Merchant Navy
Crew of the "Egyptian Prince" in Lisbon - 1945. Photo courtesy of Ike Bradley. |
Abdullah Dadia - Foreign SeamenBorn 1924 North Yemen. Interviewed in 1989 - T023  Click here to listen to this extract in RealAudio format.Q: What was it like, not being able to speak much English? Well, I mean you must learn. The first one we come in, we get old Arabs in the ship, in engine rooms, old Arabs, to show you how to be firemen, how to make the fire, how to make the steam, and how to go in an engine room, to be a donkeyman. How to put oil in a generator, how to oil the engine, how to pump the water to the boiler house, and how to do all the systems, you know. We don't speak, but we know the job. We don't understand, but we know the job - you must see the people, how they work, and you do the same. I mean, that you don't need - lot of people, you go and study the job ... I get about, oh, I got many, many discharge from different, different company from different ship - we been different, different companies. |
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