Wallace Tricketts BLOGG SPOT Continuing THE APPRENTICE YEARS
Monday, 24 November 2008
Continuing on from blog
29.
Looking back in the books used
throughout our apprenticeships at Vickers shows how intense and involved the
four years were.
Experience in the shipyards
commenced on September 18th 1970, in the A.E.D (Auxiliary Equipment Department)
and first job was completion of thread adaptors for relief valves. Each
job was timed and we had to perform a write up on this in our Training board
manuals which was hen checked by the overseer and instructor, in our case it was
Mr Tom Sargent.
The first few weeks were spent in an
upstairs workshop from the G.M.S. (General Machine Shop) which broke the ice,
and in some ways still cocooned us from the vast size of each shop with isles of
lathes, be it centre lathes, turret lathes , with huge cranes working overhead.
The noise from all this activity with hundreds of machines running, staff
walking around and shouting to each other above the noise ,foremen in their
white and red coats, ladies driving the electric bogie carts, smoke rising from
all the heavy cutting of metals, heavy engines running in the test bay , railway
wagons being shunted in from one of the companies diesel fleet to collect the
daily output of swarf-waste metal cuttings.
It was a visual harmony of industry
which still to this day sits in my mind so clearly . At the centre of the
huge shop was the stores and office . Quite a few of us would visit to the
stores whenever the chance permitted just to ''oggal'' at the attractive office
girls , they seemed to add glamour in a somewhat drab atmosphere yet certainly
not uninteresting. Being 17 many of the lads were talking about
girlfriends and during the first few weeks I began to learn more about human
nature on the sexes from the various jokes that went round the block in the AED
. Some workers were women and they seemed to enjoy a joke at our expense being
green to the industry.
Within afew months I had moved out
to the main workshop and was involved in working on valve chests that were part
of the sub programme. The Journeyman I worked with was called Frank and we had
to assemble large castings onto a wooden bed with flanges and then water seal
before placing them under terrific pressure. In most cases nothing of any
concern ever happened, perhaps a slight leak from a seal but nothing too
dangerous. However on one day we had set the chest up and it had to sit under
pressure for about half an hour. Frank and I had gone to the stores when we
heard this terrific bang !. One of the flanges had cracked under strain and
blown off -fortunately we always set it up so if anything like this did happen
it would not kill anyone, and just as well, most of the other fitters hit the
deck as metal and water sprayed out across the shop floor towards a wall where
no pipes or electrical fittings were.
There was an enquiry with management
and foreman around Frank for an hour or so, I felt sorry for Frank he looked
quite shattered even though we were not blamed for the mishap , metal fatigue
was the culprit but just glad nobody was around it . After that day I began to
stand well clear everytime another chest was tested.
During lunch breaks, 12pm to
1pm, the shopfloor fell silent , most choosing to either go to the main
canteen or travel home for lunch. I had chosen to continue Duke Of
Edinburgh award so was drawing alot for the activity award, and during lunch
breaks would sketch the various bays and machines. It was not allowed to
take photos in the shops without company approval as it was all Government work
and official secrets act. Remembering the cold war was in full swing then and
even anti rad tablets were available to take should we be attacked with nukes ,
not that tablets would really help .
I was stopped by security on at
least three occasions but only because my bag was so bulky with my dirty
overalls inside them. I never liked wearing them outside the workshops, or
sitting on the bus in them like many chose to so always carried them in my
bag .
Block Release at college took place
every few weeks and lessons alternated between Abbey Road Tech and Howard
Street.
Most of the teachers were ex Vickers
men who had gone on to a teaching career. It was a change from the workshops but
in an important part of our training as we all had to achieve a reasonable
percentage pass in order to go up to the next level.
Socialising after hours had not
really started as yet for me, several friends invited me for drinks on
Friday evening and it was tempting though still underage and also going to the
pictures to try and see X rated movies.
One evening my friend Steve and I
went to the Classic in Cavendish Street (formally the Odeon) and got in to see
the film MASH, which carried an X certificate due to the use of four letter
words. That's right -you had to be 18 to see a film with swear words in but we
could go to work and hear it for free all day long.!!!! The manager got
suspicious probably because I did not look 18 and promptly came and sat next to
us during the film. What he thought we would do I don't know but I think he got
so bored with it he left after a while.
By the spring of 1971 we had all
settled into all the requirements of the apprenticeships. HMS Sheffield was
being fitted out along with several smaller vessels for both Chilean and
Argentina Navies. Who would have thought ten year later war would exist between
the latter and UK and the Sheffield would become a casualty of such. I had been
moved into the main Gun shop and worked under a gentleman called Bernard Cain.
Bernard had not long got married and was a very pleasant man to work with. His
wife Vicki drove one of the Electric bogie carts that moved al sorts of pieces
around the huge yard. We worked on both Mark 6 and Mark 8 type guns for Royal
Navy Contracts. The Mark 8 4.5 are still in service to this
day.
Bernard became very sick and soon
became apparent all was not well. A tumour on the brain claimed his life several
months later , a very sad day for all his family and friends. That same
year another well loved fitter from the same department called Gerry collapsed
and died at just 40 years of age with heart failure. Once again an
experience to realise we not guaranteed 70 years of living and need to enjoy and
make the best of every day we are given.
Next week I will continue with the
third and final part of the Apprentice years..
Thanks for the blog Wallace very interesting i enjoyed reading it, it was sad times for the Sheffield an unlucky ship from the start before it went into service. Regards Doris
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