# The Apprenticeship



## spongebob (Dec 11, 2007)

The Apprenticeship.

A couple of wet days , and a long intended task of recording this phase of my life took hold . Families are not that interested just now but in years to come they may seek to wonder what I got up to so why not post it on SN.

The long awaited day came on Monday 4th February 1952 when the intake of 12 mechanical and electrical fitter and turner apprentices reported to Auckland's Devonport Naval Dockyard to begin a Five year indenture , 10,000 hours to be exact, and after a day of familiarisation, rules , regulations , and cautions as to the official secrecy act we were ready to go the next morning.
The apprentice workshop was a bare wooden floored shed save for the work benches lining the walls and equipped with engineering vices at six foot intervals.
Alf Gifkins, a retired RN Chief Engine room Artificer was our master , one of the nicest blokes you could meet with hand craft skills to boot, and we listened with almost fear as he told us what we had to do to get to first base.

We were issued with the following kit;

Three ten inch files, bastard, second cut , and fine,
An engineer's square
A cold chisel
A 2-pound ball pien hammer
A hacksaw with a spare blade
A flat scraper fashioned from a file 
A six inch steel rule
Plus shared surface plates , scribers ,and 0-1 inch micrometer. 

Then the dreaded work piece,

One- billet of 2 inch diameter mild steel bar cut about one and a quarter inches long.

The exercise was to shape the billet into a one inch cube perfectly square and within a tolerance of less than two thousands of an inch.
I don't think that there was a kid in the room that saw the task as a piece of cake but off we went working like beavers marking out, sawing, chiselling , filing but with frequent guidance from Alf as to how to hold tools , stand, measure , and all the little wrinkles of the art that we were about to learn.
Some blokes went at it like a bull at a gate, some stood there battered and bruised from hitting their hands with the hammer as they chiseled while some took the middle line of easy as she goes.
Surprisingly , the lad that stuffed up twice and had to re start on new work pieces was the first finished with a cube within limits.
By the end of day two we were well away and looking forward to returning but when we arrived at work the next day we were told that King George 6th had died , the Dockyard was closed for the day and we were to go home. We were still too young to go to the pub but they were probably closed as well. Never mind we were soon back on the job and keen to finish. 
Once Alf had measured and passed the finished effort we were individually taken to the nearby office of the Engineering Manager who once again ran his eye, square, and micrometer over the piece before giving a grunted approval.
This exercise was later followed by having to file a square hole in a bronze block to house the cube without clearance .
Other tests followed , a three inch length of 2 1/2 " mild steel bar had to be made hexagonal , then fitted into a bronze housing and keyed as well.
Other exercises followed including the making of a few tools such as an engineer's square, inside/outside/odd leg callipers, and other odds and sods.
At the end of six months we were all through and ready to tackle the real stuff.
We were split up, the Electrical fitters sent to there trade departments while we fitter/turners were sent to the ship fitters workshop . Hardly a day had passed before we all joined the multitudes working on the major refit of the Dido cruiser HMNZS Black Prince. 
Tired and worn from WW2 action she was being overhauled for further service . 
The electrical lads were soon deep in the task of hauling out and replacing seemingly hundreds of miles of lead sheathed cabling to modernise electrical circuitry while we fitters were put to scraping flange faces. All the steam pipe work between both boiler rooms and both engine rooms were stripped down and each flange face had to be scraped dead flat until a Naval Engineer passed each one following a face plate blue test. This exercise made us wonder if there was any thing else to marine engineering especially when the next shift was back to the workshop for a week or two and to the job of scraping and refacing valve chests of Weir VDA steam driven feed water pumps.
Black Prince was eventually re-commissioned in 1953 and all the apprentices that worked on the ship were allowed to go on board for her final full speed trials. We sailed up the Northland East coast in almost flat calm conditions and achieved a measured speed of 32 knots before a few spectacular port and starboard rudder movements and a full circle before ringing down a full speed astern. Turbines don't have much grunt going astern but we stopped quickly enough for her wake to catch up and swamp the quarter deck.
The final thrill was a couple of full broadsides with the four 6" gun turrets after a Air Force Sunderland had signalled the target area clear. What a day but sadly the ship did not go into service for long and was returned to the RN who then scrapped her. 
The fact that she had undergone a very extensive, expensive refit then dumped as superfluous was not lost on the Dockyard staff including we apprentices.
Then came a real job, the complete refit of the Port main engine of the Loch class frigate "Taupo". Two teams each comprising a fitter, a skilled labourer and an apprentice were on the job of striping down the triple expansion four cylinder reciprocating steam engine and reassembling it 'as new'.
The bottom end main bearing cages were sent ashore for re -metalling and machining to our dimensions, piston and valve rods went for a grind, cross head slipper pads for a surface grind etc.
Our work started in earnest when it came time to refit and scrape in the main bearings followed by the bottom ends and this called for frequent lifting and lowering of the heavy crank shaft by means of four Yale six ton capacity pull lifts using Reynolds type chain and a ratchet action. Lifting was a very coordinated effort to ensure no undue deflection of the shaft and it was a click by click operation each time as we scraped , blued, lowered, rotated, lifted , and scraped again until the shaft was snugly beaded in. Later we followed a similar routine for the bottom ends.
It was quite heavy work , especially stood in the crank pit wielding a long handled scraper and slicing long ribbons of white metal swarth off. Early in the piece I was warned not to ever let the scraper chatter across the bearing surface as it takes a lot of fine remedial effort to correct those little ridges formed. It did happen and I learnt.
More scraping when we fitted a new design mechanical seal to the piston and valve rods. 
There were little home comforts in the work place, a dead ship, mid winter, only lead lights and the odd cluster and freezing cold. I remember borrowing my father's set of John L Sullivan style long Johns and woolly vest to wear under my overalls.
The finished job was the reward , a trip or two to sea for trials in the Hauraki Gulf , taking indicator cards for the Dockyard Engineer and learning how to feel the warmth of those bottom end bearings while rotating.
Later on I worked on engines of sister-ships Lachlan and Tutira and the Bird class Tui and Kiwi but not as extensive as the effort on Taupo.
A memorable task was working on the RN submarine Tactician, she had created a record by submerging off Sydney Heads and traveling under water using a snorkel until she surfaced in the Hauraki Gulf but in the process she had damaged an engine crank pin.
I was working with a leading hand fitter at the time and we were allocated to the the job which I have described in my "Odours" thread a few years ago.

After six months in the training workshop followed by eighteen months ship fitting it was time to go to the machine shop. I had no excuses in as much as I was allocated to a brand new Denham lathe and set to work on training pieces using a three jaw chuck before tackling the likes of skimming large steam valve seats which required very accurate setting up in a four jaw chuck.
I won the wooden paddle for one month when using a magnetic base clock gauge to set up a valve . I then moved the gauge on to the chuck body to get a clear view inside the valve. The clutch was engaged, the chuck did a high speed spin and all the magnetic pull in the world would not allow the clock gauge to resist the G forces applied so it let go, soared sky ward to punch a neat hole in the fibrous cement roof before trickling back to earth in pieces. It was indeed an absent minded error and I got off with a warning.
My piece de resistance was when I machined up heavy wall copper tube and brass bezels and other components to make virtually miniature Chadburn copy telegraphs to service some of the auxiliary fleet that only had a ding-ding bell for commands. I took pride in that one .
Another interesting exercise was turning up New tail shafts for the fishery protection patrol boats. They were using Monel metal then and cock ups were forbidden.

After 12 months of machine shop practice including work on shapers, surface grinders, radial drills etc , it was time to make a choice as to whether or not to do more machine shop time and perhaps earn the opportunity to do a spell in the tool room but I didn't really enjoy the confinement of standing in front of a machine all day and opted to take my next spell in the internal combustion shop.

This workshop adjoined the construction/ boat building shop and slipway and existed for the maintenance of all small vessels from tugs down through Fairmiles, HDML fishery protection launches, liberty boats, officers motor boat , and the Commodores barge plus a motley collection of motorised cutters etc.
This stint was a great hands on experience working with some very competent fitters some of who had served during WW2 on submarines and English Channel Air Sea Rescue craft.
Highlights were full overhaul of the six cylinder Gardner in the officers motor boat and the engine refit of the Fijian Navy's 72 foot HDML type launch which included taking out Atlas diesels and replacement with Grey Marine engines.
This boat was also fitted with a depth charge launching rack and while out in the Hauraki Gulf on engine trials a test charge was dropped and the amount of fish stunned was unbelievable , but that's another story.
Time was spent in the test Bay where the rebuilt engines were thoroughly tested on a dynamometer .
One high light of this shop was the Friday afternoon return to base of the fishery protection patrol. They always had a bit of confiscated booty like undersized cray fish, illegally taken rock oysters, scallops and a selection of fish that some poor trawler man had forfeited .Those in the know crowded around and paid cheap prices for the catch which went to a sailors social fund!

After six months my ICE shop time was up and yet anther transfer back to ship fitting for a period before time in the drawing office.
There was a bit to do on the drawing board such as drawing and dimensioning proprietary spare parts in case of a supply emergency forced the home manufacture.
It was here that I learnt of the involvement of the British Admiralty in so much of NZ's planning and a directive has arrived stating that the Admiralty had decided to standardise on the high speed two stroke Diesel engines manufactured by Foden UK. And that NZ might do likewise 
This brought a groan from the senior staff and a job for me , drawing up a refreshed schedule of all boats and their engines.
I got started but this exercise was pushed aside when they discovered that there was no register or maintenance schedule of lifting devices in the Dockyard. 
It was decided to identify every lifting device or machine from wharf side travelling cranes to the smallest chain block , give them a serial number and set up a maintenance schedule.
This became my job for the duration and it took seven months to search and find all the gear. I had to search the loan tool stores, the defence store houses and the munitions stores at Kauri point where the torpedos were stored .
Next was a day trip to the Motuihe island Naval training base to fossick out the jetty derricks etc before the final job of clambering over miles of anchor chain, buoys , winches and wire rope coils that were the remnants of the wartime harbour boom defence system. This pile of scrap was stored at Islington Bay on Rangitoto Island and then deemed ready for another anti submarine screen if needed.
Every device I found had to be metal stamped HMNZD xxxxx etc .Then a schedule set up for ongoing annual testing. I actually extended my drawing office time by an extra month to finish the exercise and it probably remained in the too hard basket until the real Mr. health and Safety came along.
After all there were no laws regarding safety boots, ear muffs, eye protection or air filtration so why bother about shonky cranes? 
I am certain that much of my hearing problems started at the Dockyard and certainly the asbestos plaques.

The last port of call was the Refrigeration shop, a small shop that serviced the yard and ships systems which were mainly open circuit freon gas domestic type machines and four months there saw me well versed on this subject and due to finish my 10000 hours of time at 2-30 pm on 8th of May1957
I shouted an alcoholic afternoon tea for the fridge shop and my mates from those years and left the base that evening ready to go ship hunting.
Little did I realise that only a few weeks later I would be mid Pacific on the Rangitane en-route to the UK and the Coca Cola chilling machine along side the ships swimming pool would stop working. Neither the Chief or second freezer , J&E Hall trained men, claimed any real knowledge of domestic type plant so I volunteered , armed with gas , filters dryers , belts from the bountiful spares store and soon had the bottles freezing cold.
Later , I checked up on the other freon fridges around the ship including the Captains cabin and got a thank you handed down but that pool machine where the young and the restless gathered was on my regular round during my afternoon watch .

Thinking back it was a very good overall training scheme that held me in good stead but little practical use was made of the trade qualification . I only worked as a fitter for three days between leaving Rangitane and joining the Union Co and on coming ashore I took a technical sales job, then trained as a Bailey Meters sales and serviceman before joining Babcock for most of my working life. This saw me mostly in the role of project estimating and tendering for energy schemes but the trade knowledge did crop up and help often and in many ways.
I left the Dockyard well trained in the operation and maintenance of reciprocating steam engines but at a time when ships so propelled were being made obsolete by the hundreds, even thousands of motor ships rushing down ship builders ways in the post war shipping boom
Even my old tool box mirrors my obsolescence, Whitworth form thread gauges, Imperial feeler and depth gauges, imperial 0-1" micrometer and Whitworth spanners , to name a few pieces.

Great times though.

Bob


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## A.D.FROST (Sep 1, 2008)

you missed out your 6 brass tokens (No tokens no tools) At sea no body's interested where you've been, its When are you going back (Mother if you love me burn my working clothes)(Whaaa)


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## cornishman70 (Feb 27, 2011)

Thanks for relating your apprenticeship experiences. I found it all very interesting with many aspects aligned to my own,although in a totally different field...Great days.(Thumb)


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## Engine Serang (Oct 15, 2012)

Brass Tool Checks pinned to the lapel of your boiler suit with one of them big safety pins that highlanders use to keep their kilt closed.


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## Clifford Cocker (Jan 21, 2008)

*Apprenticeships*

My apprenticeship was spent from Sept 1946 to 1951 in the London Royal docks with R&H Green and Silley Weir. That was in the days of buy your own overalls, tools and tool box.
A very informative 5 years!
Still have my Indentures (somewhere?)


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## Rosels (Dec 30, 2013)

William Cable Ltd Wellington Remember as an apprentice long cold nights on the floating dock replacing ships rudders rudder stocks and tailshafts. The frenzied work changing pistons or bottom end bearings on the Akaroa Aranda etc during passenger and cargo stops. Changing ME crankshafts slung incats cradles on the Japanese Factory fish ships and suffering the dirty state of the Korean fish boats. Getting invited up to the Engrs bar after working a ***** (8am until atleast midnight) by the fridgy or the 4th engr for a few duty free beers. Checking ones toolbox and if some of your tools were missing flogging some of the ships tool as replacements. I opened my old wooden tool box recently and saw fond memories of some ships by the names etched in the spanners etc. Walking on and off the ships with the local Ship Girls, we got to know them well


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## spongebob (Dec 11, 2007)

Hello Rosels, I can smell the smells and feel the dry dock cold even now. You must be as long in the tooth as me talking about the Akaroa, presuming it was the one previously called Euripides. 
My father worked his way to Australia on the Euripidies in 1920.
You served your time with William Cable, did you ever know Bill Porteous once an engineer on USSCo Hauraki which was captured by the Japs during WW2 . 
Bill had served his time with the Hillside railway workshops in Dunedin before the war but joined William Cable after the war when he looked after the Cochrane of Annan boiler licence.
I spent five years with Cable Price in Auckland but that was in the seventies when Bill and I became good friends.

Regards. Bob Jenkins


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## Rosels (Dec 30, 2013)

No SB the 3 Shaw Saville A boats that were running late 60s early 70s. Cables was a great place to do ones apprenticeship (68 to 73) just like RNZ dockyard, Union Co shops and the Railway workshops. You learned your trades from the old journeymen and the first lesson was "Breathe through your nose because your know all mouth will be closed"


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## A.D.FROST (Sep 1, 2008)

Rosels said:


> No SB the 3 Shaw Saville A boats that were running late 60s early 70s. Cables was a great place to do ones apprenticeship (68 to 73) just like RNZ dockyard, Union Co shops and the Railway workshops. You learned your trades from the old journeymen and the first lesson was "Breathe through your nose because your know all mouth will be closed"


I was told when when go to sea and your asked if you are any good on a lathe or any job just say your ok other wise you'll get all the turning jobs etc.and when you go a shore don't say you are going shopping other wise you spend all day doing every ones shopping whilst every one else goes ashore pissing it up without doing any shopping,Happy Day's


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## berbex (Feb 17, 2013)

Spongebob: you remind me of my first challenge in the apprenticeship.

You say the exercise was "The exercise was to shape the billet into a one inch cube perfectly square and within a tolerance of less than two thousands of an inch."

My exercise was a steel cross with half inch legs, half inch thick, fitted into 1/2" steel plate. Foolishly I set my own tolerance as a challenge to my instructor. One thou. It took time but i achieved it. But I also got a good scolding for taking long to finish from top management, Sir JH.

I lost the piece. It turned up near 50 years later, in the hands of a young relative, all rusted over. But I tapped where the cross was and it slid out nicely, still greased.


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## ART6 (Sep 14, 2010)

That exercise with a two inch round bar brings back memories: One of our tasks was to first take a length of 3 inch flat MS bar, I think about 1/4 inch thickness, and cut into it a round hole 2 ins in diameter, followed by a square hole 2 ins per side, and finally a triangular hole 2 ins on the base and sides. Then the round bar 2 ins in diameter and cut to 2 ins long, and cut and file it so that on one face it presented a triangle, then turned 90 degrees a flat, while the end remained circular.

The bar had to fit precisely into each of the holes in the piece of flat, and the instructor would test the finished product by placing the bar into each of them, with the requirement that in each case the bar would pass through but not simply fall through. It was a sod of a job and I hated it!

I had a head start on some of the other apprentice intake because I had attended a rather unusual technical school where, from the age of thirteen I was enslaved to mechanical engineering, and where at that early age I found myself operating capstan lathes, milling machines, shapers. There the kids first tasks was to make some special tools for themselves -- a centre finder and an engineer's square, spring dividers, tool steel scribers among others. I still have them now and use them frequently, still occasionally wondering the fact that I made them when I was thirteen years old! In that school maths, physics, technical drawing and English were primary subjects with tests at the end of each term. The purpose of the school was to produce engineers, and its pupils were much in demand in local industries. To achieve admission to that school one had to pass acceptable eleven plus results, but must also have represented one's previous school in the county sports. An exercise in psychology I suppose.

So then on to a heavy engineering apprenticeship in a Glasgow shipyard, and I loved every minute of it. I did a night school class in electrical engineering to get an OND in it, and also attended a class in gas and arc welding run by shipyard foreman welders where I leaned to skill of stick welding "blind" -- where one had to create a perfect weld around a corner where one couldn't see and had to weld by feel. Even so many years later I can still produce a perfect weld in any position, or so the testers of lifting equipment I have built tell me! In fact, with advancing years and failing eyesight, being able to weld entirely by feel is something of an advantage!

I was fortunate when plunged into a Glasgow shipyard on the other end of the island from my home (the Isle of Wight to Glasgow was an adventure) because I was assigned as the apprentice to a fitter from Aberdeen -- Adam Reed. Adam was a craftsman in every respect, and a calm and easy-going mentor of the rebellious Englishman from some island that he had never heard of.

The day that will ever remain in my memory was when my apprenticeship was over I had applied to the Shipping Federation for a grading and had been granted an "A" because all I wanted to do was to be a ships engineer. I had an offer that I had accepted from the Stanvac company that ran oil tankers in the middle and far east, and the thought of all of those exotic places fired a young man's blood.

I was sitting in a compartment of the steam train in Glasgow Central station, dreaming of my first ship -- where would it be? Then the door opened, and there was my mentor Adam -- he had taken a day off from the yard, and he presented me with a carton of **** and a small bottle of Highland malt. I started to protest, but he said "You have made me money lad, and that's enough!" and then he was gone. 

The first post in this thread, fluently written as usual for this poster, brings back so many memories. It reinforces that being a marine engineer is not a job, it is a vocation! I have long moved on to designing and building process plants and machinery ashore, but I will ever be a ships engineer at heart!


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## Rosels (Dec 30, 2013)

I recall doing 3months boring the pivot hinge 12 dia holes for the Interisland RoRo ferry terminal linkspan, and then turning the pins. The Project Engr rejected one of the pins as he thought it was a few thou out of spec so I had to redo it. Was so proud that everything fitted perfectly in the workshop. On the big assembly day at the ferry terminal the span was held in position by the WHB floating crane Hikatea while the pins were fitted by the riggers. The buggers just placed a D8 bulldozer against the pins and pushed !!!! Can still see all the steel slivers peeling off the pins


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## spongebob (Dec 11, 2007)

Yeas Rosel, it doesn't take long for the 'purist' trainng to be edged toward reality of a kind.
I was pre warned when we fifth year apprentices had the sign writers shop do us a favour by painting "Senior Apprentices" in blue and gilt on a nice slab of mahogany to place on our canteen table.
The Chief Draughtsman , Donald Spensley, who hailed from the Portsmouth Dockyard saw the sign though the window then came inside to say -
"Yes, senior apprentices today , very junior journeymen tomorrow"
This went down a treat with the seasoned old tradesmen around us.

Bob


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## twogrumpy (Apr 23, 2007)

Dockyard indentures and a few of the test pieces we had to make.

Great training, but glad that I did a runner within three weeks of completing my time.

Portsmouth Dockyard to Bandar Mashur, what a culture shock.


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## ART6 (Sep 14, 2010)

twogrumpy said:


> Dockyard indentures and a few of the test pieces we had to make.


The ones in your centre photo are the things that I was taught to make in my technical school in the early nineteen-fifties when I was thirteen or fourteen. I still have them and use them now after all those years. Of all of them the centre finder is the one I use most. That traveled all over the world with me.

The school also had a woodworking shop where we kids were taught to handle wood, and one of the things that I was required to both design and make was a small folding table, fashioned from English oak. That too I still have -- it sits in my utility room supporting packs of washing detergent, reduced to humility. (Thumb)


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## twogrumpy (Apr 23, 2007)

Mine was classed as a Secondary School, though as it covered metalwork, woodwork, tech. drawing, with a little pottery and bookbinding thrown in for good measure, it should probably be described like yours as a technical school.
This would have been in the early 60's by which time I seem to remember they had dropped down to two streams, grammar and secondary.

Much of what we did set us up well for the start of our apprenticeships, when the few from grammars did not know one end of a file from the other, to be fair it was not something they had been taught at school.

The school concentrated on the dockyard and armed forces trade entry exams which they excelled at, something that the educators of today would likely curl their lips over.

At least going to sea from the dockyard I knew my bow from stern and port from the other side.(Pint)


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## jg grant (Nov 22, 2007)

Hi , interesting post. Does anyone remember Harry Allen, Glasgow engineer and ex Clan line. Left the sea and went to work at Devonport.Now living at Orewa.


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## spongebob (Dec 11, 2007)

He would be after my time Ronnie, but the North shore is littered with ex navy and ex Dockyard trademen . Few wanted to leave in years gone by as it was a place apart from Auckland itself. 
Even the pubs were better, the Esplanade , the Masonic, the Mon de sire , the Northcote and the Albany plus the new comers.

Bob


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## John Dryden (Sep 26, 2009)

''At sea no body's interested where you've been, its When are you going back (Mother if you love me burn my working clothes)''
Thanks to AD Frost for one of the most original and funny posts I,ve seen on here for a long time.


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## ART6 (Sep 14, 2010)

twogrumpy said:


> Mine was classed as a Secondary School, though as it covered metalwork, woodwork, tech. drawing, with a little pottery and bookbinding thrown in for good measure, it should probably be described like yours as a technical school.
> This would have been in the early 60's by which time I seem to remember they had dropped down to two streams, grammar and secondary.
> 
> Much of what we did set us up well for the start of our apprenticeships, when the few from grammars did not know one end of a file from the other, to be fair it was not something they had been taught at school.
> ...


Schools like that were quite rare I believe, so I am curious to know which one yours was? Mine was the Luton County Secondary Technical school run by Doctor Charlesworth, who had almost an obsession with creating engineers at which he was very successful. His motto was "If you can't make it you don't deserve it!"

His final report on me when I reached my last term was a revelation, since I had been sent to all sorts of local companies seeking apprenticeships that I didn't want at the behest of my parents "Your son has expressed a desire to join the merchant navy and become an engineer officer. I strongly recommend that you support him in that career since I believe he is well suited for it".

My apprenticeship in a Glasgow shipyard was a doddle to me, because all of the tests that they forced on me were things I had been doing since I was thirteen, but then gaining my "A" grading and joining my first ship was a new revelation. I quickly learned that is was not what one knew but what one didn't know, and working out very quickly how to deal with it.

Doctor Charlesworth started me off on a career, and I will remain in his debt. I flatter myself that even in my declining years, I am still an engineer.


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## twogrumpy (Apr 23, 2007)

My school was Orchard Street Secondary in Rainham KENT, not the Essex one. Across the river from the Isle of Grain, beloved of many BP tanker men.

Typical 30's build, shows up in Google earth for 1940, girls on the one side, boys on the other so well segregated.[=P] And the place still stands to this day.

Many schools I attended had a very transient population due to the requirements of the services in those days, much the same as my apprenticeship which started in Chatham, transferred to Portsmouth, and should have completed in Singapore, sadly the last bit did not work out.
We did very well out of the Admiralty as it was then.

The school did an excellent job in slotting us in to good apprenticeships, unlike some of the pseudo efforts many seem to participate in today, with most of the masters having served in the war, discipline was as you would expect.


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## A.D.FROST (Sep 1, 2008)

Did any one see BBC1 2nd.Nov. "The Ganges with Sue Perkins" The girls doing Work Shop Practice, filing a test piece Flat & Square(memories, memories mine was like the new pound coin) one of them wanted to be a train driver.(Hippy)


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## skilly57 (Mar 11, 2008)

Bob, you must have worked with Bill Smith at the dockyard. Poor bloke did his time there, and they wouldn't let him leave!! Eventually, he did retire up to Mangawhai area, but only after many attempts to leave the yard - he was their mechanical trouble-shooter, and boss of the I.C.E. Shop, with young Brett ?? as his 2IC.
Concur with Rosels description of the cold, wet time in the floating dock. We did our time together, 68-73, at Wm Cables. 

Skilly


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## spongebob (Dec 11, 2007)

Well after my time Skilly, Alec Spears was the charge hand in the ICE shop.
Did you ever know George Mitchell ? he was a warrant officer mechanician during my time and finished a commander (E). A small world has his daughter as my neighbour .

Bob


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