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A nervous apprentice

17 August 1964 is a date stamped on my memory forever. That was the day I started work at John Readhead and Sons shipyard in South Shields.

These were the days when there were plenty of ship orders around, and the yard was a hive of activity and offering excellent future prospects for school leavers.

The view from John's office in 1965

Dressed in my best suit with collar and tie and highly polished shoes, I made my way to the Personnel Office and was then taken over to the Drawing Office where I was to start as an Apprentice Draughtsman in the Outfit Drawing Office. I was introduced to everyone and found them all to be friendly and very helpful.

My first task was to practise writing capital letters using a pen-holder with a nib similar to those used for calligraphy writing. Ink was placed on the end of the nib and I had to carefully write, without smudging, onto a piece of waxed linen which was the material used for the drawings.

Proud to be a shipbuilder

The shipyard was filled with noise and activity. Hammering and banging went on constantly and I felt great excitement about being involved in the creation of a huge steel ship, which, when completed, would head off to sail around the world.

Swearing was discouraged in the offices and respect was to be given to older staff and management. In fact when the Managing Director, Harold Towers, came round on an inspection the place was so quiet you could easily hear a pin drop!

Chalky coffee

The drawing office was in a very old building. It smelled of stale tobacco smoke, but that was acceptable in those days as nearly everyone smoked.

The walls were all wood panelled and there were only a few draughty, single glazed sash windows giving very little natural light. Large canopies with fluorescent lights in them hung down on chains from the ceiling, over every drawing desk.

One of the dry docks in the 1960s

These desks were large, heavy wooden sets of plan storage drawers with horizontal tops to which the drawings were pinned. The drawings themselves were produced in ink on the waxed linen which had to be pinned and stretched out on the desk top and then rubbed over with powdered chalk.

One tedious task the apprentices had to do was to scrape a block of chalk to ensure sufficient powder was available for everyone.

I remember one morning an older draughtsman said the coffee, which was made by apprentices twice a day, tasted like chalk. He was overheard by one of the trainees, who duly made the afternoon coffee for the complainer with a liberal dose of powdered chalk and which he drank without comment!

The office turned out to be very friendly and in fact was more like family, something I haven't really experienced in any of the many drawing offices I have worked in over the last 43 years...

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