Sylvania OT

From: Mike Delaney
Location:
Email:
Remote Name: 68.40.47.154
Date: 09/30/04
Time: 02:36:20 PM

Comments

For the person who asked about OT amounts on the Sylvania 30+ years ago, My high for one week was 69 hours OT plus the straight 40 hours added to that for 109 total hours. lowest was 57 hours OT for one week on longer runs. The high point was a stretch of Toledo-Monroe trips which was almost constant around the clock working. We didn't seem to get the Sputnik loader very often and had to do the shifting. This was as Deckhand, Deckwatches and Watchmen did some OT here and there. While at the Moving coal loader we did once scrub the rear cabins and once we did paint the stack. But it was mostly the watchmen and deckwatches that did the maintenence work and hosing down. Deckhands shifted the dock at Toledo and ran the holds while unloading and did little else on short trips. On an extended Toledo-Monroe group of runs, every thing was weighed against how much sleep time it would use up, that included eating and changing clothes, we often slept in the bunk with clothes and work vest and boots on from the latest cargo hold running or sometimes on the deck in our three man room in full gear since it was only 2-3 hours back to Toledo to load and shift. It was a YOUNG mans job as Deckhand, I have heard of DH's getting over 120+ total hours in a week but thats just what I heard, as I got plenty close enough for me. it was just how things played out that dictated how much OT, which docks and which runs. We drank beer openly on deck, nobody really cared as long as we did our job, Some people used "other" types of stay awake remedies. I sailed the Hennepin, B&C's counterpart, but we all worked watches so OT wasn't in the same class, I worked as gateman for a while and we got a fairly large amount of OT, running the gates and keeping the tunnel dirt down to a reasonable level. The Sylvania was King on the lakes for OT for DH's and the constant tiredness made for some very dangerous times as people made mistakes when fatigue sets in and some were killed on occasion in its history. I heard of people falling into cargo holds, slipping and falling into the belts down in the holds, and one I think was killed falling over the side and was crushed between the boat and dock in Toledo. I fell asleep while walking once and busted my knee on the corner of a hatch. Once we were running holds at 3AM and the belts shut down so we dug small pits in some warm coal and I slept for 7 hours and never moved, until the mate hollered down to come up and get some food. I also heard that some of the Canadian Reoch boats had a similar short run with a lot of OT for the Deckhands, but was never sure. It got so bad on one group of short runs were were praying for a bug dust run to Semet Solvay just for the extra sleep and rest time. It was a challenge to DH on that boat, One deckhand named Orville had been on that boat for a couple years straight, the guy had his own "system" to deal with the fatigue.