Ian Moore – Becoming a Sea Dad

For the most part I was 19 years old and I think every single one of the Marine Engineers that I was in charge of were all older than me, every one of them.

Simon: How did that go down?

It doesn’t go down too well with a lot of them, because a lot of them are real old and bold. They’ve never been interested in bettering themselves, they’d never been interested in going through for their hook, their Leading Hands Rate or anything like this, and they would always have a go at me for being the so called ‘sprog’ as it were.

A ‘sprog’ is a derogatory term for somebody who doesn’t know anything, who hasn’t been around long enough.

A lot of them used to say, “I’ve spent more time under one wave that you’ve been at sea.” “Yeah, alright, whatever.” And it used to be like that but again, that is overcome by your expertise and your knowledge.

If you are regarded as being highly knowledgeable, if you’re regarded as being a bit of an expert of what you actually do, then they tend to start to respect it, and that’s the only way that you can get on in submarines, is that you need respect from those around you.