John Burn
John belongs to: The Coble and Keelboat Society
John grew up in Tynemouth. He spent his spare time as a child sailing. John followed his father into piloting ships on the Tyne.
John was interviewed by Kylea Little on 3 March 2006. The interview took place at Discovery Museum History Office and lasted 1 hour, 0 minute and 12 seconds.
Pilot apprenticeship
"I’d be about, I must have been about 16 and a half"
I’d be about, I must have been about 16 and a half, about that.
Interviewer: And then what did you do after?
Straight into the pilot service as an apprentice, or rather an assistant, known as pilot’s assistant and in my day, there had been various arrangements for pilots assistants and in my day it had got to five years, a five year apprenticeship during which time we worked on the pilot cutters and in between our watches we had to go to the marine school for one and a half days a week, in which case we were really mainly sitting in the second mate’s class, so that by the time we finished we were expert navigators, but as to actually being on the ship itself, I mean, we, that was to come. But no, we were quite well in demand, pilot apprentices by shipmasters because the, I think they thought they had someone particularly steady, and someone who was good at signalling and such like.
John has 11 memories in the memorynet:
John's memories with a Clothing theme:
Pilot apprenticeship
- Pilot’s uniform
John's other memories:
This memory has these themes:
Clothing | The North East | Training | Work
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