Rubber “Boot”

In today's cruising world, crews are hugely multi-national. The greatest number of nationalities I sailed with in one ship was twenty one. That was in MINERVA, a small cultural cruise ship with 150 crew, but in the monstrous cruisers with 1000 plus crew, there can be over fifty nationalities. All MINERVA's crew spoke good English, but occasionally some rather amusing misunderstandings occurred.

For instance one day while the ship was in Harbour, our Russian Navigator, 2^nd Officer Slava , telephoned the English Crew Purser and asked her if she could enquire of the agent, how much it would cost to buy “rubber boot”. A conversation between Bridge and Crew Purser ensued along the following lines.

          Slava: “Pleeese ask agent how much to buy rubber boot?”

          C/P: “Okay, hold on”……….”Agent asks what style?”

          Slava: “Doesn't matter what style. Any style.”

          C/P: “Okay, hold on”………”Agent asks what colour you'd like?”

          Slava: “Doesn't matter what colour, any colour.”

          C/P: “Okay, hold on”……….”Agent asks what size you need?”

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