A navigating officer apprentices' journal kept by Frank Dawson during his training with the BP Tanker Co. Ltd., the main shipping organisation of British Petroleum, 1957-1961.

Dawson kept his journal as a requirement of his training, between 29 May 1957 and 21 January 1961. He records movements of the tankers BRITISH BULLDOG (1951), BRITISH SERGEANT (1954), BRITISH SPLENDOUR (1950), BRITISH DESTINY (1959) and BRITISH PILOT ex EMPIRE MacCOLL (1943), with details of their navigational equipment, crews, and ports of call. The more personal entries discuss life on board, various jobs he was given, difficulties in sleeping due to hot weather and rough seas, preparation for examinations, and trips ashore. The text is accompanied by newspaper cuttings, postcards, various tickets and his own drawings.

Administrative / biographical background
Dawson was born at Runcorn, Cheshire, in 1940, the son of Arthur Dawson and his wife Ida Dawson née Hodgkinson. After being an apprentice navigating officer with the BP Tanker Co. Ltd. between 1957 and 1961, he remained with this company throughout his working life. He was employed as second mate on the tankers BRITISH RENOWN (1957), BRITISH GUARDIAN (1953) and BRITISH OSPREY (1962) during 1965. He later gained his master’s certificate. He was chief officer of the BRITISH CORPORAL (1954) between 1971 and 1972. He died in Lincolnshire in 2021.