Memories of the Victoria Shipyard
A former apprentice joiner looks back
Now resident in England, Terry McQuire casts his mind back in a letter to myself.
Hello John,
We must have met at some time during our apprenticeships. Bob Colqhoun was the ex guardsman / labourer`s name. I well remember Tam Sutherland, Jock White,
(amateur boxer), wee Davie Munroe among others. The yard manager was Mr Paul Williams, and his assistant was Sandy Whitelaw. Another "big cheese' was .Mr Jenkins. These three patrolled the whole yard and the finishing basin on the .West Pier keeping all of us on our toes.
Do you remember the apprentices` strike, it was city wide with the shipbuilding and engineering lads striking for a pound a week or nothing?. We got ten shillings I think!
I well remember the engineering apprentice who was our spokesman at the yard. He was extremely well spoken for a shipyard lad. I can`t remember his name but he was a `last year` boy, and that he went to sea as a fourth engineer. I was on the strike committee with him.
Our slogan was `A Pound or Nothing.` The Shipbuilding and Engineering Employers Federation had never dealt with organised apprentices. I remember being under some presure from Foremen who told us that we had no right to strike, and that they could terminate our apprenticeships. That was quite a threat at the time, but we won through.
We held a mass meeting at the Mound, and as we dispersed to picket other engineering firms, I remember some lads in high spirits banging their hands on the Daily Mail van that was in attendance, That night`s Mail (on sale at midnight) had the headline `Red Youths Overturn Reporter`s Van.` That was my first experience of Media`s lies.
The ships I remember- firstly the Mombassa, a B.I. boat; Hirondelle, a GSN boat; all the "K" class for New Zealand Anchor and Foundry Co.; the Wanganui, a dredger for New Zealand; the Cavallo, Trentino, Cicero, and Rollo for Ellerman`s Wlson Line, and the 22 tugs for the Manchester Ship Canal. I did trials on two of them.
The Longfellow, a bulk carrier; the St Abb`s Head; the Ligar Bay, a bulk cement carrier; and a few others, all magnificently built and fitted out.
The yard was full of characters but none more so than wee Charlie, a blacksmith`s mate. he used to play his guitar and sing hymns along with several others during our dinner break in front of the general stores. It was a sort of evangelical meeting. It took character and courage to do that.
I have tried to research Robbs, but apart from the book about Leith built ships in wartime, there doesn`t appear to be any other publication on the Victoria Yard. It was while looking for this that I came across your site.
I was in Leith for the `Tall Ships`, but didn`t see much of it.
Last year I contacted Jimmy Williamson, the old joiners shop foreman, and he told me of a joiners` re-union. I went up for it and made a list of over a hundred names I remembered from the joiners` shop, but sadly, apart from Jimmy and one other, there was no-one there among twenty or so that I knew. I suppose that you should not look back, but I have such fond memories that are still fresh that I wanted to re-experience them.
I moved to the Midlands forty years` ago, and I was a late maturer! I finally went to uni. and took a degree in Civil Engineering. Since I was a late starter, I worked abroad to gain the necessary experience. In Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Senegal, Turkey, Korea, West Africa, and on returning to the UK, took up the post of Area Controller with the Severn Trent Water Authority on the Rivers, Avon Division.
I was ten years there and moved to the Area Health Authority, looking after five hospitals in the group. I then started my own consultancy and did work for Jaguar Cars, Focus Housing Group, Castle Vale Housing Action Trust, and research for the Health and Safety Executive.I have now retired, thank God! I`ve had enough!
My career success I put down to largely starting off in Robbs. It wasn`t the best employer by any means, but the characters of the men and boys in the yard so impressed me that even today I still talk about them. They were the anvil on which my future character was hammered out.
When I describe to people today in the Midlands the conditions in the shipyards then, they think I am quoting from Dickens! Remember dropping your check in Auld Tam`s to go to the toilet? (I think Terry is being very PC in this,for I think Tam`s descriptive adjective was somewhat cruder and related to his job. Also Terry fails to decribe the lack of porcelain in his domain with an open conduit running the length of it without partitioning)
Tea breaks were not allowed, (officially), and tea urns were padlocked until the hooter sounded! Changed days, but I miss the friendship, and my ain folk.
Terry McGuire
