Introduction
In March 1951, I presented myself at the plumbing shop of Henry Robb, Shipbuilders at Victoria Pier for my first day of apprenticeship as a ships plumber. This would last for a period of five years.
For the first time in my life I wore a pair of dark overalls and working steel toecap boots. It was strange to say the least. The previous week I had been wearing a suit, shirt and tie as required of an office worker. What had I let myself in for? I would soon learn. I was going in as a raw lad and would emerge a man. Shipyards were, as I was soon to find out, renowned to sort out men from boys. To quote the old maxim, `if you can`t stand the heat, then get out of the kitchen`. It was not an unfriendly place, and the friends I made there would become friends for life. However that was yet to come.
I was met by the plumbing foreman, Duncan `Dandy` McLean. For the unitiated, the `Dandy` was synonymous with the name McLean through the fictional detective character featured in the Weekly News at that time.
I was immediately assigned to work with an experienced plumber, David Borthwick within the workshop proper. How disappointed I was, for I was hoping to begin work on the ships straight away.
My workplace was on a mezzanine floor above the main workshop. This was not a pleasant place, for the smoke from the gas fires that heated pipes for bending drifted up to it, despite the presence of large air extractors.
My work here consisted of lead lining the wooden rocket boxes that would contain distress signals, lead window boxes that were fitted beneath the opening windows of wheelhouses, making lead pipe flanges, and lead 4" soil adaptors for W.C.s on board ship.
Although I did not enjoy the working environment of it, I appreciated I was getting a firm grounding in the basics of the trade. I knew that the boys who were assigned to shipboard work in the first instance were denied this learning.
However, after six months I was moved out into the yard proper where I was to work on a seagoing tug boat, the Arusha. This was still on the stocks. Here I became knowledgeable in nautical terms.
It was a language all on its own. Aft - back, for`wd - front, bulwark - side, midships - middle, deckhead - ceiling, bulkhead - wall, companionway - corridor, the list was endless.
Yardwork
I was paired up with a senior apprentice, Sammy Wright to show me the ropes. Sammy was a character. Only eighteen years old, two years older than me, he taught me a lot more than just ship plumbing work. He always fancied himself as a singer and a dancer.
At this time, talent contests were often held in the Capitol cinema each Sunday evenings. Sammy decided to enter it. I used to go along with some of my mates for the entertainment and this time we decided to support Sammy.
His piece was `My Heart is Broken` from the White Horse Inn. He wasn`t a singer, but he could put it over with enthusiasm. Lo and behold, he won the contest.
As I said, Sammy taught me many things. How to back horses. He would assign me to a job while he sat back reading his paper and studying form. This used to annoy me, for whenever the gaffer was about to appear, down would go the paper and he would bend over the work I had done. Good job thought the gaffer giving him the credit for it.
While he did muck in, often he would stop for a cigarette. `Just having a break,` he would apologise. Carry on working he would tell me because I had no reason to stop for a puff, not being a smoker. I thought this really unfair.
Time for our teabreak and it was my job to fill the billycans with water and boil them on the rivetters` fire.
We always had a howf on board a ship. This was where we stored our toolboxes and had our official breaks. If the ship was well advanced in its building, we would commandeer a cabin that was not yet fitted out. Here we had some comfort. Else, we had to make do in bare steel surroundings.
Working Conditions
Working conditions varied dependant on where you were assigned. If the ship was on the stocks, then conditions could be quite uncomfortable. Not withstanding the cold sea wind that howled around you if you were working on the open decks during winter, the noise was another.
My worst experience of noise was when working in the cramped cold steel double bottoms. This was the very base of the ship where suction pipes were installed for the transfer of ballast or diesel fuel storage.
Only about 18" high you had to crawl and pull yourself through lightning holes at the same time manoeuvering lengths of 3" steel piping each about 18 ft long. These were originally put in place early on during construction while access was still available.
Many a finger or hand was injured while working there. The noise of rivetters and caulkers as they worked on the hull was deafening especially when you were enclosed in what was virtually a soundbox. This was before the time Health and Safety Regulations made it mandatory for the supply of ear muffs and safety helmets.
`Flashes` were another constant phenomena. If you were unlucky to catch the glare of an electric welding arc being struck, you knew you were in for a very uncomfortable period during the next twelve hours. Sometime during the evening you would feel as if someone had filled your eye sockets with sand. You could not open them and any slight movement of the eyeball resulted in excruciating pain.
Not a cure but a palliative. Cold tea leaves wrapped in a handkerchief then tied tightly about the head to preclude any eye movement. This seemed to do the trick. In time you got some sleep. Sometimes attendance at hospital in the middle of the night was a must. Here the doctor would ask you to open your eyes. The eyes cried out in protest. However some drops of what ever you called it eventually numbed the pain.
All the time I worked along side Sammy, we were allocated mainly steel pipework jobs. It was heavy work but very satisfying completing the job. Ships were like no other building sites. By their very nature, straight lines and corners were non existent. The rolls and curves of the hull presented challenges in running pipework. At times measurements would not suffice but rather wooden templates had to be made in order to follow the contour of the ship`s hull. Pipes were then bent to the template shape.
I don`t think I had ever scaled a ladder before, but it became second nature here in the yard. Clambering from wooden staging to wooden staging hauling on ropes with pipes dangling from the end was something to behold. Monkeys swinging from tree to tree had nothing on us.
It was not all work, for laughs were plentiful. Working alongside us was a squad of tank chippers and painters. Their job was scraping off the rust from the bare steelwork of the double bottoms and clearing away any debris that was left there by the likes of us the plumbers.
As in any squad of men, there were all sorts of characters. Well read through the whole gambit to downright illiteracy. Our tank squad was no exception. Characters if ever there were any, all eight of them
`Chinny` Ritchie, a small squat man with a Desperate Dan chin. No teeth, when he laughed his chin touched his nose. Johnny Smith, the butt of his mates, as thick as they came. Ask him a question - what year was the 1926 general strike - and he would evade answering it. Both he and `Chinny` were drinking mates but the latter loved his evadence. Magnus Low, if ever there was a contradiction in names, for he was a 5` 0" character. He was a great little person with an equally great sense of humour.
I envied their working relationships but as for their job, an emphatic no. It must have been the dirtiest in the whole yard.
I remained with Sammy Wright for almost two years before I was felt to be capable of going on my own and then given a young mate. Tam Smith was his name. I could now delegate jobs such as run to the general store for bolts and nuts - get me this - get me that. The errands were numerous, but then I had done the tasks before.
I was transferred to engine room installations at a later date. However this work meant descending into the bowels of the ship by a long ladder. These ladders could be more than thirty feet in length. All right when you had two free arms, but sometimes you were required to carry something or another in one hand. When I think of it now I shudder.
MV Cicero of the Ellerman Wilson Line, Hull
The cream of plumbing work was in the fitting out of cabins and washplaces. The latter word was the nautical term for communal toilet facilities. The `Heads` was another for toilets.
This work was the responsibility of the `finishing` squad. It was mainly carried out after the ship was launched and moored in what was called the finishing basin.
At this point we would transfer to another vessel at the earliest stage of building and begin all over again.
The launching of a ship was always a big event. We would all be allowed to leave our own work and congregate around the slipway. Each trade, and there were many involved in shipbuilding, allocated two persons to go aboard the ship for its launching. I got my turn on the Trentino in 1954.
Eventually I graduated to the finishing squad and got my experience of working on the finer aspects of plumbing.
When I reached eighteen years old, I received my notification from the Ministry of Labour and National Service that I had to register for National Service. All boys of this age were required to serve two years in the Forces. As I was serving my apprenticeship, I was given a deferrment but this had to be reviewed each year.
My time on new work was almost at an end, but I did get the opportunity of going on seagoing trials with a vessel. You left the finishing basin on the early tide and sailed up and down the River Forth all day. If you were lucky, you had nothing to do as all the work was carried out by the Yard`s own ships crew under Captain Nicholson.
I was then transferred to ship repair work. This was a new experience. Stripping out old pipework and replacing it. The job was now old hat to me, and I was weary for my time to finish.
During my last six months I had made plans to emigrate to Canada in the spring of 1956. I was accepted by the Canadian Immigration Service and was given my Blue Card for admittance.
There was one cloud hanging over me, National Service. Five years earlier I had been rejected for the Navy but I was not sure how I would be viewed for the Army. Anyhow, I had arranged to sail to Canada early in February 1956. The letter dropped through our letterbox requesting me to report for my National Service Medical at a date just seven days before my sailing.
I had to attend, but I was determined I was still sailing on my arranged date come what may. On the day of the medical, two doctors differed on my suitability for service. It took the third to decide that I was not being accepted. This time I could have cheered. I sailed away on the Saxonia from Liverpool to New York safe in the thought that I could reurn without fear of call-up.
However, I was to return to Scotland after seven months. A severe case of homesickness!
Within eighteen months I was married, and despite an initial determination to return to Canada as a couple after presenting both our set of parents their first grandchild, we never did.
Anecdotes
How can I finish this period without relating some of the carry ons we got up to as apprentices? There must have been over twenty of us at various ages. It was tradition that boys new to the trade had to go through a form of initiation. I was no exception. I knew that plans were in hand for me but when and where it would take place was not known to me.
One afternoon when the foreman was not about, I was suddenly got hold of and pinned to the floor. Before I knew it I was stripped of my clothes and then blackened all over with plumber`s smudge. This was a black paste that was used normally to spread on lead pipes to avoid solder clinging to the surface.
I didn`t cry out, for it was useless. The paste clung to me for days before I finally managed to rid myself of it.
Another time I was on board a ship when I heard my name being called out from behind a cabin door. I grasped the handle to go when when I felt this shudder go up my arm and through my body. I couldn`t release my hand, but then I fell back as the shuddering stopped. The guys inside the cabin had attached the end of a welding cable to the handle inside as a joke.
Some innocent practical jokes were carried out on apprentices such as, being sent for a bucket of steam or else being sent for a long stand. I don`t think anyone cottoned on before falling for the ruses.
I did suffer one mishap that might have had serious consequences. I had a job in the chain locker. This was a deep compartment at the forward end of the ship that the anchor chain was stored in. It was accessed through a manhole in the deck with steel rungs that descended into the depths. I had begun to descend into it while guiding a length of pipe at the same time. Suddenly my foot slipped off a rung and I went feet first into the void. I must have dropped ten feet when I landed on some canvas bags. Fortunately these broke my fall. I suffered nothing more than a severe jolting and shock. I was very lucky.
One of my closest workmates during this time was Jimmy Bonnar. He was a Catholic from a family of Irish who were staunch Irish nationalists. Despite this difference in our political and religious outlooks, we were the best of mates. We respected each others views and this developed into a cameradie that many of our workmates could not understand. To this day I treasure the memories of our friendship.
On my departure for Canada in 1956, we kept in touch by mail. When I returned to this country we got in contact with each other and in fact worked together for a few months with Munro and Millar of Sighthill, Edinburgh during 1957. Thereafter we lost touch for awhile before he visited my marital home in 1962. I was never to see him since. I would dearly love to know if he is still about. I know that he went down to the Newcastle area to live and work there.
2004: I was browsing the Edinburgh Evening News when I came across the notice of the death of a James Bonnar. I immediately called the church where the funeral was to take place from. It was St Patricks RC in the Cowgate. Speaking to the priest, I asked if it was the james Bonnar I knew from Robbs. The priest asked me several questions regarding the person. Telling him all I knew about Jimmy, the priest said I had undoubtedly found the right person.
I was invited to the funeral where I was introduced by the priest to several of Jimmy`s family. They were so happy I had made this quest and invited me to meet with them and others at the funeral tea.
I was indeed a very grateful person and privileged for this and I felt I had not let Jimmy down after all the intervening years
Other Characters
How can I end this compendium without mention of other individuals that played a part in this period of my life? So many, yet I feel I have to give some of them a place in it.
John `Flavell` Stevenson, a flange driller in the workshop. So nicknamed after a current Heart`s footballer, he being a fervent follower of the maroons.
Two Robbies, both Jimmy Robertsons, one being big Robbie and the other Wee Robbie. The larger was the plumbers` shop steward while the other filled in his time as a bookie at Powderhall Greyhound Stadium.
Daniel O`Flaherty. He was the overhead crane driver in the workshop. Away from work, this old bachelor split his time beween the Chapel and the pub.
Johnny McMillan, the workshop foreman. A little Glaswegian who stood at his desk in the centre of the building allocating jobs. He was always chasing us outside yard workers, especially apprentices, from his workshop when we stopped to blether to his men. His speech was a bit effeminate yet I don`t think this had any bearing on his type of character. Remember, this was at a time when `pansy` (gay only referred to a good time then) was considered derogative.
Willie Simpson. he was a ship`s chargehand. He was nicknamed, but never to his face, as `sleeve king.` Often or not his sketches of pipework were either too long or too short. When the finished article was picked up for fitting and the mistake discovered, he would say just fit a sleeve. This meant cutting out the excess length and slipping an oversized piece of pipe onto one end and sliding the other in until the correct measurement was obtained. This was the easy way out. Other chargehands frowned on this practice.
John `digger` Dignan. He chipped and caulked the excess pipework that protruded from the end of flanges. The he piled up all pipes that were to be sent for galvanising.
Digger`s mate and friend was Tam McCardle. Like Digger, Tam was missing one eye. Two eyes between them was the standing joke.
Malcolm McLean A labourer that to us was `not the full shilling.` He was conscientious enough in his work but this also caried through to his hair or lack of it. He always wore a dirty greasy cap to hide his baldness, and was really upset if it was grabbed off him and thrown around. He was practically in tears at this, and I am afraid some of the apprentices really overdid the skylarking.
Donald `squeak` Carnie. An apprentice whose voice failed to break all the time he ws with us. Donald sadly died in his early twenties.
`Bobo` Johnston. Another apprentice who was very deaf. Every time you spoke to him the answer was "Eh?"
Lawrence `Farouk` Miller, so called by his resemblance to the former king.
Sammy Wright I have already mentioned but can`t leave him without recounting his `dancing` skills. Sammy was blessed with large feet which splayed out at right angles. His efforts at tap dancing were hilarious. He sometimes suffered from the carry ons from a little painter named Mazzaro.
Someone else would attract Sammy`s attention and Mazzaro would somehow manage to paint his toecaps without him knowing about it.
Other Names To Conjure With
Frank `Spud` Condie, Alex Leslie and his uncle Ollie Leslie, Tam Ogilvie (charge hand), Geordie Barber (Aberdonian gaffer), Mick McMorran, Mick McBrierty, the two Jimmy Templetons (father and son), David McKearney, Wattie Melrose, Big Swanney, Sandy Williamson, Sandy Gordon, Andrew McKecknie, Gus McDonald, Jimmy Sampson, Leckie Ogden. Tam Robertson was Leckie`s mate. Tam`s brother Willie operated the pipe threading machine.
Jimmy Graham (charge hand), his brother Cyril, Cecil Wison, the operator of the Bonn pipe bending machineand his mate big Tam Mitchell, Big Reynolds, Tam D`Arcy (used to play centre forward for Hibs), Charlie Brownlie, John Gold (Goldie), Jimmy Dickson, and John Hamilton (Wee Hammy the labourer). This character was a little hard man who would swing off his geasy cap and grab you by the sides, gripping your flesh in a vice like grip. All in good fun but it was sore.
Another character whom I remember from those days was `Big Ben` Convery. He was a huge man of 6ft 6 ins, He was in his thirties if I mind correctly but he walked with stooped shoulders. Despite his height and build, he would do a tap dance while singing `tip toe through the tulips`. It was funny. We were all in stitches.
I could go on and on naming them all, but only in time will I be able to do justice to them. I credit myself in being able to do this after more than half a century but this is in due credit to the influence they all had on me at the time. They were the `salt of the earth.`
