[BITList] Denholm Ship Management, Glasgow

[M.j. Feltham]

I served with Denholms for over twenty years after leaving BI in 1961, joining Denholms in 62.  Like John Davison says they were v. big at one time with managed ships.  Denholms had about 4 ships of their own, all names ended with PARK, the rest were managed.  I spent a lot of time on the NAESS ships, Tankers and Bulk Carriers.  They were good in some respects, they started a non contributory Pension scheme, Masters and Chiefs on Tankers were on 4 On / 4 Off.   The training programme was good, you had to forgo 5 days leave a year for training.  I did two spells in the Glasgow Royal Hospital Casualty Dept of 5 days each time.  I was taught to stitch and allowed to stitch patients there.  It stood me in good stead as you had already practised it.

I was promoted to Master at 37 years.  Denholms were like all companies, good in parts.  I must admit that after joining Denholms I thought that the grass was greener on the other side as I reverted back to Second Mate on joining them.

I was on the second list of redundancies in 1982 and got the usual redundancy payments along with three months dismissal pay.  There wasn't the camaraderie in Denholms as in the BI.  You can't have everything !

Mike