dangerous and demanding than those of deckhands, stewards were exposed to demeaning attitudes of passengers and European crews. This could be seen in the following description of an African steward by a British ocean-liner passenger: “The first-cabin passenger is apt to look upon the steward as not exactly human. To him the steward is an automaton who serves deftly and silently, appears at the right moment, anticipates wants, and when not wanted keeps out of sight, but within call.”35

  The seamen who worked “down below” were responsible for the boiler rooms and coal bunkers. Work in the engine rooms was the most physically challenging on the ship. The firemen were responsible for firing the boilers and keeping up steam by shoveling coal into the furnaces. Firemen worked in two four-hour shifts, four hours on and eight hours off. Stoking a steam engine with coal was dirty work, and firemen and trimmers were known as the “Black Gang” because of their work with the coal.36 As Laura Tabili described it, the engine room was “hotter than hell,” and had up to twenty boilers with three to four fires each. At each boiler worked a fireman, who threw coals on the fire and sliced them with a hundred-pound iron bar to keep them burning.37 A 1900 account of the firemen’s work describes the perils of the engine room:

  A stoker works four hours at a stretch, and during that time the temperature of his surroundings varies from 120 degrees to 160 degrees Fahrenheit. One stoker usually has four furnaces to attend to, and while feeding one furnace a man has to be extremely careful or his arm may be burned by the furnace behind him. As a rule a man is occupied about three minutes at each furnace, and directly he has finished he rushes to the air pipe and waits until his turn comes again. The intense heat of the furnaces has sometimes rendered stokers temporarily insane, and there are many cases on record where they have jumped overboard after having made their way to the deck.38

  For every three firemen, the stokehold watch carried two coal trimmers, who provided coal to the firemen and had to work quickly to make sure that there was always a pile of coal within reach of the fireman’s shovel. Trimmers had the most difficult job of all, working quickly to supply firemen with a constant supply of coal while struggling with the heat and coal dust. A British seaman, David Simpson, gave a vivid description of their work: “Trimmers have always had the dirtiest and the most physically demanding jobs on the ship—the absolute bottom of the engineering hierarchy. Needless to say—they received the lowest pay.”39 Trimmers would wheelbarrow the coal from the bunkers and drop it on plates at the firemen’s feet. They were in constant motion, moving coal and “trimming” each pile into evenly arranged groupings, ready for the fireman’s shovel. They also took away ash and raked out the ashpits and fires, cleaned and degreased machinery, and painted the engine room when necessary. In short, trimmers did “any unpleasant and filthy job you can think of that didn’t require the touch of a skilled or semi-skilled rating.”40 The trimmers’ responsibilities kept them working even when the ship docked, as Simpson explained: “While in port, most of the crew could count on ‘going ashore’ at one time or another—and blow off a little steam. Unfortunately for the trimmers, when the ship is ‘bunkering,’ they had to stow the coal being loaded and trim as the coal was loaded and moved about—with nothing more than a wet rag tied over their face to keep the choking dust out of their lungs. All, of course, under the watchful eye of the chief engineer.”41

  The division of labor on board s
hips on Europe-Africa routes was largely determined by race. Until the final years of colonialism, and the establishment of the Nigerian National Shipping Line (NNSL), the officers in each of the departments were Europeans. In the engine room, the chief engineer and the second, third, and fourth engineers were all Europeans. On deck, the chief mate, as well as the first, second, and third mates and the boatswain and carpenters, was also European. Finally, in the catering department, there was a European chief steward, second steward, and cook.42 In the colonial era, the vast majority of Africans worked as ordinary seamen, stewards, firemen, and trimmers, and virtually no Africans rose to the rank of officer before the final years of colonial rule.43 As will be seen in chapter 5, the lack of officer training among Africans in the colonial era meant that initially Europeans had to fill the top-ranking positions on the ships of the Nigerian National Shipping Line. The establishment of the national line finally opened the way for large numbers of Nigerian seamen to become officers, but it took several years before any ships were fully under the command of Nigerians, leaving some ratings to wonder what had actually changed.

  Throughout the colonial era, African seamen worked on the average ten hours a day, with the workday beginning at 5:00 a.m. and finishing normally at 5:00 p.m. Hours varied with the types of vessels, and fluctuated over a journey according to the work at hand. On mail boats, African crews worked a 60-hour week, or 120 hours over 14 days. On cargo ships, the workweek was 45 hours long, with an average of 135 hours worked over a period of 22 days.44 But routinely, seamen were forced to work overtime. This was particularly the case when there was cargo to load and unload. Some seamen recalled working for twenty-four hours at a time as British captains pushed the crew to finish the work in order to get on with the voyage. Diane Frost quoted one Kru seaman as saying: “Sometime the captain in a rush to go to England so we start at 530 am and finish at 1200 am.”45 Shipping companies did not pay for overtime, and as will be seen, this became the single greatest complaint among Nigerian seamen in their protest against British management.

  For African seamen signed on in West Africa, wages were considerably lower than for those signed on in England. According to Diane Frost, a fireman engaged in 1940 in West Africa earned £6 a month, while West African firemen engaged in Liverpool earned £12, and white firemen earned £16. Shipping companies rationalized these differences by claiming that the cost of living was lower in Africa. But the disparities angered seamen; as one explained, “There was a big difference between the salaries of the European crew and the African crew. What often bothered us is that we are all working on a ship, and if an accident should happen, it does not know whether you are a black man or white man.”46 Wages also varied between the crew departments, with firemen earning the highest wages, followed by able-bodied seamen, and then trimmers and ordinary seamen.47

  The length of voyages varied according to the types of ships, with cargo ships taking longer than passenger ships to make the journey to Europe. Making frequent stops to load and unload cargo, these ships were slower than passenger ships that kept to a fixed schedule. Some seamen preferred to work for cargo vessels, as the voyages were longer and more wages could be earned. During the colonial era, African seamen signed articles as “running agreements,” for up to six months; or “voyage” articles, lasting for up to two years.48 For many seamen, the waiting time in between signing articles was very difficult, as they were not paid for the months ashore. Seamen could be dropped in England at the end of the voyage, and many stayed on, usually in Liverpool, for months or years in between articles. It was commonplace for seamen to take up shore work, and some stayed on permanently in the UK. In most cases, seamen were away from home for months, or even years, at a time. Some welcomed this as an opportunity to spend time in England and other destinations around the world. But there was also much difficulty and uncertainty associated with this type of employment. Voyages could be suspended in ports around the world due to repairs or delayed because of cargo. Thus, one seaman reported waiting in Bremen, Germany, for six months while his ship was being repaired.49

  For families back home, seamen’s terms of employment posed many difficulties. Seamen were regularly away from home for three to six months at a time, but some reported staying abroad for years in between journeys.50 Seamen’s wives had to manage all the affairs of the household, and they faced many difficulties, often without their husbands’ knowledge. As one woman said, “It was not easy at all. I was doing the work that was meant for two people in the family.”51 Another claimed, “I tried to cope as a wife and mother of my children, but it was not easy for me. I had to be determined in such a situation.”52 Women interviewed reported giving birth to their children while husbands were away, and having to deal with sickness and economic hardships all alone. One woman recalled, “I had babies born while he was away. I even had a stillbirth because he was away for eight months and there is no money to take care of myself, even to buy medicine. Nobody came to help me.”53 Many wives complained that they had to rely on help from their extended families and neighbors in times of need. One woman sought help from local churches: “Particularly when he traveled to Congo and there was a lot of fighting over there and no letter from him, I was very worried. I just had a baby during this period and also lost one child and he was away for about nine months. It was very tough. I was just moving from one church to another seeking solutions to different sickness the kids were having.”54 Women also had to deal with loneliness and isolation; as one woman said, “I always tell my husband because of my lonely staying, I don’t feel any happiness. I feel very, very bad, extremely bad. One year plus and your husband will not get to his house.”55 The long absences were particularly difficult for children, one seaman’s wife explained: “It was very difficult for them because it was like having a parent that you do not know much about his identity. Because, the father came in for about one or two months, then go back again for a very long time. It was not for them at all.”56 When they finally returned home, seamen’s families had to readjust to a new reality. Some even reported that children did not recognize their fathers. As one woman recounted:

  At the initial stage it was very difficult. I couldn’t explain so many things to the children. When the last two children, though they are a bit big now, two years after he left, he came back and I was at the market at that time. They did not allow him to enter the house. He explained to them that he is their father but they told him they had no father. Even my sister who was living with me tried to explain but they refused. It was when their elder sister came back from school and welcomed him, saying, “Daddy welcome,” that they calmed down and allowed him to enter the house. After settling down, they asked him why he left for so long and he told them he went to look for garri [cassava flour] for them to eat. They objected and led him to the kitchen to show him buckets of garri, rice, beans and other foodstuffs and told him that mummy has provided them. When he went back to work after the holiday, he decided to send his pictures home so that the children can know him very well.57

  For seamen’s wives and families, there was the additional hardship of worrying about their husbands in this risky line of work, and going long periods without hearing any news of their well-being or whereabouts. Ship work could be dangerous, and many accidents took place, particularly around loading and unloading cargo. Seamen also fell overboard and drowned, and many suffered chronic diseases such as kidney disease, heart failure, and tuberculosis.58 As F. J. Lindop explained, “Exposure to all weathers, overcrowding, inadequately ventilated accommodation, poor food and negligible medical provision aboard ship and a dissipated life ashore took a toll in health.”59 When accidents on ships were reported, wives and families were very worried, and they often had great difficulty in verifying which ships their husbands were on and if they were safe. Some of the women felt that a seaman’s line of work was not worth all the hardship. One said: “The work is a life-threatening job and there is very little money with all the risk involved. Is
this a good job?”60 When asked if she would allow her son to become a seaman, another woman said, “Never. God will never allow a bad thing to happen to my children and family. Working as a seaman in this Nigeria is a bad thing.”61

  RACIAL DISCRIMINATION AND VIOLENCE ON COLONIAL SHIPS

  Nigerian seamen working on colonial ships often faced miserable working conditions, replete with racial discrimination and dehumanizing treatment. The archives abound with incidents of discrimination against black seamen on the part of both European crews and officers. Many black seamen suffered physical abuse, name-calling, and random punishments by the officers they served under, and group beatings or other violent attacks by white seamen. Often, these incidents would land black seamen in the hospital, but the majority suffered these abuses and remained on board, lacking any record or verifiable proof against those who perpetrated these crimes. African seamen who did seek justice usually came up against an uninterested or unconvinced captain, and when it was a case of a black seaman’s word against that of a white seaman, there was little hope that any justice would be served. In one letter of protest, seamen complained to the shipping company that the provocations led Africans to respond with violence for which they, and not the white crews, were ultimately punished:

  The habit of several white seamen, as we said, is to collectively beat up on African crew. We protest against this, because it can lead to a situation where African Seamen can join forces to retaliate white seamen, leading to developments of unpleasant proportions. Captains do not call into evidence African crews to refute or say what leads to reports against them by white crews. . . . The mode of addressing them employed by white seamen borders on provocation. It is sometimes so appalling that they are confused or annoyed to point of disobedience and as soon as this happens, the report reaches the Captain divorced of the circumstances under which the disobedience occurred.62